Mother

One of Foaly's earliest memories, and perhaps the saddest and most traumatic, is that of his family's holiday to Haven. He had been barely forty when his parents decided to show him the reason why the centaurs live in their secret colonies, and the rest of the fairies, elves, gnomes and pixies, live in theirs. Filhis, his baby sister, was too young to understand what happened to their mother, but Foaly could not forget it.

            "That's where Spud's Spud Emporium is going to be built," his father smiled as he pointed a hairy hand to a bare patch of subterranean earth, holding his wife's hand in the other. "May, the elf that I told your mother about, is going to be the co-owner."

Foaly nodded his little head as he trotted along beside his parents, his sister sticking close to his flank. He hadn't wanted to go to Haven but his parents had forced him. It was rather boring in his opinion.

            "What's that?" Filhis asked, poking her brother in the withers. "It's pretty."

            "It's the Fountain of Frond, a hot spring runs under the city and it bubbles up there because a dwarf thought it was an oil reserve and tried to-"

            "Boring!"

Foaly rolled his eyes and pivoted away from his sister. "It isn't boring Filly, it's science."

            "That's my boy," his father interrupted before a fight could break out, "you'll be all grown up and hitched before we know it."

            "Ew, no Da."

His mother ruffled his messy fringe and glanced around. "We're going to meet one of your father's friends in half an hour but we can go anywhere you like until then."

            "Lili sticks!" Filhis chanted, her sweet tooth getting the better of her. She grabbed Foaly by the tail and stamped her tiny hooves as she tried to drag him towards a candy store.

Foaly remained firmly planted but his eyes were starting to water from Fhilis' relentless tugging. "I think we should visit Police Plaza. There are some prototype keyboards that the technicians are working on and I'm-"

            "Foalionius," his mother admonished, "we did not come here to look at-"

There was a sudden scream and his sister whinnied in terror. Foaly, who had been sulking and staring at the floor, looked up to see his father and mother surrounded by a group of dwarves. One of them, a stocky creature with a ginger beard and a sharp looking dagger, growled out a few gnommish curse words.

            "I told you to cut their throats before they could make a noise, now hurry up before the suits get here!"

Foaly froze in terror, his sister had pushed herself between his forelegs and was squeezing his cannon bones so hard that it hurt. What had he done to deserve this? More importantly, what had his parents done to deserve this?

            "Boss," another of the dwarves growled, "there's kids over there, kill them too?"

            "Yes," the ginger dwarf said, flipping his dagger into the air, "quickly."

Filhis screamed and ran, galloping into a dwarf that had been approaching them from behind in her confusion. He couldn't think, he shouldn't have to deal with this, it was just impossible.

            "Foaly!" His father yelled as he reared to protect his mother. "Grab your sister and get out of here, go to Police Plaza!"

That was it, forget about his own life, forget about his parents, he had to save his sister. Foaly lowered his head, forced his eyes open, and charged straight at the dwarf who was terrorising his sister. He grabbed her around the girth, she was so tiny that he didn't need to struggle to lift her, and kept running. That had been the last time he saw his mother alive.