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Had anyone asked Nyota'angavu as a young cub where he thought his future would lead, he never would have guessed this. He'd been something of an idealist, after all. Certainly he would have grown to be an ideal all shifters could aspire to - vicious and without an ounce of mercy, terrorizing those he pleased and making all who beheld him quake with fear. And for a long time, that was precisely what he'd been. He'd earned plenty a scar living that lifestyle, until everything had changed in an instant.

He could not have predicted he would ever feel regret. A shifter did not mourn those they'd hurt - at their most compassionate, they would surely think that the weak had gotten no less than they deserved for not bettering themselves. But those soft feelings had invaded him. Burrowed treacherous roots in his hardened heart and infected him with things like kindness.

He was a different being now, than he had been all those years ago. And it was difficult not to reflect on days like this - when the sun hung low on the horizon and cast the sky aflame, red as much of the blood he'd spilt in the past. The light cast an almost sickly shade over the typically green grass, and he couldn't help but wonder if it was an omen of what was to come. There had been no indication, but in this light, the grass looked as if it should be dry and brittle. The perfect kind of kindling to spark a great fire.

It wasn't particularly often that Nyota could say that he was greeted by someone simply dropping out of the sky in front of him. And certainly not someone so superficially similar and yet at the same time dissimilar to himself. It was enough to make him pause, glancing from thick mane to pawed feet, taking in the wings and tufted tail at the same time his own tail tip flicked in interest. It was easy enough to presume why the other male had shown up - a scout of some sort, without a doubt.

"My apologies if I wandered into your territory by mistake," he said in greeting, returning the nod with one of his own. "You may want to renew any markings if I have, however. I hadn't noticed any on my way through."

It would have been impossible not to notice the other stallion's wandering gaze. There was no reason for Nyota to be offended by it - he'd done so first, after all. But the way the other's gaze lingers on the gem now permanently affixed to his front leg is enough to bring a bittersweet smile to his lips. He'd always found it ironic how perfectly it matched the color of his eyes - it was difficult to think it a mere coincidence. Perhaps a rival had sought to weaken him. Perhaps there was some other explanation. Perhaps it truly was just coincidence. In the end, it hardly mattered - the gem would not be freed from his flesh and the changes he'd seen in himself since it had affixed itself would not simply vanish.

"Nyota'angavu." The introduction was a bit abrupt, but not rude. "If we are being entirely honest, I would have counted myself among those not long ago. I was... Not kind, to put it gently. But I'm willing to answer any questions you have that I'm able. I'm still discovering much myself."

Nyota nodded politely at the introduction, chuckling wryly at the observation that he wasn't the same. He'd admitted it himself, but the other stallion didn't have the foggiest clue just how true that was. For all intents and purposes, he was a different being altogether - he had precious little in common with who he'd been before.

"It's what allows me to speak to you like this," Nyota began, lifting his leg and tilting it so the golden charm caught the light of the setting sun and reflected the light, turning the color of flames.

"I didn't understand it at first. As a young cub, I had fancied myself the perfect shifter. I was quite precocious, relishing in bloodshed and the screams of my victims even when I was small. My mother encouraged my sadism, and would always reassure me how proud she was to have such an exemplary demon born of her line. Of all her children, she favored me the most. And I thrived under the attention, finding new and creative ways to be cruel as I grew." And while his tone was reflective, it was clear he did not share the same feelings as he had in the past. "And then one day, I harmed someone I fancied. I would have thought nothing of it, except the following day I awoke with this gem fused to my flesh. Something in me had changed, and all at once I came to realize all the suffering I had personally caused, and for some strange reason it caused me remorse. Something I had never once considered feeling in the entirety of my life leading to that morning."

He lowered his paw back to the grass, shaking his head with a rueful smile.

"I learned much later that the charm is apparently formed with angeni blood. It alters something about a shifter's mind, allowing them a clarity they did not once possess." He glanced up once more, meeting Zane's gaze with a stern frown. "It does not guarantee kindness. It only grants us clarity. A shifter with this sort of charm is still just as capable of evil as any other - they are just no longer compelled by instinct."