[private] i got addicted to a losing game

[bolder]

The family that had helped raise Bolder in Taiga had been a large one. He and his two other triplet siblings had been reared alongside the children of his other Uncle, Yanhua. He regarded Ama and Borderline - the mothers of his cousins - as his Aunts and the affection openly given between the adults in his life had always extended to them as well. It is odd (though for Bolder - the youngest sibling in a brood of five - it is the silence. He isn't accustomed to the silence when the Redwoods had always echoed with the sound of laughter).

While he familiarizes himself with the lull surrounding the trio, he finds the way that Gale is speaking to him now is comforting. That does remind him of home and whatever reticence that Bolder might have been holding on to leaves him just as the last traces of his golden stripes do.

His father was often busy, almost always out on the Isle (especially during this time of year). He might not even return to Taiga until Spring. As the yearling pegasus considers his options, Bolder knows that the moment he returns that they likely won't let him leave. Not until Nashua returned and as he glances over to Mazikeen, he realizes that it would mean no more shapeshifting lessons until then. More months of waiting, with the very real possibility that his father would tell him no again.

Gale and Mazikeen are offering him something that Nashua never has: a choice.

As he eyes this Uncle's extravagant forelimbs, the young pegasus believes that he and Mazikeen would be able to teach him plenty. For a boy who has grown up trying to mimic the exact shade of the Taigan leaves or the wolves that he has always admired, those dreams suddenly seem (foolishly) limited. It's only his mother that makes him hesitate. She would be worried, he knows. "Could you send a message to my Mother?" Bolder asks and turns his silver eyes towards Gale. He seemed to be the one who brought them all here, so perhaps his Uncle might think of a way to reassure his dam that everything was alright.

That she didn't need to worry.

Bolder looks back to Maze and can see the encouragement blazing behind her orange eyes.

It emboldens him to tell his Uncle that he had once attempted a towering Moose (though he leaves out that he couldn't quite get the height just right; Bolder had been afraid that someone might see him). The smallest had been a Rock Tortoise - a species native to Taiga and varying in size - but the one he had tried to emulate had been no bigger than his hoof. "I've always wanted to try a -," the boy says and then pauses, feeling a little silly for admitting it in the presence of two accomplished (and powerful) shifters. "Well, a wolf." He's only seen the pack in Taiga a few times and never long enough to truly commit their shape to memory. The sole time he practiced ended up with Bolder resembling the tan-and-black creature Mazikeen showed him the last time he had come to Hyaline.

The last time he had been given the chance to learn what he could really do, he realizes.

@ Gale @Mazikeen