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“Come sit with me by the Mirror Pond. I want to show you something,” Seventh Sister beckoned, patting the mossy ground beside her at the edge of the pond.
Divina hadn’t even noticed the Mirror Pond, so absorbed in the beauty of the rest of the gardens.
She did as she was bid and tucked her legs beneath her as she sat by Miss Seventh.
“What is it? I thought the Mirror Pond only showed us images it wants us to see.”
“Indeed,” Seventh Sister agreed. “I suppose even bodies of water could grow impatient waiting for your attendance. I was called here to gain your attention and make sure you stopped by.”
Divina shoved her shoulder playfully.
“You are so funny, sister,” she trilled.
“Not really,” her friend murmured.
“Come on, stop bamming me,” Divina insisted. “Ponds don’t wait for people to come across them.”
“This one does. Now be a dear and look inside before the Jade Emperor punishes me for keeping you from your task any longer.”
“Why don’t you call him Daddy?” Divina asked. “Jade Emperor is such a mouthful and so formal.”
Miss Seventh might have groaned a little.
“Just look,” she urged, pushing Divina inexorably forward until she leaned over the pond and looked down into its reflective surface.
Divina had no choice but to take a peek and see what all the fuss was about.
The moment she did, the perfect mirror of the tranquil pool blurred and darkened, until Divina stared not into the clear depths of the water but another time and place.
“Oh look!” she gasped with delight, “it’s a baby horse!”
Technically the correct term to call a baby horse was a foal. A colt, if it was male. Which this particular beauty evidently was, as he struggled to stand on shaky, newborn legs.
Divina wanted to reach into the pool, pick him up and hold him.
He was absolutely gorgeous. Perfectly formed with a shiny black coat and mane. She could tell it would wave when it was dry, though it currently stuck to his coat with fluids from his recent birth.
What captured her attention the most was his incredible violet eyes, surrounded by thickets of long lashes. He seemed to look right at her as he turned his neck gracefully to the side, his nostrils flaring as if he scented her presence.
And then—he screamed.
Divina screamed too, shocked back on her ass, startling Miss Seventh.
Quickly, she scrambled back to the pond’s edge to look inside once more.
The most horrific, terrible scene was playing out before her eyes.
Giant, dinner-plate-sized hooves were raining down on Divina’s colt, trying to stamp him into the ground.
The colt scrambled and skidded, flailing to avoid the lethal hooves, but he was too little, too weak.
He took the edge of one hoof to the belly and another to his rump. He managed to stay upright by sheer force of will, but just barely.
He tried to escape on knobby, untried legs, but his attacker was too strong and fast, easily overpowering him again and blocking his path.
And that was when Divina got a good look at the monster:
An enormous centaur stallion rearing on his hind legs, aiming his powerful front hooves at the newborn colt like battering rams.
