Chapter Seven: The Five Friends, Part One
A/N: 'China' not pronounces China, as in the country, but rather "Chin-ah," as in your chin and the noise you make at the doctor's office. And yes, I nicked lines from both Shrek and LotR, a chapter dedication to whoever finds them first.
This chapter is dedicated to Morgan (rebelsoul-obedientmind) who listened to my incessant prattle about a world with unicorns, talking animals, sorcerers, and Krakens for six straight hours on the way from Camp to home. Morgan also deserves mention because she listened to me blabber on about worlds stacked like pancakes and managed to keep a straight face at the same time.
Many Lovers own the tales,
And went where the Valley ends;
But all the Unicorns still agree:
That the best was that of The Friends.
Panthera was, in many ways, an average sun unicorn. He had a yellow coat, with slightly darker mane, tail, and lower legs, just enough to be classified as a yellow bay. He had a cat's eye Prehnite gem and his horn and hooves consisted of slightly orangey Rutile. He was of average height for the sun herd, so that would make him around seventeen hands, but that is nothing compared to Solaris's nineteen. Panthera has a mate, pale yellow Anria, who, though pretty and good natured, is a few flakes short of a bale and a few waves short of an ocean, if you catch my drift. In short time she will be with foal, but that is another story for another day. Panthera is jovial and outgoing, and is well-enough liked, if not the most popular. No, the award for most popular would go to Chinawksul.
Chinawksul is brilliant yellow with a Helidor gem and Carnelian horn and hooves. He is even taller than his best friend Panthera, and is one of the favored ones of Solaris. He is not the most favored, but no one really likes the stuck up Arkim, so the other Unicorns try to pretend that he doesn't exist.
Unlike Panthera, Chinawksul does not have a mate. This does not draw nearly as much attention as it would have in previous years, for now the Herds have grown so large that not every Unicorn must have a mate, and sometimes there is even an odd number. So neither Solaris nor the rest of the Herd remarked on Chinawksul's matelessness, a mistake that turns out to be a costly one for the Stallion of the Sun.
For Chinawksul and Panthera pay close attention to the stars and moon, and when they are just right, the two seem to vanish for a little while. But they always come back.
Always.
olo
Spoonarah is a wind mare, with a periwinkle coat that matches the sky, a slightly grey mane and tail, Lazulite horn and hooves, and a stone made of pale Kyanite. She is as restless as the wind, and spends many hours looking over the borderless plain that stretches off in the general direction of the Herd of Hephaestus. Spoonarah always has a sort of lost look in her eyes, and often she does get lost, even if she does manage to un-lose herself. She is slightly more graceful than her sister, and the only reason that is important is because her sister was a marble-hooved unicorn named Thaya.
olo
The only thing special about Canis is that he is short and stocky. He measures roughly fourteen hands, being completely dwarfed by the other Terrenus Unicorns. Canis is a dull solid brown, decked out with pumice horn and hooves and a Topaz. They're not particularly impressive, but then again, neither is Canis. He doesn't have a mate, but that's only because most mares hate looking down at their mates. As aforesaid, Canis is stocky, and that's saying something, given how all Terrenian unicorns are stocky. Nowadays, we would equate Canis to a short Worker unicorn, but they didn't have creatures like those in his day, so you will never hear anyone refer to Canis as such a critter. They also didn't have any watches either, so no one really knew how long a time Canis would disappear for.
olo
Barikah was the last and Barikah was the first. She was the youngest, but she was also the oldest, too. Sometimes she saw things and sometimes she didn't, but she was the lock into which the key fit, so she was important.
Barikah's favorite spot is the River. She splashes along it all day long, creating rainbows in the air. She will sometimes follow it to its origin, and sometimes she follows it the other way, and comes back quite some time later. But no one really cares about her river obsession, actually most are quite glad. The reason is two-fold. The first is this: Barikah is a Water Unicorn, in fact, her father is the Elemental, something that not every Unicorn can claim nowadays. She doesn't have a mate, but she is really too young to worry about that, even if she is of foal-bearing age. And the Herd numbers are so large now that it doesn't really matter.
Barikah's horn and hooves are Sodalite and her gem is Indicolite. Everyone is glad about that, too. Her coat is another matter altogether. It is patchy, a deep-almost-black-blue contrasting with pale-almost-white-blue. If her Friends knew of such creatures, they would compare her to a cow, but there are no cows in the Valley, so everyone is left wondering about her coat color.
The second reason everyone is pleased with her water obsession is because they were afraid that she would turn out like her half-brother, Surfdancer, for Barikah is the only foal of Izquierda and Orcinus.
olo
Panthera pranced through the hock deep grass, lifting each hoof clear of the green before putting it back down again. His tail is arched backward, his neck curved and his ears pricked forward. He is singing to himself, as he often does. The words are meaningless, just a way to pass the time. But Panthera enjoys them and so does everyone around him, even though they call it 'a waste of perfectly good air.'
"Hey-a diddle diddle,
Hey-a daddle do.
Hey-a little kiddle
Middle dilly dally ju.
Hey-a diddle daddle,
Hey-a laddey ka.
Hey-a jiddle niddle
Lilly lully lally la."
Panthera pauses in mid-stride, carefully placing his hoof back were it came from. He is standing next to an old mare (but not The Mare). Her back is starting to sag in the middle and she chomps her purple flowers very carefully. Panthera grins, and then:
"Hey, my frisky filly,
Hey, my sweet mare-heart,
Won't you come along and be
A frisky now with me."
He smiles flirtingly at the mare, but she snorts, knowing that he is just joking, he always is. Panthera prances off again, flicking his tail as he goes. He is so content with his singing that he almost steps on top of a small filly who barely comes up to his knee. She is looking around wildly for her dam, but can hardly see over the grass. Panthera sniffs her and grabs her attention with a song.
"Hey, my ray of sunshine,
Hey, my shadow true,
Woncha come along so
I can spend some time with you."
The filly laughs and soon her dam pops up and foalherds her away. Panthera trots off again, but his time his movements are quiet and carefully placed. He takes great care not to step on any twigs and he moves so carefully that he hardly swishes the grass. Within no time, he is alongside a large yellow stallion. A couple of young mares, both available and not, are standing a little distance away, but they dare not venture inside the range of his long neck, for he has been known to bite if he wants to be left alone. Panthera lefts his head up and flicks his ears back, silently telling the surrounding mares to keep quiet. He takes a deep breath and then belts out at the top of his lungs,
"Hey, bright yellow sunbeam,
Hey, the son of Sun –uff!"
The 'uff' wasn't really intended, but it was the best Panthera could do after getting a yellow shoulder in the chest. The unicorns nearby are snickering, and even Solaris, who had looked up to see what was happening, is chuckling. But none are laughing quite as hard as the owner of the shoulder.
"Was that…really…neces…ssary?" Panthera gasps out. "I just wanted…to serenade…to you."
Chinawksul, who had finally gotten control of his laughing, responded to his friend. "Of course it was necessary, Panth…Did you really think you could sneak up on me?"
"You just wait, China, when you least expect it, I'll be there."
Chinawksul snorted again. "Ooooh, I'm scared now." To which Panthera had no comeback and instead settled on sticking out his tongue.
The two friends took off across the grassy meadow and left the love-sick mares eating their grass stains.
olo
Barikah splashed in the river, leaping over invisible fences and ducking her head under to throw up hundreds of droplets which broke the light into a sparkling rainbow. She loved it here, amidst the water that matched the pale parts of her coat. She really couldn't understand why her half brother was torn so between the land and the sea. After all, what could be so great about unmoving, boring land? She glanced over at Orcinus, and was pleased to find his head deep in the grass. She was following the river into the forest today, and was not one to take chances.
olo
Spoonarah was deep in the woods. She wasn't lost, although that would be the story she would tell a few hours from now when she stumbled back onto the Herd's plain. No, she wasn't lost, in fact, she knew these woods better than anyone.
olo
Canis was furiously trying to make himself too small to be noticed. Which, given his size, was actually not too hard. At first glance he was just another brown unicorn, and a first glance was all anyone ever gave him, especially after he slipped into the woods.
olo
The others were already in the clearing when China and Panthera arrived. Interestingly enough, it was the same clearing were Derecho and Izqueirda meet all those long years ago, although none gathered there knew that. More interestingly enough, though, was the group that was assembled before the arrival of the two sun stallions: a water mare, a wind mare, and an earth stallion, and I am sure that the listener of this tale can very well guess just who those unicorns were.
olo
"Geez, guys, what took you so long?" That was Barikah, pretending to be impatient, but not really succeeding. Panthera yearned to point out that she was the last to arrive last time, but he was cut off by China.
"Well, we would have been here earlier, but Panth had to take a catnap." This started a bout of good-natured joshing.
"Aww, has wickle Panthie tired himself out singing?"
"No, he sang his own lullabies!"
"Wow, Pan isn't afraid of the dark anymore! I'm so proud of you!"
Panthera shook his mane. "What is this, Pick on Panthera Day?"
"Better than Pick on Canis Day," the Terrenian unicorn pointed out.
"Well, jokes about you are in short supply, Canis."
Canis glared at Panthera. "That, Pan, was way below the hock."
"He must have pretty good aim then," Spoonarah chipped in, "since there's such a small amount of room between your hock and the ground." Everyone laughed at Spoonarah's observation, and Chinawksul sidled up alongside the pale blue mare, nuzzling her neck. The five friends couldn't remember a time when they had not been meeting each other, although they were sure there was such a when. But as the years galloped onward, Chinawksul and Spoonarah had begun to care for each other, and soon the caring turned into love. Unfortunately for the lovers, the rest of the group was not so tolerant of their displays of affection.
"Hey, the sweetheart lovers, Will they have a foaly? Only time will tell if She becomes a rolly-poly."
"Heh, heh. Very funny Panth. Forgive me while I laugh some more." China's voice was bitter at his missed opportunity.
Barikah was not blind. Usually the exact opposite, in fact. She could see the tension. Not just feel it, but see it. The topic needed to be changed, and fast. "So, has anyone heard if anyone else tried to run away from their Herds?"
Panthera snorted. "There's not a reason for us to. They're just random unicorns, one in a million."
"No, not true. Not anymore anyway." Spoonarah horned into the conversation. "There's too many for it just to be single pairs of lovers."
"Huh?"
"Everyone knows someone," Spoon said thoughtfully. And Panthera noticed that she was right. Why, Spoon was Thaya's sister and Barikah was the daughter of the legendary Izquierda. Mellifer was a distant uncle of Panthera's, something like twice removed on his mother's side, but his dam hadn't been too clear on that. Canis had mentioned something about knowing Minhoca before she fell for Alapfem, and Occasus had been China's cousin. Spoon is right, he thought, it's not single cases anymore…it's like the walls around each Herd have suddenly come down.
Barikah was watching the others think. Spoon was right, of course, but Barikah had already known that. Being an Elemental's daughter had some payoff anyway. The first was not being noticed when her sire was in a huff. She gazed at Spoon and China, who were ogling each other again. It wasn't right, she thought, that they will never be able to mate. She grinned inwardly. Or would they?
She leaned over to Panthera who was the closest and whispered in his ear. He jumped as if he had been struck by lightning, then whispers something to Canis. He cocks his head in thought, and then nods eagerly. Both Barikah and Canis looked at Panthera expectedly. He stared back at them as all three engaged in a battle of wills. Panthera finally admitted defeat and cleared his throat loudly.
"Ahem…Moving on to the next topic of business… How to smuggle China and Spoon out of the Valley." The lovers pull away from each other and stare slack jawed, bogey eyed at Panthera. "I'm serious guys, really."
Chinawksul slowly tried to gather his wits. Was it even possible for Panth to be serious? "Y'all, we…you can't…we'll get caught…you'll get caught…you can't….How?"
"Well, we hadn't really got that far yet-"
"But if we can get enough of a head start – "
"The Elemtals won't catch up."
Chinawksul looks dazed. "Supposing we get a lead, where will we go?"
"The Mortal Realms."
"Hmm… Mortal Realms. How?"
"Well, um, we could find the Mare…"
"I can do it." Everyone turns to Barikah who has remained silent during the entire exchange. She glances around at her friends, suddenly fearing that they'd not believe her or worse, they'd call her a freak. But there was no choice now, she had to go on. "I see things in the water…Sometimes other Lovers, sometimes other Herds. I'm sure I could send you through."
Chinawksul looks at Spoonarah, then back at Barikah. He is about to tell his friends that its not worth it; he won't let them risk everything. Panthera speaks before he talks.
"China, don't try to discourage us. We've wanted to do this ever since you two fell in love."
"Really?"
"Ah, sorta. Not really. But think of her. You won't get another chance!"
Spoonarah shakes her head, not believing that all of this is happening. This is madness, she thinks, but instead says, "When?"
Canis grins. "Tonight," he says simply.
Panthera turns to his friend, incredulous. "Tonight?"
"Tonight. Mare's Moon." The others nod in understanding. The Night of the Mare's Moon was the last full moon of the year, so everyone would be awake all night, ready to welcome in the first dawn of the new year. There would be celebrations, so it would easy to slip away, plus no one would do anything till noon the following day. It was the perfect time to do stupid things such as this.
The gears in Panthera's head were churning as he tried to think of a plan. "So everyone meet here right after sunset, okey-dokey?" Without waiting to hear their consent, he whirled and took off back towards home Herd without waiting for Chinawksul. He promptly spent the rest of the day avoiding his best friend and his inevitable questions.