Adelric

Thank goodness for friends, for in the moment it is only Erebos' gentle assurance that keeps the half-child from entirely resorting to tears. But just as his friend has been there for him in the face of blood, he is there for him in the face of this new tribuation. And tribulation it is, for the half-child finds himself all but entirely changed in the instant that it took the egg to hatch and reveal a buck fawn. His mind becomes... vast, but not vast with a sense of fullness. Vast with a sense of wideness, of distance. His mind is infiltrated, absorbed, melded. It takes but an instant for the buck fawn to take his first breath, but this dance and clash of minds seems to take eternity.

And yet, despite the foreign nature of this other mind touching and becoming one with his own, Adelric does not feel assaulted or unnerved. He feels exhilarated. Slowly, the half-child lowers his nose down, dares to touch the buck fawn on his head. It must be this deer that has brought this wide openness to his mind, but how it has occurred he cannot say. He had never considered that the panther that followed his mother was anything more than a sort of unnatural pet that seemed to understand the language of the deer. Now, it occurs to him, that his mother's mind must be as endless as his own has become. Is this what makes her so sorrowful all of the time? No, he cannot believe that. There is nothing sad in this connection that has formed. In fact, as his nose touches the fawn's head, he feels an emotion from this other mind that he can only compare to that which he feels for his twin. It is love, but it is so much more than that.

“He's in my head,” Adelric responds distantly to the question that his only true friend has asked him, drawing him back to reality after his eyes had seemed to glaze over in his exploration of this new mind. It is his friend's touch that finally awakens him entirely, letting him smile as he raises his gaze to the midnight eyes of the night phoenix. “I guess I did,” he says as he chuckles with some laughter, chasing off the childish concern that had plagued him upon the egg's cracking and destruction. Mother had never said how her bond with the panther had come about, but now he must think to find her and ask about it. She will know more about this than he does and he is immediately curious about the implications of this connection.

Another query follows and the half-child surprises even himself when he answers without hesitation. “Tobias.” He does not know where the name has come from, or why he has chosen in, but the fawn seems happy with the choice, evidenced by the child-like laughter that bubbles through the tenuous strands that connect them. “I can feel his feelings,” he adds finally, circling back to the original comment he has made, curious eyes looking towards Erebos for his account of this strange occurrence. Absently, the half-child lowers his nose back to the fawn's side but he is careful to leave enough room for the midnight prince to inspect as well. Adelric trusts him entirely and the fawn, as of yet, does not seem interested or able to rise and move about.