Malik
07-23-2021, 06:26 AM
While Malik has nearly everything a boy could need - a full belly, a safe home, parents who find him tolerable - he does not have everything he wants.
There is something missing in his life, but he cannot say what it is. Had it been inside him? Beside him? He does not know, and is only sure that he misses whatever it had been. There is a hollow now, the memories that his father had carved out leaving emptiness inside him.
He does not know that he had a sister, but he misses her.
But his father recognizes it, sees it but cannot mend it with his still-young abilities, and has chosen a simpler path. Gale cannot stop Malik from missing his sister, from picking at the fresh wound until the memories return. But he can find something to cover the hole, something to distract the boy until wound has scabbed enough to resist him.
Gale has promised Malik he can have a friend, and Malik is excited to pick one out.
Today is the day, and he’d woken with the dawn, pouncing on the blue and white and gold shape that was his parents, bouncing off shoulder and belly and hip until they’d woken and Gale had (not incredibly) gently batted him away with one heavy paw and told him to wait outside.
So Malik had waited, and now they are on their way to the common grounds.
Gale is hopeful that the boy will spot a child with their family, because Gale is hungry and it would be convenient. But instead the black striped colt finds a filly all alone, asleep and bundled in an interesting assortment of light. Gale hangs back, and Malik approaches her slowly, shifting to a young tiger that might more easily creep closer.
“Hello?” He calls, sitting up as he stops. “Wake up! I want you to be my friend!” Malik doesn’t glance back to the shadows where his father watches, because this is to be his task. He is responsible for bringing his friend back to Hyaline, and Gale has promised not to intervene.
@Anath
There is something missing in his life, but he cannot say what it is. Had it been inside him? Beside him? He does not know, and is only sure that he misses whatever it had been. There is a hollow now, the memories that his father had carved out leaving emptiness inside him.
He does not know that he had a sister, but he misses her.
But his father recognizes it, sees it but cannot mend it with his still-young abilities, and has chosen a simpler path. Gale cannot stop Malik from missing his sister, from picking at the fresh wound until the memories return. But he can find something to cover the hole, something to distract the boy until wound has scabbed enough to resist him.
Gale has promised Malik he can have a friend, and Malik is excited to pick one out.
Today is the day, and he’d woken with the dawn, pouncing on the blue and white and gold shape that was his parents, bouncing off shoulder and belly and hip until they’d woken and Gale had (not incredibly) gently batted him away with one heavy paw and told him to wait outside.
So Malik had waited, and now they are on their way to the common grounds.
Gale is hopeful that the boy will spot a child with their family, because Gale is hungry and it would be convenient. But instead the black striped colt finds a filly all alone, asleep and bundled in an interesting assortment of light. Gale hangs back, and Malik approaches her slowly, shifting to a young tiger that might more easily creep closer.
“Hello?” He calls, sitting up as he stops. “Wake up! I want you to be my friend!” Malik doesn’t glance back to the shadows where his father watches, because this is to be his task. He is responsible for bringing his friend back to Hyaline, and Gale has promised not to intervene.
@Anath