Barega-1

Kandali, the shy silver stallion, just wanted to hide.
But Tirrawa's first foal was born to the hunted life, a colt more burnished gold than his sire, though still quite pale, he was the
very image of the silver brumby, though by that time there were none left who could tell him so. He had a fire of life burning in him that equalled that of the Silver Stallion's, and he loved the life of the hunted far more than Kandali ever could. By the time he was a two year old, the colt was leading many a chase of his own. He was the stallion Son of Storm and Tambo had been hoping for. He
was a whirlwind horse, and it soon became obvious he would stand for all the rough, unwise stallions that had taken over the land he considered his birthright.
He came one day like the spirit of Thowra himself, and began a fight that lasted for days and days and for stallion after stallion.
It seemed the young silver horse would never tire, as he fought horse after horse every day, though he never left the Cascades, never backed down. His great battle cry rang throughout the mountains and soon there were few who did not recognise the tremendous stallion call of the son of Kandali.

* * *

The young and great silver stallion's name is now long forgotten, but he will forever be remembered as Maparn, the one who healed the Cascades' monarchy. And direct from his blood came Barega, his son and exact replica. He was out of a mare whose bloodline came from the north, a moon mare whose coat was almost black with a dusting of silver and mane and tail like the spray from a waterfall.
Barega grew up knowing the Cascades would be his, and when he was a young stallion he won his right to stand by his noble and battle-scarred sire, and met with the horses who had befriended the great silver horse over the years. The Wind Whisperer, who had been a great ally to Maparn, was still in his prime and was enjoying his brief time owning a herd of black-and-white mares and fillies who followed him on his wild wanderings. And there was Nepelle, who was first called Waiirri, the lord of the sky as his name meant, the first ever (and last as yet) Stallion of the Moon, who lived around the Ingegoodbee and Stockwhip areas but was seen many a time by the birds of the air galloping through the silver forest thrust out against the sky on the Pilot, and he could not tear himself from the high places any more than could the Wind Whisperer.
Barega learnt a great deal from his sire and his legendary companions. And when Nepelle disappeared without leaving a son fit to replace him, and only a few daughters that carried the genes for his rare colouring (one of whom was caught, another other went on to Sawpit Creek and her granddaughter or great-granddaughter was Warreeah, who now runs with Barega's son Whirlwind) Barega took one of the fillies and cherished her, making Maparn proud. There were rumours that Nepelle still ran in the silver forest, but he was never seen again, and there was some mystery as to his disappearance.
But Barega?s first real infatuation was with Nalin, a daughter of the Brumbies of the Night, an ivory filly so perfect and shining she seemed to be made of living ice crystal. Maparn never approved of the strange white brumbies of legend, and when Barega saw her the old silver horse insisted that it was ill luck and nothing good could come of it. But Barega took no heed and sought her, almost killing himself in the process. But she was his as much as he was hers, and sought him out as well, and once they met it was for good, or so it seemed. She was but a yearling, and he two, but she had a foal at foot the next spring.
Umina, the splendid golden-coloured champagne filly, was lame. Not just to the point of not being able to run, she could barely stand, and as she got older even this ability abandoned her. But she told the most remarkable tales, stories of legends she must have been able to feel on the wind or in the earth, for she was never told them yet they were real and often old. By the time her brother Waiirri was born, she was almost wasted away, as she could no longer get up and a horse that cannot get pressure off the fragile blood vessels under its heavy body is doomed to a slow death. She was always small, and could get sufficient nourishment and was stronger than anyone expected, surviving over a year, but eventually it was too much for her and she did not get up again.
But while she lived, and her full brother Waiirri was a tiny cremello colt laying wide-eyed with wonder with his pale blue and white cloudy brother Morang and sisters Ash and Leena as they listened to another of Umina's incredible stories, she told the best tales the mountains had known, as if she somehow had tapped into the very memory of the land itself, and the brumbies were in awe, even the full-grown mares and stallions. Even Barega and sometimes Maparn could be found occasionally lying blissfully by the gold filly, listening as if lost in a world of long ago.
But the winter that Waiirri was born was the death of many horses, including Barega's great old sire Maparn. The Wind Whisperer lost his entire herd to blizzards and sheer drops and vowed not to make mares risk themselves for him again - his life was too wild to bring them into. And Barega's herd was split up while trying to move to lower ground; Nalin among those trapped by snow on the higher side of the pass. With her were others of his herd, including the dam of the little brown cream filly Ash, a liver chestnut racer mare named Gooranji, and a big buckskin sabino shire mare named Rosie, a wise old escapee from a nearby property who was in foal to Barega.
Barega spent the whole winter worrying for his lost mares, longing for Nalin and desperately trying to find some sign of her. Waiirri and Ash were taken care of by a blue scrub mare Kondalilla, dam of Morang, and the grey mare Mist, dam of Leena, and were strong but deathly afraid of snow.
Barega had an ally over the winter, who had escaped with Rosie the shire, a funny pale blue appaloosa stallion called Doc's Blue Frost, who couldn't fight worth a gumnut but who was an excellent watch and great companion. He helped Barega by watching his herd while the silver horse searched and searched for his lost mares.
But come spring, Barega had two nasty surprises.
The first was that Colours May Run, a big dark bay spotted blanket stallion, returned to the Cascades after a long time away, as he had found out that Maparn was dead. And the second was that Rosie appeared, and good as it was to see her alive she was very skinny and her pregnant belly looked bloated beside her jutting-out hips and visible ribs, and worst was she had bad news. Nalin had been buried by the snow that had fallen, separating them from the herd, and Gooranji and Rosie and the other mare trapped with them, the mare of the moon, tried to dig her out but she was white, exactly the same shade as the snow, and they never found her though they ploughed up the snow and nearly wore themselves to death trying. Rosie had been the only one to make it out, though she was unsure whether the other two perished or were lost, as they both slid down through a crack in a rock that the shire mare had stuck in and been able to climb out of thanks to her size.
Barega was terribly dismayed. Nalin! And Gooranji and the moon mare!
His beloved Nalin, covered with snow... he went into a decline from then on, having lost too many of the horses that meant so much to him over the winter.
But Waiirri, Morang, Ash and Leena were still alive, and they were growing well. They had started to romp in the Cascades, and had met the oddest-looking three-coloured colt Barega had ever seen, a foal at his mothers side when first they met, but by the time the sky colts and their lovely sisters were two, Yulu-Wirree the tri-colour had joined them and followed them wherever they went, admiring Waiirri and Morang even more than their sisters! And by then Shadow, Rosie's black colt, longed to run with the sky colts and Yulu-Wirree, the rainbow, and the two fillies that were obviously going to be amazing mares. He was accepted by the group, who loved the funny shy little colt, and Mist's colt, the same age as Shadow and Yulu-Wirree, a handsome little pale silver called Whirlwind, often ran with them as well, though he left around two to make a name for himself in the Tin Mines.
Barega had been plagued ever since he got Nalin, by a very big appy stallion who came from the same place as Doc's Blue Frost, only he had escaped many years before the friendly blue and for a while he had left the creamy alone as Maparn had threatened him. His name was Colours May Run, and he wanted Nalin for himself, and he wanted to kill Barega for being the son of the Silver Herd. But Barega and Frost managed to finally devise a trick that led to both appy stallions being re-captured. For Frost it was no big deal, as he got to go back to a warm stall, a rug and grain, and would get to see Barega every now and then, but for Colours it was the greatest insult imaginable, and he ended up being restrained much of the time and kept like some sort of wild ferocious killer beast for the rest of his days, though he was still a valuable stud. Frost even occasionally let out a mare or filly, telling them to find Barega or his sons, and when he learnt to shut the gate afterwards, the men suddenly had a mystery on their hands! How did their prettiest fillies keep getting out?
But with Colours gone, another pest appeared. A chunky-muscled bay stallion, a little older than Barega and with an identical son the same age as Waiirri and Morang (Toadwort, the colts name was) came stepping smugly into the Crackenback valley and spread up the sides of the Brindle Bull, lording it over the sparkling river and making Barega's life miserable in as many petty ways as he could, and the occasional big clash that left both with scars and neither much better off. Barega had no wish to kill the chunky bay but the irritating horse would not let him be!
But all the while Barega could not take his mind off Nalin and his other lost mares. Nalin, his glittering ice filly! He grew depressed and lost condition, and finally he could stand to stay in his beloved Cascades no longer. He gathered up his mares and headed south. The two-year-old the size of a huge stallion, Shadow came with him, bidding farewell to the sky colts, who were by this time three years old and ready to take the Cascades on for themselves. They reached Quambat Flat, and there Barega defeated the roan king of the south and took up the position himself, and the flat was his, along with a new blue roan mare, Koorpa.
But on the flat was a young steel grey colt, Yaraan, descended from the old line of Cloud, the regal king of Quambat of long ago, as well as carrying some of the blood of the silver stallions lightning and Baringa who had run there as well, and this royal blood was urging him too early to take his place as king of Quambat. He had no real malice for Barega, in fact felt some sort of kinship with him that he could not fully understand, but they just kept clashing. And finally it backfired terribly: Yaraan had grown big strong and white-grey over the year that Barega was king of Quambat, and they fought again, Yaraan accidentally blinding Barega in one eye! Yaraan was instantly remorseful, and as Barega left the flat, unable to remain king with one blind eye, the great silver horse was attacked by the evil bloody- marked tovero Burrabee, only to be saved by Yaraan in an odd distracting fight that allowed Barega to flee with his mares. He took them to Shadow, for the enormous black to look after them, since he had a fearsome, if unjustified, reputation and appearance that would scare off any stallions that would try to steal them, and Shadow was really even more gentle than Barega himself so they were in good hands. But Burramaronga, his rich liver grandson by Waiirri, and Whirlwind came down to find him and bring him back to their bimble on the Tin Mine creek. So Barega took his new little paint filly Belma (who he could not leave behind) and Mist, his lead mare (dam of Leena and Whirlwind) to stay in the tin mines while his eye healed.
Meanwhile, the isabella filly with blue eyes, Kyeema, full sister to Burramaronga, came with her brother and uncle but went on to Quambat where she joined Yaraan's herd.
Whirlwind had won the lower tin mine by defeating a huge black called Serinal, and he now had a large herd, very large for a three-year- old! But then when a filly and stallion had died in the lower valley and some of the herd bolted, the young creamy stallion took the herd further upstream while Burramaronga went to search for the fillies with an ally, Thunder, a black four-year-old with silver mane and tail and a small white slash on his flank.
Whirlwind drove off Mangaroo, the bay paint scrub horse that owned the top valley, and found that the horse owned one of his nieces, Jasper, a red dun daughter of Morang, and an injured dark mare. He let the herd settle in, but the peace was disturbed by the arrival of a huge ivory stallion, who had intercepted Mangaroo and heard from him that the silver horses in the tin mine owned a couple of white mares and a filly of the sun and the moon (Warreeah, descendant of Nepelle) and determined to have them. There was a tremendous fight, in which the ivory abducted Mangaroo and forced him to fight alongside him, but Barega sent the paint away, never to return or tell any of the strange events of the night to anyone. But Barega was knocked out and Whirlwind beaten, and the ivory got away with Warreeah and the two white mares.
Burramaronga returned as dawn broke, and was stunned to find his white mare Angel gone and the two silvers in bad shape, without their two mares. He brought with him Ash and Leena, as Ash had been abducted by Ossa and the Axe and beaten, her pelvis cracked, and now she was with foal, though she had always been thought barren. It was unsure who had sired the foal, but it was certain that it must be aborted before it got too heavy, or Ash would die. Leena, who had her foal along the way, a blue mare belonging to the rose grey Stormus, Kali Mayr who was there to help protect and guide the group, two fillies Ebony and Tauwa who had run away when the brumbies had died, and a new young mare Burra had fallen for, came as well, and Thambaroo and Yhi, the smoky cream son and daughter of Kali. The foal Yhi was the exact image of Waiirri's sister Umina, and told the same stories, but she was strong and could walk and run. Thambaroo was a yearling, and the first colt of the Mayr line to have the same strange abilities to sense things and see ghosts that the mares of his bloodline had, but was not allowed the Mayr name because he was male, and Kali had brought him and Ash to see Bagrook the ancient daughter of Maparn, who knew bush herbs. Ash was to be saved, and Kali wished to see about Thambaroo getting his name.
The dark mare Burra brought back with him and the injured mare who had been with Mangaroo turned out to be mother and daughter, and were reunited after thinking each other dead.
Tauwa, the little wild-toned bay filly that came back with Burra, had no tongue, as it had been taken out by schoolchildren when she was a foal, and she had grown up sad and lonely and misunderstood, which is why when she found herself mixed up with the blue dun son of Morang, Kaurun, she was instantly drawn to his obviously pained heart. But she had made a choice, and chosen to go back with Burra, though she still felt it was the wrong choice. Kaurun was banished from the Cascades at the same time, so she didn't even have any real idea where he went. And she could not even tell Ebony, her dearest friend, how she felt.
And in the Cascades, the son of the chunky bay that plagued Barega now made a nuisance of himself for the Sky Stallions, till he joined with the evil black horse Dirk, who was driven off by Barega and perhaps even Maparn, but felt the two young sons of the silver horse to be less of a problem. Then the pair became a real problem for the Silver Herd, and captured several of their mares, abusing their herds and generally treading on everyone in their way. Dirks brother, Thunder, the black-and-silver horse who came up from the Tin Mine, joined up with the Sky Stallions, who began to plot the biggest meeting and joining of stallions against a common foe that the mountains had ever seen, practically a full-scale war. There were quite a few that would join in the fight, and with the aid of Kai and Ku-Taroo, respectively the adopted son of an old silver daughter of Maparn and the son of Dirk who could not stand his sire, the long-lost Secret Valley was found. Kai had been taken there by his adopted dam just before she died, leaving him her tiny rose grey daughter, Kunamaka, and she had told him not to show the valley to anyone but The Silver Herd.
So the Cascades once more prepared to have blood spilled for the great valley, and an organisation of stallions began to build like nothing any horse would have imagined before.

* * *

Long ago, in the snowy mountains of Australia, there began legends of a Silver Brumby, a great palomino stallion who could defy death and evade all who sought to catch or harm him. He was the King of the Cascade brumbies and the very mountains whispered his name.
But as time went by, things became less ordered. Thowra, the Silver Brumby, went into hiding, and though he remained king, other stallions began to look at the Cascades as a good place to try and take for themselves.
When Thowra and Storm were no more, Tambo came out of the secret valley, but was unable to keep back the wave of marauding stallions who would take their opportunity now that the storm and the whirlwind blew no more. A silver grandson of Thowra's was killed, and old Son Of Storm, who had moved up from the Cobberas to stay in the valley off Thowra's, could not tolerate the insult to the Silver Herd, joining Tambo in the fight.
During all this, Son of Storms buckskin mare Wingilla's daughter, Bri Bri, had grown up, beautiful indeed, and had foals of her own. Among them was a chocolate palomino colt of nervous but fiery temperament, son of a chestnut racehorse who was re-captured before he was born. And he grew up in Son of Storms herd, his only knowledge of the world his brothers and sisters and the hidden flat off Thowra's Secret Valley. Even with the help of a loner black stallion, Socks, and his cattle dog, the Cascades was becoming overrun with boisterous stallions bent on owning the prime land, and Tambo, Son of Storm and Socks were forced back into hiding. Bri Bri's brown cream son was kept as secret as a colt can be, and the cascade brumbies almost held their breath as he grew in hope that he could help. Even Wirramirra and Tiarri, his son, were hidden away, Wirramirra in the Leatherbarrel with his cream-and-white mare, where his bloodline continues in Nangy.
Meanwhile, much further south, the country was still much in the hands of the silvers, as although even Baringa was getting on, Kalina and Yuri still roamed, and a silver filly the same age as Bri Bri's colt roamed with them. Baringa's sons and daughters, though men caught most, still carried the blood and quality of the whirlwind.
So it went on, and the Cascades was all but taken from the Silver Herd, though there was the occasional glimpse of hope in a creamy hide it came to what appeared to be naught in the end. Tambo and Son Of Storm lost hope, and Son of Storm ceased his wandering with Choopa, as although Dandaloo no longer ran with them he still saw his adopted dwarf son and his snowflake mare, but no more could his old heart handle the climb to the tops and the high glacier lakes. But, as if fate realised the harsh blow it had dealt the Silver Herd, somehow it drew together the son of Bri Bri and the daughter of Kalina and Yuri. They met along the Murray, and disappeared for a year, during which time of course every brumby connected to the Silver Herd held his breath.
But in the spring, the young chocolate cream stallion, lithe and fiery and shy as a rabbit, brought his wild-hearted silver mare home to Son of Storms hidden valley - and their delicate pale creamy son, fine as a butterfly and twice as timid, but with a heart as strong as the mountains themselves.
Kandali as he was called - swift - grew tall and very fast, and pale, almost isabella. And when Son of Storm died and the brown cream took over the hidden flat, Kandali stayed there till he was two and then grazed down by the Murray where his sire and dam had met.
Kandali, by remaining hidden as his shy sire had taught him, escaped persecution by both man and horse, and gathered a herd of his own.
Then one day he saw something that changed all that.
Men were chasing something through the bush on horseback. Kandali heard the hoofbeats and saw a flash of light through the trees: a flicker of creamy hide? He moved closer. Keeping up easily to the men's horses, he flew along almost silently behind them. When he saw what it was they were chasing, he doubled his efforts, overtaking the men in a few strides but hidden from view by the trees, and came up alongside a panting silver filly, no more than two. Kandali swung in behind her and shoved her into a dense patch of teatree, continuing the chase himself as the filly stumbled and fell, exhausted, in the scrub. The men thundered on, oblivious to the switch. They caught sight of Kandali's pale cream hide flashing through the tangled snowgums and spurred their mounts.
Kandali led them a fantastic chase, and the men never knew how the tired young filly they had flushed out of the bush had transformed into the tall, splendid young stallion, swift as the wind; far swifter than they. When finally Kandali felt they were sufficiently far from anything important, he vanished as silently as he had come, and the men felt sure they had been chasing a ghost. Perhaps the ghost of the Silver Brumby himself?
The pale creamy horse went back to where he had pushed the filly, and found her standing exhausted but ready for danger, head thrown up, a little way off. She could tell him nothing of her heritage except that her sire was red and her dam black with light hair in her ears and hazel eyes, and that she was the only foal of her colouring in her herd, and that her name, Tirrawa, meant snow.
Kandali took Tirrawa back to his herd on the Murray, who were very curious, but knew better than he did the impact she would have.
Men came.
Men came, to find the filly and the incredibly fast ghost horse that had come to her rescue. And Kandali was forced to flee for his life over and over. He could not rightly remember the way to his sires hidden valley, it was so long since he had been there, but he knew he must hide himself and Tirrawa. So he led his herd up and down the Murray over the seasons looking for the ideal place, but each time they thought they could stop somewhere someone, horse or man, chased them.

The Story So Far...