Was I?
I was too lazy to play.
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The young man held out hope that maybe, just maybe, his mother would return early. It was a clinging hope, because all he really wanted was his mother. The creature would be so much more at ease if she just showed up… where had she gone? Where on earth had that woman gone? It made Bane nervous to not know the whereabouts of the second most important woman in his life. Still, his internal turmoil was sated for a moment by the appearance of his younger sister. The little girl was an interesting one, a quirky little thing—adopted, but family none the less. “Anything you want to learn, Cael, just say the word.” The words come with a warm smile, head leaning to knock against that of his sister. It was a display of affection between siblings that he usually wouldn’t let on he was capable of. Maybe now it’s a middle finger gesture to his father.

There were others. They showed up, came around, and Swallowbane simply watched. Every once in a while he’d nudge his sister in play, trying to keep the boredom away while everyone was still arriving. Rainbow shattered the monotony, and his tail gave a simple swish. “I suppose we can be friends, sure.” Words. Calm words. They have more feeling than the ones that he’d given his father, because more feeling is due when someone is as simply excited as the female before him is.

Swallowbane is lost in more of his own thoughts—did he really belong at the right of his father now that he’d been demoted? Everything is interrupted when he’s assailed by the warm and the white. The prince laughs brassy and soft, wrestling his mate gently as she clings to his back. It’s another show of affection, but this time it’s one that he wouldn’t ever hesitate to give. The prince, though he no longer appears to hold the title, has no problem being loose and languid with his truest love. It’s a beautiful thing, and everyone needs to respect that. Those that wouldn’t, well, they’d have a problem.

He’s considerably calmer as everyone else comes in, now that he has Calista at his side. The creature sets him more at ease, and that helps. She helps everything. Still, it doesn’t keep his lip from lifting only slightly as his brother comes to touch his shoulder. He doesn’t want the contact from the other creature, one that was hardly worthy of being here. They were hardly brothers now, simply strangers that were born in the same litter. Dully, Bane wondered where Orca had gotten off to as well. Too many things to keep track of.

And then there’s the pup. The child that had usurped her older brothers, the ones who’d deserved where they’d sat. He doesn’t growl, but his eyes rest cold on her face as she pounces at his feet. She was a child, a hyper child, and a child he’d never been invited to. It gave him no reason to acknowledge her now, either. Simply flecked eyes rest upon the little girl, and he felt more alienated than ever. It’s clear that the boy burns for his mother, and she isn’t here. An eye goes to the rest of them, and he turns his back on his father to scan the nearby woods. Under his breath, to himself instead of anyone else, Bane asks—“but where’s mom?”

His throat closes, and he backs up. Everyone else was facing his father because the man was center stage, and Bane’s place had been made clear—he didn’t have one. “Your future was with your sons that your mate raised.” The words are bitter, audible from where the young man stands. Hurt rings clear in his tone, and it only gets worse. The man with the black feet has emotions that run high, always high… his heart pounds in his chest. “Of course there are positions open—you demoted your older children to take your damned new hope. Those of us that never left should be worth something to you after all… but then again, you’ve never been around enough to notice that.” Swallowbane’s voice breaks over the last few words, and he’s turned away before anyone can speak.

Bane’s heart breaks in his chest as he turns and makes a break from the meeting. Up a steep faced ledge the capable creature runs, darting between the ledges and shelves that make ample room for his well trained paws. All of the resentment he’d felt as a child that came from being the second generation of Solevion, the one that would never get to touch the throne had been sated when mother and father had taken up the rule. Everything had been shattered again, and all the hopes he’d had of making them proud from the throne one day had been broken. Solevion still ran hot in his blood, and he took a path that only those that the mountain allowed would be able to follow. Thunderbone and Boneclaw still ran in him… and to them too, he would be a disspaointment.
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calista’s heart and soul
try to amplify the sound of light and love