Halcyon has no memory of any home but Ischia, and his bright blue-green eyes that take in the scenery of the places they pass through with insatiable hunger. There more smells than the salt air, more sights on the horizon than the endless blue sea and the hazy rise of the mainland. Keeping up with Momma is not hard, even if he stops to stare now and again. There had been an almost-horse animal, with antlers on its head, and it had smelled delicious. But when he took a step toward it, the creature bounded away, its white tail raised like a flag.

Halcyon huffs irritably and hurries to catch up with his mother and brother.

The young tiger is barely taller at the shoulder than the freshly hatched Cormorant, but his long stride allows him to catch up quickly, and he moves beside them with ease. Occasionally he’ll pester Cormorant, but he is careful not to take the games too far. He is fond of his younger sibling, and not only for the fact that being busy with him in the water means that Halcyon has more time away from his mother’s gaze to explore on his own. And he has been exploring, learning the island of Ischia in his striped form. In truth, he is almost never in any other shape and is never any color other than orange, black, and white.

He is about to step across the border when he realizes that @[Aquaria] and @[Cormorant] have stopped, and the sound of his mother’s voice calls him to a halt as well. Knowing they are meeting Momma’s friend, Halcyon’s feline shape grows slightly taller, his broad face grows just a bit longer. Still more tiger than horse, with a twitching tail and pawed feet, the yearling waits to being the socializing aspect of his very first non-Ischian adventure.

  Momma’s friends are beautiful and very equine, Halcyon realizes.

There is nothing of the sea to them at all, he thinks, though their color is as the glittering inner shell of a mussel. For a moment he stares at them, then back at his finned mother and sibling. Halcyon feels suddenly rather different from the assembled equines, and the realization is a little uncomfortable. Rising from the sitting position he has taken beside his brother, the young creature reforms as he rises, and by the time he stands there is nothing feline about him. This is not the first time that Halcyon has been a horse, but it is the first time he’s worn the shape in front of his mother, so his hesitant gaze meets hers.

His shade of dun is paler than Cormorant’s, making his coat a pale and iridescent blue. Just slightly darker than the rest of his coat are the same primitive dun markings that decorate his younger brother’s coat. His mane and tail are short and white, just beginning their adult growth. All of him is that odd sort of in-between stage, with gawky limbs and none of his tiger grace. Someday he’ll look like his grandfathers, but for now he is just a thin teenager who looks quite uncomfortable in his skin. There are no special traits about him now, nothing to suggest that he is a water-creature like the pair he has arrived with.

When Alcinder introduces himself, Halcyon does the same, giving the boy his name.

“Halcyon.” He says, before turning his oddly-long nose back to where the younger boy is now greeting his mother. He hadn’t bowed when he’d met Oceane – should he have? Halcyon glances at his mother, but she is grinning widely. Before he can decide what to do, he catches sight of Cormorant prancing up to Oceane. His younger brother seems determined to out-impress the winged Alcinder, and Halcyon grins. The attempt reminds him of the way Uncle Pteron sometimes greets Momma when he has been gone for a longer time than expected. Will Oceane grin as widely as Momma has at Cormorant, Halcyon wonders? He watched curiously, but is soon distracted by the way the canyons rise up around them.

His fascination with the natural world is unparalleled, and he has never seen rocks quite like these before. The clatter of hooves sound odd here, nothing like the thumps on sand or the splashes in water. His ears flick curiously, his pale nostrils filling with the scent of warm stone and eventually fresh water. His throat is very dry, Halcyon suddenly realizes.

“I’m thirsty,” he announces, trying to sound like an adult and not a whining child, and mostly succeeding.