He is supposed to be napping.
His copper mother had turned her back for a moment - talking and laughing softly with his aunt Brazen - and Nashua had peeked over a gray Nerinian boulder to determine that. His mother wasn't looking and when she had murmured to him and his twin to rest, his wings hadn't wanted to settle against his sides. His legs wouldn't lay still. Nashua had even laid his head down and tried to close his green eyes but the day was too bright.
Why should he sleep when the world was so obviously awake?
(Nash had tried to wake his twin but his flaxen brother remained out of reach. Each time he tried to brush him, the actual substance of Yanhua evaded him.)
The little boy huffs his disapproval and looks down the hill, glancing back one last time to make sure his mother doesn't see him moving between the boulders and highland grass. She and his aunt are talking of something that he can't hear and his youthful ears fixate instead on a sound coming from the other side of one of the Northern monoliths. The winged colt glances around the stone quickly - just long enough to spy a girl about his age who shimmers intriguingly - and Nash jumps from behind the rock. His fledgling wings flare to instigate her in play like he has seen the herons do - only to realize he is staring up at the reserved face of his aunt Neverwhere.
His green eyes round and he swallows, tucking his auburn wings back. "Uh," he says, "I thought you were a rock."
@[Neverwhere] @[Amarine]
![[Image: jCdBK6.png]](https://img.nickpic.host/jCdBK6.png)