Normally Sula didn’t have any problems communicating with animals. She would perform a Mindmerge first, to be able to access the mind of a new species. Then she would hear and see all the animal’s thoughts, even if they were hidden. She couldn’t truly hear the unicorn’s thoughts, or see images from his mind, as she could with other animals. She could only access what he wanted her to see and hear.
Perhaps this was the way all unicorns spoke to mankind? She was intrigued by these mythical creatures. At the same time she felt very much at ease, and communication seemed not much different than with any other animal.
‘You interest me, human,’ the unicorn almost reflected her own thoughts.
She shrugged, and said whilst looking around, ‘I’m very sorry to have entered your palace uninvited. It’s very windy out there and I got curious. What a beautiful place you have here.’
‘Very well, apology accepted, however you can’t stay. You may have some water and food and my minions can show you the way and help you down the mountain.’
He turned around and Sula couldn’t stop staring at his wings. She had never heard of a creature like this before; unicorns yes, but never winged unicorns, not even in stories!
‘Of course,’ she responded. ‘I will shortly be on my way again, but I’m a good climber so I will politely decline the help of your…minions.’
‘It’s very rare that anyone climbs this mountain’, the other unicorn said in thought and stamped his hooves before trotting forward.
‘I’m sure. Well, it was pretty hard work getting here and I’m quite tired,’ she wasn’t lying as the exertion with the eagles had indeed worn her out.
‘Is there no chance I can get to rest a bit before I descend the mountain again?’
‘Certainly. You are allowed to rest and replenish yourself. But you’ll have to leave before sundown as it would be too dangerous for you to find your way back safely in the dark,’ the first unicorn replied.
Sula nodded at his kindness and followed the two unicorns out of the hall and through the same door the dwarfs had gone through. What she saw next was beyond comprehension. Sula had known, of course, that she was inside but where she was now felt as if she was outside in a summer meadow. There were even flowers growing here, and trees. The blue sky was all around her, as was the sunlight, but when she looked closer she could see that the ‘walls’ were entirely made out of glass, just as the roof was.
Sula saw a couple of black unicorns grazing and resting and she marvelled at them. She didn’t want to stare so she perched down by a waterfall which cascaded over the rocks and ended in a deep pool.
After some time one of the unicorns, the one that the dwarf had called “Sire”, chin pointed towards the water.
‘Drink and your thirst will be quenched.’
The other unicorn, also white, brought a basket of bread and fruit, carrying it in his mouth.
‘Thank you. That is very kind of you.’ Sula hesitated at first but didn’t know why, so picked up an apple, bit into it, and after a couple of chews asked, ‘Please tell me, why did that dwarf call you “Sire”? should I too? I don’t mind, you do seem majestic.’
She stared again in wonder at both of them, and at the black unicorns grazing and resting on the meadow.
‘Who are you and what is this place?’
One of them, they looked very alike to Sula, shook his head and responded in a posh matter-of-fact voice, ‘We are the kings and queens of this mountain. We are the unicos.’
‘Unicos? Did I mishear; you mean unicorns?’
‘No… they’re our distant cousins. Like you, perhaps, are to humans’?
Sula crimsoned and in alarm touched her hat and ears. One ear stuck out and she pulled the whole hat over her forehead, embarrassed. Because she wasn’t with people she had felt safer, but had she been right to feel that way?
‘Do not be afraid. You have kept yourself hidden like we have, haven’t you? We have spoken to the golden eagles and they said you could fly. Very interesting indeed, but do not worry, beautiful one, your secret is safe with us.’ He nodded. She trusted him. How could she not?
‘Do you remember the falling stars that, like swift horses through the heavens, raced and suddenly leaped across the Heavens? That could have been one of my sisters: The Daughters Of The Night.’ Sula followed his gaze to the black unicos. ‘We, on the other hand, are The Sons Of The Day. We leap through clouds and glide from rainbows, like rare day stars.’
Sula frowned and stopped eating. ‘You mean, you ride, er fly, and people do not see you? How? I see a bit of gold dust on your wings, but how is that making you sparkle like a star, or invisible, maybe?’
‘It doesn’t; the sun is our helper, and the moon. My siblings and I are not dressed for the occasion and we certainly didn’t expect visitors.’ His tone of voice was a little mocking.
‘Other than the dwarfs?’
‘They work for us and bring us our sparkles; gold, silver, diamonds. Without them we would surely be seen.’
‘Ah, I get it. It is your disguise!’ And she smiled at him, having the urge to stroke the unicos on the nose.
‘Is this all of you here?
‘No, most of my sisters are asleep somewhere else in the palace and my brothers have gone out to meet the day.’
‘So all of your sisters have a black coat?’
‘Indeed. They wear silver on their fur and in their hair, and the Moon is their helper. We are white and wear gold and diamonds and the Sun is our aide. I’m very pleased to know you are not interested in our treasures. The few that have come here before you were, but then again, you aren’t human. But enough talk. Eat, drink and sleep and we’ll escort you out later on to go down to where you came from.’
The two unicos left the summer meadow and Sula felt strangely confused. It was as if she was dreaming a wonderful dream. But when would she wake up?
~~~
The dwarfs must have had their food and drinks too, as they were all chirpy and relieved to leave the palace, whereas before they had been observant and quiet towards her. Sula noticed they all carried full water pouches tied to their hips. They were singing down the mountain path as Sula found her footing and started the long descent. The wind had died down a bit and she pulled her hat over her ears and glimpsed one last time at the palace.
‘Well, even though I would have liked to know a bit more about them and become friends, I will have to settle for this. Although, they didn’t say that I couldn’t come back! Either way at least I’ve got a great story to tell the kids!’
The descent took her less time than the climb that morning, so she made good progress as the sun was slowly sinking lower. She kept thinking what a marvellous sight it must be to see the unicos fly in that orange light with their wings sparkling!
Children of the Sun…and Moon. Aren’t we all?
Sula was in good spirits and became even more so when the wind calmed down slightly. She could see the ground beneath the mountain now. Just as she turned around to scramble down the last bit backwards, she happened to look up, just in time to duck before a hoof nearly caught her full in the face!
A creature flew past screaming and she could hear its heavy wings flapping. When she looked up again, she saw one of the black unicos coming back towards her again with hooves outstretched!
With her hands frantically waving at the unicos in surrender, she shook her head, saying, ‘Please, no!’ But the creature didn’t take any notice of her and attacked again. The unicos kicked at Sula, but luckily she had the mountain behind her for protection, and some tree roots to hang on to. Sula grabbed hold of a tree root and swung herself up just in time, away from the dangerous hooves that hit the rocks and sand on the side of the mountain instead of her. The unicos missed and flew off, turning a bit clumsily, making herself ready to charge again. Her dark mane was the same colour as Sula’s, waving in the wind. There was a little silver dust on her coat and wings, but not much. Sula reckoned this dark unicos wasn’
t fully dressed royally with all her glitters for the night.
Daughters Of The Night…don’t they rest during the day? Sula thought confused, thinking back about the ones she saw on the meadow in the summer palace and tried to reach out for it with her mind, but couldn’t get through this time.
And what have they got against me all of a sudden?
She had to think and act quickly as she really didn’t want to hurt this creature. She caught hold of its eyes; golden with narrow black vertical pupils. Sula didn’t think the white unicos had these kind of eyes. She had only seen vertical pupils before in cats and… reptiles…
The unicos swooped to attack her again, her gigantic wings outstretched, and she kicked at the rocks Sula had just been standing on. Sula grabbed a handful of sand and got ready for a counter attack. When the unicos came for her again with eyes furious and raging, she threw the sand in her eyes. The beast screamed, losing her balance, and was too late to turn. She crashed straight into the mountain with a force that would have knocked Sula out if she hadn’t made way. Instead Sula had jumped up again, holding onto the tree root. Sand and rocks scattered around her, and the mountain seemed to rumble as the beast slammed into it.
When Sula opened her eyes, she saw it go limp, with broken wings, sliding down the foot of the mountain and dropping heavily on the ground below, lifeless.
Sula blinked a couple of times and knew instinctively that it was dead.
With a sad but racing heart she licked her dry lips and tried to swallow away a lump in her throat. Right before her eyes the beast started changing! It turned into a man! He lay on his side just as the unicos had. However this was no ordinary man. From where she stood she saw that his greenish yellow skin was scaly and dry. He was naked, hairless, and his red forked tongue hung out of his wide mouth. Sula swallowed her initial fear and clung on to the tree root for support, as she was shaking beyond control. This was all too strange. She could hear her own heartbeat whilst gazing down upon this creature. She felt an intense fear building up when she caught sight of his half open empty eyes. It was a fear so deep and raw she couldn’t place it. Questions started running through her mind. This was a very powerful creature; obviously a shapeshifter. Shape-shifting was something Sula and her species could only dream of doing. To completely become the animal, mind and body after a Mindmerge, was beyond the comyentis’ reach.
This creature had mastered it, whoever he was. He wasn’t a Unicos as she had initially thought, but he was as old as her and from her own species. She somehow knew this instinctively, though how, she couldn’t exactly tell.
Baffled she decided to have a closer look, but just then the body started to change again. It crumbled to dust before her eyes and was then blown away, scattered by the wind.
~~~
When she looked down it was as if it had never happened. No sign of the creature was left. She gathered the courage to scramble down and set foot on steady soil again. For a moment confusion hit her and she shook her head trying to clear it as she looked around. The wind was cold on her skin and it blew through the neck of her shirt so that she had to fasten the buttons and tighten her waistcoat. Hugging herself, Sula looked up and saw the mountain and glanced back at the surrounding plains, all the time hearing the wind moaning. She tried to think, but couldn’t remember what she was doing here…
She suspected she must have passed out because the last thing she remembered was leaving home, but alarmingly she couldn’t remember why.
Why was she here, and how much time had passed? She sighed and rubbed her cheek in annoyance. Her mouth felt dry and she felt tired and empty inside.
Oh, creatures big and small, I’m loosing my marbles!
Sula set out for home, leaving the steep mountain behind, and luckily she easily found her way back in the near dark. All that time walking back, she tried to think of a reason why she would be there of all places. As much as she racked her brain she couldn’t come up with anything likely.
When she entered the woods she saw someone approaching.
It was Felix! He smiled, relieved, and opened his arms. She almost fell into his embrace.
‘I’m so pleased to see you, love,’ he exclaimed. ‘I know you didn’t want me to interfere but when you stayed away so long, I had to come and find out if you were alright!’
When Sula, still in his embrace was holding him, didn’t respond, he rubbed her back soothingly.
‘Are you alright, love?’
‘Felix…’
‘Yes?’
‘Do you…know why I went to the Moany Mountains?’
‘Did you? I don’t know; you must have followed the dwarfs there. But what do you mean? You can’t remember going there?’
‘Was it to look for Feline?’ she asked with a pretty wrinkle between her brows.
‘What?’ he asked, worried, as he held her at arms length and looked her in the eyes.
‘No,’ he replied sadly shaking his head. ‘We’ve already looked for her here remember? Did you not go to the dwarfs’ mine then?’
‘Dwarfs’ mine? What dwarfs, what mine?’ The confused look on her face was genuine. She wasn’t joking.
Felix seriously started to worry and chewed his cheek hard. He rubbed his chin and scratched his head, which was covered in tiny braids again thanks to Fay, and he thought, Something must have happened to her, she is never this frazzled!
In the end he put his arm around her and said, ‘Let’s go home. I’ll fill you in on the way. The children are at mum and dad’s today so we have got all day to figure out what happened to you and how to fix this.’
Chapter 7 The Well Of Forgetfulness
‘You mean to say I’ve lost an entire night and day?’
Sula and Felix sat at their kitchen table with some bread and two steaming mugs of chamomile tea in front of them, but she wasn’t hungry or thirsty. It was late at night, the fire was crackling in the fireplace and candles lit the interior.
‘It sounds like it-’ Felix started to say.
‘Well, how can that be? Someone must have done this to me, Felix! I…I-’
‘Calm down darling. It could be that you’re tired? Perhaps you need some sleep and after a good rest you might recall what happened to you?’
‘Are you saying it’s me?’ She stood with eyes narrowed.
Felix rolled his eyes and sighed. No! You know I’d never doubt your sanity!
Sula flopped down on her chair on hearing that in her mind, her eyes darting back and forth as she muttered, ‘You said so yourself, your hammer is magical, Prince Oro made it so. What if those dwarfs discovered that I followed them, not that I can remember, but let’s say they did…and they threw a spell over me so I wouldn’t remember where they were going and why I was there in the first place?’ Sula suggested.
It seemed plausible because Sula didn’t remember anything dwarf-related. Felix even had to tell her the story of how he knew the mine was there; the story of the magic hammer. It was as if she was hearing it for the first time!
‘Can you remember meeting any royalty?’ Felix asked.
Sula shook her head with a pensive look. ‘The last thing I remember is yesterday evening, leaving home and setting out to something, to go somewhere.’ She grabbed her head with both hands hitting herself in frustration. ‘Oh, why can’t I recall anything?’
Even when Felix told her what her plan had been, it didn’t ring any bells.
‘It sounds like me,’ Sula said, ‘but it’s like it never happened!’ She stood and started pacing up and down the room.
‘Well, whoever or whatever it was, I’m not going to accept it! I will go once again to visit those dwarfs, and follow them to the Moany Mountains, to find out the truth behind this secret of theirs which they are so desperately trying to hide!’
Felix also stood and opened his mouth to argue. However he knew better than to go against her.
‘Sula?’
‘What?’ She still stood there with her fists clenched. Her e
yes had shifted from emerald to jade, something that happened when she became emotional or was using her powers. She had in fact, just a moment ago, tried going into elephant-mode to regain her memories as elephants had one of the best memories of the animal kingdom. When that didn’t work she tried the nutcracker-mode, also known for its intensely powerful memory. But nothing, even self hypnosis, achieved anything. It was as if yesterday had never happened. Not for her anyway.
‘I’m scared, alright! I don’t want you to go,’ he said in a small voice.
She relaxed and their eyes met, hers softened.
‘How do you think I feel? This has never happened to me before!’
‘Let me figure this out for you, I know Prince Oro. Let me talk with him and hopefully he will have heard what has taken place.’
‘Why would he talk to you?’ Sula asked, confused.
‘Because I know about his secret of the mine which technically speaking, you don’t. I was supposed to hold my tongue, and if they want me to keep it a secret, Oro will have to talk.’
‘But he might put a spell on you too!’
‘Well, then… that makes two of us!’
‘Felix! This isn’t funny! We have to be careful with this. I don’t think he should know that you know me. He might somehow take your memory away too,’ she licked her lips. ‘Why don’t I go and you follow me from a distance? Keep yourself well hidden, and if anything happens to me-’ Suddenly something dawned on her like a flash of lightning. ‘You see, that’s what I don’t get.’ Sula continued, visibly puzzled. ‘Why didn’t I use my powers if I was being attacked or under any kind of threat?’
‘Hmm, perhaps you couldn’t because you were overwhelmed by fear?
Sula had to admit to herself that the one and only comyenti weakness might have worked against her once again. Or not…what if…
‘What if they weren’t the bad guys?’ Sula said out loud with a sudden look of insight and she visibly paled. Her skin almost turned olive instead of its usual warm bronze. Felix tilted his head, regarding her for a moment before his eyes grew big.
The Comyenti Series Book Bundle, Volume 1 and 2 (Epic Romantic Supernatural Fantasy) Page 32