Tarian has been tested since he was small.
First, as the Heir of Paraiso, there had been lessons and protocols and patrols; his education was to be the foundation as the next Guardian, and even when he had wanted to cling to Kalina's dark flank, Tarian had been pulled away from her onyx side again and again in preparation for who he was to become.
To become what was necessary for the future of his bloodline.
"So, teach them." Tarian says firmly. (Again, not unkindly. But it will be something that he will do with his own young someday. He assumes that his own children will be tested as he had been - as Altissima had been - and the gray pegasus doesn't expect the world to be any kinder to them as it had been to their parents.) The Champion thinks of the struggles of his youth - the loss of Paraiso, Broch's death and the fall of Culloden, Liridon and its wars - and the winged stallion decides that these will all be things his children will know.
Death, betrayal, battle; the child he shares with Wildling will be always be prepared for the worst.
The stoic horse exhales softly with his dark nostrils flaring as Ledger continues to speak about the filly that Tarian has seen running through the canyons and ravines of Loess. His expression softens slightly at the mention of her name - Lillibet - and the straight line of his mouth curves slightly. The little girl certainly sounds like she takes after her mother, Lady Oceane, and though the silver pegasus is renowned for his somber nature, he is also known for his fondness of the two Loessian rulers.
"She sounds like a Queen already," he goes on, teasing a little but also thinking there might be benefits for the South if the crowns were to be inherited matrilineally. Perhaps his cousin might be the mentor for Oceane's daughter one day. "Cheri will be a great one," Tarian says with deep and rumbling conviction from his chest, because how could she not be? Tutored under a great monarch herself and there is a thrum of pride when he lifts his noble head, because the same blood that flows in his veins - the blood of Legado, Ichiro, Valerio - also flows in her (as it will in his children).
Cheri was many things, he reminded himself. He had never met her father and knew even less of her mother. But one of the reasons Tarian is proud is the same for the young Queen. "She reminds me about our stories of the Old Ones. Those who could call storms and banish Winter. Windwalkers." He repeats, recalling the fables from his younger years. "They kept what was cold and cruel from lasting."
TARIAN
@Ledger