Ashamin was already beginning to stir when he heard the call and the thunderous clap of a firework. Rakt started suddenly from sleep; Lochan was already running out of the cave. The small family was going to get bigger, that was what Rexanna had told him. Together, they were going to have a child, she had said and he had promised. As friends and their own kind of family, they would raise the youth that came from her loins and Ashamin would be a father.

He had told her, with complete confidence, that he would care for her and the foal. But the prospect terrified him. He was going to be a father, but how did one even do that? He couldn't imagine it was anything like raising the two boys that followed him as companions. Lochan and Rakt were easy wards, and they loved him in a way that was both unconditional and easy for the haruspex to understand. He could feel their love--in his chest, in his mind, in the paintings they drew for him with care. But what about a child? How had his father known Ashamin had loved him, had he known that when he died?

And what about his mother, dead seconds after his birth? Had she known? Would she have had any regrets?

When his own name pealed through the night, the thought of Rexanna being in danger came to him first. He set off as fast as he could, after Lochan and with Rakt in graceful tow. The cold hit him like a wall but he pressed on, his tail waving behind him and his necklace dragged back in the rush of air. His hooves pounded on the permafrost, each beat of them against the earth a reminder of the seconds passing, the moments stretched out before him in which everything could go wrong.

When he made his way through the throng, though, what appeared before him was not tragedy--was not the end of a life. It was only beginning, new and young and beautiful in gold and black and red. His son, a child without a name but with all the love in the world with Rexanna and Ashamin as his parents.

Ashamin did not wait and watch as strangers spoke kindnesses, passed out remedies and offered their blankets. He pushed forward, instead, to place his cheek first against Rexanna's and then to lower himself and offer the same to his son. "Rexanna..." he murmured in awe to the mare. "Our son... we have a son." Joy burst from him, tears welled at the edges of his coal black eyes. Lochan and Rakt circled the mother and child with eager and protective desire, thrilled for their bonded and curious about the young foal's origins.

Ashamin the haruspex stood proud, stood tall, and beamed towards those gathered while wrapping his tail before his family. Ashamin the haruspex was a father--the role he was meant for, assigned to him at last.

""

ashamin, lochan, & rakt