Kaj had by no means anticipated the life he had ended up with. A simplistic creature through and through, he'd expected to keep his pace and place in the ranks of the soldiers, starting a family with a loving mate of any gender, settling down in a permanent herd. What he'd been offered instead? Well, an entire chronicle of drama and apocalyptic changes in his life. He had been captain of his forces, had been promoted to lead a herd, and led it well through darkness. He'd challenged and been challenged, succeeding where it mattered. Led an invasion, reclaimed a new home, and was held aloft as continued Czar. 

Love, matehood, foals...they had all evaded him. Yet he was never without surprise in his life. Though they were no blood of his, Kaj had ended up shuffling foals beneath his wings, becoming a proverbial mother hen with chicks warm and fluffy in his fold. He loved them. Ilios, Areli, Rue, Tempe? They brightened his life, kept him going when loneliness threatened to pull him beneath her icy waves and drown him. He'd taught Ilios to fly once upon a time, and anticipated doing the same for young Areli, if Parelia would allow him the honor. 

It seemed fate had yet another story played out for him, a parallel to that time. 

Aerial patrols were far easier in the Falls, the disconnected landmass already difficult to maneuver on hoof at times. Though frigid weather greeted him in relentless force every morning he rose to take his place among the ranks, the golden stallion was not dissuaded. A flash of tumultuous feathers caught azure gems, and before Kaj could even align his sleep-hazy thoughts, he was dipping his wing to circle around and find the source of the commotion. Circling low over the scraggly branches that reached for him like bent, sinister fingers from below. Intent on drawing him down into their clutches and weaving around him, perhaps where he could find a modicum of appropriate sleep for once. 

Frustrated form sprang from the snow, nubile with youth and vigor (ah, how it is wasted on the young, he mused with some amusement) as it struck across the frosted grounds. A cathartic explosion of irritation striking the dead air, a whip of announcement. The age alone was enough to draw Kaj down, but he knew that lone figure, though the colt he recalled was a mere shadow in the shell of the grown youth. Aeolus, finally lurched into his awakening mind, Brisa's subdued face winking in his vision for a moment. 

Spiraling down through the scragly treetops, he called out to the flighted youngster on a warm nicker of warning. Lightly feathered legs struck against snow and ice, firm and solid against the ground as massive appendages folded with grace against his pale sides. "Aeolus? My, you've grown so much since I last saw you," he laughed softly, kindness imbued in each syllable. "You were very young, though. I'm Kaj, Czar and friend of your mother's," he clarified in case youth had stolen away any recollection of Kaj that the young stallion might have had. It had mostly been in passing, but he'd spied the little one at Brisa's side during herd meetings more than once, and had been in close vicinity enough to at least speak a hello whenever he visited the beautiful maiden back in the Edge. But he'd never formally met the young pegasus.

"What's wrong?" he asked quietly, pale blue eyes concerned and crinkled kindly at the edges as he moved closer, the ringing cry still nagging at his consciousness. 

 

OOC here