as sneaky as the trickster god - mountain, any

[Errant]

when my time comes around lay me gently in the cold dark earth Errant is not an ignoble creature – Lagertha has managed to get the boy past the edges of their kingdom; Nihlus belongs to the Amazons for whatever length of term they wish to keep him there (assuming his term is not cut short by brotherly intervention). He glances over as the dapple grey stallion approaches, bright in the darkness. Errant nods in greeting and listens as the other male pokes fun at the Amazon as well. Easy pickings, they all know, and they’re within all bounds to tease even though their time (and distance) to save Nihlus from the Amazons has expired. Looking at Hurricane Errant misses the boy’s shift to rabbit, and glances down when something small hits his leg. He cocks his head, bemused, and watches as the little hare becomes Nihlus. “Neat trick,” he says mildly, nodding in approval. Errant had tried being small once (a little lemming with bright black eyes) but has disliked the overwhelming fear that came with being such a tiny prey animal. He does not shift species often enough to mind. Nihlus says something about liking stallions more than mares, but since he hasn’t said children, Errant cares just about as much for the colt’s sexual preferences as he would if the bark-legged boy had said he preferred logs and stones to flesh and blood. When Mountain joins the gathering, Errant clicks his teeth together quietly, an old habit he had long ingrained into the unconscious as a mechanism to not speak out of turn. He was raised in a kingdom after all, the result of a long line of kings. He can hold his tongue; he can bide his time. Even as Mountain speaks about an contract with the Amazons, Errant is quiet. They had asked about alliances but Mountain had given them no answers! Now it seems they have an agreement with the Jungle that this mare is breaking. Oathbreaking and child-theft? This moss-covered grey mare is not impressing him. It’s only when Mountain names Scorch as a friend does Errant start to doubt the man’s words. His sister – bald rat Scorch – with a dear personal friend? The idea is ludicrous, and Errant looks once more at the grey mare, hoping she contradicts other lies Mountain might have spoken. Errant is a magician after all, but he is neither omniscient nor omnipotent. There is no need to waste the particular energy of magic on something that he could find out in a natural way, after all. The mare, who he is nearly certain he has never seen before, is somehow able to identify him immediately. Well, he supposes, he does have rather distinctive scarring. Perhaps someone has been describing Tundra residents in excruciating physical detail and Lagertha happens to have listened in on a lecture about Errant. It’s not as though he’s still hiding beneath a bay roan coat, after all. What she says about wanting Mountain overthrown though, that causes him to still momentarily. That topic has come up only in two conversations. The first, attended only by brothers of the Tundra, has not been spoken of to outsiders. Errant is good at barriers after all (one of the handful of magical skills he has bothered to perfect). The second was with Scorch. She had assumed he would kill the king and take the throne with her son, but since the boy she named has yet to appear in the Tundra, Errant has made no actions regarding that conversation. But this mare knows, and she shouldn’t – there is only one mouth she might have heard this from. He still holds his tongue She replies to Hurricane’s taunt with something about complication and Errant flicks his dark tail against his haunches, his ears pricked forward to catch every word. He’d liked to know what is complicated. She says that Scorch has opened the Tundra up to steals, and while he does not implicitly trust what the Amazon says, the black stallion wonders if his sister had intended the lifting of the ban to last only until her son was on the throne. That felt uncomfortably like a threat to Errant. “Will you?” He asks Mountain, his voice and face expressionless. Errant does not offer an alternative, though he certainly has them. It is Mountain’s responsibility as king to fight for the return of the boy. If Mountain does and loses, perhaps the Amazons will keep him. Perhaps they could trade Mountain for Nihlus – a loyal Amazon would surely see that as advancing the progress of her queen. Or, as Errant considers, they might use this Amazon’s mistakes against her. She’s come alone to an enemy kingdom, and as Errant stands between her and her path to her kingdom, the countdown to a steal by the Tundra has begun to tick. e r r a n t no grave can hold my body down i'll crawl home to her

Ooc: I didn’t have any intention to magically intervene since I knew the steal was valid; but thanks for the caution