The heat of Iromar was indeed oppressive. It hung in the air with the moisture and thickened visibly in both the heat and the cold of the days. By the time the air got this far inland the heat, humidity, and salt of the nearby ocean faded into the fresh neutrality the commonlands seemed to adopt in every way. With this realization Avtandil contemplated just how far he had traveled for the first time. He had indeed stepped far from his home though he stayed on the border. Still, Liquid Amber’s words poked at him. Thoughtfully, his young head tilted as he rolled the thoughts around in his mind.

She walked away, but he did not wish to move. So his voice lifted to follow her. Are things bound to those laws? He asked. If a desire or a need was wrong would not something step in to change it? His thoughts were far too deep for one so young. Being a child of such a strange union brought much to the boy’s head that should not have been there. Everything from nature to thought to speech had been twisted on itself. Words of love were hissed and snarled if spoken at all. Curses and insults were spoken with such a loving tone Avtandil did not know the real meaning behind ‘I hate you.’ Have you never stepped from something that others had expected of you? Broken through what nature demanded? Young slate eyes peered at her through the darkness. The reflective surface of the water made the darker streak in his left eye flash almost dangerously. The truth of the answer was apparent in their situation. She was a wolf, a pack animal, on her own. He was a pup, away from home. They both had broken nature. Perhaps nothing was true.