Touched by Darkness by shura_dono |  |
The Windfall Uni herd was one of the few truly wild herds
left in modern Neopia. They were an old bloodline, and the herd had been in existence
since before humans had even arrived. They did not accept outsiders, especially
ones that had come into contact with humans. They had seen what happened to many
of the other herds; the Swiftwings, Thunderhorns, all of them had been taken and
tamed by these creatures. Made into little pets and forgetting all of their noble
history and lineage. Another thing the herd despised was dark magic. If you looked
into the multitude of colors that the herd was, you would not find a single shadow,
ghost, or Darigan coat among them. It was simply not permissible to the herd;
a foal sporting such colors would be outcast immediately. A harsh system, but,
in the eyes of the herd leaders, a necessary one. It is here that the story begins.
***
The tiny newborn foal nosed his mother in the misty morning light. He was
a creamy brown color, and his horn shone buttery gold. The mother, a spotted
Uni named Lyrsa, nuzzled him back and whinnied in her joy. He was an excellent
child, already energetic and playful. But what else could be expected from the
herd leader's own son. She looked over to him, his golden brown coat shimmering
in the rising sun. She called him over to see his son.
"Look at him Kuras! He is a fine son, the herd
will be happy to have him as their future leader."
"You are right, Lyrsa. He is perfect. What will
you name him?"
"His name shall be Tarinn."
***
"Hurry Hier! We're going to go exploring, remember?!" Tarinn shouted to his
friend, "Come on, mother says that we can only stay away from the herd until
the sun reaches the mountains!"
"I'm coming, Tar!" the white Uni raced over
to his friend.
Laughing, the two young Unis ran across the
plains. They were but a month old, and had been born within days of each other.
They had quickly become the best of friends, and always went everywhere together.
The herd had just moved on to a different part of the wide plains, and the two
had not yet explored this new territory. After a good deal of running, they
were exhausted.
"Tar, I'm tired. Can we take a rest?"
"I'm tired, too. Maybe a little nap would be
okay."
The two young ones curled up together and were
soon deeply asleep. The sun moved through the sky and began to disappear behind
the horizon. This is when the pair awoke.
"Oh, no! The sun is setting! We're going to
be lost out here all night alone!"
"Don't worry, Hier! We can find our way back…
I think. Come on!"
The two frightened foals ran back the way that
they were sure was the way back to the herd, but when the sun was almost set,
they knew that they hadn't come that far, so they set off in another direction.
But soon night had fallen, and they were still very lost.
"We're going to be lost forever! And the Lupes
will come and eat us and I heard that there's lots of mean things that come
out at night! I want my momma!" Hier cried, hiding his head underneath his hooves.
"I want my momma, too! Nighttime is scary!"
Tarinn was almost crying with fright.
"Now, now dears, don't cry," said an unfamiliar
voice from the high grasses in front of them.
"Who's there?" shouted Tarinn, trying to be
brave for his friend.
A tall Dark Faerie stepped out of the grass
and bent her knees so that her head was just above the Uni's, "My name is Jeska
the Dark Faerie. You needn't be frightened little ones, I won't eat you!" when
she said this, she let out a shrill laugh that made Tarinn shiver. She looked
right at him and said, "You're the leader's son, aren't you child? Would you
like a little gift, perhaps?"
"N-no…I don't, really…"
"Oh, come now, everyone likes a gift!" and she
stroked his chin with one long fingernail, then placed both of her hands on
his head and muttered a few quick words. Tarinn felt them flow through his heart,
a dark flood that settled in his bones. Cackling, the Faerie disappeared in
a cloud of purple and green smoke.
"Tar, are you all right?"
"I feel…different. I don't like it, it feels
so bad and strange!"
"Don't worry, Tar. You'll be all right, I know
you will."
***
The two were discovered that morning by a Uni who was one of those sent out
to find them. They were led back to the herd, relieved that their frightening
experience was over. Their mothers were overjoyed to see them back, and wanted
to know what had happened. They told their story, and when they got to the part
about the Dark Faerie doing something to Tarinn, the entire herd gasped. Kuras
quickly called a council to decide how they would handle this; an ordinary child
would have been instantly cast out, but this was Kuras' own son and future herd
leader. The council lasted for three days, during which Tarinn was not permitted
to be near the rest of the herd members. He was lonely and afraid of what might
happen, and he cursed the Faerie for doing this to him. He was no longer the
playful, innocent youth he had been only yesterday. He had been touched by darkness,
and he knew in his heart that even if the council decided in his favor, things
could never go back to the way they were.
The next day, Kuras gathered the herd in a circle
around Tarinn and said, "The council has reached its decision! Although Tarinn
is my son and future leader, he has been tainted by darkness, and is no longer
fit to remain in the herd. Our decision is this. Exile!"
Tarinn accepted this silently, and as he was
led away from the herd by two of the older stallions, he looked back once more,
and saw Hier, tears coursing down his face, mouth 'goodbye'. Then the herd was
lost to sight in the tall grass. He traveled for several days with the two stallions,
until they reached the edge of a dense forest. Here they left him, and galloped
away until they, the last members of his herd he would ever see, had disappeared
over the horizon. He did not like the look of the forest, and decided that he
would go around it. For many weeks he walked, until he came to the sea. He had
never seen so much water in his whole life, and it frightened him somewhat.
But here there was plenty of beach grass and a freshwater spring only a little
ways into the forest, so he decided that he would stay here for as long as he
could. But vowed that he would never trust another again, for the darkness inside
him would not let him fit in anywhere.
***
Tarinn had lived on the beach for a month when the ship came. It wasn't very
big, but he had never seen anything like it, and it frightened him. He was no
longer a foal, but a young stallion, however he was still nervous about things
that were strange to him, so he hid in the forest and watched the ship cautiously.
He saw it drop anchor and watched two shapes detach themselves from it and come
towards the beach; one flew in the air, and one had dived into the sea. A voice
called out from the deck, but Tarinn could not make out the words. As the two
shaped reached the beach, he observed as another boat, much smaller than the
big one, lowered itself over the side and also came towards the shore. As it
came closer, he could make out a figure sitting inside of it, one that looked
suspiciously like a Faerie. He snorted in distaste; it was a good thing that
he had hidden, Faeries were not to be trusted. The little boat reached the shore,
and the figure pulled it up out of the water, then stretched out; with this
movement, Tarinn saw that it had no wings. This sparked his curiosity, and he
slowly crawled through the beach grass and up a hill that separated him from
the strangers.
He had never seen such strange creatures before;
one looked like a Uni, but with a tail like a fish and no horn or wings! The
other two were just as alien to him, the flying one looked like a strange sort
of lizard with reptilian wings, and the one he had taken for a Faerie not only
was missing wings, but had short hair and wore pants and a T-shirt rather than
a dress like the dark Faerie had worn. Then they began to talk and he could
just make out the words.
"This seems like a nice place to stay for a
few days, eh girls?"
"This camping trip was a good idea, Shura."
"Yeah, and I don't have to do the dishes for
once!"
Tarinn heard them laughing at the Faerie, but
he couldn't see what was so funny. He watched them build a circle of rocks,
then the Uni thing went off and came back with a lot of dry wood. They piled
this in the middle of the rocks, and then the Faerie did something and the wood
burst into flame. Tarinn, who had never seen fire before, could not help but
give an instinctive whinny of panic, which caused all three of the strangers
to look around curiously.
"Lynn, am I going crazy or did I hear something
whinny? Or was it you?"
"Wasn't me, Shura. It came from the top of that
dune over there. I'll go and see what it was."
The strange Uni began to approach Tarinn's hiding
spot, and he silently cursed himself for making noise. Before he knew it the
thing was right in front of him.
"Oh, hello," it said, "Who are you?"
"None of your business. What are you?"
"Well, you're the rude one, aren't you? I am
a Peophin, if you want to know. Call me Lynn, everyone does. Why don't you come
down and sit with us?" then without waiting for an answer, she grabbed his hoof
and began to lead him down to the fire and the other two strangers, "Hey, Shura,
he was hiding over on top of the dune, so I brought him down here to sit with
us. Whatever-your-name-is, this is Shura and Lieras. Lieras is my sister and
Shura is our owner. Well, more of a really close friend actually, but she takes
care of us."
"I don't trust Faeries."
"Faeries? I don't see any faeries around, but
that's a nice random bit of personal information."
"But isn't she a Faerie?"
"Noooo, she's a human."
Tarinn stared at the 'human' quizzically. He
had always been told that humans were horrifying monsters, but this girl seemed
pretty friendly-looking. Not like the Dark Faerie He decided that he could trust
these strangers.
"My name is Tarinn," he said while looking at
the ground, "But I'm an outcast, you don't want to be around me.
The girl snorted, "Welcome to the club. We're
all three outcasts. For our own reasons and our shared one; we're pirates. We're
a crew, the three of us together. Care to join us and make it four?"
Tarinn thought to himself. So they were outcasts,
too. And they had invited him to become a part of their group, even though they
had just met. They were drifters like him, but they were together. He suddenly
felt the aching loneliness that had been with him since he had been exiled overwhelm
him.
"Gladly, Shura."
And in that moment he felt some of the darkness
in his heart fade into light.
The End
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