Elidan

Everyone has a story to tell. This is the story of how Elidan came to soar the skies of Pegasus Heights
(©SunBlind)

Alidus grew to be a fine young stallion, who soon discovered another precious egg. From this egg hatched to lovely Rhadia who stories wove through the minds of the Winged Ones as they listened to her tales carried on the winds.

They dared not hope for such a gift themselves, but in the depths of their hearts, they knew one day an egg would be found to them. But no matter how expectant they were of this great event, it came one day as a great surprise. It was a day like many others, the sun shone bright and the clouds pure white. Pegasi foals frolicked with the birds and the young stallions tried to court the lovely fillies who laughed and giggled amongst themselves, hoping the bravest and the finest would pick them.

That day Zylin chose Dayla as his mate forevermore.

Though not from Pegasus Heights, they often flew with others of the herd. A great bond existed between the pegasi herds of the world, as they could travel further than the unicorns, they were not so isolated and great friendships existed over greater distances.

Then one dark night, immense thunderheads rose to such heights the Winged Ones could not escape its fury. They ran amongst the midnight clouds looking for refuge but there was none to be found. Rain lashed at chilled hides and drenched soaken wings. Flight soon became slow and laborious if not completely impossible for the winged horses. Many lay upon the darkened clouds, sheltering faces beneath wings. Others ran from lightning as it coursed through the thunderhead. Foals cried for their dams as thunder hurt their fragile ears and reverberated through their bones. Those that could still fly descended to the ground to find shelter from the angry storm, storm being to gentle a word to describe the power Nature's force. Those who remained feared for their lives as lightning surrounded them, its crackling charge could be felt through hoof and horn alike. Foals too young to fly wimpered by mothers who would not abandon their young to the horrors of that night.

A cave was found on the ground where the Winged Ones hid long enough to dry their wings. Soon, the strong stallions returned to the sky to rescued first the foals, then any of the others they could carry through the rain. Mares remained to comfort young ones separated from their mothers. Finally, all of the herd were gathered in the cave below their beloved clouds. Many were nervous, uncomfortable of the hard ground, those who had never been there shivered as they tried to make out the shadows of the dark cave for fear of unknown creatures lurking in this unknown world of land.

A group of Elders gathered. Yberran, the great sorceror of the herd tried to explain that this was no ordinary storm, that great magic was its driving force. "..... and so my friends, I believe that there is something here that some great evil does not want us to find. Something that it wants destroyed. What this could be, I know not and I fear it will be a great loss to us. But it appears that it was not sent to destoy us. All of us have found shelter here, the only injuries are a few singed feathers and tails. Unless of course, it meant to drive us here, capture us beneath a solid sky with no stars no sun above us.......", Yberran shudder and set to work casting protection spells about the cave so that no creature may enter. He thought not to ward against those who may wish to leave.

Braelan listened intently as the Elders spoke. He was alowed to join them for he was one of the herd's protectors, along with the older Stratuus who was busy keeping everyone calm with his solid presence. Braelan knew he was trained to guard and protect the herd from any danger, from any evil and that he could not do it if he remained here. So before Yberran had a chance to complete the warding spells, Braelan spread his wings and returned to the Winged Ones's abandoned home.

As he ascended, he could hear Yberran's angry cries for him to return and not be foolish. He had no idea the force of evil required to drive a storm such as this one. And such a storm it was, Braelan thought as icy pellets stung him like a swarm of bees. Tired from rescuing the others, his wings heavy with water, Braelan fought to continue his flight. Should it take him a lifetime, he would rise to the clouds and find that which was not meant to be found. It took all his effort and might to raise his wings to propel himself closer to his goal, sweat washed away quickly in the rain, breath coming in gasps.

When it seemed his wings, the very things which gave him flight, would drag him down, he rose above the lowest level of the clouds and settled to rest. He looked about for anything that might be the cause of this torrential storm. But there was nothing, nothing at all within his sight. Nothing but that thunderhead illuminated by constant lightning. The thunderhead, an electrical fortress......

Gathering his forces, Braelan launched himself once more into the air and headed straight for the menacingly ominous cloud. He danced between the bolts of death calling upon all the skills he had been taught and all the instincts with which he was born. At last he burst into the absolute darkness of the heart of the thunderhead. And all was quiet. Landing, Braelan called out, but with no reply. He began a search, testing the clouds with his hooves until he stuck something hard. Gently he gathered it up and once more headed out into the storm.

As he descended, fatigued and carrying the weight of whatever it was, Braelan was scorched by a bolt of lightning along his right side. In his pain he dropped his discovery. With forceful pumping of his wings he dove towards it. He caught it easily but stopping his accelerated fall was not. Yberran, who never completed the wards stood outside and watched at the brown form plummeted towards the ground. Calling upon the powers he knew so well, Yberran fought the evil which wanted to prevent this good magic from saving a fallen friend. But Yberran's will was stronger and Braelan floated gently to the ground.

Quickly they were brought inside and Yberran finished the protection spell. Everyone stood in awe of the treasure found by Braelan. It was an egg. Though it appeared the same as a unicorn egg, they all knew that within its swirling shell beat the heart of a young Winged One, one who never would have live to see the world about him had Braelan not so foolishly risen to fight the storm. As they turned to thank the hero, they smiled to see him asleep, exhausted from his efforts, with Yberran soflty snoring against him.

When the egg hatched, Braelan was given the honour to name the little winged foal. Braelan's right side twitched as he remembered what he went through to save this colt. A long black line ran along his side as a reminder to all, of foolishness and bravery running strong through a single stallion. He nuzzled the little one who leaned against his saviours side. And so Braelan gave the young one the name Elidan.

It was soon discovered that just before the storm hit, Zylin chose Dayla had brought one of their eggs as a gift to the herd. The proud parents were shocked to hear what almost happened to their foal. They were forever grateful to Braelan who believed he did simply as he believed he must.

Many believed that Elidan would want to follow in Braelan's hoofsteps, as his instincts were strong. He seemed to be able to avoid all hazards just before he crossed their paths. He'd stop just before he'd step into a soft spot in the clouds, he'd turn around just as some of the other foals tried to sneak up on him. Actually, everyone discovered that Elidan was very hard to surprise. Even on his first birthday, he seemed to know everyone was lying in wait to jump out at him. The colts blamed the fillies for not being able to keep a secret, they stuck their tongues out knowing that they had not said a word.

One day, Elidan was playing with the other foals his age, leaping and bounding and trying their wings. Elidan never spoke, but that didn't seem to bother any of the other foals. They would take turns scrambling up a puff of cloud then launching themselves into the air. So far not one of them managed to maintain flight, but a couple glided a few feet to make a nice landing. Try as he might, Elidan couldn't even glide, but he was having too much fun to really care. Winged Ones don't tease each other in the same cruel way that mortals do, so the ones who could glide did not taunt those who could not. Suddenly, as Elidan stood upon the bump, a strange look came across his face. He looked up to see Braelan flying over, making sure all was well. Elidan shook his head and swished his tail in an attempt to silently get the pegasus' attention, but Braelan was looking elsewhere. Setting his jaw, Elidan gathered himself onto his haunches and lept high into the air, higher than any of the others had before. At the peak of his jump, he brought his little wings down with as much force but not too quickly and rose a little higher. A few more flaps of his wings and Elidan was well on his way to catching up with the brown one. The foals below stared up with wonder, then quickly set themselves to practice twice as hard.

Braelan was surprised to see Elidan following him. With a great smile he turned to his young charge, then frowned as he saw the worry upon Elidan's face. In no time Elidan was tugging at Braelan's mane and tail, trying to pull him down to the clouds below. Not sure what Elidan was trying to say, the stallion glided to land next to the trembling foal. Then there was a huge gust of wind followed by a large *BOOM* which sent the Winged Ones in all directions. A jet plane had just passed right where Braelan would have flown. Could a creature covered with hair pale in shock, Braelan did. Though planes were a common occurence, Yberran had created an invisibility spell to prevent passengers from seeing any of their kind, they were still a danger to those not aware. These that travel faster than sound were the hardest to avoid for they would pass before one could hear them. Braelan just looked at Elidan who huddled against his scarred flank and shook his head.

Elidan grew up proud and strong, but silent. Not once had he spoken a word to any of the other Winged Ones, not even his closest friends. Yberran started to watch him closely, feeling something special growing within this colt, something quite different than what everyone had expected of him. But just could not put a feather on what it could be. Elidan seemed too watchful, seemed to react too quickly to things, faster than even Braelan could. There was more than instinct at play here. It was if he knew, as if he could see what was to come. But that could not be, not even Yberran could call on enough power to see glimpses into the future. It was said that the unicorns had a pool into which one could look, but they always denied it, and he had begun to believe them. They had nothing to hide from their winged counterparts.

For some reason Yberran was reluctant to confront the colt. Besides, Elidan could not answer him, most had decided that he was a mute. Yberran was not so sure, he had seen others who knew so much that they prefered to remain silent rather than speak of their wisdom.

Yberran did not have to wait long. Elidan ran up to him one day, something had greatly frightnened him, yet he would not speak. Nervously he swayed from side to side, trying to find a way to warn the sorceror of what was to come. Finally he convinced the wise stallion to follow him to the edge of the clouds where he gestured with his horn for Yberran to do something, to cast a spell, but against what. Yberran shook his head, he didn't understand what Elidan wanted him to do. At last he resorted to listing all the spells he were capable of, until he said "Protection". Elidan reared and pointed with a slim hoof towards the sky.

So Yberran cast a protection spell to surround Pegasus Heights and then waited. Nothing happened but Elidan was as intent as ever. If this was some trick, Yberran would punish this foolish horse for weakening him so. It took a great deal of his energy to ward such a large area. But then Elidan grew tense. Yberran looked but saw nothing, then out of nowhere a huge wyvern appeared and dove towards the Winged Ones. It crashed into the wards and fell back shrieking in pain. It turned and flew away, feathers falling off in all directions. It had used magic to trick the Winged Ones and had failed, it would never try that approach again.

Yberran looked hard at the colt beside him. Now he knew it to be true, Elidan was a seer. He wondered if he could call upon his powers or if they just came to him. It didn't matter. Elidan wanted it a secret or he would have "said" something before. So Yberran bowed and told the colt that he may come whenever he willed to ask for help with his visions. He would also do well if he allowed Yberran to tell Braelan who also suspected something of the sort and worried for the one he had taken care of. Elidan thought a moment then nodded. He spread his wings and launched himself into the air to soar among the sun and clouds on a beautiful summer day.

Statistics:
Name: Elidan
Gender: Male
Age: Adult
Sire: Zylin
Dam: Dayla
Mate: Valaya
Offspring: None

Text © SunBlind
Silver Unicorns © Silvanon
Buttons and background from Borders by Silverhair