[private] leave me here a little longer

[bolder]

Bolder sees the struggle in her eyes at the mention of Hyaline. He doesn't know why it is there, but the young shifter finds the fight fitting. Hyaline is the home of the Pack. They are a group of shapeshifters; many, like his cousin Myrna and Aunt Mazikeen, can be anything they wished. Others, like himself, were limited to certain shapes or forms. Many of them can be both predator and prey, breaking the natural laws, and struggling between magic and instinct.

So while he doesn't understand it, he appreciates seeing the conflict in Elliana's pretty eyes.

"Was she a member of the Pack?" he asks, wondering if she had been like his Grandfather, and lived in Hyaline during a different era. Bolder keeps some distance between them, not wanting his newfound companion to be uncomfortable. "I heard it was a sanctuary once." Hard to fathom such a thing now, his confident (and somewhat dismissive) tone says.

He grins again at the mention of freedom.

"That seems rather reckless," he teases, as if he wouldn't do the same, if given the chance. His silver eyes brighten, still enjoying their banter."But perhaps that is why I have never known it. Freedom is an absolute," Bolder continues, "One either is or isn't." There had always been something holding him back, and thus preventing him from completely embracing the ideal.

Then Elliana backs away, and Bolder has to fight the instinct that tells him she is something less than.

She isn't, he reminds himself, even if it was only quarry that has ever stepped away from him.

Staying where he stands and allowing the flaxen-maned mare the room she desires, Bolder's wildfire grin sparks again.

"What makes you think I give my secrets away for free?" he counters.

@Elliana