The Magical Herd

You stand on the edge of a towering cliff overlooking the Plains of the Mystical Horses. It was beautiful. Perhaps even more so as the cliffs themselves seem to be made of a green marble which sparkled when the sunlight hit it in a certain way. You felt you could sit here forever lost in your own thoughts. And perhaps you would have sat there a century or more if a creature had not soared into sight. At first it appeared to be a large bird, but as it came closer you saw that it must be a gryphon. It was not.

The creature landed nearby and bob his head at you. You tried to remember what the name of his species was. He seemed to pick up on your thoughts and replied telepathically. ~I am a hippogryph.~

That was it! Half horse, half bird. You studied the magnificent stallion as he stood beneath the blazing sun, feathers and coat shimmering in the light. A beautiful and wise creature this stallion was. You could see his intelligence in his eye.

~Thank you. I am flattered.~ You realized that he was reading your mind! You didn't like that much. I was one thing to have someone speak to you in your mind, but quite another to know that they were sneaking around in there.

~I am not sneaking around. I am only picking up your surface thoughts. I couldn't stop if I wanted to! So just don't think about what you don't want me to hear.~

Course him saying that led your mind to search out the very things you didn't want him to know. Like the fact that it was really you who ate the last cookies and not your younger brother..... Umm, don't think about it. Ack. The hippogryph smirked.

~Sorry, didn't mean to do that. Your secret is safe with me. My name is Cornelius, and that is my mate, the beautiful Marielle. We're both from the Creation~

She may have been beautiful, but she didn't look very friendly, the way she glowered like that. ~Hmph, humans.~ Oops, you forgot that she too could probably read your thoughts. It wasn't fair really - they could tell if you were thinking offending things about them, but you had no idea what they thought of you.

~Don't worry. Nothing rude to be sure! She just isn't the social type. There must be humans like that too.~ You nod. ~Well, I am the Keeper of the Library. See our bird feet make it much easier for us to take care of the books. Using ones hooves and teeth damage them too much. Sometimes I like to hope that I may have a bit of the blood of the Simurgh flowing through my veins.~

~Hmph,~ was Marielle's response.

Realizing that his mate's patience was running short, Cornelius said, "There are more of our kind here. Look around for them, you'll be sure to come across some.~