On the sandy shore of the little lake at the heart of their home, Megaera watched with pride as her two youngest children discovered the world around them. They were safe here and, as he had when Mordecai was small, her companion kept a careful watch from the skies.

Bright eyed and bushy tailed, the colt followed the one he learned to be his mother--the warm, safe place. She was kind, and she kept him fed well enough. It was difficult, though, and he often had to fend off the wombmate from his meals. Perhaps in time the young colt would learn to share with his twin sister, but in these days just after birth, all he knew was he needed to eat and he needed to explore. So, when mother--or Mai--let them leave her side, the colt did so with pomp and circumstance. He held his little head high and his tail perked up behind him. Cloven toes devoured the hard-packed sands below him, bringing him to the shore behind the warm, safe place. Quizzically he lowered his head to sniff at the lush liquid. It was only when his mother splashed at him did his eyes light up brightly again, the gunmetal fire burning brightly behind dark lashes.

"HA!" He exclaimed, bouncing and splashing into the waters. His sister's squeal made his ears perk forward and a sudden, devilish smirk curl his dark lips. Bounding the few steps away from her, Nizho shifted his shoulder and jumped towards the girl of slight build. His sister had not yet gone in the water, but the young colt hoped to knock her into it with his shoulder. "C'mon!" He giggled, little wings flapping wildly on his dark back. Mai--warm, safe place--had gone into the water, now why was Asavvi staying out of it? Was she being coy (a concept the boy did not yet understand) or was she merely unaware that the water was fun? Snorting some, Nizho's rump wiggled behind him and he nipped at his sister's ears, trying to pull her towards the lapping waters edge. 

Surely, she was missing out. When Nizho had splashed in the water, he liked the way it felt between his cleft toes. He thought that Mai--warm, safe place--liked the water, too, for she stood in it and splashed just as he had. "Asavvi!"

Nizho whizzed past her and splashed into the water with a quick laugh. He was turning out to be far bolder than she as a general rule. She was not truly timid, but instead immensely patient. Asavvi liked to take her time looking and testing and knowing before moving forward while her brother seemed always to run headlong ahead once they had gotten that first reassurance from their mother.

She might have suspected from the mischievous gleam in his eye but she was basing at the water when he came bounding back in her direction and tried to knock her in. “Nizhooo!” she giggled at him, delightfully bashful, when he tugged on her ears and pulled back farther up on the bank. She would move ahead, but was stubbornly determined to take her own sweet time with it. With a little dancing wiggle she arranged her legs under her before reaching out daintily with her little cloven hoof. It touched the water with the tiniest of splashes.

It was wet and cool and soft, she decided and pranced forward a few feet until all four feet were submerged. She leaned down to see where her toes had gone. Once satisfied she looked up at her mother with a sanctimonious little nod “Yep. Is good.” she decreed. Her smile flashed then, when she set her sights on her twin with star-grey eyes twinkling in sheer delight. It was a look almost as wicked as his and gave him only a second to prepare. “Ahhhhhaa!” the war-cry was half a laugh when she leapt for him on a clear collision course.
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