The half-child still wanders the island in search of his mother, waiting for his sister to come find him, so that they can announce that they have left the Falls and are relocating to somewhere… more suited to them. Maybe. The pensive child frowns, pondering. Why is it so easy to leave the woman he loves, the woman who has raised him since birth, who has guided him and nurtured him? Why is it so easy for him to walk away? The image of his sister flashes through his mind, followed a much blurrier and abstract image that he presumes to be Erebos- products of his cervid’s steady, quiet mind.

I know, he thinks to the beast, whom he has realized can hear him, but can only respond with feelings and hazy images. Reaching to the side, he touches his nose to the deer’s shoulder, thinking him for the reminder. He must stay with his sister, no matter what pain it causes him to leave his mother. He must stay with her because he has to protect her, and she has to protect him, and because they are twins- two halves of a whole- and without one another they will be broken in this world.

But you are also half of me, the child thinks to the deer. Does that mean I am only a quarter? But he doesn’t mind being a quarter if it means that he gets to spend the rest of his life with Tobias at his side. As he walks towards the setting sun, his path is blocked by one very heavy pegasus that lands before him. Instantly, his mind wanders back to Aurelia and all the others that had been around her and he frowns. All of them pegasi, and he hadn’t liked a single one. But a gentle push from the cerndyr at his side causes him to approach this woman anyway, to challenge the idea he has come to believe to be true- that all pegasi are nothing but trouble.

So slow he approaches, yellow and green eye both trained on the large belly that presses out from the pegasus’ side, and he says the first thing comes to mind- a query, of course. “Why do you want a child?” And though he is young, and clearly much smaller than the woman with wings, he can’t help but have some disdain in his voice- disdain for the child that will be born and ruin his mother’s life, cause everyone pain, and then leave her crying. But there is also apprehension in his voice. He only waits for the pegasus to say something cold or terrible to him. After all, he’s yet to meet one that hasn’t been rude to him.

Adelric

A storyteller makes up things to help other people;
a liar makes up things to help himself.