Everything that Bolder had hoped for this meeting has been better than he could have imagined.
When his father had found him the night before and said that they would be taking a trip to Hyaline - without Bravely or Saffron - he had been intrigued. He loves his brother and sister - loves that the three form a trio that seems to perfectly round itself (Bravely incites, Saffron suggests and Bolder realizes) but there had been a particular thrill that wherever they were going, it was just going to be just him and his father.
Bolder has never understood why the way that he can't control his colors has bothered his sire; some part of him had always wondered if it was because there was something wrong with him. But as Mazikeen shifts shapes and sheds her skins, the striped colt can find nothing wrong with her. She became a dog as easily as she could laugh and now turns into a squid - a creature that Bolder has never seen so the boy takes a high step back - but then comes forward again, just as she shifts into the teal-and-white shape before him. The wings are her sides are something else he has never seen before - not like the dragon wings that his grandsire sometimes wears, or the light wings that he has seen on his Uncle Yan and some of his cousins.
He studies the texture, thinking that he would somehow mimic the colors.
But his dark feathers shift instead, taking on a new kind of skin. The shades that he had been wearing earlier change as well, taking on his own hue of white and blue. Not an exact copy, but close. He was getting better at this game, realizing that there was more that he could do. His white-nose wrinkles when Maze mentions the stink of trout; he doesn't know what is either but he imagines that it smells like the Stink Snails that he had found with Saffron once. "I can come back?" Bolder asks, looking between the Alpha and his now approaching father. "I've never done this before," the colt exclaims to both and is still beaming with a smile when he looks to Mazikeen. He wonders if he changes his wings competely, if the kelpie might show him if she can fly with them.
Nashua's mouth has gone dry. It had started with Bolder unable to control his coat. Now, his shape? No, he thinks. No, this can't be happening.
"Dad?" Bolder prompts his father when he thinks that the chestnut stallion had been silent too long. But Nash is looking at Maze, something clearly troubling him. "Is this something else you can help him with?" The colt looks the oddly-textured wing, still finding its oddness rather amazing. Why didn't his father see it that way? But his father is thinking of his sire, another shifter that once roamed the Taigan woods. Mazikeen is the mate of his half-brother and while he isn't sure what she knows of the family history, Nashua thinks she must know enough that there can't be another unpredictable shapeshifter in Taiga. That was deep in the past, buried further than the roots of the Sequoias and Silverwoods could go.
@[Mazikeen]
When his father had found him the night before and said that they would be taking a trip to Hyaline - without Bravely or Saffron - he had been intrigued. He loves his brother and sister - loves that the three form a trio that seems to perfectly round itself (Bravely incites, Saffron suggests and Bolder realizes) but there had been a particular thrill that wherever they were going, it was just going to be just him and his father.
Bolder has never understood why the way that he can't control his colors has bothered his sire; some part of him had always wondered if it was because there was something wrong with him. But as Mazikeen shifts shapes and sheds her skins, the striped colt can find nothing wrong with her. She became a dog as easily as she could laugh and now turns into a squid - a creature that Bolder has never seen so the boy takes a high step back - but then comes forward again, just as she shifts into the teal-and-white shape before him. The wings are her sides are something else he has never seen before - not like the dragon wings that his grandsire sometimes wears, or the light wings that he has seen on his Uncle Yan and some of his cousins.
He studies the texture, thinking that he would somehow mimic the colors.
But his dark feathers shift instead, taking on a new kind of skin. The shades that he had been wearing earlier change as well, taking on his own hue of white and blue. Not an exact copy, but close. He was getting better at this game, realizing that there was more that he could do. His white-nose wrinkles when Maze mentions the stink of trout; he doesn't know what is either but he imagines that it smells like the Stink Snails that he had found with Saffron once. "I can come back?" Bolder asks, looking between the Alpha and his now approaching father. "I've never done this before," the colt exclaims to both and is still beaming with a smile when he looks to Mazikeen. He wonders if he changes his wings competely, if the kelpie might show him if she can fly with them.
Nashua's mouth has gone dry. It had started with Bolder unable to control his coat. Now, his shape? No, he thinks. No, this can't be happening.
"Dad?" Bolder prompts his father when he thinks that the chestnut stallion had been silent too long. But Nash is looking at Maze, something clearly troubling him. "Is this something else you can help him with?" The colt looks the oddly-textured wing, still finding its oddness rather amazing. Why didn't his father see it that way? But his father is thinking of his sire, another shifter that once roamed the Taigan woods. Mazikeen is the mate of his half-brother and while he isn't sure what she knows of the family history, Nashua thinks she must know enough that there can't be another unpredictable shapeshifter in Taiga. That was deep in the past, buried further than the roots of the Sequoias and Silverwoods could go.
@[Mazikeen]
![[Image: jCdBK6.png]](https://img.nickpic.host/jCdBK6.png)