07-12-2020, 04:38 PM
Beyond the blur of panic, the colt nearly misses that what was a relatively normal (if maroon, but who is he to judge, with his green stripes?) stallion is now an enormous humped creature with a wide rack of antlers and split hooves. It takes a moment to register that the nose that lowers into view is not equine, it is decidedly larger, the skull longer, and when he finally does see, it startles him out of his tears with a gasp.
Oh.
This happens in the maroon moose's family, and, wide-eyed, the boy nods absently. Horses become moose in his family. Maybe it's the other way around, maybe he is a moose that became a horse. That would be no stranger, not really, Florian thinks, his panic subsiding in the face of curiousity, yet still he peers between the lanky legs of the bull moose, seeking signs in the close forest of his mother's return.
Nothing happens. Only the deliberate words of the Stranger, offered carefully to a strained heart and mind. Our family, he says, You're the first...
To become a what?
The revelations fall against his heart like blows. A gourd - he is not certain what that is, but he hopes it is more impressive than he believes - his dad. The boy turns sharply back to the enormous deer, claret eyes unsure. Wide, hopeful, disbelieving.
"Am I... Is a gourd a kind of moose? But why don't I remember changing?"
Oh.
This happens in the maroon moose's family, and, wide-eyed, the boy nods absently. Horses become moose in his family. Maybe it's the other way around, maybe he is a moose that became a horse. That would be no stranger, not really, Florian thinks, his panic subsiding in the face of curiousity, yet still he peers between the lanky legs of the bull moose, seeking signs in the close forest of his mother's return.
Nothing happens. Only the deliberate words of the Stranger, offered carefully to a strained heart and mind. Our family, he says, You're the first...
To become a what?
The revelations fall against his heart like blows. A gourd - he is not certain what that is, but he hopes it is more impressive than he believes - his dad. The boy turns sharply back to the enormous deer, claret eyes unsure. Wide, hopeful, disbelieving.
"Am I... Is a gourd a kind of moose? But why don't I remember changing?"
Florian
Hello, Gourdgeous!
@[Malkin]