oh, the irony

[symphony]

King's Park and Eidolon

Autumn Fun, the legendary queen of King's Park, was the last to be bred that year. Ironically enough, her foal was the first to be born, apparently being too impatient to wait the final two weeks. Because of this, no one was around to witness the birth of Sola's second filly, a big bay that rivaled Conquistador in both size and grandeur.

Tally was more than shocked at finding the filly there when she came around to check the broodmares at two in the morning. Though she had not yet begun sleeping in the barn to keep a close eye on them all, she did tend to check on them every few hours as a few of them grew closer to foaling. The little devil had slipped through her grasp though, as if she had planned the entire thing.

She couldn't hold a grudge against the foal though - for all her trickery, the filly that had resulted from the crossing of Autumn Fun and Daemon was nothing short of beautiful. She was all legs at the moment, staggering around the stall unsteadily and peeking out at Tally from behind the calm chestnut mare who greeted the trainer with a quiet nicker, swinging her head over the stable door. Three years now, it had been since Sola had retired, and already she was a pro at her new job. Already, Tally knew what to name the filly; she had done some thinking on the topic, talked to some old friends about it, even done some research on the subject of Daemon's out of pure curiousity. For several weeks, she had been mulling over the five or so name possibilities she had found.

Now that she saw the foal with her own eyes, only one name fit. Eidolon.

The filly's coat was a lovely dark bay, coffee-coloured, Tally liked to think, though it lightened slightly along her back. Eidolon had gone after her older brother in that her legs were adorned with stockings; though unlike his neat ones to the hocks, hers were all over the place, a knee-high one on her back leg, one almost to her shoulder on a front leg and just above the knee on another, and of course a sock on the final leg that seemed tiny in comparison. She had taken the subject of face markings to the extreme as well, with almost a full face mask to show for it. Only one thing worried Tally about the beautifully conformed filly; one eye was blue, while the other was brown, something she had only ever seen in a few horses.

Figuring that it was only an hour or so until he would be down by the track anyway, Tally checked in on the other horses in the stable - all of which were rather boring as they dozed in their stalls when compared to her new filly - and then headed back up to the house to call the vet who usually hung around the track in the mornings. He made good money off of checking horses that pulled up sore after a work. As the phone rang, she cupped it between her head and shoulder to free both her hands, setting to work making herself a cup of coffee.

"Hello?" a sleepy male voice answered just as the kettle finished boiling. Tally paused in her coffee-making for a second, racking her brains for the vet's name.

"Brian?" she replied, waiting for his acknowledgement that yes, she had come up with the correct name, before continuing. "Hi, it's Tally Cremer from King's Park."

"Ah, King's Park," he said, his voice becoming more alert. "Everything okay up there?"

"Yeah, everything's fine," she continued, pouring the boiling water from the kettle into her mug and moving to the fridge to find some milk. "It's just that I've got a newborn foal here who I'd like you to take a look at, if you could."

"Of course." She could hear Brian moving around his house busily as he talked. "I'll be there in ten or fifteen minutes if that's ok; unless there's something wrong with this foal?"

"No, she seems fine." Tally paused to sip at the steaming coffee. "She's up on her feet and moving around. The only weird thing about her is one blue eye, but it doesn't seem to be bothering her at all."

"Alright, I'll be there soon.

---

Tally was waiting for him next to Pablo's stall with her mug of hot coffee in her hand and a second waiting for Brian near the door to Pablo's stall. The sabino colt within was fast asleep with his head shoved in the back corner and tail to the door. Pie on the other hand stood at his stall door across the row, eyeing off the extra coffee greedily. The grey was sadly deluded, thinking that everything that was edible and most of what was not was all there for his consumption. He was very persuasive too, when it came to people who did not know him well, always somehow managing to get his hooves on any food they happened to be carrying at the time.

"Morning," Tally greeted Brian as he came through the stable entrance, a large archway that had once also featured double doors but no longer did. As he returned the greeting, she offered him the extra cup of coffee which he accepted gratefully, motioning for her to show the way.

With one last glance at the now-disappointed looking Pie, Tally led Brian through the rows of stalls to the back end, where the larger foaling stalls were. Sola was waiting for them, her head over the stall door so she could watch them approach. Eidolon had since decided she was tired and flopped down onto the straw; though at the sound of Tally greeting Sola and the stall door opening she struggled to her feet, skipping over to her mother's side.

"She looks healthy enough," Brian observed, watching Eidolon as she fidgeted and moved about. "Am I able to get closer?"

"Go ahead," Tally replied, putting down her coffee and moving over to Sola's head. "Sola's usually pretty good about it." With her watching the mare, Brian carefully approached the bay filly, letting her sniff at him all she liked before taking a good look at her.

"She looks pretty healthy to me," he said after a time, moving back. "I don't think that eye will cause her any problems; though she may have pretty soft feet even when she's older, just a heads up. I can't really tell you anything specific until she's at least a few weeks old, sorry."

"That's okay," Tally replied, moving out of the stall and picking up her coffee again. "I just want to be sure there's nothing special I should be doing for her."

"Nope!" Brian said cheerfully, sipping at his coffee. "A very healthy and happy filly, by the looks of it - and quite possibly the next champion, if I may say so myself."