I stretch heartily outside the cave while momma tutters about telling me I need to hurry up and rouse myself to begin the day. I wonder why it is we are always about so early quite often until mother gets drawn away on some errand or another before I remember that her life requires such things; I cannot understand, however, why it is I have to be involved. As I rise, I hear the friendly chirrup of mother’s griffon as she bounds across the tops of the boulders that have long since situated themselves at this particular area, her wings catching the wind slightly as she hops from stone to stone and drift her safely across the too far to leap spans.

I like Kyst; she’s pretty like Irelyn and she keeps mother distracted from me, because she’s so small and helpless and I’m growing stronger and stronger every day. Fully lifted from my stretching I dart back towards the owl-cat, mocking her pounce as I reach the boulder she’s about to take off from. The griffon makes a meowing sound as she arches her back up and reaches out with a single fore claw to swat playfully at my face, and I flip my nose up and out of the way with a rippling laugh just as a call breaks through the morning.

I look over to momma, wondering if she heard what I just did.

Her brows knit upwards in humored delight, a smile breaking her lips as she looks over to me. ”I will see you this afternoon, then,” she says resolutely before nodding in the direction of the summons – somewhere towards the lake and the cave with the Mirror she won’t let me near. Something about it having been broken before…

I nod with a glinting smile and turn to leave, glancing back over my shoulder at her before I go. "I have things to do today?" I ask, wondering if her statement had implied that there was work beyond going to see whatever it was the Haruspex wanted. She laughs, like she often does when I speak my curiosities aloud and am wrong.

Mean, stupid bitch.

”Nothing more than the usual,” she tells me with her sugary smile, and I nod and flash my fake smile again before I’m out on the wooded trails that lead along the eastern border.

When I lay my golden gaze on the lakeside, its not hard to pick out Zikar-Sin among the pearly shoreline. He’s a dark color and his mane seems to glow in light, only adding to the air of madness that seems to follow him everywhere. I don’t mind him that much, though. He’s a good guy, I think – just a bit nutters, and momma had said he was a good friend to have. She said there was a story as to why, but hadn’t told me that one as of yet; we were currently in the middle of her own life tale and the wild eyed Haruspex was not a part of that story at the moment and I know better than to ask her to skip through the boring political intrigue of her and my Aunt Psyche.

I trot up to him and plaster a smile on my face, knowing from watching momma that this simple trick works more magic than its innocuous appearance can give on. I guess some of it does mean something, because I do feel a certain fondness for the crazy Time Seer – he’s one of the few adults who’s ever paid me any mind as more than a side decoration for my dam. "Good morning, Master Haruspex," I chime with my charming little boy’s voice, wondering each day when it will deepen into the rich velvet tones of my father and his cousin, the one called Torleik, "what sort of story?" I ask with multiple purposes in mind; mostly because I don’t want to hear more bullshit about the unicorn regime and my mother’s great prowess (cue the scoff) but also because I’m genuinely interested. I glance at the things he has brought with him, looking at the bald skull curiously for the space where a horn should be and finding none.

It was once like Kahlua, whoever this was, and it holds my eyes even if others arrive or the Haruspex answers my inquiry.

The other things are innocent enough; some flowers and places on which to lay, which I happily settle into (I am barely awake, after all) without breaking my eyes from the skull.