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Neopia's Fill in the Blank News Source | 2nd day of Celebrating, Yr 26
The Neopian Times Week 122 > Short Stories > Touched by Darkness

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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