[TAKEOVER] It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose.

[Gale]

@Picard

i hear the wicked get no rest, but when you do ---------- i hope you dream of me The boy does not run. Gale is mildly disappointed, and the sensation has just enough shadow in it to turn his back hooves to paws, and to lengthen and angulate his hind end to something better suited for pursuit. The boy answers, and he sounds innocent. Like Sickle, Gale thinks, and shakes his head in disgust. Sheltered. Weak. His front feet turn to claws, and pale white feathers grow slowly from the blue skin of his front legs. The infusion of magic makes him patient as well. Perhaps he could draw this out, pull more from the boy than simply a quick death. You live here? The boy asks, and Gale shakes his head with a bemused smile. “No,” he says softly, “But it is mine.” He is King of Tephra, he tells the boy, the land to which this black-shored island owes allegiance. “Its protectors are missing, so I am here to defend it from those who think they can stay without paying tribute.” He deserves something for being the King of Islandres, after all. Perhaps he’ll take the boy's magic, he thinks, or his misery. The first idea is more appealing, and Gale takes a step closer. GALE