Stallion Mage: A Horse Shifter Mpreg Romance (COMPLETE)

The True Answer

Alvarr had woken up, still in man-shape on the soft, unfamiliar pallet in one of the ancient tribe's dwellings. It had been the most comfortable nights in his memory, and the mage wanted nothing more than to lie in bed until the sun was well overhead.

But back home, people were hungry. He remembered the waving, sickly-sweet romeya outside the territory. They would get hungrier if Alvarr did not find a way to restore balance to the land.

He closed his eyes for a moment more, but the faces of the tribe rose up in his imagination. Thin faces. I'm coming, he told them.  As soon as he could gather enough proof to convince them to change the way they lived.  Well, it's the Elders I must convince.  No one will listen to me.

The mage sat up, the soft hay crackling around him.  His hand flew to his shoulders. His hair! It was longer than it had been yesterday, but still shorter than he was used to. He liked it.

Stay this way, he willed, but with little hope. His hair had always grown and grown; when he was a colt and tried to cut it, his hair had grown back twice as fast.

He rose from the cloth-covered pallet. This room was wondrous, he could see that now. Though there was little in it other than the pallet, the upper edges of the wood walls, where they joined the ceiling, had designs carved into them.

Done by human hands, or magic? Alvarr wondered, getting a closer look at the curves and lines. Even if it had been easily performed by magic, he would never have thought to do any of it. His magic had been focused on solving problems for the tribe, such as bad water and romeya.

As he inched along the room, looking at its details, his calf bumped into something hard. It was another low platform, but this was straight-sided and solid all the way down to the ground, not supported by four straight pieces like the other platforms that he had found.

This platform was carved on the top with more of those straight lines and curves. The top edge overhung the rest; Alvarr grasped it, and found that it moved up.

How curious.  The ancient tribe were truly ahead of Alvarr's own.  Or we are far behind, he added darkly.  

The whole top part of the platform moved upward, like Elder Mastok's straight-sided leaves that were bound together on one side.  The joint still moved smoothly.  Alvarr felt a bit awed.  Amazing.

As Alvarr raised the top, he saw that the whole platform was really just a straight-sided basket made of solid wood, and there were objects within: several bundles of those bound leaves, and a flat, small straight-sided wooden piece.

He brought out the bundles and laid them out on the pallet.  Flipping through the leaves, he could make no sense of them.  These had not a single drawing that he recognized, all just mysterious marks.  More to bring back to the Elders.  

But these, plus maybe the strange rock-tipped branch, were all he could show for his journey.  He could describe the dwellings, the battlefield, and his visions, but his words would have no meaning.  

Alvarr shook his head.  He just hoped these leaves contained the knowledge to help the tribe.  The Elders will have to convince everyone to join the tribes back together.  He could hardly imagine what that would be like.  

First, I must return.  The mage brought out the last item, the flat piece of wood. It was actually two pieces of wood joined together on one side.  The mage separated the pieces at the free edge, and almost dropped the object.

Magic! 

Even though Alvarr was magical, this was something different. On both sided of the wood was a pale leaf with a picture so life-like, it was as though the people themselves were trapped in the artwork.  The mage carefully touched a fingertip to the surface, and it came away with a faint mark.  No, it is like the painting in the cave.  Just artwork.