[private] its harder than you think, mazikeen

[bolder]

Despite the somewhat awkward topic they find themselves in, Bolder grins.

The moment of whatever embarrassment passes easily enough. There is very little that actually bothers the young pegasus, and for the few things that actually do (like his father and his family’s aversion to shapeshifting), his Aunt Mazikeen is not one of them. The flush of heat that had crept up his copper neck and into the proud curve of his jaw vanishes, replaced with the eager enthusiasm that his exploring might prove useful to his home, to his family.

"Perhaps Malik might like to come,” Bolder wonders out loud, turning his moon-marked face back to Mazikeen. It was becoming harder to find his cousin these days, but as impatient as the winged horse was to accomplish what he and Maze were discussing, the desire to have the blue-and-black shifter accompany him was stronger. He could wait a few days, and Bolder had a few spots already in mind to look for him.

But if he had known that Mazikeen harbored an ounce of worry, he would have attempted to ease it with a reassuring word and the same charming smile that his mother had found so endearing.

"I think I can handle it,” Bolder says instead (perhaps a touch brazenly), and his usually mischievous expression softens in the dying light of day. He had been taught by the best, after all. "And I’ll see what I can learn without causing too much of a splash,” he teases gently.