Azoth's kindness is both sudden and unexpected. He comes as if from nowhere, a curious looking beast bearing wings. He looks like a creature of the hot sun, and yet... he is here. When he asks if I am lost I only blink and shake my head slowly. Does he not recognize my scent, does he not know that this is my home? That this is, at least, the place where I was born?

No, it's this other one, the boy with the egg, who is lost. I'm fearful but wanting to defend somehow, lacking all capability, as he pushes straight into the territory and claims the object. Surely it is his if it calls to him, surely it's his right, but...

This isn't his home. It's mine, it's my father's, it's Archibald's, it's Brisa's--Brisa, who walks now into the scene with Hikari by her side. I'm thankful that she introduces me. It seems somehow the herd as a whole has managed to pick up my name from my family and tell others of it whenever they arrive. I am not my father, seeking to live out a life without an identity, so let them all talk on my behalf.

The egg then shifts and cracks before the boy, revealing a small, canine-like creature. It watches him, catches his gaze with perfect blue eyes, and I understand even before the boy (Brendan, son of someone that sounds familiar enough) speaks what is happening.

A bond.

Jealously flares up inside of me, red, hot, and angry. It's a new feeling, something almost rage-like that I don't recognize or expect. So the egg held a companion, all this time? And I found it, I held it in my eyes for one lonesome sole moment, too scared to move closer. Was this egg really bound to this colt from the start, or could it have been mine? I look at the pup, clearly magic in some way given its markings, and feel some sort of hate for the boy it has chosen.

NO! I scream in my mind, my eyes suddenly wide and wild. Brisa's companion and this boy's new one, both canines, are too much. I take a few brave steps closer to the boy, trying to shove myself between him and his new "bonded," and snap my teeth at the younger colt in warning. He's in all likelihood stronger than me, but this is my home, and that should have been my egg. Regardless of what the little pup thinks (it's so new to this world, how could it know it had made a mistake?) the egg should have been mine.

I step forward again, my hindquarters hitching to the right and pinching me, only fueling the anger further. I try to separate the colt and companion, try to force myself against love in its purest form.

It should be mine.

""