Avtandil once again found himself in the Grotto of the commonlands. There was something about the lingering shadows and shining spears of light that attracted him to the area. Water trickled over the rocks and through the caverns either in a subtle whisper or in a more roaring rush. He stepped easily through the lighter caves, not yet daring to explore deeper into the darkness. Maybe one day the shadowed boy would more readily embrace the darkness that he and his mother seemed to fade so easily into. Today though, he kept to the light.

Fractals glittered from the cracks in the ceiling. Light glanced off the ripples and danced along the surrounding rocks to create a mosaic of rainbows. If anything had come close to a stained glass surrounding, it would have this place at this time. The light shimmered in the pup’s slate colored eyes, bringing out the darker streak that lanced through his left. He stared at the water’s surface, his mind wandering as his gaze skated with the light on the ripples.

His parents’ rough ways seemed to have passed him by as he stared, lost in thought. Where one or both of them would have been pacing in their angry thoughts he seemed to get more by sitting. Despoina’s blistering rage and Eleanor’s snaps and quick temper resulted in a quiet young man who by all appearances seemed the definition of peace. Even as a pup the heat radiated just under his skin. Just as the dangers of the moors of Iromar, just as no one truly knew the depth of the pool he now stared into. The depths of his thoughts were equally unknown. As he lay in this strange world of light and shadow he welcomed the roaming paths his mind traveled. Revealing in the relative calm he had found in which to think,