are you angry when the earth shakes?

[Nashua]

Nashua likes to explore.

He likes to explore the outer perimeters of the Taiga and he likes to watch as the land changes before his green eyes. He’s started to come to know the borders well. The further north he goes, the land grows restless. Crags and granite boulders jut angrily from the Earth (as if the changes he knows nothing of had made Nerine angry, as if whatever it had been before had been something important enough that it rebelled against the Magic that changed it.)

If Nash goes south, the Taigan fog seems to dissipate into Tephran steam and the winged yearling has found himself curious about the volcano he has seen looming in the distance.  The colors of the autumn forest blaze along that same border before it rolls into the hills of Loess. The mountains of Hyaline linger towards the east when he turns his evening patrols back to the north, back to home and Yanhua. His counterweight. The lands that hold the impossible horizon in his green eyes all call to him for different reasons and the boy sometimes wished it was easier to want to stay.

That if he only knew the width of Taiga’s trees and the density of her fog, it would be enough. (What was the point of seeing anything beyond Taiga if he couldn’t see what was in Taiga? What he sees now, though, is ironic - that he should find a panther while he patrols! If only he knew.) A dark shape comes from the silver haze - not equine, too small and sleek, feline; his gaze confirms the large predator.

His ears pin and the yearling feels his wings widen, ready to chase the cat out of the woods. He doesn’t stop to think that the creature isn’t a usual one to Taiga’s wildlife. When the cat sits and grins at him, Nashua feels his brown wings slacken before he starts to pull them back to his slim sides.

"A shifter?” the boy asks, not unfamiliar with them. His father is one but Wolfbane takes many shapes. What about this one? "What brings you to Taiga?”

@[Serabi]