The Mystic Stables
THE LEANSER KNOLL

You are strolling through taller grass now, the tips of the blades brushing just bellow your knees. Ahead is a low, viney growth of brush, like hedging left untrimmed and wild. You approach it cautiously, touching the leaves and then pushing through ever so slightly. After about a foot or more of you arm is through the brush, you feel a slight breeze on you fingers. They've pushed through the vines! You push harder with your chest and knee and feel the vines give only the slightest resistance, the leaves opening and letting you fall through them! You land face down in the grass, which looks and smells freshly cut, a smell that permeates the entire area, surronding you with rich green scents. you glance behind you and see...brush. There is no evidence that you ever even touched the bushes! Shaking your head and thinking about this being just some weird dream, or a bad trip, you turn forward again...and stop.

An animal lounges lazily in front of you, gazing directly at you with large, soulful eyes that look almost liquidy, like the little creature is always on the verge of tears. It folds and refolds its blue wings nervously and for a moment you are afraid you've woken it or disturbed it somehow, and that it might want you gone. But its curious expression and its silence shows you otherwise and you begin to edge towards it. At a lack for something to say, you pause and look around. The enclosure is a small space in the giant cavern, but it is not a full enclosure. There are breaks in the hedging every twenty or so feet, allowing any animals to come and go as they please. Even now, various equines romp on the little hills and bumps between the odd creature and the wall that makes up one side of the area. Twin horse-like beings romp over to your left and toward the back, rough-housing noisily. Bushes and squat trees grow all around, giving shade from the sun that beams in from above, through the 'sunroof.' The little creature is laying in one of the direct beams of the sunlight.

A ruffling of the little equines feathers and a slight cough that sounds somewhere between a whinny and a respiratory illness bring you back to focus on the little one, who is pointedly staring directly at your eyes. Having no other words, you say a whispered "Hello." The little one's ears prick up and the stare intensifies. "I won't hurt you, little....horsey." A disgruntled look comes across its soft features at the word 'horsey.' "Oh! Sorry! Not a horsey...a pegasus?" Still disgruntled. You're worried now, "I'm sorry, but I don't know what you are. I just stumbled in here and I didn't mean to wake you or barge in on you, I was just curious. I'm a visitor, you see...." You stammer on, all but rambling as the little creature listens intently, eyes fixed and your moving lips. You say how you got here, then finally remembering your manners, you introduce yourself, telling a thirty second biography and then pausing, waiting for any kind of response from the still being.

Another cough and the little one whinnys woefully. Setting its expression again, it murmmurs under its breath and concentrates. "Lllloooooaaaaa." A deep sound issued from it and it seems disappointed. Getting up, the little one seems ever more determined. "Heeeeeoooolllll....agh!" It makes a disgusted sound and tries again. "H-heelllww.....Hheelllwwaa.....H-helloo...Hello!" The little one bouces up and down with sudden and obvious joy at its accomplishment while you stare at the little one. Very few horses, mystical or not, that you know of can talk in any way whatsoever. The little one issues more coughs and then, "'Ello....no 'orse....'eanser." It tries to shape its lips around the words.

You shake your head yes, "Not a horse, but a..? I don't understand....Eenser?"

The equine shakes its delicate head, and seems frustrated. "No! 'Eans..'eensa. Leanser!"

"Oh! Leanser!" You finally understand. "You're not a horse, but a Leanser!"

The little Leanser bounds over to you and almost looses its footing in the plush grass, bouncing with joy. "Yes-yes!! I am Leanser! I Empress Leanser!"

"An Empress! Well...," you make a grand show of bowing. "I am beneath you, my little Lady."

The little Leanser laughs, giggling and full of joy. She speaks again, concentrating and trying to find all the words. "No. Not all fe-female Leansers are Empress, but no royallty! Ther are many of us...those of texture wings are Empress-es. I am Empress Lea Vesh'Ilianmera...I am pleased to meet you. Am new here...just arrived a few days ago. This is the first time I've spoked your lang-language. I've spoken your language," she corrects herself. "I was born only a few weeks ago and I've been learning ever since...we Leansers are fast learners...." She continues to speak and you listen raptly to her story. She tells you that Leansers are a combination of Equines such as Pegasi and lions, named Leansers by King Lean, the ruler of the land in which Leansers were first discovered. Her parents, Empress Lea La'Grunshah and Emperor Lean Bedeckt'undlilac, are part of the Leanser herd at the The Gardens Of The Leanser, one of the largest herds left. Her species is a swift one, able to learn quickly, especially when it comes to languages. They are peaceful, fun-loving creatures that live for the smell of woodlands and bright sunshine on their faces. "That is why when Azrielen came to get me, just three weeks after I was born, I was excited to come here. I'd heard it was a wonderful place and Az told me I'd have a place of my own, secluded, but open to any others that would want to come in and play with me. I do love all the friends I've made here....but I am more of a secluded Leanser than most others. Az says it is a phase that I will grow out of....." She giggles at that and smiles. You ask her to tell more about herself. She settles down into the pillowy grass, legs folded gracefully and tells of herself. Her name, she says, is two parts. The first, Lea (pronounced 'LEE-ah'), is common to all female Leansers. Males have a prename of Lean ('LEEN'). Her true name, Vesh'Ilianmera, means 'The Quiet One' in Azrielens native language, Atlani. She says that she is very happy and, in the simple words of one so young, she tells of how being in the Hold with so much love and care and so many friends makes her feel. She hopes that one day soon other Leansers will be chosen of Azrielen and brought here...maybe a male. She snickered lightly at that.

As she speaks, her ears prick up as if waiting for a sound. Within minutes, a resounding gong fills the cavern, and the little Empress bounds up. "Oh!" she exclaims. "Dinner! I'm so sorry to leave you, but I'm SO hungry and it's sus-suppertime! Would you like to join me?" You shake your head no and say you must go on. She seems disappointed, but perks up as the second gong fills the air. "Oh, well. I do hope to see you soon! Thanks for helping with my spee-speech!," she stutters slightly and then bounds off through a thin area in the hedge.

A hill away, the two giddy horse-like creatures you saw earlier are still playing, running and chasing each others tails. You laugh a little as you watch them, noticing at last what struck you as so ood before. They are identical! Twins, yes, but the most alike set of twins you'd ever seen, right down to the tones of their fur. After several minutes, they start to settle down, paying little attention to the gong that sounds periodically until about the tenth time. They fold they long legs and settle into the grass, cuddled against one another, heads tilted upward a little, as if they are sniffing the air. A tiny breeze is blowing and it makes the strangest song you'd ever heard, like a deep thrumming. It's then that you realized the sound is coming from the two creatures. The song is twisting, winding and somehow...melodic to the point that you almost understand.

And almost suddenly, you do! They are speaking to you! They do not know the language of your mouth, they say in their deep thrums, but their know the song of your soul. They call themselves the Mirkottie and they say their names. The one farthest from you, his thrum the deeper of the two, is Tevis'Saber, meaning 'Wolf Blade.' The one is front, five minutes younger and with a lighter, lilting tone to his voice, is Tavis'Saber, or 'Falcon Blade.' You think back that their names are beautiful and you don't know if they can hear you until they thanks you in a wash of emotions. They like you...that is why they are singing to you. Normally, the Mirkottie only sing to their bondmate - Azrielen in the case of the twins - and for them to communicate with an outsider shows that the person must be a very open, lovely soul. They tell you more of themselves, opening up to you. The Mirkottie are a rare breed of mountain equine who are raise in the mountains of their homeland, the Mirkotto Plains, by Fae-Dwarves. They are taken from the mountain sanctuary on they day of their full maturity and introduced to a human, to whom they bond if the human's soul fits with theirs. The ones that raise them give no reason for why they continually give the Mirkottie to the humans, but the equines do serve as protectors. Maybe the Fea-Dwarves think human fallable and in need of true protection. You smile faintly at that. You thank them again and rise at the same time that they do, their voices and the presence in your mind cutting off abruptly as they bound out of the area the same way the young Leanser had.

Left again, you walk toward the exit when a flash of gold catches your eye. Walking towards it, you at last see what it truely is.....

It's a creature! A little white ball of fur lays curled up on the ground directly in front of you, the flash you saw coming from a thin gold horn on its forehead and another now comes from the thin gold ID chain about its neck. You squint to red it..."Chati'Mish". A tiny beanie toy lays beside it bearing a tag that reads "Irajiko the Jeyien." You move forward cautiously to investigate the little egg and beanie and see that the little one is restless, grumbling and about to wake up! You back off quickely and watch as the little male unfolds its thin legs and shakes itslef all over, the equivalent of a human rubbing sleep out of its eyes. It blinks bleerily and shakes its head before looking about at its domain...

The gonging of the food bell has faded at last and now another sound can be heard. A trilling whistle comes from beyond the bushes. The little one's ears prick up and it fumbles hurriedly toward the gap in the hedges, its bondmate obviously calling it. For a moment, curiousity about the mysterious Azrielen haunts you, but goes away as you smile, watching the Jeyien all but fall over itself on its way toward the bushes and then out to the arms of its bondmate. You see another Jeyien appear from those exterior bushes for just a moment before it darts across the feild, gathers something from the tall grass and also takes off. In the short time it paused to collect what seemed to be a bunch of very tiny flower buds, you saw its neck tag and read its name...'Pina'Millio.'

Left absolutely alone, you gather yourself and your emotions to slip back through the hedging, off to explore some more.