The Balinor Chronicles: The Celestial Herd
Chapter Thirty-Five: Whereever Liveth Strangeness
But then there was another.
Mordran flicked her tail. Her foal, covered in his pure white baby fluff, with bone horn and plain hooves, lay panting on the ground. She had been trying for the last two hours to get him to his feet, but he couldn't make. It was almost comical, really, he would get halfway up, pause, totter for a moment, and then topple over. It was almost comical, but it was happening to Mordran's foal.
Indeed, she was so distraught that she never heard the unicorn approaching behind her.
(Whereever liveth strangeness, so doth the Mare.)
The Mare stood at the edge of the small clearing where Mordran and her foal were struggling. At her own side, still shaky on his legs, was a small colt with white fur, plain hooves, and a bone horn.
The Mare walked over to Mordran's foal, the second one remaining one the edge of the clearing. The pure-white unicorn dropped her head and nudged the sickly foal to its feet. He tottered for a moment, but stood there, still, as if he though that the slightest movement would send him tumbling to the ground once more. But it wouldn't.
(Whereever liveth strangeness, so doth the Mare.)
There is strong magic in the mountains. Strong magic.
Mordran nuzzled Gaheris, easing his shaking limbs and reassuring him. She turn to thanks The Mare, but The Mare is already saying something.
"Raise this one as your's twin."
Mordran looks curiously at the Mare. Take another's foal? Unheard of! It was too horrid to even think about.
(Whereever liveth strangeness, so doth the Mare.)
But she takes the colt, Raiden, and raises him. And none comment on it; there have been twins before. Mordran worries that someone will notice the vast differences in the foals, how Raiden is large and as heavily built as Gaheris's father, whereas Gaheris is more like his mother, or maybe even one of the wind band. But she needn't worry, indeed, Amaris and Johon look nothing alike: the former being blue and the latter being yellow. And she needn't fear the future foal's color, for with all the fighting, she could lie (or would it be one?) and say that she adopted some other dead Unicorn's foal. And beside which, that is a long way off. So for the moment, Mordran is left hoping that Gaheris's father won't notice a very small and simple snag. Raiden's eyes are blue.
For as Mordran, and her observant mate, Mulciber, are both of the Fire line, Gaheris's eyes are red, seemingly bedecked with rubies as irises. But Raiden's eyes, however beautiful and observant and innocent they may be, are blue. As blue as Orcinus's, and as deep as the sea.
For indeed, Raiden was born by Water, out of the Mountain of Earth, and was raised by Flame.
(Whereever liveth strangeness, so doth the Mare.)