If there was any place he liked being able to run around, it had to be the grounds of the palace in Sularia. The open grounds and palace had more than enough room for him to shift to his heart's content. Sure, the Awakening Gardens had a lot of room too, but this place was newer and more of an adventure than the Gardens were. There were also more children his age here. Girls mostly, but Rohan didn't mind that. All his brothers were old enough to be his father, really. It was nice to be able to play with someone other than Iva too, and with all the other Rosenites and family members there, Rohan could run amuck with the children without much fear of being put in any sort of danger.  

As he chased some of the other children around the Palace gardens, he slowed to a stop as he noticed another little girl sitting by herself near a pond. From behind, she looked cute, and he caught her sent on the breeze. It wasn't unpleasant, just odd. He could smell lots of different flowers on her, but he could also smell something… well quite literally fishy. That wasn't wholly odd since Sularia was on the coast, but the only people he had ever really smelled that on had been on the sea for longs periods of time. Or people who lived right on the beach. That was plausible. He looked to where the other children had darted off to and wondered if maybe he should go invite her to play. She didn't look like she was much younger than him, so he wondered if she would want to play. 

People had always looked at Hazel a little odd. She lived in Sularia with her mom and dad after they had thought about Angela’s offer. They had decided that Sularia would be the best place for her to grow up. That the people there would be accepting. That wasn’t the case. Hazel’s odd predicament made people run from her. She knew why, everyone knew why. It was Mr. Jack. She held the life filled toy to her and she stared down. The color of the squid, an orangish looking color, went nicely against the dark nature of her skin.

“If you were a lot nicer we would have more friends,” Hazel blurted out. It was lonely when the majority of the children aside from the Rose children weren’t allowed to play with her. Her shadow swished and a mass of tentacles came with the swish. It looked unpleasant but Hazel wasn’t scared. Mr. Jack had just always been there and had been a bother to her.

She was a pretty little thing, tentacle mass in the shadows aside. She had big round mercury colored eyes and a mass of dark curls atop her head. It was well brushed but from all the time she spent aside, it looked very tussled in the breeze. Hazel was a petite girl otherwise. A long silky purple dress was on her body, a present from the other oracles. They liked Hazel but they weren’t her age.

The doll grumbled a bit and Hazel’s eyes peeked down at it. “You know it’s true. If you weren’t so scary people would talk to us and like us.”

As Rohan watched the little girl, from the distance, something about her making him feel off, but she looked so lonely. As he watched, he noticed some older boys walking up to her. He knew the older boys, they had a tendency to be bullies. Rohan watched as they came up to the little girl and began poking fun at her. 

"Rohan, come on!" came the call from the other children he had been playing with. Rohan turned his metallic green gaze back to the other children and waved them on ahead while the breeze tossed his black hair. He felt anger boil up inside him as the boys began pushing the little girl around and he could make out the faint words of 'freak'. He decided he had enough and turned into a wolf and began running towards the girl and the bullies just as they grabbed the stuffed toy she had been playing with. 

Hazel was used to being picked on to some extent. Her mother and father had told her never to lash out at them. Her mercury eyes just stared and started to tear up as they took Mr. Jack from her. “Please give him back.” The boys’ were more repulsed as the stuffed animal actually moved by itself trying to get back to its host. In reality, Hazel didn’t want the boys to get hurt. She could kill them, her parents told them so. She had to be very, very careful no matter how cruel the other children could be.

Her shadow sprawled and she began to panic as they held Mr. Jack up from over her head. “Please, just give him back.”

“You are a freak look at your shadow.” The boy’s words were cruel but Hazel didn’t look. She didn’t have to. She could feel it creeping up in her.

“You better give him back to me.” They pushed her once more and if it hadn’t been for the wolf charging in Hazel would have done something that would have gotten her in a lot of trouble. She froze at the sight of the wolf and began to watch as the boys backed up.

“Come on Rohan. You see the girl, look at her shadow. She doesn’t belong here.” One of the boys mocked at her and Hazel whimpered slightly. She didn’t want to hurt them. She was screaming in her head but every second the doll was out of her hands she was losing more rational thought. She just wanted it back and soon she wouldn’t have cared how.

The boys recognized Rohan, but the couldn't recognize the danger they were in. It was funny how single-minded they were. They did, however, recoil when they finally noticed the flailing tentacles in the girl's shadow. Rohan didn't flatter them with an answer before he was up on the lip of the wall by the pond and sailing through the air, snatching the strange wriggling doll from the older boy's hands and landing again on the grass behind them. He turned on his heels and went back to the girl's side and dropped the doll in her lap before he shifted back into his human form, standing up from the crouch he had been hunched in. 

"You guys are a bunch of idiots!" he snapped at them. "You can tell that I'm a wolf, but you can't see the immediate threat in front of you. You are Rosenites, use your bloody senses!" he told them as he stood between them and the girl. "Can't you feel her power? If she lashed out at you, you'd be sent over the wall! Now piss off before you really get hurt!" he snapped at them. "Never tickle a sleeping dragon," he said flatly. "Now get lost!"

As soon as the doll was back in her hands the shadows immediately went back to their rather playfulness around her. She took a deep breath and held the squid plush to herself. The tightness in her heart was going away as she snuggled up to the plushie. The girl was at a loss for words as she stared up at the boys who were now truly terrified of her. She pursed her lips and go up from where she was now. She had dirt on her new dress. “Please don’t be scared… It’s not me.” The stuffed animal in her arms was wiggling. However, the boys took off and she was sadder that they didn’t believe her.

“See what you did?” She scolded the doll and held it out from her at arm's length. “You were being really rude. I could have handled myself just fine. If mommy and daddy would have seen that they would have been angry with us.” The plush emitted low growling noises and she quickly held him back to her.

“Thank you for helping us.” She remembered the boy’s name but she didn’t want to be rude. “My name is Hazel Black.” She didn’t extend her hand but she got really shy around the slightly older boy. Her mercury eyes met his green eyes. “I’ve never had anyone talk to me before who didn’t know my mama and papa.”

"I'm not scared," Rohan said, but realized that she had been talking to the other boys, who had made themselves scarce in a hurry. He didn't like the sad look on her face as she turned and scolded her doll. It wasn't lost on Rohan that the doll seemed quite alive. In fact, he still had the salty taste of the thing in his mouth, yuck. He just watched her quietly, his head quirked to the side as he watched and listened. He straightened up again when she looked at him and thanked him. 

"It was nothing," he promised her, giving a rather flourishing bow, which looked quite silly with his mid-calf trousers and loose linen shirt and bare feet. "I just can't stand bullies. Everyone in this world is different, so where do they get off teasing people like that," he said. When she gave her name, he couldn't help but giggle. "Sorry, I'm not poking fun. You just have a plant name. Most of my siblings have nature names, plants especially," he explained. But he bowed again. "I'm Rohan. Rohan Porthyrius-Rose," he said grandly. His eyebrows furrowed. "Why should it matter who your parent's are?" he asked her. "I know who my parents are… so do most people, but that shouldn't matter when it comes to making friends…" he said. He looked down at the smudge of mud on her dress and frowned. 

"I'm sorry they ruined your dress. I hope it won't stain. It is really pretty," he complimented. "And your plushie is neat. Iva has a ton of stuffed animals, but none of them are alive. She's got one that might as well be alive. A black bear that Papa gave her named Sir Winston. She used to take him EVERYWHERE."

Hazel let out a giggle as he bowed to her. He was so nice to her and not everyone was nice to her especially strangers who didn’t understand. “Well, that’s because I am Rosenite.” She answered him. “Most of us have flowery naturey names. That’s what my mama says.” She thought about his question and finally, when she had her answer she replied, “Well she is one of the oldest people in Sularia.. my mama that is. She leads these people called Oracles. She’s really important and people are more scared of her than they are me so they are nice to me.” She shrugged a bit.

She looked down at her dress and frowned with him. “My mama or papa can fix it.” She blushed when he said her plushie was neat. He didn’t understand the awesomeness that she felt hearing that. “Mr. Jack is very, very special. Mama says he has to stay with me at all times and Papa says that I have to be real careful not to lose him or bad things might happen that I don’t want.” The moment from earlier sprung up and she frowned again. “Like when those boys took him. It wasn’t me that did it… It was Mr. Jack…” She looked down at the life-like stuffed animal and frowned. “He doesn’t like other people.”

Tilting her head her head full of crazy black curls fell to one side. “Sometimes I don’t think he likes me either. He gets really scary sometimes. No one can hear him but me…” She gave a shiver. “Papa says not to worry about it and ignore him but I must never ever lose Mr. Jack.” She hugged the squid closely. “I’ve had him since I was born!”

After a moment or two, she peeked back up to Rohan. “You can turn into animals, right? I mean most people can turn into only one or another but can you?” Her eyes were filled with wonder as she watched him.

"Well, I guess that's true. I guess that Iva and I are just weird and don't have very nature-y names," he said as he scratched the back of his head. "I know who your mum is. She's Bryony. I've seen her around the palace and around the Awakening Gardens quite a bit," Rohan told her with a grin. "Is this your first time coming here, or have I just not seen you before?" he asked. He came to Sularia frequently, but was puzzled why he hadn't met Hazel before. 

"It's weird, I'll admit, but I don't think that is any reason to make fun," Rohan admitted with a slight shrug. "I mean…he's like your guardian, so why should people be mean?" he asked her, his eyebrows drawing together in a pensive look. "I don't believe in bullying. It's stupid, and honestly, Mama and Papa would both discipline me good if I saw someone being bullied and didn't stop to help…" he admitted. 

He smiled brightly when she peeked back up at him and asked about his changing into animals and nodded. "Uh-huh. Been able to do it since I was a baby. Mama says the first thing I turned into was a bear cub so that I could climb a tree and chase a butterfly… and then it was a raven, I think she said, and I glided back to the ground. After that, Mama and Papa made sure I was always watched so that I wouldn't get into trouble with my shifting," he explained looking rather proud of himself. "I can turn into all sorts of things. I can't do the super cool stuff like the things that Papa has in his Conservatory, but I'll get there someday," he said with a nod. "You wanna see? Tell me an animal, any animal, and I'll show you!" he said excitedly, really wanting to show off.

“That’s right! That’s my mama!” She chuckled a bit. She knew her mother was a busy person and she had lots of business to do with so many people. Most of the time it was just her and Papa. She tilted her head and thought about it. “I live here. I just don’t go outside often because people look at me weird but Empress Willow said I can play in the courtyard all I want and she won’t let anyone hurt me. She is just busy today so people were able to.” She frowned a bit. “It’s alright though because you were here.”

She tilted her head again. “Not really.” She knew a little about her situation. “Mr. Jack lives in me. He’s not protecting me as much as he is himself. Papa says that someday he’s gonna figure out a way to save me. But I don’t know why I need saving.” She hugged the squid tightly. “Your mama and papa are Angela and Drae, right? I heard my mama and papa talking about them… they talk about them all the time.”

Hazel had a look on her face for the longest time like she was thinking really hard. “Can you turn… into…” She thought about it and held Mr. Jack closer. “What about…” she was couldn’t think of something she really wanted to see. She got to go with her mama and papa everywhere. “Show me a bear! A big one!” She had only squealed it because he said he could turn into that one. “Maybe a giraffe next! I get to go all around Revaliir with Mama and Papa so I get to see all kinds of animals.”

After he showed her all the animals she could ever ask for Lily, Rohan's aunt showed up and ran her fingers through Hazel's hair. The little girl jumped a bit and laughed. "Lily you can't sneak up on me like that!" She was so cute around the Yellow Queen.

"I heard screams going down the road from a few older boys who said there was a very bad monster here in the courtyard." Lily looked concerned as she looked at Hazel. "Is everything alright Hazel?"