A heady mixture of fear and anticipation brews in his chest; he finds himself pawing at the stony ground with a forehoof, irritating himself with the rasping sound. He knows not of Cael's death, and does not notice his mother turning morose - he assumes his little brother is alive and well somewhere, distant but happy. The way she says his own name...he feels his vision blur, and feels a deep sense of disgust in himself for his sudden weakness. The son of the Earthmover does not cry! Her muzzle touches his own and he finds himself enjoying the sensation, the first time he has touched family in nearly six years. Too long. He has not been alone in the intervening years, yet he hasn't seen any related to him by blood since he left Anarore at the green age of two.

She says she's missed him, and compliments his growth. He finds himself grinning - there isn't a boy alive that doesn't glow when his mother says something remotely complimentary, and he finds himself puffing out his massive chest arrogantly. "I've missed you too," he says, his normally gravelly voice softening. Cynder clambers further up his neck until she is sat fully between his ears, tail held carefully aloft. "She hatched you," she remarks happily, humming gently. She has met Soleil before, of course, but she was naught more than a hatchling back then - for the first time she can truly examine the dam of her bonded. At his dam's question, the stallion looks away, turmoil flashing across his scarred features. "I haven't seen my father in six years, either," he confesses. "After I saw you with him, that unicorn...you looked so happy. I...didn't know what to feel. So I left." He wonders whether to tell her what has happened in the years since; that he was the king of his own herd, that he has slaughtered hundreds for the crime of being different. Hundreds like Paladin, her husband. Would she still be proud of him then?

He opts to alter the direction of the conversation, and lifts his grey gaze back to hers. "What of you? Last time I saw you, you were...pregnant." He thinks back to the names she said, and wonders which of them was growing in her womb when last they met, growing in the same place Tyradon himself once inhabited. He wonders if she loves them more, those children by her horned suitor.