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A considerable part of him is tuning out her voice, choosing instead to focus on her actions ... the flick of a tail or a lifted hoof, any sign of the attack that had to come...

But some small part is listening and filling in what he knows Seresai would say if she knew. He doubted anyone else in Cerezo would miss him if he died, but she, at least, would cry. He's not sure what's worse, imagining his mother crying at his death or being killed by a kalona while thinking about his mother crying about his death due to being tricked. This was too complicated.

His eyes narrow and he backs up again, tail lashing.

"Not helpless against kalona like you." Is all he can affirm, still defensive as he considers her stated reasons. She can't be telling the truth, everyone knew all kalona hunted soquili. That monster blood in his veins had almost seen him murder his own mother! What must her pure blood be telling her?

"Stop lying to me!" Comes out before he can stop it, his voice losing it's earlier calm.

The biting retort died on the tip of his tongue ... a gift from his childhood, this understanding of cruelty. He would not be cruel, not with words like 'kalona cannot love.' He hated to admit to his heritage, but he would never doubt that every piece of him loved his mother ... including the dark parts. To say that she was incapable was to say a part of him could never love Seresai, and that he knew to be false.

"I'm sorry." Is what he manages instead, still tense and on edge, but sincere. That, and something about the way she spoke of her mate rang true. She might still be fooling him, but ...

"Did the demon die with him?" It may not be appropriate, but he was himself a proud protector of his family, and he found himself hoping the final act of this mare's mate had been something so great.

The reply, and the look in her eyes, fell on his conscience like a thunderclap.

Unbidden, a memory of sunshine and passing clouds. He'd been little and weak then, the mixed blood in his veins fighting and refusing to sustain the rest of him. The sky had been so vast and so blue, the clouds as distant as the stars that glittered down coldly at night. He used to imagine friends and family among those clouds, in those hazy moments between waking and the sure death that awaited a young, fragile foal his age. He had no concept of death though, just a sense of time measured in days rather then years. At least, he had... before a cloud separated from the others and landed in front of him. Blue eyes like the sky filled with tears, and a warm nose pressed against his cheek where his head lay weakly in the grass. It was warm, this cloud, and the sky-eyes reflected his own image back at him where before he'd been nothing. This cloud saw him, and soon was wrapped around him. For the first time, he knew warmth, and after that nourishment as the cloud fed him and nursed him until he was strong enough to stand. By then, though, he learned she wasn't a cloud at all. Her name was Seresai, and she nuzzled him and called him her son. Something woke up in him then, and he'd nuzzled her back. She wasn't his mother, not really, but she would become his mom ... and there was a difference.

Looking at Maeryn, Gen did not have it in him to doubt her now. He recognized the feelings she spoke of. He was confused, perhaps, but he could not doubt them.

It hurt to look at her though, especially when he realized this unknown stallion had failed in the end. It hurt, because she was still so clearly proud of him, and loved him. It was unfair, all of it. If he failed, he should have lived to try again.

"I'll kill that skinwalker." Was all he said, quietly and with conviction. Then....

"I'm not like you, Elder. Hard to kill, nature has tried many times." He stops short of demonstrating the self-healing abilities gifted by his unicorn blood, but the way he stands and speaks is not the look of a foolhardy youth.

He's increasingly having difficulty regarding this mare as his enemy, and it shows in the way his muscles relax and his wings fold against his sides. His eyes are still sharp, however, and flicker to their surroundings and to her whenever she moves .... but he is more at ease.

Especially when she thanks him. He is confused by it, but sets the feeling aside for consideration along with the rest of his thoughts on the matter of kalona and heritage. Questions for Seresai, and perhaps for Flame. Ironically, it is easier for him to relay the distant pains of foalhood to this mare then it is to talk about the parts of her that are reminding him that she isn't a monster. But then, maybe he'd never fully believed he (and through him all kalona) were evil. Seres never let him utter his misgivings about himself or that part of him without quickly saying that not all kalona were bad, and the part of him that was kalona certainly was not.

But still, he had almost killed her when he ...

Avert the thought.

"Kalona like you. Unicorns like one of my birth parents. My own body due to the incompatibility of my blood." He answers, tone steady despite the subject matter. "Soquili of all shapes and sizes, and other predators who thought I'd be an easy meal. My mother though, she was different." He eyes soften slightly, and his tail twitches to dislodge a fly.

"My strength comes from her, but ..." He considers Maeryn, head tilted to the side slightly before coming to a decision. He meant what he'd said about her mate's killer, so she had a right to know. Arching his neck, he flares his nostrils then abruptly turns his own horn on his flank, leaving a long gash there for the kalona mare to see. He flinches, as it does hurt, but he doesn't appear bothered otherwise. Within moments, the wound begins to heal itself, the torn edges knitting back together in what was a fairly standard response to a unicorn's healing touch.

"I can't heal others, but that is automatic." He continues by way of explanation.

He nodded, something clicking in his mind and placing this mare in the same category of 'good' as Flame and Blais and Sirian at the mention of her finding and raising a foal not her own.

Kalona, huh?

"Yes, Seresai. Thought she was a cloud, but clouds always passed me by. She stayed, was warm. Clouds are not warm." He said, rustling his wings and falling silent as the wound continued to knit and heal. It was not an instantaneous nor painless process, but it was quick and he was used to the pain.

"I have to protect her. Seethe will kill her if I don't." He went on, looking down. "Worse outcome. Losing her. This skinwalker obsessive, hates her and our herd. Will never stop. She does not understand."

Gen nodded minutely at the acknowledgement, and was quiet in turn as he considered the history between Seethe and the Cerezo soquili.

"She escaped him. Many times. She is fast and smart, also cunning. He does not like that, not at all." His teeth flash, but not at Maeryn, just at the thought of the demon wolf. "First encountered Seethe as young mare while traveling with her teacher, unicorn named Toujours. Seethe hates unicorns, attacked them only for that. Animosity grew due to escape. Hunted her and him to herdlands, laid waste to them and killed one of our old ones. Lured him away. He died alone, Tai was never alone in life. Heavy regret in family, strong response to fight skinwalker. Angered demon further, mother at the center of counter attack. Animosity made even worse, Seethe wishes her death so rest will lose hope and succumb to fear."

His speech is clipped and terse, his own anger rolling beneath the surface, but there is also no small amount of pride in his voice when he goes on.

"My mother knows fear is his best weapon. She does not let our herd fear the shadows."

Gen's ears fly forward, alert to the change in her demeanor and the very real sense that there was something otherwordly about her.

Elder Kalona. There was much more to this world and the creatures in it than he realized.

He does not fear her though, not now. If anything, the presence about her imbued him with a different kind of strength... one that sang to the kalona blood in his veins in a way that went beyond the bloodlust of his nightmares. Standing taller, he regarded her quietly, then with an arched neck and stern attention to detail, bowed.

When he rose, he had questions in his eyes ... and a fierce light to them that boded poorly for Seethe and his ilk. "Elder, may I ask you to describe the demon that took your lifemate?" The brevity from earlier is gone from his speech, replaced by focus and determination to be true to his word. "It may not come quick, but I will kill that beast, as I will kill all of their kind that cross my path. " A pause, an ear flicking behind him at a flash of white, then it is dismissed. "But I would be sure of that particular one, as I would be of Seethe's corpse."

In the distance, a wolf howls.