Nattergal can hear the even plodding of his father's approach, but he keeps his eyes trained on the rolling waves ahead of him. He takes a few deeps breaths of chill Tinuvel air, willing his eyes to dry. He refuses to show weakness in front of anyone, but especially not Liland.

Some of it is because of his age. A colt coming of age suddenly starts to care about his image, but part of it is mistrust. Zjeena spoke nothing but highly of Liland during their time in paradise. She painted a picture of Liland that was both handsome knight and doting father. Though they barely remembered him, Nattergal and Havelle couldn't wait until Liland came to carry them away from Paradise, and into a different kind of paradise, a paradise where their family could be whole, and they could have both a mother and a father. But since their return to Liland, he has done nothing but upset their mother, and mostly ignore them. He's not much of a knight in shining armor, and neither has he been a father. Several members of the herd seem to have lost faith in him. Nattergal hears whisperings from both sides. Among those that have lost faith in Liland, are those that have lost fatih in Zjeena. He's heard others call his mother some very unkind things, things not meant for young ears to hear, and it's these things, things he knows not to be true of his mother, that upset him the most. Who would have started such rumors other than Liland?

Liland speaks. He tires to smooth things over, to reassure Nattergal that Zjeena could visit, but this is not what his ears want to hear. He wants his family to be whole. He wants to live with his mother, and Havelle, together. He didn't know it then, but they were whole when they were in Paradise, and it is Liland that tore them apart.

The anger he felt before swells to an overwhelming crescendo, and Nattergal loses his composure. His ears lace back and disappear under his mane. He snakes his head out towards Liland with lips pulled back and teeth bared. His eyes are both dark with a swirling storm of adolescent rage, and shining with unshed tears. He aims a hard bite at Liland's throat.