As days marched past and the dark boy grew, so too did his world.

And Hades didn’t like it.

The changes had been small in the earlier days of Atlantis’s warm spring, easier to accept. The sphere of his existence had expanded more slowly then— enveloping the tall brown figure of his sire, the small red body of the mare known as Siobhan. Encompassing the jungle-paths that both his dam and her slender shadow sometimes led him down. He hadn’t minded these differences quite so much. Rougaru and the chestnut woman had provided new targets for the colt’s trademark brand of mischief. And exploring the Ridge at the Guardians’ sides meant basking in the cornucopia of sights and smells that the jungle provided— while also enjoying their solitary adoration. Until about halfway through his first season of life, everything had been exactly as it was supposed to be.

Then the other children had started to arrive.

Hades could not be particularly jealous of Zvaid, though his first instinct had been to greet the younger boy with an squeal and a stomp of one small hoof. After all, Siobhan only rarely played nursemaid to Rivaini’s son— and when she did, he quickly learned how fun it could be to share the company of another colt. Even when the golden Sundance arrived, it scarcely affected the meticulous order of the chocolate boy’s world. But then the others came. Asphodel and Prima. Finch. The number of foals quickly exceeded the number of mothers to care for them— and Hades felt his comfortable world beginning to slip away. Suddenly, he was expected to share his silver-haired mother’s milk and protection and love. And when he tried to assert his claim on the bay mare with flattened ears and sharp nips, she rebuked him!

Spring’s warmth yielded to greater heat, and summer gradually deepened. Hades grew accustomed to the new order of things in this time, but that didn’t mean he embraced it. He was quick to sneak in a bite or two when the watchful eyes of the herd turned elsewhere— and equally quick to play the innocent when the source of the victim’s distress was sought. As time continued to pass, it even became something of a game for the children of the Ridge. Ducking and weaving and screaming, they would flee from the dark brown boy who chased them. If Hades’s teeth found their mark, then the hunted would become another hunter, pursuing the others at the bright-haired colt’s side. It always devolved into glorious chaos— and for that reason alone, was one of his favorite games.

The activity that Roisin had planned for today, on the other hand, he wasn’t quite as enthusiastic about.

Hades had listened with benign patience throughout a long-winded explanation, his tiger-orange eyes blinking languidly. He was most definitely paying attention and not only pretending to like when Rivaini scolded him for playing too rough. Afterward, he enjoyed disentangling an entire vine of bright flowers from its tree with tugs of his teeth— and even felt charitable enough to not shred every blossom. But now that they were on round two of standing around and listening to the bossy Roisin, he was getting bored. We’re gonna sneak, the older girl was saying with an exaggerated pantomime. And be really quiet. Then, when we see Iscariot, we’re gonna…

“Bite him!” Hades piped up eagerly in the expectant silence that followed. Okay, maybe he hadn’t listened to the entire plan— but what else would you sneak up on someone for?