[private] its harder than you think, mazikeen

[bolder]

It’s not that Bolder can’t see the difference between how Mazikeen once was and how she is now.

There would have been a time that his aunt would have been a little sharper with him. She has always been his staunchest supporter, and as always, she has been his mentor. He wouldn’t be half the shifter he is now if not for her teachings; if not for Mazikeen, there could be the possibility that Bolder wouldn’t have learned to shift at all.

Nashua might have always kept him in the North.
Might have convinced him that shifting was some kind curse instead of the gift it was.

With the memory of the shadow on his sienna skin, Bolder glances away before looking up again. He would never skirt away from the truth, and he certainly wouldn’t shy away from sharing it with Mazikeen. ”I climbed the Mountain,” he begins to tell her. He doesn’t look away as the young pegasus continues, ”and it was Carnage waiting for us.”

Bolder doesn’t give her all the grim details. But he does tell her that it was the Dark God that told them to dig (and he tells her that there were many of them), that they tried to break through the Mountain and release the Magic contained there. ”So we dug, and dug, until the ground shook.” He tells her about the darkness that followed, that he doesn’t remember much of what came after.

”I woke up not far from Hyaline,” the pegasus says, ”but there are murmurs of strange things that came after. The South sank, and something else rose in its place.” He stretches his wings out and when a ray of sunlight strikes the edges of his sienna feathers, the shadows on his skin begin to come again. "This has been happening ever since."

@Mazikeen