Hearthwarming Tales

by De Writer

THE FIRST ROM HEARTHWARMING

Author's Note:

My Rom were and are a loving tribute to some of the finest folk that I ever had the pleasure of meeting. To fit them to a world of talking creatures of many sorts and having no cognate for Northern India, where the ancestors of the Romani came from, I had to make many adaptations. I hope that those who read this and my other tales of the Rom will take that into account and simply read the tales for their entertainment value.

It was late afternoon under low clouds. The breeze from the Great South bay was chill and carrying a light dusting of snow with it. It was not cool enough yet for the snow to stick much. Just patches of thin dusty snow across the road, here and there. The port town of Milestago was too far ahead for us to reach today.

Nore’s and my first foal, the filly Naleen Bel Nore, was pulling in the lead of our hitch. She was leading the whole band of us in our Pulling cadence song, too. Much as I do love the Shehan Ja Rom, it contains one tiny inaccuracy.

In telling of how I saved the Original Seven of the Rom, it claims that I died in the deed. Seems pretty obvious to me that I didn’t die! I mean, here I am Pulling in the harness alongside the lovely chestnut sorrel horse who is my wife, Nore.

As the song got to the part where the I died and the band had to go on, finding the spring of Sha Ja Shehan, whose water and abundant browse saved them all, I grumbled, “It was a NAP, just a nap! I came right along as soon as I woke up!”

It was equally obvious that my lovely horse was waiting for my little snort! With a grin, she pointed with an ear at the snow patch under hoof at the moment. Naleen was leaving tracks. Nore was leaving tracks. The soft crunch of the wheels in the hard packed gravel of the road announced that they were leaving tracks. I wasn’t! Again! Oops!

Smiling fondly, she avoided directly saying, that I was dead. A ghost of some sort. She pointed out, “Thanks to your nap, none of the rest of us died and we are now all free horses.”

Just then, Naleen, in the lead, steered us into one of the excellent Royal Road waysides. Saved me from some embarrassing repartee. She is a good filly, growing really well, too.

Unlike any other member of the band, even though a lovely sorrel like her mother, and very clearly going to be a big horse, like her mother had grown to be, she has a horn. Not a short unicorn pony horn, colored like the fur of the pony; hers is long, straight and sort of an aged ivory color. Her magic through the horn is a light green, similar to her eyes. And strong. Really strong.

We were setting up our camp, with our caravans in a sort of a ring. Maina, Malit and their adopted filly, Shehan who was an abandoned waif pony from Haulmarket, before they took her in, camped to our right. To our left, was Sando and his mate Phapa Al Oosa along with their colt Thom. Across the mortared stone fire ring of the wayside from us, camped Rom and Sarel. Their first foal was on the way, but not born yet.

Sando finished securing his awning out over the camp and securing his fabric booth sides to partly cover our camp and Rom’s. By copying him, we had a sort of weather cover and wind break around the whole camp.

Sando announced to all of us, “Today is Midwinter Day! The shortest day of the year and the longest night! Do the ponies of Equestria have any sort of holiday or celebration for today?

“In Gyptia the Masters had a celebration but we, as slaves, only served them. We did not get to celebrate it.”

They all looked at old dead donkey me, waiting for an answer. I replied, “They do have a celebration called Hearthwarming. It is done with a pageant about how the land was found and settled. Nobody, except perhaps the Exile, the old unicorn who teaches you your Equestrian, numbers, and history, knows where they came from.

“They do know that the three kinds, Earth ponies, Unicorns and Pegassi had a society that exploited the Earth ponies for the food that they raised. Something caused a famine and they had to migrate to a safer place.

“They found the ‘rich and empty’ land that is now Equestria. After they settled here, the old tensions came up again. The Three Kinds did not trust each other. The crop failures and distrust were blamed on ‘windegos,’ whatever they may have been.

“A group of foals, two of each kind were trapped by a storm or 'windegos’ and found out that they could get along in harmony. That broke the grip of evil on the land and the Three Kinds now live and work together in Harmony.”

Naleen nodded and observed sagely, “They didn’t learn that lesson too well, really, did they? I mean, donkeys, goats and us horses sort of got left out of the whole getting along in harmony thing, didn’t we?”

Shehan, who was a pony before she got adopted by us horses, added, “While that is true, Naleen, there is another part to the celebration. I got to see it from the outside several times. After the pageant, they celebrate Harmony by giving each other presents.

“We could do that to celebrate our own harmony. I mean we could give each other gifts. After all, the Shehan Ja Rom tells a similar story and WE all get along. Some of the ponies that we have met on the road are good sorts too. You know, like Carter, that long haul freight pony whose caravan we fixed when he was broken down, there outside of Trottingham.”

I brightened up. “That is a good notion, Shehan! We can do the Shehan Ja Rom and give each other gifts! We have plenty of good provisions to make us up a nice feast, too!”

We all got busy making up our favorite treats with Ka'chek flour and dried or preserved fruits. Shehan got a big batch of bread together and was kneading it expertly. It was shaping up to be a fine feast!

We all heard the creak and soft crunch of wheels on the road outside. The pony pulling the wagon was limping. That was all too easy to hear. So were his whimpers of pain.

Naleen left off rolling out her dough and went out to the road like a shot! We heard her exclamation of surprise! “Carter! I never expected to see you this far south!

“Why are you whimpering like that?”

We heard his answer and his pain. “I got a cargo for Milestago. I slipped on a snow patch back there a ways. I think that I broke somethin’. My right foreleg hurts something awful down close to the hoof.”

Naleen demanded, “Carter! You drop that hitch right now! Get over to our camp and have Nore and Marchhare look at your leg. I will get your caravan over into the lee of ours.”

We heard his good natured correction, “It is a wagon, Naleen, not a caravan.”

“You just go and see my mom, got it?”

While Carter was limping his way into our camp, we heard the sounds of Naleen hitching herself to his wagon and dragging it to the safety of the lee of our camp.

When she re entered the camp, she saw Carter laying on his left side on a cushion. Nore was laying a hoof gently on the lower part of his right leg. She looked up and asked Naleen, “What did you see that caused you to send Carter here to me so abruptly, Naleen?”

Naleen diffidently suggested, “It felt like a hairline fracture of the right canon bone, mother.”

Nore nodded briskly. “Exactly right, Naleen. Tell me what you deduce from that.”

“If Carter had tried to go any further, his right leg would probably break completely in less than a half kilometer, mother.”

“Right again, my filly. Now what should we do for him?”

“Fix the bone? I never watched you do that, mother.”

“Now you will see the way of it, my dear.”

Carter nervously interrupted, “Wait. What is this gonna cost me? How long am I gonna be laid up?”

I stuck my hoof into the conversation. “You should be able to pull by tomorrow, Carter. You have been a friend to us. We helped you with that wagon breakdown and you have bailed us out on crooked fairground and toll gate charges several times since.

“Besides, this is our first Hearthwarming celebration. Be a shame to blemish it by not trying to stretch the goodness of Harmony to a friend, wouldn’t it?”

“I see, Marchhare. How is she going to fix a broken bone that fast?”

I shrugged. “No Equestrian words for what she is going to do. You have heard about Nore’s Death Touch? This is the other side of it. She can heal too. She is teaching Naleen, so forgive the Gyptian between them as she works on you.

“We are going to use Gyptian for our music and dances but out of deference to you being here, we will use Equestrian for the feast and such.”

I left Nore showing Naleen how simple it really is to heal a broken bone. The rest of us all went back to putting together the feast.

With the last of it in the ovens or on the griddles to bake, we broke out the instruments and the song began. And the dancing. Never forget the dancing.

Carter looked like he had gone to Paradise, watching and listening. He did his best to lean his head back and trill for applause in our Rom fashion.

We did not have a lot to share around as gifts but the feast more than made up for it!

~THE END~

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Why are the titles of most of the chapters capitalized?

[De Writer]

9339704
It is just my habit. I like the title to stand out. No great secret. Sorry.

[Bronzedragon]

Good one. I really like your Rom stories my friend.

[De Writer]

9339857
Thank you. Since they instituted the "gotta be connected to one of these series" rule, it has been difficult to post anything except what can be posted as "chapters" to sets that I already have.