//------------------------------//
// The Path Ahead 
// Story: The Most Precious Gift 
// by Dai Kirai 
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	Yejide sat in a small meadow near Janss Steps; a human sat in a hammock tied between two trees. Physiology books lay on the grass as she thought of her past life as she doodled designs in a notebook.  It was a dear gift. She pulled down her right ear to look at the betrothal ring again. Gold inlaid with a piece of cork etched with the ancient Zebrican word or “GIFT”. At one point that cork had helped hold something found at the edge of the field of poison joke and had been filled with a white fluorescent liquid with black specs. It was the concoction she had helped Zecora brew. A cure for poison joke infused into a memory spell. It kept the memory of the desert from fading forever back into the black abyss..

She looked down at the verdant grass, felt the cool breeze through her mane as the sun warmed her fur. Cranes flew ahead, while others moved around the crystal clear pond. Further away stood a waterfall of jade and in the middle of it all a copper column, this was Mt. Kunlun, it was perfection. The zebra stared at the bland wooden door set into the copper pillar. 
“You know that if you leave all you will find is pain.” The Queen Mother of the West spoke.
And Yejide knew it with all her soul, and knew this was a place she could never return to. There were others here of all different makes, all getting along, and if she left and saw many of these species again they would try to kill her. She still had sixth months left of her journey though and had found such wonderful materials like Wyrm’s Root to deliver back home. Pain filled her chest as she looked at the Queen in all her heraldry and gowns, wings folded at her side. 
“I can’t.” Yejide looked back to the door, it felt impossible, picking one or the other. 
The Queen Mother of the West bowed her head. “I understand.” With a wave of a hoof, the door opened, inside was pitch black. “Safe travels young one.”
“And peace be with you.” Yejide made a long formal bow until her chin lay along the ground. She turned and stepped for the door; the instant she did that though she woke back up in a desert. Just as she had appeared back in the desert instantly, as did her memories of Mt. Kunlun faded.
She found herself in the desert, far from any civilization. The dawn light showed blood caked sand at her hooves. 

Yejide twisted her head to get a good look at the drawing. It was a winged staff with two snakes winding their way up its length. The Caduceus, human symbol for medicine. She had finally been accepted to John’s Hopkin’s School of Medicine, she was finally on her true path which meant a pilgrimage back home to get her chosen mark emblazoned on her flank by Mganga, or if he had passed, the new shaman. Whether or not the tribe would accept her again, they would not hinder her journey. Her flank would no longer be blank. 
It was a hard life, filled with pain and struggle and the zebra wouldn’t have it any other way. For it had its own unique beauty and mystique for without the hardship the joys meant nothing. Nopony could know everything and fighting against death was futile. But, she was never that wise of a zebra.