there's a devil in my brain with a pitchfork and a flame

[Nashua]

NASHUA

Nashua, who is looking back at Elio, slows and finally stops while he considers something.

Is he brave? He thinks of those high, Nerinian ledges that he isn’t allowed to linger too close to. He thinks of a dark cavern that reveals itself during low tide on one of Taiga’s western beaches. When the wind had come up wild and angry, he had been unsure of the edge. When he and Yanhua went exploring the damp darkness of the cave (how fortunate for them that they glow - it makes exploring so much easier), there had been a moment of apprehension before they went in.

He can remember the way it lodged in his throat.

His own grin, which usually curves somewhere between confidence and youthful ignorance, falters. His green eyes darken as Nash admits, "I just pretend. I don’t … well,” his face peers up at Elio, "How can I be brave if I’m not allowed to leave home?” The pegasus colt knows the rules. He isn’t supposed to go wandering on his own.

Nash stamps a foreleg, feeling his neck arch with his frustration.

He tries his best to listen - he does. There is something in him that adores making his mother smile. Yanhua does it as easily as he navigates through the ferns, as easily as he knows where to find a fox den or some other hidden treasure. Yan is like that - like their mother that way - he is good at finding lost things.

Nashua just seems to be good at getting into trouble.

Little Feather snorts softly and then resumes leading the older stallion through the woods. The boy does it easily and never questions that @[elio] won’t be behind him. A few hours together and the winged boy already finds an easy friendship with his fellow wanderer. Fire Wing has triplets. Well, his mother had triplets. He blinks, curious as what it must have been like to grow up with an extra sibling.

Sometimes, it's hard to imagine besides him and Yan (though he still likes to imagine Eugene is their lost brother - how many other horses glow like they do?)

Hearing that he’s just been blown in from the jagged cliffs of Nerine, Nash does a double-take back and stops again. "Did you meet Aunt Neverwhere?” It’s been a while since they’ve gone North. There’s a part of Nashua that might even admit to missing Fechin, Brienna and Ama. "There’s alot of girls…,” the boy shrugs before looking up to Elio, like he might confirm what he’s thinking. ”But they’re okay.” For girls, his smile says as it spreads to a boyish grin.

and for every king that died
they would crown another

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