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For as long as you or your ancestors can remember there has never been a day like this one. Something is sliding ominously across the sun in what should be full daylight. But as the hours pass, the darkness and the horror it brings grows. What’s wrong? Is this some prophecy coming to pass? Is this an omen? Did you or your herd know this was coming or were you caught completely unaware?

Eventually, something blocks out the sun entirely and all the sounds of the little creatures who live on this planet ominously stop. It’s as if the world is collectively holding it’s breath. Will the sun come out again? What are you thinking? Are you afraid?

Tell us what happens during the hours of the first full solar eclipse in memory.

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They say the first step to any journey is always the hardest. But Jaehaerys knew for a fact that that wasn’t true. It could be painful, it could be freeing, it could be so very many different things, but it was not the hardest. The hardest part of any journey was the deciding of it. The decision to make the journey and gathering the will and the impetus to do so. The decision to take a chance, to break through the chains of fear that held him back… that was painful. The step was more of a relief than anything. Then, as his steps took him closer to his past, the pain returned. Nearly as strong, and brought with it the doubts, anxieties and insecurities that had shackled him to his past and the guilt for far too long. Then came the freedom as he faced all of those things- the pain, the anxiety, insecurities and doubts. He could breathe again. His future was open, the paths he could take…endless.
After confronting his demons, Jae knew it was his time. Time to move on. Time to actually live. But he couldn’t do that in the great plains where he had spent his entire life thus far. The world was a vast place with so much to see and experience. And he wanted to do and see it all!


Thus came his second journey. The first step here was filled with nothing but promise. Joy. Laughter. Things he knew he could not find here, anymore. A gentle breeze blew, lifting his forelock, and caressing his cheeks, almost like a benediction.
Like his mother was there, giving him permission. Letting him know that this would be a good thing. That this was the right thing. This, this would make her happy – proud. It was all that Ro would wish for her family. That they live on. That they be free, be happy, and find joy. Because that was who she was. It was how she had lived her own life. She wouldn’t want her family, the family she adored with all her heart and strength, to be mired in guilt, and lived shackled by grief.
He could finally see that. And while he wished his sisters and brother and father could all see it too, he knew they would have to find this out on their own. He couldn’t force them to see. And even though his eyes were finally open, his vision and mind cleared, the wounds were still there. Still fresh and tender, with fragile covering, some still bleeding. But starting to heal. And he couldn’t help them until he was fully healed.
And while he wasn’t there just yet, he was making strides. But he couldn’t heal around here, where the painful memories were everywhere he might look. So he would move on. To somewhere different. Somewhere new. Somewhere far, far away from the tragedy here.


This, this is what led him far from the gentle plains that he had called home, through the dangerous canyon path, through the harsh jagged mountains to the even harsher desert. It was a far cry from what he had known, where even the landscape itself was a potential enemy, that might sneak up and catch one unawares, breaking them down, and if they weren’t careful, it might even kill one.
The sheltered stallion had not been prepared for the journey he sought to undertake. He was uneducated and naïve. And very, very vulnerable. A fact he found out early, fortunately, and not to his detriment. He had been woefully unprepared for the harsh desert climes, and the heat and lack of water caused him to pass out, and if not for the kindness of fate bringing a gentle stallion along at just the right moment, Jaehaerys would have surely perished.
But thanks to the careful tending of Taranis, and his gentle mate Gao Feng, Jaehaerys survived. He stayed with the two stallions long enough to recover, and to learn a little bit more about the beautiful, harsh, unforgiving lands he now found himself in and with their guidance and blessing, he decided to continue on his journey. He would go to the hidden oasis Gao Feng had once called home, and he would use it’s peace and tranquility to aid him in his quest to heal fully, or at least as much as he was able, and then, then it would be time to go back. Perhaps by now at least one of his siblings might be ready to heal, to listen and to mend the rift between them all. It was time to mend the brokenness, even if they couldn’t be together, they could find the ability to be family.


Gao Feng had been right. Being at the oasis, surrounded by the beauty, able to take advantage of the healing springs… it had done more for him physically, mentally and emotionally than just about anything else had. He found himself able to face each day with a lightened, grateful heart. He could think of his family without pain and regret. He didn’t feel chained to his past. He was able to be the Jaehaerys his mother had always wanted him to be. Less burdened, happier. He was able to laugh and to find joy in the simple things. He had walked through his own tragedy and come out all the stronger for it.
Now he might go back. Following the secret paths from the oasis safely across the expanse of the mighty desert. Back to the winding canyon road through the harsh jagged mountains along the well-worn paths in the Great Plain to the place he had called home. He would stop briefly amongst those called family before continuing on his journey. There was still so much he wanted to do and see…

He woke up early that day, before the sun rose, before it even lightened the twilit gray. No pastels had yet painted the horizon. It was going to be a long day of travel, if he was to reach his intended destination before the heat of the day.
It started just like every other day, with the sun rising, stretching across the land bathing it in a golden glow, animals woke and went about their business as usual. The first hint that anything was out of the ordinary was when the noise started to cease. The sky darkened to a twilight gloom, and stars could be seen in what should have been the middle of the day.
As the temperature dropped, and a sudden chill breeze began to blow, and something covered the sun, Jae stopped in his travels. He had never before experienced such a thing. It seemed almost as though everything stopped, and the world itself held its breath as the sun disappeared behind a disk of black.
This, this didn’t seem right. Was the sun truly gone for good? What was going on? Were the spirits angry? His skin crawled and he shivered where he stood. What was he going to do now?
He tried to think back. Neither of his parents had ever told stories of anything like this happening. He had never heard of the sun being eaten, not in real life nor even in any of the fanciful tales mama liked to make up.
In the end, it might have lasted a little longer than a few heartbeats, or it may have been an eternity. For however long it lasted, along with the fear, the stillness, the silence, it was surreal. Who knew what it was or why, but for the moments it lasted, the absolute quiet the fear, it held his heart in its grip. All he could do was stand and wait. Wait for it to pass, or wait for it to stay. Wait for answers and things to come.

Would he get the chance to continue on? Would he get the chance to see all he wanted to see? To have the chance to live? To be? Would he get the chance to learn who he was outside the confines of the tragedy that had defined him? So many things he wanted to learn, to see and do. He had to have the chance. He needed to be able to live. He had to have the chance to see who he truly was. He needed the chance to fix what was broken. He needed the chance to apologise and to learn what it was like to actually have a family again. One that might be broken, but still there. Still good.

But the darkness passed. The sky lightened and the stars returned to their places. The world let out a collective breath, and nature returned to normal. And though the experience was enough to chill him to his very soul, he knew he would be forever changed. Forever grateful. For it just proved once and for all, and on a grander scale than he could ever have imagined, that even though darkness may come light will overcome. And still the sun will shine again, and shine the brighter for it.

WC: 1521