[mature] heaven help me for the way I am

[Gale]

Gale this is going to break me clean in two -- this is going to bring me close to you The brindle creature at the bottom of the lake is sleeping peacefully in the sun-warmed depths. As the shadows grow, they call to the darkness that has become Gale, and he wakes. Blue eyes, intense and glowing, peer into the dark water and the fish nearby find safer places to swim after he swallows a three foot catfish in a single bite. Just as the sun sinks into distant Taiga, he breaks the still surface of the lake and steps onto the shore. He has spent the day in the shape of a monstrous crocodile, marveling at the way his shifting has changed. Improved even, he thinks, smiling at the ease with which he changes his grey-brown coloring to iridescent navy and his body into that of a horse. The Curse has plans tonight, and so he sets out, intent on leaving the mountainous kingdom for the evening. It is pure coincidence that he comes across Mazikeen before he leaves the boundaries of Hyaline. The black griffin, shot through with molten orange, looks quite like the Tephran volcano. Gale might have looked away, but the Curse only smiles. “Care for an evening stroll?” He asks, the curious tilt of his dark head belying the fact that they both know the only answer he’ll suggest is an affirmative one. @[Mazikeen]