Round Stone Crest Give me some time to blow the man down

Draven Lagina
I won't stay small forever

@Gent set at dusk on 8/13/15, following this thread.

Draven kicked at a loose rock as he stumped around near the base of the mountain. It was getting dark, and he knew sooner or later he would have to go back up to the den for the night, but he still hadn't worked up enough guff to actually do that just yet. Even after showing his mouse off to Minka and being lavished with the best praises yet from her, it hadn't taken Draven long after finally eating his mouse and cleaning up what was left to start feeling angry again.

Kino's words ate at him, ringing through his head over and over again no matter how much he tried to think about something else. “What's so special 'bout a dumb mouse?” Lots of things, Draven thought as he plopped down with a huff. "Everybody else catches a million of them a day." They did not, or else all anybody would ever eat would be mice. It was a special mouse. "That one was probably too stupid to even know how to run away." It hadn't been! It had even tried to fight him! It ran and bit and tried to run again - it was a smart mouse, and he had the battle wound to prove it and had still gotten it!

Draven covered his face with his paws and let out a troubled, angry grunt. Calanthe and Raela had said it was just because Kino was sick, because he felt disappointed for not being the first to get a mouse, but that didn't make it okay! Kino did lots of other stuff first - how come Kino always had to be the one to do new things? How come whenever it was somebody else, Kino got upset and said stupid things and everybody still wound up taking his side? It wasn't fair!

A little crawly thing skittered by on the ground - some kinda little beetle. Draven reached out with his good paw and squished it, pretending it was Kino, or maybe just what Kino had said. It didn't matter what his dumb brother had said - he was still the first one who got a mouse, and Kino couldn't do anything to make that change!

After having spent the afternoon with @Kino, Gent returned the tyke to his mother and sister only to find that Draven had yet to come home. After giving reassurances that he would find the boy, he set out to track the little hunter down. As Gent traversed through the diminishing light, he felt confident that Draven was merely avoiding the chance of running into his brother. As a child, it was very likely that he was still just as upset about what Kino had said in regards to Draven's accomplishment as he had been in the moment it happened, if not more so after being given time to brood. Therefor concern was not prevalent in Gent's mind, though it still existed as was the nature of any good father.

When he caught his scent and found it to be solitary, the king was both relieved and disgruntled. Draven was far too close to the border to be without supervision, but at least no one (nor nothing) else had found him first. Hurrying his stride, the monarch closed the distance between them quickly in order to be able to pull the child back under his black umbrella of protection.

"Draven?" he called out as his paws ate up the last few meters between them. "What're you doing out here alone, son?"

It was one thing to have such reactive feelings, but another entirely to hold onto them so stubbornly.

Draven Lagina
I won't stay small forever

Draven jumped at the sound of Gent's voice, but didn't look around to see exactly where the black leviathan was standing. It wasn't like it mattered; Gent was here, so obviously nobody else was gonna come along and try to start any trouble no matter how much Draven wished they would. Especially if that somebody was Kino - but he wasn't here, so he was probably asleep or getting ready to be asleep. Kiss-up. No wonder everybody else was always taking his side.

Belatedly it occurred to the dark prince that he had yet to answer Gent's question, so he kicked at a leaf and mumbled, “'M not doin' nothin'. Why?” he added, finally looking up to cast Gent a sullen stare. "Is Kino bored because I'm not around to poke fun at?" He knew it was probably just because it was getting dark, and he was farther from the den than he probably needed to be, but logic wasn't playing a big part of the boy's thought process right at the moment. All he knew was Kino was up there and hogging all the attention again, because the silver boy just couldn't be happy when somebody else got a little spotlight of their own.

Draven snorted and pulled himself up into a slouched sit, glaring back down at his feet as his fur spiked up in agitation. Stupid Kino. Why couldn't he have just kept his dumb mouth shut and pretended to be asleep if he was gonna act like such a big jerk about it?

Gent felt the urge to sigh, but contained it, unwilling to show an ounce of exasperation with the child. He had learned long ago that patience was necessary with them, that they were, despite their inexperience, exceptionally perceptive of and sensitive to the emotions of others (though it was noticed that @Marianna seemed to be far less so than her brothers, yet the king found this to be more of a boon than an oddity given his own difficulties with empathy). Thus, he maintained a genuine mask of interest and care as he listened to Draven's mumblings.

The king admittedly did not fully grasp the situation that had occurred between the raven-painted boy and his ghostly sibling, hindered by his own harshly peculiar childhood and his inability to foresee the intricate problems that what seemed to him to be such a minute argument. @Kino had been unnecessary with his words, it was true; he should have been happy for his brother, inspired to figure out hunting on his own. That was what was to be expected of an adult, however, not a child. In fact, Gent had found himself proud of the pale prince and his willingness to defend himself and his refusal to speak dishonestly, even for the sake of Draven's feelings. Proud enough to overlook the mild disrespect directed toward Raela. A simple disagreement, a single moment of jealousy; shouldn't it all be under the rug by now?

Clearly to Draven, it had been much more than that. A personal insult of the highest level, perhaps, and Gent also understood his point of view to the same extent as his brother's. The trio of children were lucky enough to share a strong bond between them all, even if Kino and Ari seemed to already be developing a more unique relationship between themselves. Draven had looked to his brother for support and to share in his accomplishment, and instead had been shot down and belittled. He'd been right to feel upset, at the time, but it was hours past now and Gent had hoped they both would have moved beyond this. It seemed matters had been far more grave to Draven than expected by the leviathan shadow, and he was given cause to wonder if perhaps there had been previous tensions he hadn't noticed between the brothers.

"Is that really what you think, Drave?" he asked, keeping judgment from his voice. Gent wanted to know truly how much of this was simply steam and what was actual sparks to an impending fire.

(This post was last modified: Oct 30, 2015, 01:22 AM by Gent.)

A young deer has been separated from the rest of its herd. Hunt Opportunity

Draven's nostrils flared at Gent's words; his fur spiked up again in anger as he hopped up and turned around to face the man head-on. "Of course it's what I think," he snapped. "Kino said all kinds of stupid stuff and you didn't ask him if he meant it. How come he's the only one who gets away with it? Just because he's specialer than me, he got to say all that stuff and nobody did anything except keep me from making him apologize for real! You even took him to help you patrol, like - like you were rewarding him for being such a jerk!" He stood there glaring for a moment, chest heaving with anger before he added, "He's the favorite. What're you out here looking for me for? If he's not bored, why's anybody worried about me being out here late? You probably just want me to come back so he can practice being a jerk on me again." None of what he was saying was nice - or even very fair - and the darkling prince knew that even in the middle of his tantrum, but he had seen and heard the way everybody had reacted to Kino, and he'd definitely noticed what they hadn't done or said. Minka wouldn't have let him get away with saying half of what he did, but everybody else was only worried about keeping him from kicking Kino's butt - except Gent, who'd taken him out on a patrol with him like he was proud of Kino for being so mean. It felt like some barghest had taken hold of him for the moment, making the black pup say all sorts of awful things that Gent didn't really deserve to catch and not care that he wasn't being any better than Kino. He didn't want to talk. He wanted to be mad at something until the whole thing quit bothering him.

(This post was last modified: Oct 30, 2015, 02:39 AM by Draven.)

Several expressions passed over the king's features, from mild confusion to disapproval, even a glimmer of amusement. Draven was incredibly bent out of shape over the event, and Gent took a deep breath as he considered just how to approach the matter. He had already settled things with Kino, doling out an equal measure of correction and support, but felt that the same style wouldn't be as effective with the darkest Lagina sibling. What really got Gent, however, was all these sudden 'facts' the boy was presenting him with, as though it wasn't just today's conflict that had instilled such thoughts within him.

"Come on, Draven. None of that's true," he told him, his voice still kind without being dismissive. "No one's specialer than you, first off, and there are no favorites. And you saw Raela and Kova reprimand your brother. Kino came on patrol with me so that I could talk to him about what happened. No one can make him apologize, Draven. If you can't let it roll off your shoulders, then you've gotta talk it out with him. Being out here, working yourself up over it, making yourself feel even worse about it isn't going to solve anything."

The king lowered his chest to the ground, resting his jaw upon the soil as he continued, "See, now you're out here thinking we're all against you, when I just came all this way to see how you're doing because I care about you. How's that fair to you or me?"

(This post was last modified: Nov 05, 2015, 01:49 AM by Gent.)