The Refugees
by neorenamon

The young Okapi mare looked about at the small mixed group that were hiding for their lives. Hiding to keep themselves safe from the marauding Hyenas ravaging the land to kill those who were... weak. She could see small groups who even then were divided by race and tribe. Her own group was the Okapi. Next to them was the Giraffe. Then there was the Water Buffalo. But among them all was a few loners. Mares that all but belonged to none. An Abada and an Oryx.

The moon shone down on them even as they basked in the lights of torches and campfires to ward off the darkness and the monsters that liked to hide within it.

"Must we leave this land and go," asked the young Okapi mare, "To this place we do not know?"

"Yes my daughter," replied the elder Okapi bull as he replied evenly, "Hyenas now live for slaughter." He clutched his daughter tighter as he spoke.

"How can things have gotten so bad?!" she asked in distress, "What has mad the Hyenas so mad?!"

"The lion tribes once ruled us all," he answered, "but they were also the first to fall."

"The Lion King can not be dead!" she protested loudly, "That surely fills my heart with dread!"

"I fear with the death of the last Goddess," he continued, "has brought down this whole Hyena attack mess. The scavengers now forget their place. They act with cowardice, shame and disgrace."

"But what will hiding in a wooden fort do?" she asked as she looked into his large black eyes, "besides wait for starvation and disease too?"

"Our Izangoma has seen a place far away," he replied, "with Goddesses where we all my safely stay."

"The witch doctor has seen a distant place," she asked, "where we may live in Goddess divine grace?!"

He nodded. "A place that boasts Goddesses four," he added, "and a zebra mare at it's core."

"How can there be but one and not more?" she asked curiously, "Could there be others not seen before?"

"I truly know not what that might mean," he replied, "but only the one has been seen. While they were once common in this land, the Zebras are no longer so grand. It turns out to be quite the thing... when one angers a Lion King."

Now that he mentioned it, the story did leap to her mind just then. The Zebras were a proud race with vast numbers of warriors who were divided into several tribes. While they fought over mares as much as they traded them, they tended to look down on the other tribes of the savannah as being worth less than themselves. They even were so proud as to compare themselves to the might of the Lion Tribe. But one day, the Zebras gathered. It looked like one Chieftain would arise to unify them all under one leader. The Lions decided that the threat had to be stopped before it began, so they sent their entire army to attack the gathered Zebras. No Zebra has been seen since that time more than a full generation previous.

"But how could any of them gotten away," she asked, "from the deadly slaughter that day?"

"That is something we do not know," he said, "Knowledge from a place that we no longer go."

She remembered that the tribes moved across the savannah now, never staying in one place for more than one season. The soil was weak at best and wouldn't support crops for more than one year in about six or seven. That and the fact that water shifted around with the chaotic nature of the rainfall made permanent settlements impossible. But now they were stuck in an improvised fortress made of walls of spears and tree limbs stuck in the muddy ground.

"Perhaps it is simply not meant to be," she sighed, "but this Zebra face I would like to see."

"I have only seen a murky vision of her face," he replied, "I'm sure you can go see the Izangoma at their place."

The witch doctor was one of the few other than chiefs who warranted their own abode. Their standing in the community was equal to that of the Chiefs after all, and it was by their grace that the laws of the tribes were truly enforced. As she stood to walk away, she noticed that he was looking at her with his head cocked.

"Why do you stare at me so?" she asked, "Is there a stain I do not know?"

"You've grown so strong in spite of this strife," he replied, "Surely you'll be taken as a warrior's wife."

She remembered she was just getting to the age where she was most valued by visiting warriors seeking wives to take back to their own villages. The villages exchanged mares regularly as had been done for generations. Like mares exchanged for like. To each their own. It was according to the spoken legends that such exchanges kept the tribes in the favor of the savannah gods. But as the daughter of a chief, she was special. She would most surely be taken by the wealthiest and most eligible warrior her father could find.

It was almost instinct to her that she should walk with a sway in her hips. That her motherly breasts should wave back and forth in the glow of the torches and campfires. Even her tail swing back and forth behind her as she walked. After all, those kind of things caught the eye of a mighty warrior. She knew that's how her mother managed to catch her father's eye. Ever step she took told all who looked that she was healthy, young and ready to bear her share of foals.

Finally, she came upon the thatch hut of the witch doctor. It seemed there was extra lights inside shining through the window shutters, and she wondered if she had come at a bad time. But as long as she was there, she knocked anyways.

"Enter my young Okapi mare," said the aged voice from within, "There's no need to stand out there."

She always marvelled at his mystical perception even as she opened the door. But once open, she realized that he did have company. A number of mares in fact. Quite an odd collection as well. She could see a Giraffe, an Oryx, a Water Buffalo, and an Abada as well. They were all clustered about his large iron pot staring at something.

"Come hither and stand by me," he said softly, "to see that which you wish to see."

Now she was truly curious as she walked to his side and gazed down into the surface of the liquid within the pot. She gasp at the sight that met her eyes: Not one Goddess, but three.

The tallest was ivory white with mane and tail of multiple hues. Her horn long and sharp, and she could see that her breasts were the (second) most bounteous that she had ever seen. Only the Giraffe next to her was more endowed. Opa figured she was covering her breasts surely as a sign that she had already been wedded to some worthy warrior even though the gentle cleft of her bosom was still on full display. She also wore a small golden crown upon her head, and her hip was marked by a symbol she could only believe was some kind of representation of the sun.

The one next to her was smaller and her hide of midnight blue. Her horn was smaller as was other aspects of her figure. It just felt like she had to be the younger sister to the taller one in spite of the differences in their appearances. Her crown was something of a black metal that she had not seen before. Her hip was marked by a white crescent moon upon a cloud of black.

The third one was slightly smaller than the second, and she was of violet hue. Her horn was also slightly smaller and Opa got the impression she was the youngest of the three. She also wore no crown, but her hips were marked with one large red six-pointed star on top of a white six pointed star surrounded by about five smaller white stars.

"So I should believe and understand," she said at last, "these are the Goddesses of the new land?"

"These are the ones we can see," said the Izangoma, "but a fourth there may well be."

She looked up to see that the Giraffe was fixated upon the violet Goddess for some reason.

"Why should you stare," she asked, "at violet Goddess mare?"

"It's as plain as plain can be," sighed the Giraffe cow as she reached out to touch the image of the violet one, "that this one is surely the Goddess for me."

The other mares around the pot simply giggled at the Giraffe's announcement.

"Surely you must see and know," said Opa, "that love from a Goddess she shall not show. Besides you seek a warrior large and strong. Perhaps only you he shall take along?"

"But when I find a warrior fair," she replied, "He shall surely take us as a pair."

"But there is something else I wish to see," said Opa as she turned to the Izangoma, "Please show this Zebra mare to me."

He began to stir the pot as the image of the Goddesses faded. Stirring faster and faster until all they could see was the swirling fluids. But he stopped stirring and allowed the fluid to calm down once more. She could see a house shaped from a tree in a deep and rich green forest. There was all manner of plants she had not seen before. The picture moved as if she were seeing the scene from the eyes of a passing bird.

But then she saw... her. A Zebra mare with such beauty as she had never seen before. She was tending a garden of flowers, vegetables and herbs as she sweat under the warmth of the sun.

"Please stop this moving scene!" she called, "That must be the one most serene!"

The witch doctor waved a hand as the image froze.

"Tell me of what you see," he asked, "Is this something that might be?"

"My heart has surely skipped a beat," she replied as her cheeks reddened, "What kind of magic can cause this feat?!"

Suddenly there was a disturbance outside the door. It burst open as a small elephant warrior came in. He seemed rather upset as he called, "The Hyenas attack from cover of darkness! The whole army attacks to our distress!" Then without saying more, he turned and raced back out. Soon the din of battle was coming to their ears.

Opa began to move towards the door, but the witch doctor grabbed her by her right wrist.

"But Izangoma it is not proper or right," she complained, "that I should be here and not fight!"

"My heart is suddenly full of dread," he replied, "I shall send you mares ahead!"

Before she could reply, he tossed a handful of dirt and herbs into the pot. There was a blinding flash of light that left her unable to see for several seconds. By then, the world had changed...

They were all at the Zerbra's abode deep in the strange woods. Then the front door burst open as a Zebra mare armed with spear and hide shield appeared.

"I give you warning fair," she called, "tell me who's out there?!" Then she looked down at the strange mares laying on the ground about her front stoop. "Do my eyes deceive me?!" she asked, "Mares from the old country?!"

"PLEASE YOU MUST SEND ME BACK!" cried Opa, "MY FATHER IS SURELY UNDER ATTACK!"

"Without knowing from whence you came," she replied evenly, "I cannot send you back to the place same."

Opa leaned her head back and howled in her distress. Much to her surprise, the Zebra mare came forward and hugged her tightly. She hugged her back as the two of them began weeping on the shoulder of the other. It was as if they both knew that Opa's father would soon be counted among the ones slaughtered by the Hyenas. Her mind was full of the battles where so many stallions and colts had been killed by the Hyenas without mercy. How the dead had to be left behind without a decent burial. That the Hyenas had been hunting them like animals for a few weeks before they finally stopped running and built their last ditch fortification. Her wailing was her expression of all her pent up anger, pain and frustration.

"You are safe here," choked out the Zebra, "There's nothing to fear."

But Opa was crying too hard to respond.

"Please all of you spend the night," she replied, "Surely the dawn shall set things right."

Author's Note

The story is being revised based on a critique, so I hope the story becomes even better from it.