[private] i've always had too much pride

[bolder]

Bolder considers this - impersonating Selaphiel - one of his best accomplishments thus far. He's attempted animals, many of them, and while both his teachers had encouraged the young shapeshifter to succumb to instinct, neither of them had offered any instruction on what it was to impersonate another horse.

He's only ever worn his equine skin, and though he shivers in this borrowed one (though his hide is not cold to the touch), this is new territory for Bolder. This isn't like becoming the wolf, and succumbing to the hunt. This isn't like becoming a bird, and losing himself to the breeze. This is something new, and so Bolder quietly studies the snow-white form of this Uncle. Are his eyes blue enough, he wonders? The halo he won't be able to replicate until after sundown (and he will certainly try once darkness comes creeping across Hyaline), but his silver-gray eyes flick up once to commit it to memory.

The young pegasus doesn't intend to do this often - if at all or ever again - but he wants to make sure that he does this well. Gale and Mazikeen are excellent teachers, but his lessons with them have also taught Bolder that they expect an excellent pupil. Most of his time has been spent copying the animals that stalk these woods; he'd never thought to assume the shape of an Angel. But if they had been allowed to exist on the outskirts of the Pack, there must be a reason.

They must be Powerful.

"Surely it is more than that," Bolder states, still offering Selaphiel a mirror of himself. "Malik was allowed to keep Anath here, even though she wasn't a Shifter." It had been explained to him that she was like a bonded to his cousin, in the way that Oceanus was to Sickle. (There is a twinge of pride in chest - perhaps twisted by the Curse - that is glad his grandmother had been allowed to stay. That his Uncle had been as well. It meant they were worthy.)

"Isn't there Power in being an Angel? Surely you could cast out any weakness."

@Selaphiel