well someday soon when the spring brings the sun
i'll sleep, i'll finally
feel better when the winter's gone

Wet sand molds itself to form small craters within it's damp skin, making room  as eight hooves strike it, first her own and then her son’s, but unlike his mother’s careful, delicate landing that brings a chest wrenching feeling of extreme stress, Zhu is ungraceful, bursting across the wet sand til his growing hooves hit the softer, malleable ocean of white sands, tail curled and raised high enough to not let the ground touch it. It had been one thing of many new things about him that she’d been happy to see. His vocabulary was improving, his growth spurts were fast, his horns had begun showing more(at last!), but were coming in in a comical way. The first to spot them had been Hobgoblin during a grooming session, who promptly laughed at the sight of two sideways, glass devil horns protruding from behind his ears.
But all of this was heartbreaking in the slowest, most painful way possible, watching her son, her handsome, growing, aging son become a new member of this world. He spent more time away from her side than usual, complained about her showings of affection, wanted to play with Hobgoblin less, who took it almost as an insult as the two had acted as if they would be inseparable when Zhu wanted to explode without her, and even ate grass more than he choose to nurse.
Suffering decides to stab into her glass heart one more time, and she can feel Hobgoblin share it with her, finally breaching from the sea with one loud snort of air. Even his singing seems dull today.
Ahead, Zhu’s cloven hooves are meeting the thickening areas of grass, feeling loose sand become replaced with harder dirt. A series of bucks and leaps follows short, and Hobgoblin rips his skin apart to give up a serpentine body up for a long-legged body of ebony fur, chasing at full speed just to join in with the excitement. She only lets herself watch, listening as her brother tells her “Zhu almost too big play. Zhu too big. You play Zhu.”, teeming with adrenaline as Zhu’s kicks and bucks become more and more powerful.
You should probably stop if he’s going to hurt you.
He hits her with a glare that she can’t see but within the back of her head can feel with every fiber of body, staring southbound as her amber form trudges along the sands, making the occasional slip.
“Then you play Zhu. Zhu growing. Zhu not need You soon.” And while she hates that admitting that Hobgoblin can be right, he is on that.
“You play Zhu.”
A sigh, long and shallow, one that tries to draw out all of her feelings and release them into the air. It preludes her charge, opening up her stride till the distance between her companion, her son and her is closed.
Zhu is already babbling out words, unable to control his curiosity about something, which happens to be, of all things, another damn dragon.
She wonders if she should start hating them, watching as this golden one(another fucking golden dragon, like the one that He has) messes with a rock, like His eyes. A loud snort and a stamp of her hoof makes Zhu jump and Hobgoblin give up his body for another.
That’s not going to work.
Lips curl up to show teeth, prompting Zhu to do just the same thing as him, playfully flashing growing, deformed teeth towards the dragon, never caring to think that Hobgoblin’s show of it is meant in aggression instead of play.
“Ma, Ma, Maaaaaaa…..” She’s slightly proud of him for being able to pronounce his words correctly then, even if it was just the repetition of one single word that he’d learned to master early on. A smile paints his expression as she gives him all of her attention. “Is Pa going ee ear?”
I hope not.
But there is a soft, large answer to her prayers. A mare, a particularly massive mare if any single word in the dictionary was to describe her, one large enough that she cranes her to look at and causes Hobgoblin to snort at in defiance of her size. We should leave.
“Who are boo?”
“Zhu need practice. Practice words. Sound stupid.”
Zhu’s tail has curled itself all the way around now at the end, rolling it till the locks drape over each other and layer themselves. “Why so tahaaaalll?”
“Zhu!”
The look that he gives her is apologetic, ears pulled down into a drooping position and tail now limp, looking as if he is actually embarrassed for what he has done. Was I too harsh?
“No. Zhu look stupid. Zhu fine.”
“Don’t be rude. You shouldn’t ask why someone is their height…. or for personal information upfront.”
A quick glance is done to ensure that the mare is not insulted with her son’s actions, hoping that she’ll look past his young mistakes and understand.

OOC: Hobgoblin goes from Leopard seal, to Black Serval, to Leopard seal when the changes are mentioned.

"Talk."