coming

Nakhti as a cub is defined by a stillness that reads older than he is. Where other children react, he observes, going quiet and watchful in new situations rather than frightened or loud, cataloging rooms with his eyes before he ever sets foot fully inside them. He is relentlessly curious but unhurried about it, asking one precise question at a time and disappearing with the answer for days before surfacing with the next. He does not lie, cannot convincingly if he tries, and has decided that silence is a satisfactory alternative. He attaches not to toys or comfort objects but to useful things a good stylus, an accurate measurement, a door that opens onto somewhere unexpected and treats being given a real tool as a serious declaration of trust.

He is not an easy cub to know. He doesn't fill silences, doesn't perform warmth he hasn't earned yet, and gravitates toward adults over peers almost entirely because adults tend to have better information. His loyalty is slow and unconditional in equal measure it takes a long time to accumulate, but once someone has proven they tell him true things consistently, he orients toward them with a quiet constancy that never wavers. His emotions live mostly in his ears and his tail, which betray everything his carefully composed face tries to conceal. Genuine delight surfaces in very specific moments an unexpected room, a map with unusual detail, something he didn't already know and crosses his face briefly and fully before he schools it away.