This was impossible. Utterly ridiculous. Preposterous. He couldn’t think of enough words to describe what was happening right now, the sensations bearing down on his mind. For the first time in his life, he had nothing smart to say, no witty or facetious comment, no wisecrack to bust him out of the uncomfortable situation he was being met with. Gallus, in all his bravado, had his weaknesses, just like all creatures, whether hoofed or pawed. And a big weakness was rapidly encroaching upon him.

Gallus rarely felt genuine content, let alone joy. At school at least, there was usually always something annoying him to a degree; a boring lecture, a fellow student repulsively their smacking lips during lunch, the classroom being too hot or cold. But today. Today there was nothing. Maybe it was just his confidence in having aced that test after hours of painstaking review. Perhaps anticipation for the buckball game later that afternoon. It’s likely that he just got decent sleep for once; as rare as it is for him, it would make sense to feel particular elation at such a lucky occurrence. A partial reason he was willing to admit to himself, however, was that he was pleased that his friend Silverstream seemed to be much happier herself for the last couple of days.

The break had been rather unforgiving of Silverstream’s indulgences. What started as winter weight quickly turned into her ballooning to several times her prior size by the time the semester began. At that point, Silverstream was easily one of the largest students at the school and undeniably the largest hippogriff. While it was fortunate no one had gone as far as to mock her, most everyone had certainly noticed the change, which caused a bit of discomfort for Silverstream on top of the nervousness that came with adjusting to her new form. But oddly enough, Gallus had realized that she had suddenly become much more chipper and relaxed as of late. He suspected that she had just gotten more comfortable moving her newfound weight around, but also decided it was good enough to just know that she was feeling better. What added to his content, though he had no plan of expressing it, was to look at her as well; while many of his peers looked at Silverstream in surprise at the change, Gallus often found himself gawking at her from across the hall or classroom. Each time, he had to catch himself before she or another student caught wind of his admiration. It was especially difficult when he had to speak near or, Celestia forbid, to her; there isn’t much one can do to hide thorough blushing or embarrassing stammers. But he was quite the clever and suave griffon, so of course it was of little issue to divert his friends and peers. His fear now was that he had eluded all of them. All except one.