The pale colt had been at a loss since mother failed to return from the damned war. Though he himself was still not sure what a war was, he had seen enough of father's battling to surmise that it must have something to do with fighting. Why else would mother not come home? Why else would father and the others return with such bruised and battered bodies? Mother had been fierce, fiercer even than Zjeena and Monster though even the two of them had become legendary. Celesteria had regailed him with stories of her sire and the whispered tones with which his name was mentioned. She ingrained into his young mind a love for power and the reverence with which it left one remembered. This was how he remembered her.

Father did not talk about her much, the pain that glittered in his green eyes that day said enough for the few words that had fallen from Rougaru's lips. Celestria was not coming back. He had mourned her, like any good son would do... and yet it was not enough. He would not disappear into history to be written over and left forgotten. Father did his best to instill in him the need for balance. A balance of power and of compassion.... of war and of peace. Though the young princling did not understand it he tried as he could to make the ends meet and gain the approving nods that were often handed freely to Medusa and Akela. Mind you he held no grudge against his siblings, in truth he enjoyed the occasions within which they could run headlong down the beach in an endless race against the tides.

However Medusa was gone. Off to some new adventure on Tinuvel where his own grandfather reigned. Now this, he would have to admit gained her a bit of jealousy on his part. He wanted to meet his grandsire and the empire that had been built from his own sweat and blood. He wanted to see the snows thick enough to bury a boy his size and mountains higher than the cliffs of the ridge. Yes Medusa had his envy now.

It is lost in his own thoughts that he finds himself stumbling upon the golden colt. Ears flick forward as nostrils give a sharp snort of suprise. He had not expected to be interrupted now. Blinking against the bright sunlight he stared at the boy. He was not familiar. Then again, father had sired many foals and taken in many mares that now had newborns at their sides. Vaguely he recalled a mare, similar in color that had too come to Paradise not long after winter had set in. She had been heavy with foal then. Perhaps this was hers?

For a moment he stared at the colt in silence, only his obsidian tail flicking back and forth at the pesky flies that threatened to land upon his rump. He was younger than Annubis, not yet a yearling. But, perhaps he would be just the thing to draw his mind from his own soured thoughts of distant lands he had never seen. "DId you get lost?" he asks, his tone mild though even now he could not hide the teasing layer there. "Your mother might be worried if you leave her long. The jungle can be dangerous." he adds with a rather nonchalant glance towards the shadowed trees. A single ear flickers backwards. "I can walk you back if you want." Of course he knew father, Gnome and the drappas were vigilent in their guardianship but still, he could not resist the urge to tease the young boy, perhaps even share a pretend quest or two. Surely that would get his mind right wouldnt it?