[private] there's a thief on every corner of the street

[bolder]

He'd taken to the sky as a hawk, but once he had perched at the top of a bare tree, Bolder had tried the shape of a golden eagle. It suited him, it would seem, as the sun shone against his red-gold feathers. He had spent a few days in that shape, preferring to be in the air than on the ground. It made things easier to see this way, and it allowed him to remain alert (just in case his parents came back).

As the young raptor balances on a branch, he thinks that he understands Mazikeen and her reasoning for banishing his father. It had hurt him to hear that, and cut deeper than Bolder ever would show. But this would give him the space he needed to grow. It would give him the time he needed to become strong - to become Powerful like his Uncle - and then he could return to Taiga.

Bolder could return home and show his father how wrong he'd been all along.

Lost in thought above the water, a familiar voice calls him back to the present. The sound is familiar and Bolder immediately recognizes it as the Alpha, as his Aunt. He cranes his head down to the ground, turning it so that a silver eye peers down towards her. Flaring his avian wings, Bolder leaps into the air and spirals down towards the water and landing in the shallows as himself, a young stallion with stripes and a crescent marking on his face, while trying to prevent splashing Mazikeen.

The water splashes around him, deterred away from the horned mare from the auburn wings that Bolder had spread open, and offers her a rueful grin in apology.

@Mazikeen