[private] there's a thief on every corner of the street

[Mazikeen]

m a z i k e e n . Bright eyes catch movement and they latch onto Bolder where he flies as a golden eagle over the water. Every shift the young stallion makes feels like a victory and her enjoyment of watching him move so easily as an avian is not false. He lands with her in the shallows, some water splashing her way despite his attempts to deter it and she covers her instinct to hiss in annoyance by shifting for a moment into the same dog she had turned into for him once - letting her long pink tongue hang out of her mouth. It is so easy in this shape to feign joy - a few twitches of her face does the trick. Her deep orange eyes shine as she looks up at him and she shakes the long fur, sending water back towards him with a short laugh. The compliment that she offers him comes so readily. “You get better every day, you know.” It’s true - and her delight in that helps feed into a smile when she returns to her equine shape. He is tall enough now that she does not need to look down at him anymore - and she wonders whether he will continue to grow anymore. What will he be like in another year? Already he has changed so much before her eyes. And Mazikeen’s smile deepens when she thinks of how Nashua will see a fully-grown stallion the next time he meets his young son. “How are you?” Like the compliment, this question is genuine - she does want to know, after all. That was the whole point. And the fact that it helps keep up her charade of being an attentive aunt makes it all the better.

 

@bolder