Black-rimmed ears were pinned flush with his skull as glittering, angry blue eyes that were as hard as cut gemstones stared out from the shadows. His magic clung as a cloud around his chest, darkening the already-lengthening early-evening shadows. The dark prince was angry. Kiada had hurt him deeply by her dalliance with Ru’in.

So he would make something else hurt.

To his dark, twisted mind (promoted both by his isolation and by Thranduil’s teachings), it seemed to be a perfectly natural law of nature. If you hurt, then enacting that hurt on another was not only right, but would help. Some how, some way.

He had found his victim: a lynx kitten. He had carefully watched it for a long while, ears perked and eyes sharp, looking for any sign of the mother. But the kitten was alone and silent, well-hidden beneath a fallen tree. Kianzo may have missed it, if not for Keusi’s sharp nose.

Anticipatory drool streamed from the hyena’s jowls, and a low thrum of excitement occasionally growled from her throat. Otherwise, she remained silent and crouched beside her bonded, waiting. Hyenas did not normally hunt live prey, they scavenged. But, with her bonded’s influence, Keusi was finding she liked the taste of fresh flesh.

The clouded ash at his chest suddenly exploded outward with snapping jaws, seeking to freeze the kitten for a moment as both he and Keusi stepped out of the shadows. The hyena let loose an eerie laugh as she sent out her own, Terrorize magic—though her sounds couldn’t entirely drown out the kitten’s pitiful and terrified mewls.

They were silenced for a moment, as Kianzo’s magic placed the kitten in suspended, frightened animation. His sharply spiraled horned head dropped down, intense blue eyes meeting the wide, terrified baby blues of the his prey. A cruel grin began to cross his face—

That was, it did until a sudden, white-hot pain slashed across his haunches. The mother lynx, returning for the evening to nurse her kit, came barreling in with fierce yowls and sharp claws. Her dangerous jaws snapped at the now-snarling Keusi—but the young, hunting pair was caught off-guard. They were too inexperience to contend with the quick ferocity, and both mother and kitten disappeared in the the night, growls left in their wake to warn Zo and his companion from following.

But Zo had no interest in following, he was too focused on the burning pain from the lynx’s bite wound. “Why did you let her sneak up on us, Si?” was his sharp, blaming rebuke of his companion. She responded only with a whining snarl of her own—her maw sported vivid-red slash marks from the lynx’s claws.

“Kianzo!”

Dark-rimmed ears flicked backwards, eyes snapped towards the sharp rebuke and accusing eyes of the quickly approaching Devoted. His jaw clenched, an irritated snarl from Keusi’s slashed muzzle making his inner annoyance known aloud, beyond this hard glitter of his bright blue gaze.

His brow creased as a scowl stole across his face—caught red handed hoofed, and in the middle of his failure at that! Add this to his current, perceived loss of his sibling, and this was quickly spiraling into a dark and dangerous part of the dark prince’s life.

“Nothing that concerns you,” was his quiet, deep, and curt reply to the Queen’s meddling inquiry. Though the colt had a respect and awe of power, that did not extend to those who held power; and with his father being the King, he felt no need for obsequious behavior towards the Devoted monarch. “You used to be a Moon Doctor—heal that, would you?” His deep voice was made sharp with the pain of the deep bite wound his long horn motioned towards, low on his haunch.

“A 'bully'?” despite Kianzo’s need for healing from the Devoted, he cannot help the scoff that is his parroting the juvenile-sounding word. Kiada is far superior at wily smiles and gaining the trust of others; this is not Kianzo’s forte in the slightest. (The thought of Kiada sent him spiraling back into an even more sour mood.)

To him, the idea of a ‘bully’ was created by victims too weak to stand up for themselves. Pitiful beings that did not aspire for greatness nor covet power how he did—and such creatures should not be able to place labels on those more powerful than they. So his eyes narrowed and teeth grit slightly at the term.

However, his ears slowly slipped forward at her next question—about remorse. Remorse was a new sensation for the colt, to be sure; he had only felt it after his fight with Kiada, right before Kaos had made himself known. It was a new sensation, one that he was quickly learning to despise; it made him feel weak, sapped of any strength. Even his magic was more difficult to use, command, and control when he felt it.

So, he testily (and perhaps slightly sarcastically) answered her with, “Remorse? Sure, I can have as much remorse as you want me to.” His sharp blue gaze boldly met hers, defiant and daring; waiting to see if she’d heal him. He felt Keusi toy with her own, newly found magic; but the dark prince made her wait. Petulantly, the hyena turned her hungry, dangerous gaze towards the Devoted's owl, soft pink tongue absently-minded licking her chops as she waited.

Keusi saw the small own’s teeny eyes narrow at him—and she barked an eerie laugh, her sharp jowls snapping open and close as a bit of drool gleamed amid her shearing teeth. The little raptor had spunk; that always made it so much more fun during the kill.

Kianzo, however, shook his head slightly to clear it of his companion’s predatory thoughts, his own attention needing to be focused on the battle of wills he was having with his Queen (or, at least to his adolescent mind, it appeared to be a battle of wills).

“Either you feel it or  you don’t, and I think it’s very clear that you don’t.”

Sharp gaze narrowed and his perked ears went flush with his skull once again—only this time there was more than a hint of malice in his blacked-masked face. “Oh, so you’re as good at reading minds as you are at lecturing?” his deep voice was quiet, words flat and statement-like rather than questioning like their actually meaning implied.

His stare was unwavering, challenging—how could this mare know he held no remorse in his heart? Perhaps not for the useless lynx kit that was now safely reunited with its mother; but he assuredly felt remorse for his actions: both in remaining away from his family for so long and for his harsh actions with Kiada.

Black and white tail swatted sharply at his hocks in irritation as the blood trickled down from the deep bite wound on his haunch. Then he simply said, “You’re right, perhaps I should pick on someone older. Thanks for the lesson, Devoted,” and with a slight nod to Keusi, the hyena unleashed her Terrorize magic on the Queen while Kianzo turned to fade in to the mists and shadows, wishing to be alone with himself, his companion, and his gleeful demons.

It would be a lie to say that there was no shame in his chest as he tried to leave—but it was well hidden beneath the raucous excitement of his magic and demons.