[open] when the evening pulls the sun down - any

[Obscene]

I can see through you, see your true colors
Cause inside you're ugly, you're ugly like me

His smile spreads as her eyes change to match his. A changeling child indeed. No wonder the thing in Hyaline had wanted her back. He had wondered to the worth of the child, had wondered why Gale hadn’t come to grab her on his own. He was more than capable, seen in the visions shown to him by his sister and the broken horses the navy stallion had left behind. Perhaps there was something else that lurked beneath the shifter child’s skin that had kept him away. Or perhaps it had to do with Tephra itself?

As his favorite Lord joins the golden mare in their hunt, his blazing gaze turns from the ocelot to the land behind her. Tephra hadn’t always been this quiet, he recalls with reluctance, and he scowls at the ash-land. No. He would not be tempted. As pleased as Aela might be by the thoughts coursing through his head they were here on one mission. And it was standing here before them.

When he turns his head back to his sly companions, he is not expecting the magical mask his Seneschal wears. The ocelot seems to recognize her as someone else, calling out a name he’s never heard before, but it must be someone comforting as she seems curious and at ease. What he sees is far from soothing. In the heat of his barely held together temper, in the wake of the anticipation and adrenaline in finding Sickle, her face ripples with familiarity. He thinks he sees Cheri (more unsettling then he had anticipated), he thinks he sees his mother, but in the end what he unmistakably catches is the blazing gaze of Offspring. One that matches his own.

The soft clicking of scales falling into place can be heard in the gentle night as he rips himself from Aela’s power and returns his attention to Sickle. The smirk lingers faintly on his lips but there is no warmth in his gaze, only an endless inferno as the snake feeds off his rising temper. Growing stronger with each bite. He is quiet when she asks if he is a friend, unable to lie outright, so he merely nods and tries to smother all the feelings that writhe in his stomach. Not doubting at all that Aela’s handiwork was at play.

It is Lord Wherewolf that makes the ultimate move and tightens the noose. Some of that wrath eases as he senses the snare tightening, as he catches the hope in her voice. How… heartwarming. The grin he throws at the dappled stallion is real enough, pleased by his choice of tactics.  The three of them causing chaos in the night was proof that dreams do come true, the images he had conjured on their first meeting now a firm reality. Whatever doubt that this wasn’t the prey they hunted vanishes as colors run rampant over the cat’s skin and eventually the child morphs into the filly they had been seeking. Confirmation at its finest.

“Would you like to come with us Sickle?” He finally asks, as if she had a choice. Better she come willingly then by force. He glances around again before flicking his gaze back down to her, making sure there was still nobody coming that might disturb them. “There’s something we want to show you.”

obscene

@Sickle
@Wherewolf
@Aela
Sorry this took me a minute to get up!!