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They blazed down the corridor, his soft curls blowing back in the wind they made, no doubt tangling around his horns. Mum wouldn’t like that, but she’d understand when he shared the spoils.

Brand saw the exact moment Amun realized he was done for, but instead of a laugh or smile, his eyes widened in terror.

“No! Don’t!”

Too late.

They collided, Brand too distracted to jump like he was supposed to. A tangle of tumbling limbs, rolling, and the distinct shatter of something fragile.

Uh oh.

Brand landed with an explosive oof, head knocking into a stone wall. It was possible he also broke his arm, since he couldn’t feel⁠—

Wait. No. Pet was laying on it.

“Brandir aht Bordoroth!”

Brand shook himself, confused. Amun…never yelled at him before.

Amun yanked him up by his tunic collar and brought them face to face. His jade and amber eyes were narrowed to vertical slits, golden scales rippling over his dark skin. “You little fool! Do you realize what you’ve just done?”

He whipped Brand around and shoved him forward, his large hand sweeping out to gesture at the floor. Their mum was scooping broken pieces of something into shaking hands, the rest of it jagged and glittering on the floor.

“I’m s-sorry,” Brand stammered, not really knowing why or what he was looking at. “I can fix it. Or get another one for⁠—”

“You cannot fix such a thing,” Amun hissed. “It took me and Nakarat years to find that rarest of the desert’s flowers, so I might gift our mother with the peace offering to her people she so desperately needs.”

“Amun,” Fionerys chided, “it’s alright. We’ll find another way.”

“There is no other way, mother. Brand is as much Son as I am. He needs to understand that thoughtless actions are not an option for us.”

Her gaze dropped, shoulders bowing as a long sigh left her.

“I don’t understand,” Brand rasped, chin trembling.

Amun hung his head, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Of course you don’t. You are a child and these things are beyond you.” He loosed a shrill whistle and picked Brand up, setting him on Pet’s back. “Get him out of here, Mag, and keep him away. And you, Brand—find your toys until you learn how to think before you move.”

As Pet loped off, carrying him along, Brand refused to cry until after they turned the first corner. He didn’t want Amun to see.

Brand slipped from his bed, cheeks raw from dashing his tears away, and tiptoed to the balcony. Pet twitched by the doors but didn’t wake.

A good thing, since the beast would probably stop him leaving.

He’d never run away before. Though it probably didn’t count this time since he planned on returning. He’d also never tried to walk to another realm, but it couldn’t be that difficult. Besides, it was too risky to find a toll for the Solyrealm. Anyone he asked would surely tell his parents.

Brand climbed up onto the balustrade and threw his legs over to the other side. A small tug on his power and a platform sprang from the side of the palace, then another—more and more, all the way down to the base, where the crystal of Argoph turned into the dark earth of the mesa.

He took to the steps and followed the curve of the castle, passing beneath the bridge and fall of Straelon’s Realm River. Then Thodelebor’s. Kohamaia’s. All the way to the opposite side of Argoph, where Arrajnekkat’s tumbled down. He could follow its winding path to Amun’s realm, maybe even ride the waters down from the Great Plateau and into the desert.

Brand called more steps from the cliff, mist spraying from the waterfall and soaking him through as he descended. Now that he really thought about it, it may have been wise to bring a sack of some kind with extra things, but it was too late.

He was halfway down the mesa when he slipped.

At five years of age, Brand hadn’t yet learned to think through his fear and use his powers to react accordingly. He just fell. For some reason, though, he didn’t bother screaming. No one would be able to hear him above the roar of the falls, anyway.

The soggy ground rose up to meet him. Brand closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable crash. For the pain. Except…it never came.

Brand cracked one lid and found himself inside a cloud of black fog, arms of shadow hugging his body tight. He felt the swoops and dips of movement in his stomach as it rose and bottomed out, the scream he swallowed still threatening to force its way out.