It wasn't like any stable Claudia had seen before. The paddock wasn't so strange, just incredibly grand, bigger even than the sweeping, empty halls of the colleges that Claudia had visited. It was inside that had arrested her, first at the door, then when she darted forward to step up onto the fence for a better vantage over the strange group. They glowed. A mass huddled mostly together and dozing in the straw, giving off a faint light like a dying ember. It wasn't even the electric sparking of a firefly, it was a steady emanation that looked like the clear green water of Lestat's fountain in the courtyard, lapping out into the darkness of night around them, spreading from these warm beasts.