Maximus The Bull Has Pink Hoofs

On a small country road leading to a small family Farm nestled comfortably in a tiny village in the Highlands of Scotland is where our story of bravery, self-acceptance and love takes place, and of all the tales and adventures I have lived, telling this one is my favourite.

For many a year, the McPhail Family had dreamed of increasing their herd, to at least 2 Cows and 2 Bulls. McPhail’s had owned and farmed this land in the small loch village of Lochcarron since the 17th Century, and Ewan McPhail, his wife Lorna and their two children Kate 14 & Ewan Jr. 17 loved the place with all their hearts.

They shared the Farm with 16 Chickens, 25 of sassiest sheep you could find, 2 dogs Bessy & Luna, 6 goats, 4 Horses and their pride and joy; a couple consisting of a breeding Bull called Caesar and his mate a beautiful brown and white cow called Andromeda. The Family along with two male farm-hands Jack & Logan, who occupied the small cottage located at the other end of the farm loved to work the land producing quality vegetables, eggs & home-made butter for the local supermarket and restaurants in Lochcarron and its neighbouring village of Strathcarron which housed the main train station for the 2 villages allowing visitors from all over the world the chance of enjoying an adventurous slice of all the 2 places had to offer as a tourist destination.

What the Family didn’t know, or at least not yet, was that Caesar & Andromeda were magical creatures from the land of the fairies that had, due to the farm’s location, an entrance just at the foot of the Barn where the animals were kept. The land of the fairies was known as Dunfaraggon, it existed in the time before men when fairies and all sort of other magical and beautiful creatures roamed the Earth. Andromeda was the beautiful and enchanting daughter of King Promanthe, who had ruled Fairy Land for more 3000 years, with the wife Queen Roxanna.

Princess Andromeda had made the mistake of falling for one of her guards, a young, handsome dashing male fairy called Caesar and when she would not give him up and marry within her royal circles, this incurred King Promanthe’s anger.

He cast a spell on the couple changing them into a cow and bull and left them at the edge of Fairy Land, where they were found and taken in by Ewan & Lorna, who loving cared for since then. Promanthe’s banishment was to last 1000 fairy years, which was ten human years. Even though the King was angry with his daughter and the choice she had made, he watched over the couple and blessed the McPhail’s land so that Caesar and Andromeda would never want for anything, even Ewan & Lorna’s love flowed for the two animals and never was there a more loving and blessed place in all of Scotland.

Five years into their Banishment, on a temperate and windy afternoon outside the Barnhouse, Caesar heard Andromeda say with a heavy breath ‘My oh my what a warm and humid day, my love’. ‘Are you ok Andromeda?’ said Caesar back to her, ‘as I can’t feel the humidity of which you speak, outside is as windy as if it were Autumn’. Before he could finish the sentence; Andromeda had fainted onto the fluffed up piles of hay that covered the floor of their extra-large stall in the barn. Caesar could hear her breathing heavily as he shouted at her ‘Andromeda, Andromeda my love can you hear me? His trembling but deep voice came out as worrying and scare words to him and other fairy people but was heard as a distressing repeated bray by young Ewan Jr. who went to look why Caesar was acting this and upon seeing Andromeda on the ground shouted for his parents ‘Mom, Dad come quickly please…please Dad, Andromeda is not well, hurry’.

Ewan Snr. Called out the Emergency Veterinarian Dr. Ian Patel, who after hearing Andromeda’s symptoms, arrived within the hour. I an who looked after some 200 farms across the Highlands of Scotland was very familiar with Caesar and Andromeda, as they were rescued animals and never seemed to get ill or needed shots, he always thought the animals special, blessed even by the standards of his Hindu beliefs. He suspected that Andromeda was carrying a calf, and by the sounds of it was ready to be delivered, but why had he not detected on his last check-up of the animals in May last year?

No one was happier to see Dr. Patel arrive than Caesar; his heart was beating so fast he kept having to snuffle so as to try and slow the pace down….’Andromeda, I am right here my love, I will not leave you’ he assured her. ‘Caesar I am sorry, I know I have should have said something, but I wasn’t sure, and now that I am in this much I know it’s our first-born’ she nervously replied. A child, a baby cow or bull to the adults attending to Andromeda, Caesar almost passed out himself at the thought.

How is this possible, had his father-in-law King Promanthe not ensured they could not sire children, what did this miracle magical birth mean?

And as Dr. Patel shouted to Farmer Ewan, and Ewan Jr. and his Mom looked on, Andromeda gave one huge and painful push, and out came the most beautiful bull-calf the entire world had ever seen. As the newly born bull-calf struggled from the placenta that had protected him from harm inside Andromeda stomach, everyone looked on in total amazement.

The baby bull-calf was metallic black all over with one large brilliant white patch of hair at the top of his head where he would grow into his horns. He had long sleek black legs and the deepest blue-green eyes you had ever seen.

What had Dr. Patel, Farmer Ewan, Ewan Jr. and Lorna been the almost blinding sparkling pink hoofs of the baby bull-calf. Even when he stood up for the 1st time and stubbled over to where Andromeda lay, they seemed to light up the whole area of the barn around them. And as the baby bull-calf took his first sips of fresh breast milk from Andromeda’s udder, Dr. Patel moved swiftly to remove any remains of the birthing process leaving the stall open for Caesar to comfort his wife, scent and accept his new-born son.

‘Andromeda my love, you did it, and I can’t tell you how proud I am of you My darling’ Caesar whispered in her ear as he rubbed his cheek to hers. ‘I think we should call him Maximus, as he looks like a fighter just like his father’ said Andromeda, still trying to regain her strength after what was a very surprising birth. ‘Maximus it is, but I can’t get over why his eyes are so blue and his hoofs all sparkling pink My love, your father must have a hand in that’ Caesar told her.

‘Not my Father but the Gods of the Fairies my love, the 1st born Grandchild of the fairy royal line is always an anointed child, Maximus is no ordinary blessing’ Andromeda explained to Caesar.

‘By his birth, the spell Father has Us under can and will be broken, that is why I did not want to mention anything as if I wasn’t pregnant, then there would be no need to get our hopes up my Love, but Maximus is here, and I can’t wait to return to Fairy Land’ she finished.

Farmer Ewan, Dr. Patel, Ewan Jr. and Lorna left the animals, knowing they would need time to tend to their new-born bull-calf. As they entered the kitchen of the farmhouse and Dr. Patel cleaned himself up and disposed of the medical waste, he commented to Farmer Ewan ‘we better not mention the Little One to others in the village just yet; not sure other will understand He’s special’. ‘I was thinking the same to be honest, will need you to look at him again in four weeks, see how they are all doing’ replied Farmer Ewan; think that would hopefully make sense of the baby bull-calf’s magnificent features.

That night as the McPhail family slept soundly in their comfortable farmhouse on their ancestral land, a magical miracle was happening in the Barn where Caesar, Andromeda and baby Maximus slept.

The clock in the Farm struck 12 midnight and as it did the Barn glowed with a celestial light throughout from the outside, as it did inside the Barn saw a transformation that left the horses hiding in their stalls.

Caesar, Andromeda and Baby Maximus lit up with a heavenly glow, their hoofs turn to beautiful Fairy legs and hands and bodies formed to include beautiful sets of transcendent wings.

King Promanthe & Queen Roxanna appeared and greeted their daughter, son-in-law and grandchild, with a beaming pride overflowing from the King as he had missed his daughter these long years of her banishment.

As a father, all he wanted no needed was the very best for Andromeda and could not see in his focus to protect her that Caesar made her happy. If he doubted this, that doubt he saw was relieved as the young Family together only displayed Caesar's love and dedication to his wife and child which beamed like stars touring the night-sky to find their chosen happy shining spot.

Baby Maximus was fairy perfection upon transforming into his true skin. He was a brilliant shade of pale pink, and his wings like all of him just glowed a pure and warming constant ray of light, that made anyone within reach feel as if they had been touched with a new peaceful purpose.

King Promanthe spoke out loud with a majestic boldness borne only by those with the power of governance stating ‘Today after so many painful and worrying years; A father is reunited with his daughter and Son, and a punishment too great and given in haste has been ended. I am blest to welcome them and my new grandson Maximus the 1st of His name to Fairy Land, where he will one day rule as I have done’.

Loud and celebratory cheers, as well as Fairy Land's Bells rang out through the entire Kingdom. For it was not King Promanthe alone that had felt the emptiness and loss of Princess Andromeda and her Consort but the entire kingdom.

Flowers that had not bloomed since the ‘Banishment’ shot open to exhale fragrances long since forgotten in Fairy Land. The realm was whole again.

‘I feel terrible having to leave the McPhail’s’ behind just like that Caesar, they have been so good to us’ said Andromeda, knowing that their disappearance would sadden the Family deeply.

‘We will pay them a visit soon if the King will allow it’ said Caesar and looked in the direction of his father-in-law’.

‘Of course, as if it were not for them, you may have suffered at the hands of an unkind human’.

So, they planned and started making decisions for their future. Maximus the Bull with the pink sparkling hoofs was no more, and on the quiet little Farm in the tiny little village in the Highlands of Scotland, miracles, magic and all things fairy, lived on.

[THE END]