Thought Contagion

Those spindly little legs carried him with as much speed as he could muster, following the last traces of his mother's echoing summons. He enjoyed the lessons, drank up whatever wisdom he could lay his greedy digits on without shame. He'd enjoyed the first one, on the merits of cultivating personal strength. What was he going to learn today? Ebon form cutting through undergrowth and shade like the ravens that trailed after him, unassuming and plain to look upon. By the time he reached her, there was someone else present. An unfamiliar male. Not his father. Dark auds tipped back towards his skull, pale gaze narrowing as he looked over the titanic figure lingering around his mother. Lean, scarred. Like his mother. Touched with hints of flame, like his father and siblings. His scent was wrong, though. No traces of familiarity, and some hints of.. outside. The lingering undercurrents that came from elsewhere, like sea salt and strange earth. He didn't like this man. Didn't want him near his mother. Brow furrowed, tail lowering as he picked his way close to his mother's pale form, making a point to settle as close to her as propriety within the lesson would allow. Defending her from this stranger.

When she began to speak, as the rest of his siblings and cousins began to trickle in, he gazed up at her with the kind of rapt, unbreaking attention that would force weaker souls to falter. The importance of perception, and the variability of it. Obsidian ears shoved forwards, absorbing it all readily. He had never considered the differences of perception in life, that those around him might not see the world the way that he did. Why would he have considered it? He was a toddler, essentially. So the gears in his mind were already turning. Flipping this new development over onto its head and turning it inside out while his mother explained. Never.. an exact match? Not even with his siblings? His littermates, who had shared most of their first moments together? How strange!