Nightwalker's blood; kids, etc

[Kreios]

kreios don't you tame your demons, but always keep them on a leash I have not thought of Beqanna in months. There has been neither time nor reason to reminisce on the past; some things are better left alone. My days are full and my nights are restful, and while there were memories that pulled at my heartstrings, none were strong enough to draw me away. As time has passed their strength has waned, and for nearly a year my mind has been elsewhere, occupied by the new life that I have chosen. So when the call roused me in the dead of the night, I ignored it. I settled back against the warmth of the mare beside me and closed my eyes against the bright moonlight; it was not long before sleep took me. But in the morning, I reconsidered. I looked out over my herd, at the familiar striped backs of the mares as they graze among the yellow grasses of our plain. The children that have not left for their own herds are small still, a handful of fillies that bear my red spots and their mothers’ stripes in a dizzying array of patterns on their mostly-white coats. I have lived here for years; this was the first place I had felt my heart settle since I had left the Orange Country behind. There are no canyons here, only miles of uninterrupted grassland, dotted here and there with herds of antelope and wildebeest, and less frequently by equine herds like my own. The horses here are not horses, but I knew the instinctive language of whickers and whinneys and found that words are not always important. The stallion of this herd had been old, and I had stumbled across lions feeding on his bones before even seeing the mares. Herding them away from danger was familiar, comforting even, and by nightfall I knew that I would not leave them. So I had stayed, happy and at peace, until the call came in the night. As I watch my family in the dawn, I catch sight of my eldest son, leading the local herd of bachelors. If I let him he’d take the herd, caring for his mother and leading the herd as well as I have. The only foals are fillies, girls that’ll readily be swept away by the younger males of my son’s herd when they are old enough. I could leave this family like I’d left the last one and they’d not miss me, I realize. And so I leave because I have always been obedient, even when it pains me. --- It takes me days, but I arrive only moments after the spotted mare. I do not have time for her though; my attention is drawn to the oak at the center of the kingdom. It must be Gaza, my mind tells me, grown up to look even more like our father than Kratos, but my heart knows that it is not. Though I no longer walk on hooves it does not take long to re-adjust to the sliding sand beneath my padded feet. This is not a thing I’ll ever forget, I realize, and I wonder if I’ll have to remember again or if this time I will stay for good. I come closer, oblivious to the other relatives that gather around my Father. I am his height, I realize as I stand before him, and while I resemble neither parent with my red and white splotched coat there has never been any chance of denying that I am the Nightwalker’s son. The sand grates beneath my wildcat claws but I remain still, watching Vanquish with catlike eyes that he will not remember, but have nonetheless been a part of my life for years.