[private] oh, there's a river that winds on forever

[bolder]

That roguish smile stays - and in the presence of Lillibet, it never seems to want to leave. But the truth is that he doesn’t mind, and so he doesn’t fight against it, either. It remains, and the opalescent mare beside him draws a little nearer. She comes close enough that Bolder can feel the head radiating off her skin, a beacon of warmth on an early spring day when the chill of winter can still dwell in the air.

”I also think you owe me a compliment,” Bolder tells his dazzling companion, and lowers his voice so that only Lillibet might hear him. ”I’ll accept ruggedly handsome, and perhaps extremely charming.” He teases her and even when his moon-marked face lifts again, his slate gray eyes go seeking the side glance she gives him. ”You pick.”

This banter between them is easy for Bolder; he could engage her all day in this and not think the day wasted. Not with her shining company.

The only moment of unease (for him) comes when the conversation turns to Taiga, and while Bolder recalls his youth there, Lillibet asks why she had left it behind. His mind turns for a moment, considering telling her the whole story. He could try to explain that Gale and Mazikeen - his Uncle and Aunt - brought him to Hyaline from Taiga. That his father had wanted him to learn to suppress his shifting rather than embrace it. That he is probably aware of less than he actually knows, and perhaps that it should bother him, but it doesn’t.

Instead, Bolder condenses the story and says: ”My Aunt and Uncle are shifters. I was able to learn more from them in Hyaline than if I stayed behind in Taiga.” As if to prove a point of his ability, the young pegasus suddenly stopped. He lifted his wings and began to stretch them out. Both began to flare with one coming close enough to Lillibet that it might graze against her shoulder, until a few heartbeats later, there was nothing there. Open air blew over the top of his wingless back, and Bolder turned to look at the gold-striped girl from over his broad shoulders.

”Oh, I think you’d light it all aflame,” he told her with a conspiratorial smirk. ”Tephra would be nothing but smoldering flames if you wished it so.” And then he stopped himself, remembering the calamity that she had lived through. Bolder didn’t feel much remorse for losing the South - it meant very little to him - but it had been a home to Lillibet, and for her, he wouldn’t make light of such a personal tragedy.

What she speaks of next makes him almost glad for her mention of the Ruins. He studied her carefully, wondering what about she found so interesting. It was different, that much he knew. But there had been very little vegetation, and apart from Rezza, even less signs of the rumored Baltians. There had been very little for him to mimic and even less information to relay back to Mazikeen.

"Have you been back there?" Bolder asked, "You'd probably have a better chance of finding a monster out there rather than in Hyaline. Ours has been missing for some time."

@Lillibet