Silverlight Terrace came across a cosmic serpent with hands woven into his hair

✴      Children needed to learn how to behave in the world and for the most part, his family had done their job in teaching him manners. Most of his more beastly behaviors were acceptable among them; they too had accepted he was not a wordsmith, but it took repeated lessons to ward Revui away from something when he set his mind upon it, or to train him in new skills. He did not have the mental acuity of his brother Arcturus, forever the brawn to his brother's brain. But he knew this game — he had played it often enough.

The stranger puffed and filled with swagger; Revui was again reminded of his sisters and he wondered how they would react to such a display. He flinched slightly when they snapped at the air and stopped his pacing, his tail-tip lashing to and fro. Revui understood that warning but he was pigheaded enough to ignore it; or at the very least, he advanced and snapped his own teeth and grinned wickedly through a long smile, as if to say, no, you.