The stream flows on, but now the ground has a slight cant to it and the water moves a little faster. Gradually the trees have become thicker until the shadows are deep and the sunlight is so muted it is almost dark. The undergrowth also becomes thicker, the branches pluck at you with twig fingers, catching at your clothing and hair. After a while you begin to despair that you will never see sunlight again let alone find the source of the spring.

You suddenly stumble over an exposed tree root, tumbling through the scratching bramble bushes and out into the open.

Bruised and scratched you pull yourself to your feet and find yourself in a small clearing. The branches overhead, though still tightly meshed together, allow a little more light into this place, the green tint and almost wall like vegetation surrounding the area makes this clearing seem hallowed and hushed. Unconciously you begin to breath slower, softer, to match the silence of this place.

In the centre of the clearing is a pool and on the far side a broken stone from which water flows down into the pond to supply the stream.

Lying near the stream is a strange horse-like creature. As you near it the equine leaps to it's feet, her cloven hooves scoring the mossy turf.

She stands, legs braced, head snaking and ears flat looking towards you. The mare takes a step backwards, a hind hoof sinking into the water she stops and swings her head from side to side, snuffing the air, hear ears twisting, as if trying to sense precicely where you stand with scent and sound alone. She takes a tentative step towards you, her ears flicking uneasily and body tense.

Cautiously you move towards to the pool and the strange mare. As you get a closer look at the mare several things strike you. First her mane and lion tipped tail are made up of a shimmer of perpetually falling water, occassionally dripping on the ground.
The second realisation descends upon you like a bucket of ice. This creature is completely blind! Her eyes are white as milk with no pupil or iris.

"Uh.. Good day?" You call out softly, stopping and hoping the creature understands your language. At the sound of your words the mare visibly relaxes.

"!nisrop! Do keep speaking... or make some noise for a moment." She move towards you far more confidently as you, feeling foolish, sing a nursery rhyme of your youth, stopping a few paces before you and bobs her head, her fluid mane cresting for a moment into a wave, flicking water into the air like scattered diamonds, before decending back into it's normal fall.

"I am T'sulah, a Tira-yap. When I was a foal Helaine brought me here to the Tir where I could be safe despite my lack of sight." She sweeps her tail in an arc to indicate the clearing and showers you and a part of the turf in cool water.

"This is my home now. The stream is called 'the Hourin' It gradually leads down into the great lake where the forest and plains meet. It is one of the eight main streams of the Tir.There is the Kano, and that of Raftnim which flows from the desert underground. I think most of the streams have been named for heros of the Mage Wars or places long gone. The 'Hourin' was named for the city where Allanon lived."
Tsu'lah nods in the direction of the stream. "It is difficult to follow the stream down unless you know the paths... I can smell bramble sap and sticky leaf on you so you must have battled through the brush to get here. Come I'll show you the easy way back through to the meadows if you like."

She gracefully side steps around you and walks across the ground, her steps a little exagerated to test the ground before each stride but her motion confident.
Despite having heard the saying about the blind leading fools you hurry after her. Obviously she knows where she's going and it comes as a relief that someone can show you how to get back out into the sunshine.

You almost fall over the small mare as she stops suddenly, side stepping three paces and touching the bark of a tree with her muzzle.
"Here, go to the right of this tree then follow the path. It leads back to the Sycoraxi." You look past the tree and lo! Half hidden by a thick bush you see a tidy, well worn path, it almost as if the forest has pulled back a little to allow for it. On the left you can hear the trickling of the stream you followed here. Had you walked past this point without it being pointed out you probably would have missed it all together! "Silly isn't it! You'd be surprised at the number of creatures that miss this." Tsulah grins and shakes her sightless head gleefully. "Just because I am blind it doesn't mean I can't see! Darkhorse missed it too but I found it the first day here. The air wind moves differently there because wind can follow the path."

You grin back at her even though she can not see and, after thanking her, head back down the path.

Tirayaps are (c) to their creator, Helaine I was given permission to redraw T'sulya so the art is (c) to me!!