Crunch....crunch...crunch went the snow. Hooves of black and white sank into the cold ground. It had snowed for less than half an hour now, this time, but snow had still drifted across the well trod path up to the old stone circle. Not that it matter. He was well used to this now...
The young harlequine held his head high, defying the coming storm along with the oncoming night. He was barely a year old, but he'd learned to do this trek many months ago now. It was the only thing that worked.
Old and decripit the ancient circle of stones might be, but somehow, someway there still resided enough power within them to keep him safe for the night, every night. Keep him safe...and keep everyone else safe...

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Darklight Stable never thought it'd be home to a harlequine, but we finally managed to locate a stallion whose colouring we liked. However, when mated with one of our mares, the offspring turned out, well...let's say a bit different than we expected.
Even so, Harlan Illusion is a fond addition to the stable - and one of the few of our horses that we hope to be able to train both for riding and showing. He's very intelligent and curious about the world, and was so already as a foal. In fact, you could even call him cuddlable - or at least he tries his best to be so. I'm sure he's convinced he's a big teddy bear
There's just this little problem that happens at night....

the 'little' night time problem...well...
most harlequines tend to have slight personality problems. Harlan didn't seem to have any trace of this at first, and as a foal he behaved just like any other foal - but at about 6 months he started displaying a severe personality change when it got dark - or more accurately, when night came - ordinary darkness doesn't seem to bother him, just makes him a little nervous. No amount of conditioning helped. It didn't seem right to drug him, but it was the only thing that kept him sedate during the night, rather than tearing his surroundings apart. In the long run it didn't help though, as his body became resistant to it.
So eventually we managed to train him to go up to the old stone circle when night came. Something in them keeps him from being able to leave during this period of 'influence', but the screams and sounds of rage echoes down into the valley. These days, it's outright leathal t approach him at those times, which is unless we find a solution we won't be able to show him.
It's a bit inconvenient, but he's such a wonderful horse the rest of the time...


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Harlans Illusion
Bloodline: [link]
4rth generation descendent from Ghede

reference sheet: [link]

(sire) Dark Lake Stable's Farce x (dam)(S) Mirage
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Darklight stables: [link]
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references:

horse:
Background:

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challenge 97; Saftey First