Turning the Trajectory

The humans, when they spoke of us, called us a blessing. Our beauty awed them. We were not so kind.

This is the story of before, when they dominated the world with pain and greed.

My sisters and I watched a group of them. They had come to a place remote from their cities, a place where the trees still grew tall, the grasses covered the earth, and the water was clean. We thought it was a safe place for us.

The horror of the danger they carried, we shared without words. We spoke through our bristling hair, our sharp breaths, alert ears, through the empathy we, as a herd, shared.

The humans stomped over the land, slashing and bashing. The terrain was too dangerous for them to bring one of their vehicles, otherwise we would have been seeing damage far more brutal, as they destroyed, without understanding, our home, their environment.

A couple of the smallest younglings were trembling. They were more aware of our horror than what the humans were doing. Standing here was doing no one any good.

We need to leave. Shewn, the leader of the mares sent the message to us.

No one moved. Leaving was the safe and sensible option, but we were tired of constantly retreating. Once we roamed far beyond this patch of dirt they were now attempting to claim.

Young Dilas, her foal at her side, made a suggestion. Do we have to slip away, quietly, like we are already defeated? We could show them what is really out here.

Not a cautious choice, in fact a stupidly dangerous one, especially for a mare still feeding her offspring, but I, for one, agreed. Our natures are not suited to retiring, to being invisible. That had merely been a survival choice made long ago. We had retreated from the humans over and over.

I sang my agreement with Dilas. The other mares each added their voices. We watched the humans as we vocalised. Heads rose, necks twisted, and the group grew closer together. Their perplexion was clear but, ultimately, saddening. They had been deprived of our song for generations.

Our song grew more glorious as my sisters joined in. At first it was only our small herd singing, but the trees lifted the sound and threw it high.

Voices that had been silent for far too long entwined with ours. Delight filled me and spilled over into our collective spirit. Each one in the herd revelled in hearing those sisters and cousins.

Shewn’s stance caught my attention. Outwardly, she looked calm but her eyes were fire. She stepped away from her foal. Dansk was her seventh, and old enough to make his own choices. I watched, knowing a change was coming.

Shewn? I queried.

She glanced at me and tipped her nose. She lifted her right front leg and stamped it down again. Left, stamp. Right, stamp. And again, and again.

Thump, thump. Thump, thump.

I followed suit.

Another mare, Shell, noticed. She picked up the beat. Within a heartbeat, all the herd were singing and stamping our hooves.

The humans gathered more tightly into their little group. They perceived the sounds we made as a threat. They were smart to think so.

We continued to sing and drum our hooves. The humans had yet to see us. They did not know who or what we were. They were afraid and we were having fun.

It was even possible they thought us to be of the same species as them. Our noise was unlike anything animals could create. This group of humans was cut off from the rest of their species. They had no knowledge or numbers to fall back on. The situation was making them afraid.

CRACK.

The sound was like a tree falling, but much shorter duration. One of the humans had used their firestick. It was a bluff born in panic.

But the bluff brought forth yet another sound. A song deeper and darker than any mare could sing, entangled itself with our offering. Joy pounded, in time with the drumming, deep within my body. Our brothers, fathers, and lovers had arrived.

Shimmer.

The decision was made by everyone at once. Such an event had not occurred since the day when we chose to retreat. It was something every one of us had indulged in singly, but not as a herd. We had used it as a tease but nothing more.

Now the humans were going to experience something beyond their ability to imagine. They were going to be treated to a sight of our true natures. I shivered with anticipation.

Dilas, as instigator of the game, took the role of leader, allowing her glow, a delicate, golden mist, to be the first seen by the humans. The rest of us swiftly followed. We would not stand by while a young mare exposed herself to danger.

Our shimmer was enough to disorientate the humans. They did not know where to look. The golden mist bloomed all around them blurring their sight, bedazzling them.

Dilas strutted out into the open, where the humans could see her. The rest of us waited. The humans could feel our collective shimmer. They knew she was not alone.

A firestick was aimed at her.

Shewn and I stepped out of cover. All around, other mares allowed themselves to be seen. Then, a single note song heralded a stallion.

Firesticks were lowered. The humans were smart enough to understand, they were surrounded and could not blast their way out. Plus, the shimmer was beginning to do its work.

Dilas pranced closer. The expressions the humans wore began to melt and change. Fear and bluff were replaced with awe and calm. The shimmer, in tune with our song was affecting them right down to their cells. It was twisting their greed into a softer, although as powerful, emotion. They were experiencing, most of them for the first time, true awe.

We moved forward again, being seen, being appreciated. It was like finally being able to breathe. The taste was glorious.

Then the stallion appeared. He sang a deep song, as dark and luxurious as his coat. He carried the name of Rune. His presence caused the lowering of all the fire sticks. The humans could not withstand his glory. And none were dumb enough to think they could fight.

Joy was swelling through us. What was happening here was more that even the most imaginative of us could have dreamed. Our joy was powering the shimmer to greater strengths, brightening it until the earth looked like a sunset, enveloping all who perceived it.

The shimmer was taking them over, and our song piercing their emotions, dragging them back to when once they were loved without condition. They saw our beauty, our purity, our mystery and knew our truth.

This time was different from all the past encounters. We were taking the reins, taking charge of what happened next. It was time for these humans, so full of potential, to become the true governors of the land.

We could, by using the shimmer and our voices, drain the greed that drove them, while our song soothed their aggression. But that would not be enough to save our world.

These humans, this one tiny group could not, alone, undo the damage already done. The job was too big for them. To bring about the change we were ready to create, we were going to have to do more.

Shewn continued beating the ground in unspoken support as the plan slipped into our thoughts. Already complete, already agreed. Terrifying. We were going to redress the balance the humans had so carelessly knocked over.

We go forward, Dilas spoke for all of us.

Rune was the first to move. He strolled with confidence we rarely saw amongst our kind any longer. His target was a man we had pegged as the leader of this band of humans.

Fear trembled through us all. The joy and shimmer we experienced dimmed as we waited. The man stood still as Rune approached, then held out empty hands in greeting. Bliss shone from his face. Rune bent his head forward, horn close to but not quite touching the man. The man reached out to graze Rune’s cheek with shaking fingers.

Our trembling, now refuelled with joy, changed timbre. Our song soared and our shimmer expanded.

Dilas, young and brave, stepped up next, to a woman. They too, shared a touch.

We all felt it; the activation of a higher emotional state in the humans, of ecstasy. Now they were able to match our natural rhythm; earth’s natural rhythm.

Shewn and I stood back, still holding the beat, as others of our kind slipped from their hiding places to join the group. The joy just kept growing as each human lifted. Us older ones would soon be working, but this moment was for those we had foaled.

Those touched by our shimmer would be recalibrated to the wonder of the world. Yes, we were aware we were imposing our desires on the humans. We once agreed not to interfere with another species. There was no regret amongst us.

Uncontrolled, they had caused too much damage.

The effect of our meddling would be passed down at least three generations. It would take many turns of the sun to realign all the humans. There were so many of them. Yet, there was a way. Against all the laws we had practiced, it was beautiful.

We senior mares saw our role in this beauty. A path so dangerous, we did not know if we would survive. But we were the only ones capable of implementing the plan. Its beckoned us. This act was barely comprehensible yet it made deep sense.

Each of the humans touched today, would go back into society carrying our blessing. But they were only a few.

We chose to go far deeper, into the DNA of each one, and undo the threads of time.

We were able to go back, through life and death, to ancestors of long ago. It was here we tampered with something that never should be touched. It was only the tiniest tweak, a mere nudge that allowed for the forebearers of those we met today to welcome the shimmer.

Now, each and every child they had, all the way from long ago, carried this ability.

The work we did, Shewn, Shell, me, and the other older mares, was slow, delicate, and exhausting. We were changing the warp of the world.

Shewn laid down just before sunset. It was not fully dark when I eased my body down beside hers. Sleep soon claimed me.

I woke to complete darkness. This was unlike the usual night in the forest. It was too dark, as if the sun, moon, and stars had gone out.

There were fragments of sound around me. The remnants of our song still hung in the air. The soft whoosh of a breath being exhaled.

Shewn?

So tired.

My friend never admitted weariness. But I felt the same. My body was ready to crumble into dust and my mind was barely conscious. The ability to sing or shimmer had left me.

Our work is finished. The world can heal now. One of us thought.

I replied. The humans have been set on track. They won’t need us.

Sad though, definitely Shewn. They will never get to see a unicorn.

She was right. I could feel the lack. The shimmer no longer existed. Even if any of our kind had survived our work, they would be only visible as horses, beautiful like the Arabian, strong like the Percheron.

Too tired to respond further, I laid my head back down and let the great sleep embrace me.