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((Other Soquili involved: Sunny's Canace))





Outwardly, the purple mare was quite relaxed as she lay on the forest floor in a small, sunlit clearing. Behind her sat a teepee, whose owner sat next to her, patting her neck in comfortable companionship. She and Namid had grown quite close since the human had helped her some weeks before while she was still heavily pregnant.

It wasn't uncommon to find the two of them sitting in this fashion on any clear day. But today it wasn't just the two of them.

Sitting on the grass in front of the pair were two beautiful baskets, one more red and one mostly purple and orange. Both were showing signs of movement from within, and Gemmae was certain they would open today.

High overhead, Moltres was circling as usual. He'd tried to spend at least part of each day keeping an eye on the mare whose life he'd saved and the baskets he was certain he'd fathered.

Today the baskets had been brought out of the safety of the teepee for the first time since he'd seen them many days before. There was an edge of tension in the air as he and the other two adults down below waited to see what the baskets would reveal to the world.

Namid was happy for Gemmae, and excited to see the new life today would bring. The mare was one of the most beautiful Soquili she'd ever seen and it was certain that her foals would be incredibly lovely.

The foal in the dominantly red basket pushed against the wicker keeping him in. It was getting a bit cramped in his home, but he wasn't yet willing to leave this spot of safety. Besides, he had no reason to go out there, right? He had everything he needed right in here.

Gemmae's breath caught as the movements from both baskets suddenly became much sharper and intense. this was...this was as exciting as what she'd gone through to produce the damn things - no! It was better, because this time there was no pain.

"Come on out, children," she coaxed them gently. "It's time to see the world."

Namid stroked the mare's mane and added her own encouragement (she assumed Gemmae was encouraging the children as she didn't know what the uni was actually saying). "The sun is warm, the day is bright, come on out and enjoy it!"

Moltres drifted a bit lower as he saw what could be movement with the baskets, though it was hard to tell from this height. He wished he dared go lower, but he didn't want Gemmae shouting at him to go away again.

Taking encouragement from the sweet voice outside his safe place, the foal started kicking the wicker basket a bit harder. He began trying to manipulate his position in order to take a look outside.

He whinnied in pain as the horn on his forehead got stuck in the lid, poking through to the outside and allowing the wings on his head to get crushed. Still whinnying, the boy raised his head, trying to get a look outside. All the adults could see of him was the silvery grey of his horntip and the dark purple top of his basket's lid.

Gemmae cheered her children on, especially the one in the purple and orange basket, which had apparently gotten fed up with the cramped space. "Come on, you can do it!" she told the foal inside.

And then the basket seemed to expload in a frenzy of kicking and flapping and a gorgeous purple filly with an intense orange mane and beautiful orange wings stood there, one foot still in the ruins of her lovely little basket.

"Oh my," the mare said, shocked by the beauty she (and, she admitted to herself, Moltres) had made. "Well, you certainly are a lovely little girl! So...you should have a very lovely name," the uni declared proudly.

Namid gasped as the filly was revealed to the world. Every bit as beautiful as her mother, this little one was! "Gemmae," she told her friend, "I am speechless." A lie, in a manner of speaking, but she knew the Soquili would know what she meant.

The human turned her attention to the other basket. It seemed to have...a horn now? No, the other foal had inherited Gemmae's trait as a uni, and had managed to stab the appendage straight through the basket lid! Namid chuckled and called out to the foal inside. "I hope you plan on coming out of there to join your sister!"

A sudden breeze from the south had distracted Moltres and the Angeni was forced to circle around in order to regain his position above the clearing. When he was able to look down again, it seemed like one of the baskets was having convulsions! But as he watched the first foal destroy its basket, he saw the glory of its wings revealed for the first time.

That was it. That foal made it obvious that yes, these baskets were his children as well as Gemmae's. Moltres dove down to land next to Gemmae, opposite the human. Even then he couldn't keep his eyes off of the purple filly with the golden wings.

"She's...she's beautiful!" he gasped, staring. "We made some lovely children, Gemmae," he told the mare, leaning over to nuzzle her.

He was able to tell that most of the talking, including the new voice, was not directed at him. But one voice was still paying attention to him. The foal suspected that this was due to something the voice called a "sister." He had a hunch he wasn't going to like what a "sister" was very much.

But the voice was right. He had to get out of here, before he hurt his headwings more!

The foal managed to curl up and get his hooves underneath him, then he pushed up on the lid as hard as he could. The basket opened, revealing red legs and a whitish-cream underbelly. Everything else, save for the scarlet tail, was hidden under his purple basket lid, still attached to his head with his horn sticking up through it.

Gemmae frowned momentarily and pulled away from Moltres' nuzzle. She still wasn't happy with him, but the uni couldn't find it in her heart to send him away from his own children. Besides, she reasoned, he could help raise them and save her some work.

The smile was quickly returned to her face, however, by the antics of the foals. Not just the lid still stuck to the one's head and the basket attached to the other's foot, but the sheer determination of the filly as she moved towards the three adults.

"You really are a lovely - and determined - girl!" the mare told her daughter, though she wasn't completely certain the foal was hearing and comprehending the words. "But you need a name to go with those looks. Perhaps...Canace?" the uni asked, directing attention to the foal, though her question went to Moltres as well as the little filly.

Moltres was hurt by the way Gemmae withdrew from him, but he put it down to this not being the time or place for those sorts of things. He knelt down so as to not frighten the newborns.

"Oh, you really are Daddy's little girl with those wings, aren't you?" he cooed to the filly as she struggled towards the group.

"It sounds like a perfectly beautiful name to me," he replied to Gemmae. "But what of the other?" the stallion asked, nodding in the direction of the other foal - a colt, as he could now see - whose head and neck remained hidden under the basket top. "With markings like that," Moltres continued, "we could call him Calor."

Namid had been surprised at the speed with which the mystery Soquili descended from the sky. She was even more shocked to realize the stallion (who simply had to be the father of these incredible foals) was an Angeni! The Kawani taught that Angeni were benevolent spirits in mortal bodies, that they were touched with holiness. The idea of one in her clearing, the father of the foals her friend had born, was mind-boggling.

Lucky for the human, the two adult Soquili seemed engaged with their children, most notably the filly. She chuckled to see the colt stll had his head stuck in the basket lid and carefully rose to her feet and approached him.

"Let me take that off for you," she offered gently, holding out her hands so he could see that she held nothing, and for him to sniff.

The foal could see something very bright suddenly appear, though he couldn't see anything more than that beneath the lid. He did notice that all the attention seemed focused on this "sister" thing, which he also couldn't see. Poo! The colt snorted and pawed the ground trying to think of a way to get this thing off of his head.

Then two legs came into his view, as well as two other things. A voice, speaking words that made even less sense than those made by the others, talked to him. Curious, he smelled the two flattish brownish things that he could see. They didn't smell bad. Just...different. He wondered if they could be of any use in getting this thing off of his head.

"Canace it is then!" Gemmae declared with a laugh at her daughter's boldness. She could see already that the girl was going to be a handful and a half to deal with, but that was okay. The purple mare approved of girls who stood up for themselves and took charge.

The uni's attention turned to the colt as Canace focused on her brother. All that was visible of him was a deep reddish color hide and a scarlet tail topping long white socks. "Hm," she replied to Moltres, "Calor seems like a suitable name for him." The words were not spoken unkindly, but there wasn't much feeling in them either. It was Gemmae allowing Moltres to be a part of the family in participation and not just blood. She was still not overly happy with him, but they couldn't change the past, merely try to make a better future.

The Angeni had to chuckle at Canace's antics. She was so bright! Not literally, like her brother, but the stallion mused that that could change with time...she could inherit his flames when she got older...but only the gods knew if that would actually happen.

"Well then," he said to both Gemmae and her uni son, "they'll be Canace and Calor! What do you think about that, son? Calor's a good name, right?" he called out to the still-hidden foal.

Namid wondered what the Soquili were saying to each other. She assumed they were naming the foals, but it would take her some time to learn those names. For now, the human decided to focus on what she could do. The colt seemed to be trusting her for the moment and, moving slowly, she gripped the edge of the lid and yanked it off in one smooth movement, revealing the boy to the world.

She gaped in surprise as the boy's headwings, which had been flattened under the lid, sprang up, declaring his Angeni heritage to the world. He was quite handsome with that deep purple back that followed his spine and went from nose to tail-

But that nose! It was, quite clearly, a beak! The human stared for a moment before finally finding something to say. "W-welcome to the world, little one!" she told the colt, shakily reaching out to stroke his beak of a nose.

Calor? That seemed to be directed at him, the colt decided. And he liked the word. Liked it a lot. "Good good good!" he exclaimed, so happy with the attention that he forgot be afraid as the brown things reached for the lid still stuck to his head.

Then, like a miracle, it came unstuck! His headwings were no longer in pain from restriction and he could SEE! He could see a big purple person and a big orangey person and a smaller purple and orangey person who was laughing at him. This, he presumed, was the "sister" thing.

But right next to him, on two legs instead of four, was another big person. Before the foal could stick his tongue out at his sister - which he dearly wanted to do - the two flat brown things curled in on themselves as they stroked his soft nose.

That...felt good. Sister forgotten for the moment, Calor leaned into the caresses the human offered him.

Gemmae's eyes widened as she saw her son's face for the first time. He was a uni like she was, but with clear Angeni traits and...was that a beak? How did her son have a beak?

Wordlessly the mare turned to look at Moltres' profile. It wasn't obvious...but his nose did indeed resemble a beak. Just not to the degree little Calor's did.

The uni mare shook her head and lay down, eyes on her beautiful children. Some things just weren't worth pursuing.

Moltres too was surprised when he finally saw his son's face. The boy's headwings were the same gold as his sister's wings, though of course fairly useless in comparison. Rising proudly from his brow was a delicate horn that looked exactly like his mother's as well.

But the most riveting aspect was definitely the beak. The Angeni knew his nose was a bit sharp looking, but the idea that he could produce a child with an actual beak was a bit mindboggling.

The stallion joined the mare on the springy grass, watching the children interact. He cast a sidelong glance at Gemmae and realized she was as disturbed as he was by the beak. In silent agreement they chose to simply watch the children be children.

Namid gave the colt's nose a final pat before gesturing to the filly. "Go play with your sister now, silly!" she told him with another chuckle. While he was looking over at his sister in confusion, the human slipped away to sit next to Gemmae once more.

She shook her head as she laid an arm around the mare's neck. "Some beautiful kids all right, though how a Soquili has a beak is something I just don't understand."

Calor whinnied in protest as the skritches the brown things gave him stopped, and the two things pulled away. The human then used one to point towards the sister thing. When the colt turned to look back, the human had gone back to where the other voices lay down.

He turned back towards his sister only to find her right in front of him. Whinnying, he stumbled back a couple steps, falling squarely on his tail. He didn't care that he didn't have things like she had things, his butt hurt a bit, and now he was on the ground.

Planting his forehooves, Calor attempted to regain his feet. He managed to get halfway up until the tangle of his back legs pulled him abruptly downward, snorting in surprise.

Calor had managed to get his forehooves planted again when he felt his sister thing suddenly using her nose to lever his backside up! The unexpected teamwork worked, and the colt stood on all four feet once more, whickering in surprise.

He craned his neck around to look at the sister thing. "You, you pushed!" he accused her.

The colt snorted as the sister thing pranced around him. He still wasn't feeling very steady on his feet, and didn't want to push his luck right now. The foal pouted a little. "Not good help," he told her. That had been rude! And not nice! She could have at least warned him what she was doing.

But she was talking again. He was starting to think that all sister things talked a lot. Calor didn't understand it. "A'course I'm Calor an' your Canace," he replied, it was obvious, wasn't it? He couldn't be Canace because she was, and she couldn't be Calor because he was! It made perfect sense!