The stallion stood proud and tall, the filtered light of the forest glancing off him like a great bronze statue. His color was breathtaking; like the sun reflecting off rippling water in the late afternoon, like the dew drops on a spider web caught between the morning light and the fading darkness. Jahrra had never seen such a color on any living creature before, and she was captivated by it.
Jahrra twitched convulsively when, suddenly, the gilded animal before her slowly, yet attentively, turned his head to look directly at her and Phrym. The stallion’s gaze was cool and calculating, and Jahrra was sure he was debating whether or not the curious semequin and his rider were a threat to his mares. The stallion stared at the pair a moment longer and then turned his eyes back onto his herd. Jahrra realized, with a satisfied thrill, that they weren’t considered a threat and the herd kept on grazing in peace while she and Phrym watched in wonder.
Over the next half hour or so Jahrra carefully counted seventeen mares, the one stallion and about six foals. She especially liked the foals. They looked very much like Phrym had when he had been young. The youngest ones didn’t have horns yet and their feet were free of the fine, silky hair of the adults. The older foals had anything ranging from small nubs suggesting future horns, to several inches of new growth.
The colors of their coats were just as amazing as the creatures themselves. There was, of course, the golden stallion, but the mares and foals ranged anywhere from bright pearly white to dark silver, gold-red and copper. All of the unicorns had a metallic sheen to them and some of them had slightly darker manes than their bodies. Their hooves matched their coats, but appeared more metallic, as if made of pure gold or silver or bronze, and their horns were the same. The mares had horns that ranged between one and two feet, but the stallion’s horn looked almost three and a half feet long.
Jahrra took it all in, every last detail, because she knew that she may never see this sight again. Suddenly she had an idea. She quietly took out the journal she kept in Phrym’s worn saddle bags and quickly began sketching the animals.
As she drew, Jahrra started looking around at all of the other details of this enchanted scene. The meadow the unicorns grazed in consisted of thick patches of dark green, mottled clover that was bursting with pink blossoms. Creamy yellow buttercups and periwinkle bluebells dotted the terrain and a faint burbling sound pulled her eyes towards the far end of the meadow where she spotted a shallow pool.
For the first time since arriving to this magical meadow, Jahrra noticed that the towering trees were not of the typical eucalyptus found in most of the Wreing Florenn. Aspen, elder and birch had taken their place, and instead of the thin, scraggly grass on the forest floor there grew the delicate clover, soft mosses and feathery ferns found near damper soil.
Butterflies, dragonflies and what Jahrra couldn’t help but imagine were fairies, fluttered around the meadow lazily in the filtered, mid-morning sun. The entire scene was exactly what Jahrra would imagine finding in Felldreim or Rhiim, but not here in Oescienne.
A soft breeze soughed through the golden-green leaves above and jerked Jahrra’s attention back to the stallion and his herd. He was looking back at Jahrra and Phrym again, bowing his noble head ever so slightly. The unusual gesture caught Jahrra off guard and she had to grab onto Phrym’s mane to keep from falling. Had the stallion really greeted them?
While Jahrra sat wondering about the unicorn’s acknowledgment, he reared up and emitted a melodic, chime-like whinny. The sound sent more shivers across Jahrra’s skin and she smiled, tears welling up in her eyes against her will. She had no idea the sound of unicorns could make someone feel so happy and carefree. It was such a beautiful resonance, and it held a joy that reached straight into the soul.
His mares answered back in various chime-like tones, and Jahrra felt every scrap of sadness lingering in her heart shatter like a thin sheet of ice upon a stone floor. The stallion then turned and slowly led his herd out of the meadow and deeper into the Wreing Florenn while Jahrra and Phrym watched them leave. Once the very last one disappeared into the beckoning trees, the magic that had buzzed in the meadow seemed to seep away with the breeze. The brilliant colors of the scene faded away into the dull, ordinary tints of the world. The rich emerald turned to olive, the bright bluebells faded to cobalt and the rosy pink clover blossoms blanched nearly white.
Phrym had no objections to Jahrra turning him around now; he seemed mesmerized by what had just occurred and was easily led. When Jahrra had Phrym faced the way they had come, she was surprised to see a tiny trail leading through the underbrush and back around the tall eucalyptus trees. Jahrra smiled, knowing that the trail was probably there the entire time; she’d just been too distracted to notice it.
Several minutes after leaving the meadow they came out of the forest exactly where they had entered it and soon Phrym was running across the field, heading south towards Gieaun and Scede’s ranch. They approached the familiar fence surrounding the back pasture, and Jahrra was pleased to see the family was nearby with a group of ewes and their newly-born lambs. Jahrra pulled Phrym right up to the fence and called out to her friends enthusiastically, “Gieaun! Scede! Wait until you hear what I saw!!”
The two siblings looked up and then glanced at their parents. Jahrra saw Kaihmen and Nuhra nod and Gieaun and Scede came trotting over on Bhun and Aimhe.
“Mother and father said we could be done for the day. So what did you see?” Scede said, not sounding too excited.
“Come on, I’ll tell you on the way,” Jahrra replied, smiling impishly.
“On the way to where?” Gieaun asked suspiciously, opening the gate from Aimhe’s back.
“You’ll see!” Jahrra replied in exasperation.
The three walked their horses down the dusty road for about a mile before Jahrra finally stopped Phrym.
“Alright, you have to promise you’ll believe me and promise you won’t tell anyone!” Jahrra hissed in all seriousness.
Gieaun and Scede both adopted a worried look on their faces that said, “Great, Jahrra has gone and done something foolish again”.
“Alright,” Gieaun finally said aloud.
“We promise,” Scede added, holding his hand to his heart.
Jahrra pulled out her journal and opened up to the page where she’d drawn the unicorns. “Look,” she said, holding up the book and smiling from ear to ear.
“Are those, unicorns!?” Scede gaped in disbelief, grasping Bhun’s saddle horn to keep from falling off.
“Jahrra! Where on Ethoes did you see unicorns!? Are you sure they’re unicorns??” Gieaun added, unable to contain her excitement.
“This is why you have to promise not to tell anybody!” Jahrra said sternly. “Phrym and I were riding in the fields and I happened to glance over to the edge of the Wreing Florenn. I know I promised not to go in there alone, but I thought that just going in a few yards wouldn’t hurt.”
“Oh Jahrra! Are you crazy!?” Gieaun moaned in vexation. Aimhe shifted restlessly beneath her.
Jahrra just gave her a guilty look and continued on with her story. “Well, anyway, we only went in about ten feet, I swear. But then I saw something, something strange. I couldn’t resist going after it.”
“Jahrra!” Gieaun hissed again, her eyes wide with horror, “It could’ve been anything! It could’ve been a boarlaque!”
Jahrra ignored Gieaun’s dramatic claims and continued on, “We chased after it for fifteen minutes or so, and then stopped. It was then I realized we had gone too far into the forest.”
“You think so?” Scede inquired sarcastically, crossing his arms across his chest and giving Bhun free rein to pluck lazily at the field grasses.
Jahrra made a face at him and kept talking, “I wanted to turn back but Phrym started walking forward, further into the forest.”
“Oh sure, blame it on Phrym,” Gieaun huffed, placing her hands on her hips and giving Aimhe the same freedom as her brother’s horse.
Jahrra pushed on undeterre
d, “After awhile we came upon a small meadow surrounded by thick bramble bushes. Phrym stepped up to a gap in the wall of thorns and looked in. I stood up in the saddle and looked in as well, and there, before my very eyes, was an entire herd of unicorns!”
Jahrra sat back in the saddle with her hands resting on the pommel. She gazed, unsmiling but attentive, at her two friends. Gieaun looked flabbergasted and Scede had a smile of surprise on his face. “Do you think they’re still there?” he asked energetically, forgetting his officious posture.
“No,” Jahrra said in a disheartened manner, “they left the meadow and that’s when I left the forest.”
“Maybe some of their hair got caught on a branch or something,” he mused, shrugging slightly.
Jahrra sat up quickly in the saddle and stared, wide-eyed at her friend. Phrym nickered in slight irritation. “I didn’t think of looking!” she blurted.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Scede asked, unable to hide his grin.
“NO!” gasped Gieaun, horrified, knowing exactly what they were planning on doing, “we’re NOT going into that forest. Are you nuts?!”
But Scede and Jahrra had already urged Phrym and Bhun into a steady trot down the gentle slope and Gieaun had no choice but to follow after them.
“You two are going to get us killed!” she yelled after them as she tried to catch up.
By the time the three friends reached the edge of the forest it was just before midday. They sat upon their horses several feet away from the woods, gazing into the trees.
“You go first,” Scede suggested timidly to Jahrra.
“Are you afraid, Scede?” she teased.
“No! I, uh . . . you just know the way already, that’s all,” he recovered rather clumsily, fidgeting with Bhun’s reins.
Jahrra shook her head with a smile and walked Phrym down the trail that led to the meadow. This time she paid attention to where she was going.
“Come on you two!” she called when she saw they weren’t moving. “There’s nothing to be afraid of!”
She could hear the two siblings arguing and finally, Gieaun stepped in followed by Scede. Jahrra could barely hear the other girl grumbling about “death” and “monsters”, but she only grinned and focused on the path ahead of her. After half an hour the group found themselves in the place where Phrym and Jahrra had first stopped.
“Where are we?” asked Gieaun nervously, looking up at the trees as if their branches might reach down and strangle her.
“It’s only a little while longer. This is where we stopped the first time.”
Jahrra turned Phrym slightly to the right and up the tiny trail she hadn’t seen before and in no time they reached the solid wall of brambles. “We’re here!” she exclaimed, causing her two friends to flinch.
Jahrra led Phrym into a quick walk and they came around the corner and up to the break in the wall. Phrym and the other two horses could easily step through, but Jahrra wondered if the unicorns wouldn’t come back if they did. They tied up their horses and slowly stepped into the meadow.
“Wow!” Gieaun exclaimed, “This looks like a scene right out of one of Master Hroombra’s fairytales!”
After soaking up the peace of the meadow for a while, Jahrra led her friends to where she’d last seen the unicorns before they disappeared into the forest. “The stallion bowed his head at me. Then he led his herd this way.”
“He bowed his head at you?” Gieaun asked in disbelief.
Jahrra nodded and Gieaun looked over at Scede. He simply shrugged his shoulders and continued after his friend. The way the unicorns had left was quite obvious; there was a large break in the brambles straight ahead and a well worn path leading out.
As the three approached the opening, Jahrra kept her fingers crossed that the unicorns had left some of their corn silk mane behind. She was the first to reach the brambles, and as her eyes raked the edge of the opening, her heart skipped a beat. Not only was there a chunk of unicorn hair, but there were several in a variety of colors.
“Wow!!” Scede breathed, sounding more excited than Jahrra could ever remember.
“Real unicorn hair!” Gieaun put in, running the small distance to the opening in the hedge. The three happily began to gather as much as they could shove in their pockets and carry back to their saddlebags.
“Too bad we can’t show mother and father,” Scede said, sounding slightly disappointed. “They’d kill us if they knew we went into the Wreing Florenn!”
Once they’d gathered enough hair to make their own unicorn if they wanted to, the three friends returned to their horses and began the journey out of the forest. They decided to spend the rest of the day helping Jahrra in her garden and then perhaps try talking Hroombra into telling them a story or showing them another map of Ethoes.
The ride back through the trees passed quickly but not uneventfully. By the time they reached the field, Jahrra, Gieaun and Scede were overcome by a fit of laughter. Gieaun had been trailing behind when she thought she saw someone in a red cloak following them. She instinctually tensed, spooking Aimhe and frightening the other horses into a run. When Scede and Jahrra looked back behind them, all they could see were several shrubs in full scarlet bloom. They laughed at Gieaun and told her she was paranoid, but something behind them made a crackling noise and all three screamed, urging their horses past the last row of trees.
“There very well could’ve been someone following us!” Gieaun said, trying to catch her breath.
“Yeah, the terrifying shrub monster!” Scede wheezed, barely able to stay in Bhun’s saddle.
Gieaun just crossed her arms and tried to look annoyed. “Nothing is blooming right now, Scede. It’s too early!” she insisted, but gave up when she couldn’t hold on to her composure any longer.
“Come on. Let’s race back to the Castle Guard Ruin,” Jahrra said, wiping a tear from her eye.
“Oh, you always win! You have Phrym!” Scede complained.
They raced anyways. Phrym, Bhun and Aimhe tore across the rolling fields heading north. After several minutes they met up with the Danu Creek and turned to follow it westward. Jahrra and Phrym streaked far ahead of everybody else, frightening birds and other creatures that were bathing, drinking or foraging for food in the creek bed below.
Within ten minutes Jahrra came into view of the crumbled structure she called home. She gradually slowed Phrym to a walk and then turned him around to see where her friends were. A few minutes passed before Jahrra finally heard the horses thundering up the trail. She turned Phrym back toward the Ruin and kicked him into full speed once again, hoping Gieaun and Scede got the impression she wasn’t too far ahead.
Jahrra smiled as Phrym trotted up to her home, her two friends and their horses trailing far behind. She turned and waited for them, grinning as they pulled up. “You two almost beat us!” she laughed, knowing it wasn’t true.
“Yeah right!” said Gieaun. “You were so far ahead we never would’ve caught you!”
Jahrra smiled, “Sure you would’ve!”
Jahrra was so intent on convincing her friends she hadn’t left them in the dust that she didn’t notice the shadow of the Castle Guard Ruin suddenly growing larger behind her. Nor did she see the look of sudden disquiet crossing both her friends’ faces or the sudden unease of Bhun and Aimhe.
“No, they wouldn’t have,” said an overbearing, stony voice above her shoulder. “You were much too far ahead.”
Jahrra’s smile instantly faded and her blood turned to ice water. She knew that voice, that cool, calculating, dominating voice. It had been a long time since she’d last heard it, but it wasn’t a voice she could easily forget.
She turned her head, hoping that it wasn’t who she thought it was, that her hearing had been affected by the magic in the meadow. She slowly looked up at the dominating figure standing just behind her and almost melted when she saw the large, unyielding Tanaan dragon smirking down at her. She closed her eyes and slowly realized that her perfect
day had just come to an end.
- Chapter Seventeen-
Dueling With Dragons
It took a few minutes for Jahrra to realize why the sight of Jaax made her uneasy, and how long it had been since she’d seen him. Four years ago, she thought, when he brought her Phrym. Then it struck her; why she received a stabbing pang of distaste when she’d heard the dragon’s voice. For three years now she’d subconsciously been blaming him for the death of her parents. She’d forgotten her anger in time, just as she’d learned to deal with her sorrow, but seeing the dragon now had the same effect as throwing stones at a hornets’ nest.
Jahrra took a deep breath and forced herself to look Jaax in the eye. Cold, granite eyes, she thought with a shiver. “What are you doing here?” she finally said, her throat feeling constricted and her mouth feeling dry.
“I’m here on business,” the dragon said simply, his voice holding a hint of amusement.
Jahrra still found Jaax imposing, despite the fact she was sitting high atop Phrym, and she wondered how she hadn’t spotted him when they first approached. He must have been waiting for me inside the Ruin, spying, she decided with distaste. She released a short breath and asked as pleasantly as she could, “Where’s Master Hroombra?”
“He’ll be out shortly. I couldn’t help but overhear you shouting so loudly at your friends, so I came out to greet you all.” He paused and then cocked his head to the side, eyeing her like a bug he was considering squashing. “Do you always take pleasure in deceiving your friends Jahrra?”
The question took Jahrra by surprise, like a punch in the stomach. She glared up at Jaax, but he just kept looking at her as if she were insignificant. Jahrra turned her eyes away and suddenly felt the way she did when Eydeth or Ellysian looked at her. Who is he to judge me? she thought furiously, I don’t deceive my friends!
Gieaun and Scede shifted on their horses somewhere behind her. She moved slowly to look at them, reluctant to turn her back on her enemy. They’d noticed Jaax before she did and had wisely stayed put where they were. Now they were giving her a fragile look as she sought them out with desperate eyes.
[Oescienne 01.0] The Finding Page 25