[open] you just want to make this worse; any

[bolder]

Bolder had been at the bottom of the lake.

He had been practicing again, turning and diving through the depths of the murky waters as a tawny-colored Orca. The young shifter wasn't sure why he preferred this shape so much. He could try to become a fish, like the smaller trout he had seen gleaming in sunlight near the surface. There were eels and other creatures that lurked beneath the detritus at the lake bottom.

But much like he takes the shape of a wolf when he prowls when walks on land, Bolder enjoys the orca in water.

What he spies from the shadows below is light on the surface. But it doesn't break as it normally does - dancing in tendrils beneath the waves - but rather intensifies in a way that he has never seen before. The floating creature watches from beneath as the light pools together, as it moves away from the shore and towards the heart of the lake. Bolder drifts up, following the curious illusion as it dances across the top of the water. He skims below it, turning on his side so that one silver eye glances upward towards the surface. Bolder continues this, lingering in the shadows enough to remain hidden (apart from his white markings that might reflect the light above).

His fluid motions in the water stops, when a jarring sound physically forces him to abruptly halt his swimming. Bolder has become familiar with it over the almost year that he has been in Hyaline, and the alarm in his mind alerts him that an intruder is nearby. The russet-and-white while dives down, before propelling himself out of the darkness to raise his massive head against the rippling surface of the lake. He remains above the water for a moment, turning to look briefly at the filly walking on the lake. Bolder has seen her with his younger cousin, Malik, and a few times near the part of the woods where his grandmother lives.

The orca then watches the dark pegasus nearby, before he slips beneath the waves.

A few moments later, a soaking adolescent steps out of them. He shakes his moon-marked head and his bristled (and usually upright) mane hangs damply against his neck. Flaring his russet wings, Bolder attempts to remove the water dripping from them and address the stranger. "What are you doing here?" Bolder addresses the older stallion, while keeping a careful eye on the gold sabino filly, after he is done asking his own questions. "Nobody is supposed to come this far into Hyaline uninvited."

@Anath @Cassiell hope you don't mind his naked html; just your neighborhood watch orca checking things out