. . .. Iceborn .. . .

Just a short story...Not very short, anyway.

[shadow=red,left,300] [glow=gray,2,300]. . .. Iceborn .. . .[/glow][/shadow]
^It was a few days after Shorl had been complaining of being just a plain dun. True enough, it was something to complain about; in almost every horse herd around us, and in our herd too, eight out of ten horses were dun. Shorl, I, Kiera, Ace and Mirax were no exception.
Then Shorl just disappeared. Rae and Pira were going mad with worry. Lito said not to be worried, and usually Lito was right, but now it was something to be worried about.
Then Shorl turned up, and he was white, just like he'd always wanted to be. But something was different. Just...a feeling. In Shorl's company, me, Ace, Mirax and Kiera always felt bold, outgoing, and that was something for shy little Kiera. But now, around him I felt worried, upset, fearful, angry. Plus, Shorl's eyes were rimmed red. Poor Pira, I think when I remember. Pira, Shorl's dam, had just lost her mate Rae to drought when Shorl turned up again. When I think about it, it makes me shiver. Could I have changed what happened to Shorl and everyone else?
I live--lived--in the Pelta Herd. We live in a huge clearing, grey trees surrounding us. Cliffs rise up, right next to the camp, but not ordinary cliffs--an icefall, a waterfall frozen into ice, was frozen in motion when it should be dripping into an ice-filmed pool in the clearing. The cliffs, Shaka Cliffs, were covered in ice as well. The daylight emerged rarely; mostly it was starry, moonlit night.
Lito, leader of the Pelta Herd, was dun, too, but he carried himself with a grace and elegance far beyond a common dun stallion. Ana, his second-in-command, was one of the rare brown mares. She had a thick, braided gilt mane and tail, and had lived in the company of humans, but was leased into the wild. She never spoke of living with humans, but it wasn't hard to imagine her proudly carring a human.
My mother, and father, Coral and Derek, were both duns, and so I was a very extreme dun. Coral's parents had been duns, and Derek parents were brown and dun. My mane was a silky, soft brown. My name was Aly. Rae and Pira were my dam's friends, although Derek never saw straight on with Rae. Shorl was their foal. Newt was Kiera's father, and constantly exasperated with shy little Kiera. Ace was a giddy little stallion, just become a yearling. Marax--well, I'd rather not think about him. We would've become mates--dam and sire to some cute little dun foal, but we never did due to the circumstances.
So, Shorl disappeared. He said he'd gone exploring when he came back, up on the cliffs. He was shivering, wet, cold, and pure white. He wouldn't talk. We figured that he'd just gone looking for how the ice had freezed up--and that was the truth. We cleaned him up, but the white wouldn't go away. His eyes, like I said, were rimmed in scarlet. Then he became more in everything--all his bad aspects, that is, were magnified. More argumentative, more cruel, more exasperated, less patient, and harsher to poor Kiera. And Racy--now her name makes me tremble in sorry. Racy! The beautiful black mare loved Shorl so much, but then Shorl became a white. What's a white? Onto that later.
Here's the story: Shorl's encircled with a cluster of horses that were the "Gang" in the herd, in other words a large group of riotous young stallions, while Ana in vain tried to get Shorl out because Pira, laid down with blackcough, was asking for him. . . .

"Shorl!" Ana neighed insistently. Racy glanced longingly at Shorl before heading through the Blackwoods to graze. The Blackwoods was the forest that surrounded the camp. Shorl kept on talking to the gang, mostly to their leader, Damien. "So, see, Damien," Shorl was saying, "You know how your gang's all duns? Well, I could change that! Follow me tomorrow. It's all gonna be great, you just see."
"Shorl!" Ana cried in exasperation. Shorl glanced insolently at the brown mare. Ana flicked her golden tail. "At last! Shorl, Pira's asking for you."
"Pira? Who's she? Oh yeah, my mother. What's she want, Bara? No wait, it's Ana, innit? No, its this: Ana the human-pet. Sure, Ana the human-lover."
Ace and me exchanged shocked glanced. "Aly," Ace whispered. "Shorl's never been that rude! What do you think's come over him?"
"I dunno," I replied uneasily, my dun flanks shivering. What had come over Shorl? He had never been so mean to Ana. And the jibe about Pira? His mother!
I must've missed what had happened next because Shorl was roughly pushing a furious Ana aside. "C'mon," he said roughly to Damian. "I'll take you noon today. Now how's ol' Pira?" he was heard saying as he brushed into the clump of ferns where Pira was lying.
Damian glanced at Lito, who was anxiously watching the outfolds of the event. "C'mon," he muttered to his gang. "Let's get out of here."
* * *
This is the account of Amaros, one of Damian's gang.
"At noon, Damien, me, and the rest of the gang and Shorl snuck outa camp. Me andtha rest o' the gang were sicka bein duns, yessee? So Damian took Shorl's deal 'mediately. We thought 'e was gonna take us deeper into the woods, but he took us closer 'oo the Shaka Cliffs. 'E led us up some trail up the cliffside and Great Eagles, it was a slippery cliff! Very icy, mussay. So, 'ee here, at dee top of the Cliffs Shorl took us eento this icy cave, where there was thees old weetchy horse. . . ."
No more is needed from Amaros' account, because then me and Marax caught up. You see, we'd been following them, as a dun turning to albino? Unheard of. The 'weetchy horse' did look like a witch; bony, wizened, a shriveled gray mare with her hips jutting out...It was simply grotesque. The whole cave was encased in white ice. Little hollows in the cave walls were stuffed with herbs, and a tall, thick stick was carved with ancient words. It leaned against the wall. The witchlike mare stepped forward, her eyes wide and bloodshot, pure white. White. . . .white. . . .the thought struck me. Shorl was white. This old hag's eyes were white. Was this old horse bewitching Shorl so he was more warlike and white and. .. .No, that's all silly thoughts. Or at least, I thought it was silly then.
Shorl turned proudly to the gang. Damien looked spooked, and so did everyone else. The witch stepped forward. "I am Haggia," she croaked. Great, I thought. A fitting name for an old hag.
"You wish to be different?" she inquired. "Naha'teehemis here asked to be braver. . .What do you wish?" Damian, the old fool, wondering who Naha'teehemis was (Obviously Shorl. Haggia must've given him a nickname or something) said, "Yes, I'd like to, Haggy."
'Haggy' replied, with satisfied loathing in her eyes, "Insolent, aren't you? Well, we'll fix that. Very well, you wish. You have not asked specifically to be different, thus I will make you different how I like!"
I could've warned Damian, but he was so foolish he didn't dodge at all, so a white glow surrounded Damian's whole gang of duns. Then the light exploded....And they were frozen in ice.
Marax had ventured a few foot in front of me. I'd had a crush on Marax a few weeks, and we'd at last decided to mate when we got old enough, but when I glanced at Marax again what I saw almost froze me, too.
Marax was encased in ice.
* * *
Horses often ask me how I escaped without Haggia getting me, too. It wasn't easy, I most often reply. It depended on sheer luck, I suppose.
Shorl stepped around the frozen horses. "Excellent, Naggico," he purred. Haggia, aka Naggico, I guess, laughed in what sounded like a croak . "Yes, Natahee," she replied. "More minions, my beta. The Iceborn Herd shall swell and rule...And yes, Natahee, you will be my beta. Damian, here, when he awakes he will have no memory. Neither will the rest of the fools, like you had, I just told you your history," she added absently. Shorl nodded, a malicious smile spreading over his features. "Yes, I've done my best to ignore Racy. It's a lot more fun thn it would be to be romantic and soppy eyed like Marax and Aly are." Anger burned within me. How dare he call me soppy! But still, worry and fear for Marax burned within me stronger than anger. If the gang would have no memory, then Marax surely wouldn't. Oh, why me!
Shorl sniffed, pleased with himself. "Well, with luring so many horses here, we'll easily be able to conquer all these horses. We'll move the gang into here later..." And a section of stone and ice slid aside and Shorl stepped through. Haggia followed. I followed.
A huge cavern was what I stepped into, but there wasn't much space to run given as there were so many horses in different positions, most dun, though I spotted a gray, a black, a brown, a russet, and one already white but without the red-rimmed eyes. They were all surrounded with shimmering, crystalline ice. Shorl stepped through the sculptures, while Haggia watched, obviously pleased. "Yes, the Iceborn herd will soon grow," she murmured. I estimated several hundred horses were in there, and there were five herds. About twenty horses each herd sported. Thus four hundred versus one hundred, minus each horse Haggia had lured to her cavern.
Then Haggia turned. I was forced to spirit through the door and run home.
* * *
I paced a clearing in the Blackwoods. Ruby, a dun mare, and Kiera, Thorn, Bulk, Braida, Racy, Ace, and Lucy watched me nervously. I had summarized what I had seen. "So Haggia lures horses to her cave with the hope of being changed from a dun, and being better, braver. So she freezes them for a few days, then they return, changed, without any real feeling to their herdmates and all their loyalty to Haggia, who "gave them a better life,' and they're more warlike and rude, and they're exploiting every horse so that they won't be dun, they'll all be white." I stopped pacing. I felt sick. "And white's colorless!"
"And so how do we stop Haggia, and change Shorl and every other horse?" Ruby chimed in. I stared at her, racking my brains. "Good question," I decided. "I'm going to level with you. I have no idea."
Thorn shook his head. "Well," Bulk declared, (he'd always been aggressive) "Let's just attack them and force Haggia to change Shorl, Marax, and all of'em back. 'Kay?"
"I actually think that's a pretty good plan," I said sarcastically. "But oh yeah, Bulk, how're we going to muster practically six million horses in less then a day?"
Bulk looked crestfallen. I pressed on. "But the horses haven't been changed yet, right? So let's pretend we want to be white, too. Let's go there. Then we'll pounce on Haggia and Shorl. How's that?" Bulk rolled his eyes. "That was my idea, Aly!"
I disdained to reply. "Well, let's do it!" I declared.
Bulk nodded, although he still looked slightly grumpy. Thorn, a dark brown stallion with green eyes, got up. "Okay, Aly. But this better work," he added instantly. I rolled my eyes. "It's not risk-free, Thorn, and if you want it to be risk-free, go somewhere else."
Thorn hrrumphed, just like Bulk had, but both of them were willing to go. Ruby nodded, and so did Braida, Racy, Ace. . . . But Lucy, a beautiful chocolate brown mare with green eyes and swirls of cream fur through her pelt, wasn't. Instead, she was shaking her head. "You forgot something, Aly," she told me. "Won't Shorl be leading every horse down the mountain?"
I stiffened. I hadn't thought of that. Then in a flash a thought came to me that probably save my skin. "But wait, Lucy!" I intercepted the young mare as she made to go. "Don't forget, Shorl has to tell over a hundred horses what happened and everything. So c'mon! Do you want to be called an Iceborn horse?"
"No," Lucy conceded reluctantly. "Even though it would be cool to be white.....But anyway, I'm a Pelta."
"C'mon, then!" I turned tail and galloped away.
The wind flattened my mane down. Ruby was at my side, Ace at my other side. Lucy was right behind me, and then Bulk and Thorn were at the back. We galloped hard and fast, until we were at the mountain's base.
I skidded to a halt, and Ruby leapt up onto the stone pathway. Thorn followed Ruby, and grunting, I accelerated and jumped up after them. Bulk, snorting and grumbling, came after me, and Lucy and Ace were last. After several minutes of boring walking, we were at the cave entrance. . . . .
The ice statues of Damian, Amaros, and the rest of the gang had vanished. Haggia, that wizened old bone-bag, was mixing a heap of various herbs. Shorl, pure white and stronger and more vicious than before, eyes rimmed red, stood next to her. My heart nearly stopped as I recognized the third horse that stood next to them.
He was barely recognizable, as he had formerly been a dark dun color. His eyes, formerly a handsome hazel, were now red. He was, like Shorl, pure white, and even stronger and muscled than Shorl. It was Marax.
Ruby nudged me comfortingly. In the back of my throat choked a sob. Shorl's ears twitched, and I immediately grew quiet. Shorl turned around and as the ice and rock slid open, vanished into the huge cave, where clattering and neighing was coming from. He was going to tell all the horses what had happened to them, I thought. But as my gaze fell on Marax, I felt another twist of sorrow. As I gazed at Haggia, fury and anger gripped me.
I stepped out into the cave.
Marax looked up, and Haggia cackled slowly when she spotted me. "You wish to be different?" she called. I nodded. Play along, I thought, wishing Bulk wouldn't be stirring and twitching.
"We wish to be Iceborn," said Lucy smoothly, stepping out from behind me. "We dislike our petty ancestors, our detestable herds. Lito, our herd leader, is nothing compared to you, Haggia, and Marax."
Marax stiffened as his gaze fell on me. "I am not Marax," he nickered. "I am Nakirto. Haggia, perform your spell."
"No, not yet," Lucy intercepted. "Tell us a little about being an Iceborn."
Haggia's gaze fell on me, and burned into my dun fur. "Well, you are born again," she said at last. "Born again. . ." Her gaze held my stare and I felt myself fall into a trance. Why not? After all, being born again! My mistakes would be erased--and look at Mirax. He was so strong, so brave. I would be strong, and brave too. With horror, I felt myself say:
"Yes, I very very much would want to be an Iceborn. . ." And my tone said I'd die for Haggia. And then all I remember was ice flashing toward me.
What did I feel like then? I can't remember, even now, completely. I think I felt it was unbearably cold, so cold I would do anything to get out of the layer of ice that held me. Deprived of sunlight to keep my fur its healthy shade of dun, it would turn white. Now I think that when you're in the ice, you're so cold that when Haggia melts you you'll do anything for her. And you forget everything, except your need for warmth--and when it's warm, you feel so, so hot that you're about to die. Later I found that Haggia was sending stormclouds to keep the sun's heat away so her brainwashed minions could live and exploit every horse.
When, a long time later it seemed, the ice melted, I was stronger and hardened to the cold, and braver from resisting the ice, brave, though, as in foolhardy, thinking you could conquer anything from the freezing cold. And, like I said, your fur hadn't been exposed to the sun and you hadn't eaten anything, so you your fur had turned white from extreme conditions. That's the logical explanation.
When I came too, I, Bulk, Thorn, Kiera, and Ace were all frozen. Lucy wasn't there.
We were in the huge cavern that all the ice statues were in. Now, only five statues other than us were in it. A grey mist suffused the lights. I wasn't myself, I know that. I felt, yes, braver, but somehow I was itching to fight. When Bulk glanced at me, his pelt white, and eyes a vicious red, I wheeled around, my thick pale fur bristling. "Want something, bird-breath?" he challenged. I nodded "Might just, Web-head!" Bulk rushed me. I reared, and Bulk skittered to a halt as I leapt over him. A whisper penetrated my conscious, and I suppose Bulk, Thorn, Ace and Kiera had heard it too, because their ears pricked and their red eyes widened, white pelts fluffed up.
"Bulk, Aly, stop fighting!" The voice hissed. Bulk backed away, looking uneasy. It felt like a presence was in the room--I swear I felt fur brush my pelt. I wheeled around, snorting and huffing. Then the presence was gone, and the doorway slid open. An unfamiliar white horse walked through. My red eyes narrowed.
I felt like I should know her--but I didn't. Actually, I didn't remember anything of my past. The cold had taken my memory away from me. Bulk was just a white horse, and so was everyone else. The white mare walked toward me. Her red eyes bore into me. "I am Kawka," she said in a high, cold voice. "You," she zeroed in on me-- "Are Dablai. You--" she spoke to Bulk-- "Are Piker. And you are" Thorn now "Titan. And you there" Kiera, no longer shy but now strong and white-furred "are Nata, and the last one is Lawaka. You are all Iceborn horses."
A thrill of remembrance lanced through me. I tried to grasp it--but I couldn't.
"You are brave, strong, and white. You have been born anew from the ice. You are Iceborn. That is all that matters."
Suddenly, the air shimmered. And I, Dablai, Titan, Nata, Lawaka, and Kawka were not alone.
A brown mare with creamy white swirls through her fur and a gilt mane and tail was there. Her neck was arched proudly and her tail held up. "No it's not!" she flashed at Kawka. "Being someone good is all that matters. Aly," she pleaded. "Come back."
Was she talking to me? A memory glistened within me--almost in reach.
The mare was speaking to Nata now. "Kiera!" she shouted. Tears were leaking from her eyes. "Thorn! Come back!" She was sobbing, her chest convulsing with tears. Sorrow radiated from her. I backed away, startled. Fear? Sorrow? That was unknown to an Iceborn. Iceborn horses were great! Or were we......?
She focused on Piker. "Bulk!" she neighed. "You're not Piker! You're Bulk! Being a dun horse is better than being white. All will be white, without color, without emotion, just plain cold! To be a dun horse shows you are yourself, you have strength and emotion! You aren't just a colorless heap of fur that's being used for these wretches!" she nodded to Kawka. "She's a wretch, just like Shorl and Marax and Haggia!"
Marax. Marax! The word bolted through me. And I wasn't just filled with hard-bitten strength against the cold and pride for nothing. I had sorrow, pain, a wish, and a memory.
"Lucy!" I cried. Lucy looked straight at me, hope glimmering in her eyes. "Aly?" She spoke weakly. "Yeah!" I neighed. I swiveled around. Being encased in ice had kept my fur from being its normal dun. If I returned to the warmth and sunlight and grass, I could really become a dun horse, maybe even a gold or brown one.
I glared at Kawka. "You evil hag," I accused. Kawka snickered.
Shorl whickered from beside Haggia. Unnoticed, he'd crept in beside her.
"Quiet," Haggia growled. An odd look of pleasure had taken over her normal sneer as I prowled forward. Lucy stepped to my side.
Haggia snickered again. "Oh, please," she drawled. "Just try to leave, why don't you?"
"Why not?" I murmured, tilting my head to stare sideways at Lucy. Lucy nodded. "Come on!"
Lucy raced forward, me at her heels. But Haggia let out a shrill neigh--"Iceborn!"
Immediately, the Iceborn horses whirled forward and lined up in front of Lucy and me. I growled in my throat--a horse-y growl.
Lucy sighed, her golden tail swishing. "Well, we always knew that wasn't going to work."
Haggia stepped forward. "Maybe you need . . . . A little down-time, to consider?" she suggested quietly, sounding very unlike her normal self--or the self I'd heard lately.
"Yes, we do," Lucy said immediately, shaking out her gilded mane. Shorl nodded, eyes narrowing. "Just come back when you feel like it. . . . ."
Shorl said something I didn't catch briefly to the Iceborn. Then Haggia snapped at him, and both withdrew past the door of ice--but not before Haggia spoke snappingly to the Iceborn and they froze in a solid, cold line in front of us.
Lucy sighed as we were left alone in the cold icy hall. I slid over the floor to the corner of the room. "A second plan, Lucy? And what did Shorl mean? We can't come when we're ready-we're blocked in by the Iceborn!"
"No," Lucy whimpered. "Oh, Aly, what do we do?"
"Did you hear what Haggia siad to those Iceborn?" I asked hopefully. Lucy shook her head. "Something that sounded like freeze," she joked half-heartedly. I sighed. "I didn't hear either," I told her.
"Maybe we. . . .just need to defrost them?" I suggested hopefully. Lucy snorted. "Very funny. How do you suggest we do that?" she asked in a voice heavy with sarcasm.
"Good point," I answered frostily. "Just press against them and let them warm up with our body heat."
"Maybe that'll work," Lucy replied, a little bit of real hope materializing in her voice. "From what I've seen of Haggia, she mostly knows magic and spells. She might not think of us warming them up, because that's so practical--no magic in that."
"Maybe you're right, Lucy," I answered. "I'll take Bulk. He's no good if he's defrosted by Haggia--he'll hurt us. You take Thorn."
"You mean Titan and Piker?" Lucy sighed, but she went to Thorn and pressed against his cold statue. The Iceborn were frozen together, their ice sticking, so that I had to press against Bulker's front to warm him. I breathed slowly against his mouth, hoping to warm his mouth up.
Meanwhile, Lucy was crooning like she'd crooned to me when I was still an Iceborn. "Thorn, wake up," she'd murmur. "Come on, you're not Titan and not Iceborn. You're Thorn--wake up!"
I murmured the same things to Bulk's frosty statue, whispering soothing things about home, his parents and family, his herd and warm trees and leaves and hot, juicy grass and his real name.
I thought it would never work. How long did we stand there, talking about home and names that meant nothing to statues of white horses with red-rimmed eyes, covered in ice? But finally Lucy let out an excited shout. As I looked over at her, I realized that I wasn't just pressing against ice anymore--but I could feel flesh and fur touching me now.
"Yes!" I cried, hoarse from cooing about Bulk's name and parents for so long. Lucy was backing away from Thorn, whose front half was unfrozen and back melting. Thorn shook off the rest of the ice and let out a neigh, warm breath billowing from his jaws. The rest of the ice melted, freeing the now-white stallion. Bulk was coming unfrozen too, his white head shaking its mane and his eyes blinked troubledly.
"Lucy?" Thorn spoke in a frozen whisper. "Aly?"
Lucy stood about ten feet away from Thorn, tentatively stretching her neck toward him. "Thorn?"
"What?" Thorn grunted. Lucy let out a half-neigh, half-sob of relief. I backed away from Bulk as the white stallion came unfrozen and looked up at me, red-rimmed eyes blinking.
"Bulk?" I asked hopefully. Bulk shook his head. "Aly?"
I let out a gasp of relief. Then Bulk asked, "What--Thorn? What are all these statues? Aly, Lucy, tell us what's going on!"
I looked at Lucy. "You explain." And I pressed against a powerful white stallion. Best to get the strongest horses on our side before Haggia and Shorl and Marax--Marax!--came back.
The next few hours passed in a haze of joy. After Lucy explained the lengthy story to Thorn and Bulk, they all pressed against other horses, with Thorn warming up Kiera so we'd all be there. Just as the ice door creaked and slid open, we'd defrosted half the horses there, and gotten Kiera, Thorn, Bulk, and all the most powerful looking horses. The names were all blurs--Rowan, Jay, Leaper, Raven, Xate, Thistle, Pigeon, Snowy, Sandy, Dust, Pebble, Creek, and more. Xate, Thistle, Jay, Leaper, Dust, Pebble and Pigeon seemed to be the seven strongest stallions in the icy cave. The two that seemed to need to be protected most were willowy Snowy and Kiera.
Haggia blinked in shock as she pushed her way in. "What?" she breathed.
Shorl let out an exclamation of horror.
Marax, at Shorl's side, blinked cooly and a thin stream of what seemed like words of panic came from his mouth.
I stepped forward, my white fur fluffed up and bristling, my red-rimmed eyes glaring. "Haggia, you can't stop us," I said triumphantly. "We're leaving, once and for all!"
We'd planned all this before, while we unfroze the last two horses--Raven and Xate. All the strongest horses would race forward and unbalance Haggia--Bulk would pin her down, put a hoof on her mouth so she couldn't speak and keep her pinned. The other six would tackle Marax and Shorl. Three would keep down Marax, and the other would keep down Shorl, and would drag them from the cage and bring them outside. Lucy would go with them to reason with them. Bulk and I would get Haggia's spell from her and freeze her in the ice cavern and everyone else would unfreeze the rest of the horses and then we would all leave. Our plan was flawless.
Xate--who'd we'd told the plan--rushed forward with everyone else and, in the rush of bodies, I saw Haggia knocked over. Bulk stopped and pinned her, just as planned.