The Magical Herd

This time, you were carefully scanning the ground in case you should encounter more miniature equines. This was a fortunate thing because there were two more of them in the path through the trees. The mare hopped up to her hooves while the stallion remained seated.

"Who are you?" the mare inquired nervously, so you explained your presence in this realm. The stallion grinned back at the mare. She scowled, "Oh, so now you think you're a know-it-all do you? Just because you were right *once* doesn't mean you were right before..."

If these two were not a mated pair they would have to be siblings, and they certainly didn't look related. The stallion playfully nipped at the blue mare, "You just hate being wrong, that's all." The mare was about to come up with some acid retort when she remembered that you were there. Suddenly she became all kind and sweet, "What bad manners of us, we should have introduced ourselves - I am Oeyea, and this is my mate Splaop." Yup, they were a mated pair, as you had guessed.

"Is it safe to come out?" a small voice inquired. Splaop laughed and replied, "Of course Fusila, and bring the others!"

Two stallions and a mare came forward. By this time you had realized that all stallions have tufted lion-like tails while the mares of horse-like tails. It was the mare who had spoken, and she smiled as she approached you.

"My name is Fusila, and these two morose creatures are Dakem and Halish." Morose? Indeed, the two stallions didn't appear very friendly. The dark one, Dakem, seemed not at all interested in you, his attention focused somewhere in the shadows of the trees. Halish plopped himself down onto the path and peered at you with one eye, the other was hidden by his forelock.

"Where is Detiho?" Splaop asked. Fusila shrugged, "You know him. Always mysterious, comes and goes as he likes. He'll probably show up later."

Oeyea got your attention, "So, would you like to know how our little group of Ja's came to live in the Realm?" You nod. "SunBlind attended a Festival in Cynther's Realm, from which all Ja'alek's originate..."

Just then she was interrupted, "And Dra'aleks. Just because Ja's are the most common doesn't mean the Dra's don't exist."

You look at the brightly coloured mare. She had draconic wings and a scary looking tail. Also her eyes were different than those of the Ja'aleks, they were a solid black.

"Fine Sorvey, I'll tell the traveller about you as well," Oeyea sighed. "Well, to make a long story short, and it was a long story mind you, the Festival lasted over a week, she won a few contests. For example Halish, Splaop and Fusila were won during a draw from a hat." At this moment she glances at her mate, "That would be the only way someone would have won *him*. He wouldn't be worth more effort than that!"

"Hey!" he said, but you could see his sides shaking from laughter.

The mare shook her head and continued, "The first contests she entered was the Hunt. She had to search through a part of Cynther's Realm to find one of us...actually, me. Fortunately she followed the birds which lead her quickly to me. She also managed to find the hidden contest at that time. It was a connect the dots contest, where random dots had to be connected to form a shape. Sounds easy, but it took many tries to get something that looked even remotely like something else. It was one of the few times one would be happier to get third place than first, because there she won Dakem, whom she'd taken a liking to some time before."

The black stallion continued to ignore what was going on around him. You wondered what she liked about him, but then remembered she was a vampiric dragon and probably liked things that were a little on the dark side.

"So, next she had to enter a colouring contest. There she won the second prize, the right for two of her Ja's to breed. You may have met Wigdea before?" When you nod she continues, "That was the dam, the sire was Daglor from Curbius' Realm. I don't think you'd know him..." You shake your head. "Anyway, Shablo was the result.."

She indicated a dark corner shadowed from the sun. There lay a red and black mare, it seemed she had claws rather than hooves. The horn on her nose was exactly like that of her mother's.

"Not exactly a friendly mare, she just kind of lurks about on the edges of our group. Now our Dra'alek Sorvey, the first of her kind in this Realm was the result of a comparison contest. She had to compare two pictures and find all the differences in them. I guess she did find them all after all..." Sorvey nods in reply to Oeyea unspoken question the says, "And would you forget the Greshi and you did the Dra'alek?"

Oeyea sighs again, "No, of course not. Come traveller, to meet the Greshi you must come to the stream."

The group of you head off through the trees following the blue mare. Sorvey flies by your head, seemingly fascinated by your ear. About ten minutes later, which was only a few stop steps for you, but many quick steps for the smaller equines, you reach a clear and beautiful stream bubbling over little stones and meandering through the forest. You stare into the water, and after a bit, you realize that you could make out a shimmering form that surfaced soon after.

The mare stared at the group clustered about her stream, obviously wondering what was going on. "This is Issel, the first Greshi of this Realm. SunBlind had to put extra effort into this one, not only colouring an image of a Ja'alek, but actually drawing one from scratch. Actually, she drew two entries, she doesn't know which one gave her the second place win."

Issel smiles, still kind of confused about why everyone had come to stare at her but decided to be polite about it.

"And finally, Detiho. He was a grand prize, won by random draw at the end of the Festival. SunBlind was very happy about that, like many of the others here, she had her heart set on winning him and giving him a good home here."

"There he is!" Fusila cried out, and you looked in the direction she was facing. A delicate white form appeared for just a moment and then slipped back into the undergrowth.

You tell the others that he kind of looks like a Ki'rin or Ki'lin. The Ja's, Dra, and Greshi look at each other uncomprehendingly. You explain that they were Japanese or Chinese unicorns, but other than the word unicorn, they had no idea what you were talking about. Splaop whisper to the nearest Ja that just happened to be Halish, "I always thought Detiho looked like himself..." Halish glanced at the other stallion with his un-forelocked eye and shook his head. Splaop may not be the brightest of the group, but you had to admit you liked him a lot.