Kianzo

I loathe your prayer. I wallow in sin. Let the nightmare begin.

How the dark prince had missed Kiada following behind was beyond the young stallion—perhaps her company had become so second nature to him that his mind simply dismissed it as an extension of himself. However, his ashen gilded skin shuddered and leapt to a roaring heat beneath her soft, pink lipped touch. Suddenly burning, molten blue eyes jerk to his sister’s— “Mbweha,” he quietly murmured to her, knowing full well that only she would understand his meaning.

But then Keusi’s hungry growl drew his attention away from his other half and the heat she brought him. The striped hyena’s bright blue sight had landed on the Serval kit, and her vicious jaws began to fill with anticipatory saliva. Young creatures were so tender—

’Not now,’ Kianzo thought (with no small amount of annoyance) to his bonded. Though blocked, Keusi was not entirely subdued. And her hungry, brazen stare followed the Serval—however, the tip of her golden tail wagged slightly, as if to invite the kit closer.

Thus far, the dark prince had simply nodded a greeting to the golden woman—his focus had been his father on this outing. However, he could no longer dismiss Yael the moment her body began to shift—his brows raised (familial resemblance leaping out between father and son), though his lips remained ceremoniously un-agape.

A true, lopsided grin crossed his muzzle—glad that someone had silenced his father’s absurd notions of not using magic for clearing the area. His black tail twitched around his hocks, “You were saying, bambo?” Perhaps too much sarcastic emphasis was placed on the native word. Though the dark prince did look innocently away, sending a particularly loud and violent burst of ash towards another ancient tree, suspiciously close to where his now-elephantine father labored.

Black-rimmed ears tilted back for a moment at the question—his eyes darting to Yael before looking back to the large tree his magic was engulfing. The unnamed feeling that had arisen in him while watching his father from the shadows (—empathy—) resurfacing at the sadness that laced Tembovu’s rumble.

But it felt weak. And, where he may have been inclined to divulge some parts of this weakness among family, he most certainly would not around another. So, instead, he simply said, “I thought you could use the help.” The flat and quick nature of his low voice belied the non-answer in them.

All the while, Keusi hopefully watched the Serval kit.

---

Mbweha = foxes
Bambo = father