The gods have been kind, and they have given back what is his, by birthright, by blood.

Lilitha would’ve been disappointed with him. He begged, of course he begged, everyone begged. Beqanna had risen from its slumber, and taken everything that they had held dear, everything they had held close… She had made beggars of them all – homeless, hopeless, forgotten. Perhaps once he would’ve placed his pride above all else and refused to bend a knee, but he has his family now, young daughters, and Maribel, and others – horses who he has a duty to protect, and to provide for.

It is his name that he hears in his striped ears, and he shifts back into his equine form seamlessly, slipping the skin as if he had been doing it all his life. He does not want to cause any alarm for his white and gold wife, who doubtless has countless other things to worry about besides a mystery tiger in the woods.

”Maribel,” he says, with a slight smile, reaching down to bump noses with the twins before directing his attention towards her once again. ”We have a lot to talk about.” he nods. Perhaps he had been in the woods for weeks too long. It is spring now, and life has certainly sprung.

”What happened?” he asks, because where better to begin than from the beginning?