The Magical Herd

It had started to snow once more. Crunching through the white stuff, you had to look at the ground to see where you were going. Every now and then you stumbled over a rock hidden in the snow. The path was getting harder and harder to follow. You looked up to get your bearings, and that's then you trip over a stone and stumble right into a large green creature sitting in the snow. She looked back with a grunt.

"Who you?" she asked, but in a friendly tone. She didn't seem to mind that you had fallen right on top of her.

You introduce yourself and she grins. "A human! I am TeraMulin."

You frown, not sure if she meant that was her name or if it was her species. A shrill whinny draws your attention to a red stallion ready to attack you!

"Norvael, human is friend," the green creature said as she put herself between you and the stallion.

"Chancey, humans are not to be trusted. You know that."

You try to convince him that you were trustworthy, that Firecracker had brought you partway here, though as some point you had lost track of him, probably back with the Kayatha.

The stallion thinks a moment and then decides that he was going to believe you. "I am Norvael, a Terin. And this is Chancey, a TeraMulin. You could view her species as the mules of the Terin world, and as such aren't all that bright." At least he looked sorry when he saw how Chancey looked sad at the insult.

"I try to be smart....."

"I know," he replied and nuzzled her. "She's not my mate, just a very good friend. She sterile so cannot breed, but being the only one of our kind here, we find companionship, however distantly our races may be related."

Chancey obviously didn't understand everything Norvael was saying, but she liked the friendship part.

"We were both Christmas gifts to the Realm Keeper from Kimmers. SunBlind was very happy to have us live here. And I think we both like it here too."

Think? You didn't want to get into details. The stallion seemed a bit tempermental. Chancey on the other hand was absolutely the sweetest creature you had met so far. It was difficult to leave them, but it was eventually time to go.