a baby buff-fellow

The boy hadn’t intended to run into his father. In fact, it was almost the opposite. He was trying to be as inconspicuous about it as possible, but he’d been avoiding his sire. The koi Shogun had made his disapproval of him abundantly clear in many ways and it always struck him down to his core. Take was much more soft hearted than his rambunctious brother, who always seemed to be able to take Hattori’s scorn in stride. The glowing princling, however, simply wanted to curl up in a hole and never come out. It would have to be a pretty big hole though.

That day, he was out wandering. Winter had officially come and it blanketed the ground with snow. Had he been born in a normal year, this would have been their first snowfall, but according to the adults the seasons had gone topsy turvy and the summer had been coated in snow instead of being swelteringly hot. To him, with his thick muscle and fur, it was just another day. His jaws, slightly opened as he walked along, puffed out clouds of breathy fog, the bioluminescence within him casting a red glow to it and making it seem as if he breathed fire with each step. His auds were up and alert and, with a sniff, he paused. The scent of a bison was on the wind, by the smell of the milk still clinging to it, a young one. He altered his course, turning from a walk into a jog to try and get there before another carnivore. He crested the hill and, to his surprise, he wasn’t the first to arrive. Even more surprising was that his father was the other.

He hesitated for a moment before offering a low, short howl across the prairie. Normally he’d be more careful, but with the sure steps of his sire and how he was failing to be sneaky, he knew he was just as confident as him that he could take the calf alone. But still, two was better than one and even a calf could be several hundred pounds. It would be easier to transport back to Ashen with them both at the task. After his howl cut off, the calf was now panicked. He released a bleat, a call to its parents which were nowhere to be seen or smelled, and the prince took off into a run. He approached from the side opposite his father, knowing they would be able to corner it more easily that way.