[open] the night that i walked

[bolder]

Bolder stores the name away - Vastra - because connections were a form of currency in Beqanna. When he had been small, he and his triplet siblings had been given a wide berth in the North because they had been the children of the King of the North, Grandchildren of the Ice Dragon. Two of their uncles had been Guardians in that realm, one holding Taiga and the other Nerine.

He wonders who this Vastra might be, apart from another shifter like he and Sickle.

(Another one, he thinks and the thought comes glowing from his stripes. Bolder hadn't seen another in the North and now that he has left it behind him, he has found many in the Pack and now more in the Common Lands. Perhaps there was hope in showing his father that he was wrong; the more shapeshifters he finds, Bolder hopes he can show his father that while they are powerful, they can be good, like Mazikeen.)

His companion seems distracted, and Bolder the squirrel looks briefly away from the approaching shadow to the filly. If such an unknown wasn't rapidly approaching them, the striped adolescent would have asked what had called her away and where she had gone.

But the shadow climbs closer and closer, scurrying sporadically from one side of the elm to the other. Bolder's tail continues to spin in a warning and he even barks at the thing, but it doesn't deter its approach. His silver eyes glance at her, but he takes Sickle's request and changes into a noisy sparrow. He moves to a lower branch, and continues to chatter loudly.

The shadow squirrel pauses, and Bolder watches as it stops midway up their tree.

"Quick!" he squawks to Sickle, hoping to encourage her to his branch. He flutters from one side to the other, making room for his new friend and noting that whatever was coming towards them was changing shapes again. This time it was something bigger, and it seemed to loom towards them like a bad omen.

@Sickle