        Drawing his attention back to the figure in front of him, he noticed that it had a golden image on its hindquarters.  It looked like a closed U with vertical lines drawn into it.  Dale wondered if it was some kind of a brand, or an identifying mark.  Given that the guards all looked identical—except some had horns and some apparently had wings—maybe this was how they could tell each other apart.  Perhaps it was some kind of a tribal mark, although if that were the case, it was odd that it did not match what was clearly a sun on the flank of the white winged unicorn.  It was difficult to speculate on how their culture might be arranged.  Maybe they got these tattoos, or whatever they were, when they reached maturity.