Well, I've had this idea for a long time. Actually before I ever heard of Fan fiction. I've been doing these in my head for years and never bothered to write them down until recently. If you're wondering why I had so many stories in a short time, that's probably why.

This is sort of a "what if" type of story. I actually made Dark rider from part of this idea, I needed someone on the road without ties for the story. Most of this belongs to Mercedes Lackey I'm just borrowing it for my own amusement.

White Rider

Ch 1 Unexpected

A simple plan

Is never made

To be unwound

And to display......

Remi sighed as he leaned on the fence and watched Valana with her foal. They had been sent to Rethwellan a couple of years ago as a part of the new alliance. Their duties had been to ferry messages between the two countries and any other odd jobs that needed to be done. He had actually looked forward to it, Rethwellen had been a strong ally of Valdemar for some time and he had thought the duty would be fairly easy.

Then Valana had gotten pregnant. They hadn't realized what had happened until it was too late to make their way back through the Comb and they had to wait for their replacement as well so it had been too dangerous for Valana to travel even through Karse, she had ended up having her foal here in Rethwellen.

Now they were waiting for Mikel to grow strong enough for the journey. He smiled at the antics of the youngster, at least something good had come of this. The people at the Rethwellen court had been enchanted with the youngster and their own children had often come by to play with Mikel.Though he was the only companion foal here, he never went without playmates. At least he had his mother and Finorn their replacement to talk to so he wasn't completely without his own kind.

Mikel looked up from his latest jumps and trotted over to Remi. He smiled and sratched the youngster's ears as he shamelessly thrust his head under his hand. Mikel nosed his pocket as he smelled the apple Remi always carried with him for Valana.

:Val, I think he's almost ready to be weaned: he sent hopefully.

He felt the pride in her mindvoice as she sent :He's already eating some of the sweet mashes, though he is continuing to nurse:

"Think I should give him your apple" he asked.

:Try it and see what happens: she said.

They both watched carefully as he pulled the apple out of his pocket and held it out to Mikel. The foal sniffed then carefully nibbled on the offering before taking a larger bite.

:It's good: he caught the edge of the foals sending, he usually could hear them slightly before they learned their manner's, Mikel was a little too young yet to know better. In fact they had caught him trying to talk to some of the children he played with. His mother was able to stop that, but sometimes Remi had the feeling he continued to talk to them. They just hadn't been able to catch him at it and the children wouldn't tell on their friend.

The foal ate part of the apple and his mother finished what he couldn't eat.

A couple of weeks later Mikel was eating more and nursing less and the two decided it was time to start back to Valdemar.