Chapter 10: Incomplete
Tarel stared at Marina. "You're not serious."
"Deadly serious," she retorted, giving him a look. "Who else could it have been? I don't think whoever made it would have just left it there for you to find – they'd try and find it again. It can't have been easy to make. If the vampire girl created it, and she died in the fire without telling anybody about it, then nobody would know it even existed, right?"
"I guess," Tarel agreed. "See if you can get cozy with it. I'm going to study that book. Maybe you can try and figure out what happened."
"Perhaps," Marina said doubtfully.
Tarel hesitated at the doorway. "Thanks for coming, Marina. Even after I tried to kidnap you."
She smiled. "You didn't succeed, did you? And some things you just can't ignore. Like flesh-eating jewels and spontaneous fires where nobody should know you live."
He nodded, disappearing to read the book she had brought. Turning back to the foal, she sat down to talk with it.
An hour later, Tarel stuck his head into the cave-room. "Any luck?" he whispered.
Marina grinned at him. The foal had it's head in her lap, and she was stroking it's bony neck. "Definitely. I can't talk to her, but I know somebody who can talk to her unicorn, who can talk to the foal. What will you name her?"
"Name her?" Tarel was surprised. "She's yours. You're the one who tamed her."
"You found her," Marina pointed out.
Tarel shook his head. "I don't keep creatures with me – none of them ever seem to want to stay. You'd better keep her."
"They don't stay? That's odd," Marina frowned thoughtfully. "Maybe it was the vampire girl?"
Tarel stepped inside and sat down beside her, moving slowly so as not to startle the foal. "Maybe."
They sat in silence for a moment. "Where do you want to sleep? You can have my bed, I'll sleep in here or something. There's a half dozen other caves in here," Tarel offered.
Marina shook her head. "I'll be fine here. Except – can build a fire? It'll be cold."
"You don't think I'll make you sleep without blankets or anything, do you?" Tarel asked, offended. "I'll go get some now. And you can build a fire, if you want. I don't use this cave."
Marina nodded. "Thanks." She stood, and the foal protested, stamping it's hooves on the floor. "I think I'll call her Tira."
Tarel left and returned shortly with a pile of blankets. "Here. I couldn't find a pillow – I hope that's okay."
"It's fine." Marina took them and placed them in the corner. "Let me see that gem. Let's see if Tira reacts to it at all."
"Come out here – it's on my desk." He showed her the dark gem. "Huh. It's gotten lighter. It was really dark before."
It was multifaceted, and a deep ruby color. "This is lighter? It must have been almost black."
Tarel nodded. "So…let's take it to Tira."
"No need – she followed me," Marina gestured down to the foal. As soon as she saw the gem, she reared, mane and tail flaring. "I guess that answers my question. Is there a way to reverse it? I'd hate for her to be missing something because of this." She put a hand on the book.
Tarel picked up the gem, and the foal suddenly whinnied, shrill and sharp, and knocked it out of his hands. She'd suddenly grown into her full self, gold and blue and extremely angry. The gem shattered against the ground, and black and red magic flashed out, blinding them all.