The mantra of the Pack is one that Bolder has adopted proudly.

Perhaps it was because his father had never given him a choice that the young shapeshifter takes to one that was granted to him by Mazikeen. She had been his first teacher, taking him from the young colt who could barely control his coat colors to a young pegasus who could wear nearly any shape he wished. (Though his want to be more than that, to mimic more than just nature is still within him, placed there by his Uncle. Bolder wished to mimic Magic as well.)

Bolder remains perched on a mostly bare branch, its leaves torn perhaps from an early summer storm. It places him out in the open, but Bolder doesn't think a Great Horned Owl keeping watch in the early evening hours would prove unusual. His avian head turns one direction and then another, nearly rotating all the way around while his large eyes adjusted to the dark.

A mouse rustles the long meadow grasses below him. And if he remains still enough, Bolder thinks he can sense a vole burrowing deeper into the ground. His sense of hearing and smell and sight sharpens more with each shift; he spots the small bat-like creature quickly, and leans forward while his speckled wings start to open.

But the bat is not a bat, and if Bolder could have, he would have grinned in this shape.

"Malik," comes the deep, hoot-like voice of the owl into the humid evening air. Bolder takes off and lets himself soar until he comes leaping towards the ground. "I'm on my way back to Hyaline," he tells his cousin, before settling himself comfortably on a log and becoming something suited for the ground. A wolf that still smells of Ischia emerges from the shadows and Bolder tilts an ear to the sky, still listening for the chittering. "What are you doing here?" he asks in a low voice that sounds more like a growl. "You didn't lose Myrna again, did you?"



@ Malik

Having no younger siblings of his own, Bolder has always taken his role as an older cousin very seriously. When practicing his own shifting, the young pegasus often encouraged Malik and Myrna to do the same. He had been taught that the earlier a shapeshifter starts to change shape, the easier it became and Bolder did his part to make sure that shifting would come easily to both his younger cousins. The small bat that lands on him might ruffle his sienna fur but it does nothing to change the adolescent's usual easy-going demeanor.

Sensing how relaxed Malik was as he traveled down one of his striped legs, the young wolf was convinced that the younger Hyalinean was safe. Most likely back in the kingdom that they all called home, or perhaps on a hunt with Mazikeen. When his cousin finally comes to stand beside him, Malik is a wolf as well and Bolder lowers the front half of his body, stretching down in a playful stance.

(Bolder wears the shape of a wolf most often, and this is the shape he is most comfortable in beside his equine form. It makes his youthful exuberance show, when he might have otherwise remained aloof and impassive.)

"Quest?" he sharply yips, recalling his earlier conversation with his aunt and the limitations that his uncle had shown him. Bolder planned on going to the Mountain when he was ready, when he was certain that even if the Faeries stripped him of his shifting (or something worse), he would be ready. Having only used his gift for the last year of his life, the young shifter was hesitant to part with a side of himself that he had only recently discovered.

"You've gone to the Mountain?" he barks out, an ear pricking towards Malik and another trained on the treeline, not completely convinced that they were alone.

@ Malik

Though some things had changed in Hyaline since Gale's departure, some things hadn't: Bolder still wanted to be more, to become more powerful so that he might prove to his father that there was nothing to fear in it. His Uncle had been teaching the young pegasus how to do that, until those lessons had abruptly stopped. They had gone with Gale, and though there is a part of Bolder that had wanted to go to Tephra to continue them, he had stayed behind to look after Mazikeen and Malik and then the new arrival that came in the spring, Myrna.

He kept a careful watch over his charges, but Bolder hadn't forgotten about those earlier lessons. He hadn't forgotten what it had felt like to become more, and the copper-hued wolf knew that he would need to visit the Mountain soon if he wished to attain that again.

Bolder comes to sit, and gives his cousin an understanding nod.
It seemed that Malik hadn't forgotten those lessons, either.

The Faeries didn't take his shifting - as the young wolf can clearly see - but his sienna brow knots for a moment. Had they taken something else? Did Malik offer something that Bolder could not see? He doesn't have the familial healing that so many of their kin seem to have, and he wonders briefly if the younger shifter had offered it at the expense of gaining more Power. A new ability would do him little good if he got himself killed in the process, but no, he ultimately decides and then learns, about the four objects that Malik must return to the Mountain.

Everything about it seems so strange to Bolder, but he doesn't dare say such a thing aloud. Magic had its own wild way, and the young shifter knew better than to question it.

Still keeping a watch on the distant treeline, Bolder considers Malik's request. He had meant to return to Hyaline, quickly, unsure of what might be waiting for him when he returned. But if Malik was here and clearly unworried, then perhaps they might stay out a little bit longer. A hunt - especially between two such skilled pack members as themselves - shouldn't take too long.

"I'm always up for a hunt," Bolder tells Malik and comes to stand squarely on his four striped limbs. He flashes a grin, as wolfish as the shape they both wear. "What did you have in mind?"

@ Malik

Just as Malik has never seen such a creature, neither has Bolder.

Though there is a hunter's calculation in his gray eyes (noticing its size, studying its claws, the pointed teeth, the lean legs that might make it a capable runner), there is curiosity as well. It is strange and odd; the dinosaur rises to stand and the moon-marked wolf glances towards his cousin. His mind hasn't entirely decided what it is, until it steps back. Malik steps forward and so does Bolder, emboldened by instinct.

"What do you think it is?" he growls low to his pack-mate. Not quite a dragon, like his grandfather, but something similar. Bolder might have considered it a fellow predator, but the moment that the creature stepped back, it backed away from that highly-regarded estimation. It became prey, instead.

Bolder begins to lower himself, creeping towards the thing in a slow motion that mirrored his hunting companion. He wouldn't lunge; not yet, not until they had worked out a plan. It took another step back, and he could feel the adrenaline begin to pump through his veins. The thrill of the chase already beginning to spring in each careful step he took.

"Myrna might like one," the shifter said in a low rumble, agreeing that the feathers would be an easy prize for them. That they could enough for Malik's quest and then some. "Perhaps we might even bring one back for your mother." He finally stops, quickly glancing towards his cousin, trying to glean their next move.

Would they chase it, run it down until fear and fatigue made it sluggish?
Would they split up, and move behind the beast where it claws and talons might have a harder time reaching them?

Perhaps Malik had an entirely different idea.

Whatever the plan was, when Bolder stares ahead at the beast again, his teeth are bared and he is ready.

@ Malik i am SO sorry that this took so long

Malik