Bren... Babe, just leave her with me...
Mmphf... Love you too...
Of course, he doesn't argue much more than that as Brennen rouses Lhoire and bids her leave her daddy's warm flank. Something about birthing and raising twins as a stay-at-home mom makes Nihlus feel a little less guilty about snagging an extra sleep in or two these days; while Brennen absolutely has the harder job in terms of civics, championing, and just general political batshittery, Nihlus has the equally difficult job of being on his best behaviour for his lover.
Hahh. Right.
Anyway, a few hours pass before Nihlus awakens. The faint glow of his blue eyes permeate through the underbrush as he stretches and rolls. Making his way to his hooves, he notes that the clouds overcast the sky and trap their little island in semi-darkness. Nih snorts, pleased to be greeted by such weather. He sets off at a trot towards the shores of Heim and then into the tropical depths of the small channel to the main body of Ischia. There, he summons some water droplets from the pregnant clouds overhead and spins them about. Three foals (two older) and two stallions circle liquidly above his head then burst into a million rabbits. The water ripples with the broad-chested chuckles which result therefrom.
Ah, land now. After a brusque shake off, Nihlus sends his weight back and leaps forth into a canter (for the drama, of course!). Eastward bound, then north, he follows his hooves - and his nose - towards the land claimed by the Amazons. No, for real, that's still how he associates Nerine; he learned that much like two decades ago and then stopped caring. Besides Brennen's business of course. Nihlus obviously pays attention to all that (no really, he does, he would listen to anything Brennen had to say to him... Sometimes with more lust than actual information encoding, but hey).
The Nerinian border comes and goes beneath the Warlander's barch-lined legs. A small army of droplets from Ischia accompany him, merry to bounce alongside. On occasion the droplets form lewd symbols and other hilarities but, when the cute round butts of his lover and his daughter surface on the rock-strewn horizon, such antics cease.
Instead, he sends the droplets to twinkle and refract the light around the heads of his beloved family at the exact moment that he bursts between the two. In rabbit form.
"Ah!" He exlaims, performing a seamless shift back into his formidable equine form. "To what do I owe the pleasure of such fine company?" The rascally grin of his lips presses first to Lhoire's tiny, perfect ear, and then to the underside of Brennen's jaw down to his lips. He nibbles there for a moment, hoping some Nerinian diplomats are watching. With a purr, the stallion straightens (though he flicks his tail around Brennen's hind legs) and takes a deep breath.
The cliffs abound; he can hear the ocean swell and crash. For a moment his chest tightens with anxiety. Scorch, murmurs the insecure voice in his mind. Grandmother. He loved her. When Nih trips on a loose rock, the thoughts vanish and he returns to his usual self.
"What's the mission today, boss?" Nih teases, recollections of a certain outing to the Falls practically being broadcasted from his mind to the magician's. "This apprentice's diplomat skills need some fine tuning, or so I've heard."
Nihlus
that's all I want