A horse galloped past a very tall peach blossom with a basket placed on it but lacked a rider. It hooves flattened the grass it passed through and moved with steady average speed barely disturbing the basket on its saddle.
Soon, it came to a halt, stopping in front of a cottage that had smoke coming from its chimney. It neighed and made contact with the door creating bangs that alerted the people within the cottage.
"Who's there?" An aged voice asked from behind the door.
~neigh... The dark colored horse responded in a hurried voice.
"Grandma it's a horse!" A younger voice resounded in the cottage with excitement and ran to open the door.
"Davi! Wait" the old woman said moving her aged body as fast as she could but the deed was already done. She looked at the horse, wondering who will leave their horse to wander at this time of the night then took her grandchild in her embrace, not without giving her an earful.
"Ohh! You poor thing, are you lost?... Or hungry?" Her granddaughter that seemed around nine years asked, sympathy in her eyes but also excitement.
'kids these days' the old woman thought and proceeded to inspect the animal, she couldn't leave it in this cold, and from the clouds gathered in the night sky, it was surely going to rain. She grabbed the horse by the reigns to lead it to the shed at the back of the cottage but paused when she noticed a basket silently perched on the saddle.
"Davi, go bring the oil lantern from the kitchen" she said to her granddaughter, the dim moonlight wasn't enough for her to inspect the animal, especially with her aged eyes. Soon enough her daughter came back holding a glow of yellow light, with a hop in her step.
'I guess living with an old woman has made you eager for the company of others...even though it is an animal' the old woman sighed to herself when she saw the child's excitement, she couldn't blame the child though, she has lived with her for years, only getting to see her parents from time to time... Looking at the young girl's beautiful face that had a few stray black bangs resting on it, she collected the lantern from her small chubby hands.
"Shift back Davi" she said to her granddaughter just in case and brought the light closer to the basket on the horse that remained still since the beginning, only blinking from time to time. She noticed the ropes that were used to hold the basket in place and gave the lantern back to Davi so she could unfasten them.
As the last knot was loosened, she removed the basket from the horse's back, and as she did...the horse fell limply on the ground, startling the old woman and leaving the young girl looking at it in confusion.
Due to the fear, the old woman hurriedly grabbed her daughter with her other free hand and entered her cottage, locking the door behind her. In the room that was moderately lit from the fire burning within she breathed heavily, trying to catch her breath but soon broke into a fit of coughing that worried her granddaughter.
"Grandma?" The child asked in both confusion and worry, her head moved between the entrance and her coughing grandmother. Ignoring the horse they abandoned outside with difficulty, she proceeded to lead her grandma to the couch, taking the heavy basket from her hands and placing it on the floor mat.
She waited for her grandma to calm down, feeding her water from time to time and patting her back. After some minutes passed by, the old woman's breathing became stable.
She thought with difficulty about what she just saw. It was as if the horse was only living to deliver the basket, or it was killed to avoid any witnesses of it delivering the basket, including itself. She stood up, moved to the door and peeked from the slight space she opened. She didn't notice any up and down movement in it. It seemed it was really dead.
The woman gasped. She turned to her daughter that was still looking at her in confusion and declared in a somber whisper.
"It's dead Davi, the horse is dead." A thunderclap resounded and the clouds released the waters within them on the earth. Davi just glanced at the door and pouted. Death wasn't a foreign concept to her, it was just too bad though that her hopes were crushed, but there was nothing they could do apart from resting on the couch and looking at the burning wood in the fireplace that added a different music to the one the rain played.
In that peaceful silence, her grandma dosed off completely forgetting about the basket the now dead horse delivered to them while Davi played with the yarn at one corner of the room. Her attention was grabbed though by the slight noises coming from the basket.
With curiosity, she approached it and tilted her head to inspect it. The basket was made from dark wood, woven tightly in an intricate but simple design, it had an unevenly cut flat wood place on it, with the handle made from thick twisted twigs from a tree branch. It was really pretty.
She brought her hands above it and moved the plank with slight difficulty, revealing what was within.
"Ohhh!! A baby!... No, those are two babies right?" The young girl exclaimed in excitement when she saw the two babies that were carefully laid on soft silk within the basket. One was awake and was staring right at her with it's dark onyx eyes while the other was still asleep but was making slight noises and movements as if to show it's discomfort.
Davi smiled in happiness because of how cute the babies were and proceeded to wake her sleeping grandma on the couch but reduced her voice so as not to startle her.
"Grandma, wake up! There are two babies in the basket!"