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"Hurry, hurry!"
Shikoba ran through the tall grass, not noticing how difficult he was for the much taller mare to see in the growing darkness, the only thing marking his presence the constant shifting of the blades. It was far too important that she follow him. It was the only thought inside his head as he ran as fast as he could go.
For Ni'awtu, she was going at a trot at best. She'd attempted a few times to talk to him, to suggest he get on her head and direct her where to go that way. She assumed it was some injured animal, one very close to death, that needed her attention straight away. Her little mouse friend never insisted this strongly unless it was a life or death situation. The basket of herbs and bottled medicines bobbed up and down on her back with her bouncy gait, her wings held in close to her sides, but not in the way of the basket. It wouldn't have been the first time a few feathers had gotten in underneath the straps and accidentally flipped everything out onto the ground. She had learned quickly to keep her wings just a little out from her sides to avoid this happening too often.
"There's no time to stop!" the mouse called back over his shoulder, as if he was somehow aware that she was about to open her mouth once more and insist that she was faster. Of course she was faster. He was so small, he could fit comfortably inside her mouth. But that was beside the point. There really was no time. If he stopped to clamber up onto her head, something might happen. It was super important that they get there right away. Only once they stopped would he realize how irrational his brain really had been thinking in his panic.
"There's plenty of time to stop! Shikoba...." With a sigh, Ni'awtu gave up and simply followed him in silence, almost losing him multiple times when the grass grew much higher than his head.
Eventually they crashed through a bush into a small clearing. Instinctively looking for for a wounded animal unable to stand, Ni'awtu spotted two baskets instead, with no sign of an adult around. Were the foals inside sick? Had something gone wrong during the birth? Where was the mother or even the father?
Rushing forward, Shikoba hopped up onto the darker of the two, looking intently at the blue mare. "I know what you're thinking," he began, his nose twitching. "There are no parents to claim these two. I have remained on watch for many hours. No mother would leave her defenseless foals behind without a guardian for even a few minutes. But there is no signs of a struggle, so I do not know where she went." Crouching down, the black mouse laid down gently on the lid of the basket, very tired from his sprint. Now that he had stopped, the fatigue was beginning to set in. "I do not know what to do. It seems like they've been here for a long time."
Ni'awtu approached the baskets slowly, as if the foals within would suddenly spring out and run away. She wanted to peek inside, to make sure they were fine. But their immune systems were probably still very underdeveloped. The only thing keeping them safe were the carefully woven baskets the Kawani would have made for them to finish growing in. They wouldn't even be able to stand, yet.
Instead, the blue mare lowered her head to each, placing an ear against the sides. She could hear the breathing of each foal inside. Everything sounded normal to her. Though she had none of her own, Ni'awtu sometimes used her knowledge of medicines to help difficult births. So she had a little experience with this fragile stage of a foal's life.
"They are both fine," she announced, noticing the large breath out that Shikoba made. He merely helped with the delivering and mixing of medicines. He had no real knowledge of the craft himself. "But we cannot leave them here." Rising her head, Ni'awtu sniffed at the air, than at the grass, going in a wide circle around the two baskets. She smelled nothing but a very, very faint scent of another horse. Only one and nothing else. No predator chased this mother away. Something else must have driven her from her children. She supposed it was possible she was still herded away, maybe by a Shifter to another area. Either way, these two had indeed been here a long, long time. There was only one thing she could think of to do with them.
Getting behind the green basket, the blue mare nudged it gently with her nose, pushing it so far along the ground. As she did so, Shikoba dropped down from the one he was sitting on to climb her legs to her back, holding onto her mane so he didn't fall. Inch by inch, she pushed each basket along the ground, until, hours later, she was close enough to her swamp home to call out to her mate to help her with the rest of the distance.
The only thing she could think of to do with these two abandoned siblings was to raise them as her own. What a new experience this would be. Already she had started to look at the two foals as her own children, something that she had wanted to have of her own for so long.
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