dark clouds will follow -- obscene

[Obscene]

I can see through you, see your true colors
Cause inside you're ugly, you're ugly like me

Darkness calls and he follows it swiftly. A glint of gold catches beneath the silvery waves of light from a slow rising moon as the last streaks of color fade from the sky. Much had changed in the last short weeks of autumn, the chill in the air seeming to invigorate the kingdoms and territories of Beqanna from the slumbering summer they had fallen under. He moves easily through the tall grasses that sweep gently against his broad shoulders. His pace is calm and collected despite the dark expression on his face.

From the upcoming meeting with the North, the stolen girl of Tephra, his recent discovery of fatherhood (and the grief he pushes deep within him of the daughter lost), not to mention the whispers of change in the air… His mind is a whirlwind and seeks nothing but peace. For the first time in his rulership, the circlet feels just a little bit heavier than it had before. He stops for a moment, adjusts the weight to slant lazily over a finely tipped ear, and then carries on his way.

He would not fall beneath the pressure, not like his father had done. Stepping down, buckling beneath it. No, they would have to pry his crown from his cold dead hooves before he would let that happen. He had come too far to ever give it up willingly… or easily.

As always, his thoughts turn to the golden mare of the Pampas. He feels the old familiar flare of jealousy and hatred, possessiveness and pain, that he’s come to associate with the first person who had taught him how to care a little. They still work seamlessly, despite the thread of tension that worked its way from him and tethered somewhere to her. He barely noticed how often he wore a cloak of scales or the way his pupils were nearly always slitted. Despite it all he remains, for all intensive purposes, exactly the same. Bored, callous, and perhaps a little sharper than usual.

It is only around the various children does his edge seem to dull momentarily. The remembrance of his own childhood imprinted for eternity beneath his ebony skin. He had been seeking the colt Aela had brought home but instead he finds an unexpected face. One made of crystal liquid that drips slowly from muzzle to the shallow pool below.

It had been awhile since he had spoken with the Champion. He had thought of seeking the stallion out to join them in the Tephra mission. They worked against the clock and in the end there had not been time to find him. Luckily the steal had gone off without a hitch but the Prince was still bothered by how easy it had been. How simple. It didn’t sit well in his gut. Skandar was their best shot of defense when it came to their motley crew and with the pot being stirred it was more than time to finally speak to him.

And here he was. Alone. Or waiting for someone?

A flicker of a frown attempts to twist his velvet lips but he smoothes it into his normal bored expression, the red of his eyes a harder hue than normal. “Skandar.” He greets in his haughty way but offering the now star dusted stallion a faint grin before it quickly fades away. He’s still not sure what to think of the mimic who can seem to twist himself into the unthinkable. He had only gotten a small taste of the other’s magic when he had turned into the Prince himself but if anything Aela had mentioned had been true then it was a mind bending concept.

That was powerful magic. No wonder Aela had snagged him. Snagged him and more, he reminds himself as the scales shine like black diamonds across his skin under the rising moon. “There’s a few things I’ve been meaning to speak to you about. If you have the time.” He drawls lazily, regarding the other coolly despite the sudden fire burning in his crimson eyes.

obscene

@Skandar