The war had many casualties. Caught up in the violence of it all, his mother, brothers, and sister were lost. His dearest Bellatrix is gone, and it's all because of his own inaction. Tarek only broke the news, but never told the colt exactly how his sister was taken from them. That doesn't matter. If Nagendra could have been more involved, if he was allowed to defend his family with the others, and to learn like his older brothers, then maybe he could have made a difference.

Tarek was never his father anyways.

Cullen's words echo in his ears as he pulls himself ashore. The Lagoon blooms heavy with spring. It smells of flowers and brine, a smell so wildly different from the pine-scented air of what once was home for the colt.

The mid-morning sun casts his long shadow across the sand. The length of his leg and depth of his breast as depicted by his own shadow foretells the presence he might grow to be, but for now, Nagendra is small. He's only a yearling. He is yet long-legged, and small-bodied. He will likely grow into build much like Tarek's, more sleek and refined than outright bulky. It will never be his physical size that grows his presence; it's the darkness in his eyes. He is a snake coiled in wait, a predator waiting for a catch. He is the green skies before the funnel cloud. There is danger in his stare that could send a shiver down your spine. The ground quakes beneath his delicate hooves, and the Lagoon grows quiet with his arrival.

Nagendra stands proudly upon the beach of the Lagoon, wholly unaware that most of them are held captive in the peak. He shakes his black mane from his view and lifts his chin. His lips part with a commanding call. He has the voice of a child, but this child knows what he wants.