He had been following Mauja when her shouts had drawn his attention to another part of the brilliant tree. Checking to see whether he was needed with his spotted friend - though it looked to be some family drama that he had no part in - Mesec excused himself to see what was going on with Ampere instead. She was shouting again, but when wasn’t the lightning mare shouting? The thought brought a smile to his face, filled with fondness as he trotted over to investigate to see if he could help. That’s all that he wanted to do. It wasn’t at him this time, after all, wasn’t even at another demigod either. The sight of her, fierce and angry and everything he loved, only caused that smile to grow - a flutter in his stomach as his silver eyes turned to who she was with.

She was shouting at two young foals and although Mesec heard the words she said it took a moment for them to settle in, for him to get a good look at the group in front of them. No, not a group - a family. Gaucho was there, of course he was there. The ever present Sultan at the side of his Gladiator. And there were foals, young enough that they could have been his and he remembered with despair about how he had actually thought they were. Now, of course, he could see that there was no doubt who sired the pair of foals. They were Gaucho’s - his and Ampere’s. This wasn’t a Sultan and Gladiator chastising two young foals from the herd, these were parents.

Mesec hadn’t realized how much he wanted them to be his, how much he wanted a family of his own until it was gone - it wasn’t his anymore. The truth and the jealousy came crashing down on him and knocked the wind right out of him, causing him to stumble to a halt several feet away from them. Ampere was just ahead of him, just a few lengths away, but there was more than physical distance between them now.

He wanted to backtrack, to get out of there before anyone saw him because the full weight of how much he did not belong there was beginning to settle. His silver eyes cast about as though he was looking for someone or something to help him do just that. An excuse to get away. He didn’t want to interrupt the family, not again. Not like he had after the fight with the tiger god. They didn’t need him there, after all. He fought the heartbreak with all of the will he had left because what right did he have to be heartbroken? They made no promises - he had been flying high since that night but he shouldn’t have expected her to feel the same.

Love me was what she had asked of him and he did - oh, he did. And it was tearing him apart.

“I--” But the words choke themselves because he cannot think of anything to say. He was stepping backward, wanting so much to get away from them, when he felt it. For the second time in his life that crippling pain that prompted a scream that he bit back, believing that if he did they wouldn’t see him. How stupid of him to come over here. He was interrupting, forever interrupting. Mesec’s thoughts were on the Throat for a moment, how he would never go back there after this. He had promised Megaera after all…

And then the seriousness of what was happening dawned on him. It hadn’t been a one-time trick in the Labyrinth. It was magic, a terrible magic that had rooted into his soul. He’d never know heartbreak or pain without having this magic pull at the darkness and invite the monster out for revenge against those who hurt him. He called out for Lucius, clinging to the bond between them and hoping it was enough. The zephyr, having vacated the premises after learning that the ‘blue bitch’ was around hastily turned back and cried out in return - already feeling the mind of his bonded slip away into the madness he had felt in the Green Labyrinth.

Ten seconds was all he had left before he blacked out, ten seconds of agony where his entire body was ripping itself apart so that it could be put back together and formed into something new. As he fell to his knees he found his voice, twisted in more than the physical pain he was in now. “NO!” Silver eyes were rolling into his head but he tried to find Ampere and her family because as much as he hadn’t wanted them to see him before he feared them seeing him now. “RUN!” He shouted at them - to anyone in the area - in the few precious seconds he had left, his face disfiguring and morphing the words as they were thrown out.

When the pain stopped, the sad-eyed moon child was replaced by that same monster that had stalked the bamboo forest and found equine and wolf foes alike. Black lips curled around silver fangs in a snarl as it rolled from its side and back onto massive paws. Eyes rolled back into place - so similar to the stallion’s but where Mesec had sadness and pain in his eyes there was only hunger and rage now. A step forward was taken, shaky as it got accustomed to this form, and the black and silver fur over its body bristled in anticipation. Although slightly shorter than Mesec in horse form, the warg had his body-mass - a giant creature that had one remaining link to its former shape: the pain that the group before it had caused.