If he were old enough to understand, he’d notice the lack of a father around. Someday, he will notice. Only time will tell if he’ll care, if the lack of a father figure will affect him in any such way. But right now, all he knows is green. Black first. Everything was black for so very long, with the other thing that kicked and he kicked back because that seemed logical. If it hits you, hit it back. Usually the kicking stopped after that.

Then the light. Something white and uncertain and he was out of the black and briefly, the kicking thing was gone. In these moments, he blinked around until he began to make some sense of everything around him. Green below, green above. The ground was soft and safe like the womb had been, but something about the rest of it seemed anything but safe. Harsh and difficult and hot. Though this too reminds him of the womb, where the world was all moist heat. It’s no different in the green place.

Then the kicking thing is on the ground next to him, and in the light and the green he can see that the kicking thing is sort of like him. It has hooves and eyes and ears and such, though they are not at all the same color. This thing is brown and black, like the place where they just came from. No wonder he had no idea what kept kicking him. But the boy knows he is might more brightly colored than his brother. He is gold and white. And already, he hates it.

Eventually his attention directs to the mare on the ground with them as she coos their names, and he knows that Rhonan is his. Tytos is his brother. Rhonan looks like she does, all gold and white. Great, he looks like a girl. Really, really great. Eventually, he gets bored of laying there though, and his stomach feels like it’s growling or something. All bubbly and uncertain, and he decides this must be hunger.

He scrambles to his feet without much haste, and then promptly falls over. Drat. So he does it again. And again. And again. And then he’s actually on his feet, though his steps are wobbly. Thank goodness his mother is close, because he nearly topples over again but instead falls into his mother’s leg, regains his balance, and then figures out how to get himself some food. Awesome. Food is good.

rhonan.

He is no treasure. He’s more like that pet rock that you don’t quite know what to do with, but can’t quite bring yourself to get rid of. He has little interest in the two mares that approach. They talk, saying things like congratulations. Which he doesn’t understand. Is he something to be proud of? He’s just a boy with wobbly legs and a pretty pretty princess coat (he will forever hate his coat, he’s already decided). Maybe Tytos is something to be proud of? But he’s kind of just an asshole, as proved by all the kicks in the womb and the nip to their mother.

Tytos is the one to venture out. Rhonan, for his part, peers from beneath their mother. Not in a shy way, but rather in a lazy way. More you are too far away to be bothered with than omg, stranger danger!. Really, he’s not stupid. His mother isn’t worried about these other mares, and so he isn’t either. No, his mother just seems sad and tired, though he doesn’t entirely understand this. He just knows she doesn’t look quite like the other two.

Thoguh, to be fair, the one is literally hairless. He’s not entirely convinced she’s a horse at all. Maybe a horse/rat? A super freaky crossbred? That could probably happen in Beqanna, right? He has no idea. But he stares at her for a while with those unsettling eyes of his, muddy brown with an orange ring. Courtesy of his father. Perhaps too much of him is courtesy of his father. That’s why he’s no treasure, no keepsake. He’s his father. And who the hell wanted that man around?

Well, except his Mom. Guess Myrina wasn’t dumping him off at the adoption den anytime soon.

rhonan.