Once they appear in Hyaline, Mazikeen returns to being a horse, wanting to be a form that won’t vomit as her stomach twists from Gale moving them. She focuses on herself rather than checking to see if Bolder is okay first as she would have done once (the Curse, she knows, can take care of itself). When she is sure she is fine, she looks for the boy but pauses to listen to Gale’s laugh and murmured words in her ear. There is a moment where her first reaction is to smile at these words, the amusement with which he speaks them calling to something in her. But that grin is gone so quickly it could be missed with a blink as her markings crack and glow down her skin and she shoots Gale another glare.
Bolder isn’t to be harmed, that glare says. But the brief touch that follows it adds - not unless they must. Not unless they have a reason. What that reason might be, she doesn't know - she isn't sure a good enough reason would exist. But then, she hadn't thought she'd ever hurt her daughter either.
These thoughts do not trouble her, though, and it is not very difficult to make her voice friendly when she speaks to Bolder. She does like the colt. A little harder is the smile - her warmth is missing. Neither the icy burn or the raging heat that come to her so naturally now are appropriate for speaking to a foal, she knows, so she makes an effort to keep her expression somewhere in between.
What to say is another difficult task, so Mazikeen opts to ignore the current situation entirely to make it easier. “Have you been practicing your shapeshifting, Bolder?” She asks the colt, as though nothing is amiss. As though they had not just stolen him away from his parents, his uncle, and whoever that butterfly-winged mare was.
And then a little more prying. “It’s too bad you couldn’t have come back for another lesson sooner.” Had Nashua figured out what was going on with Gale, was that why he kept his son away? It was hard to believe Bolder hadn’t been interested, what with the enthusiastic greeting he had given them back in Taiga.
@bolder