Chapter Twenty One: Unicorns

The magenta eyes stared into my grey ones out from a pale, china doll face. Her face was rimmed with cotton candy blue hair styled in a perfectly straight bob. Though the striking shade of blue was NOT the most alarming thing about her… I would have to award that to the single, magenta protrusion extending from the center of her forehead.

A horn.

Not an antler.

A dark pink horn that twisted into a point.

Like a unicorn.

We stood there blinking at each other for what felt like years, neither daring to breathe, let alone move. She was short, the top of her head barely coming level with my nose, and skittish. Once I had gotten over my initial shock, I could see that she was trembling as bad as I had been moments before, and how her eyes glittered with fear.

I gave her a shaky smile, which she cautiously returned. I had to hand it to her, despite her obvious terror, I could see the curiosity behind it.

The unicorn-girl carefully reached out to me with a trembling hand, painfully slow, as if she were trying to befriend a rabbit, as if I'd bolt if she moved too quickly. Or maybe she felt like the rabbit, cautiously taking a leap of faith and trusting the person that was offering a carrot.

When her hand was fully extended, I mimicked the gesture, down to the painfully slow speed. Even then, her hand trembled and I could see the doubt flicker across her face. But she maintained her resolve and a few seconds later her silky fingers brushed against mine.

"Hello," I whispered softly.

The girl's hand slipped more firmly into mine. "Hello," she echoed, her voice barely audible.

My smile widened and I gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "I'm Monet."

Her eyes flickered over my shoulder to where the Doctor and Rose were still goofing off by the water, completely oblivious to what I was doing.

"Don't mind them," I murmured reassuringly, still afraid of raising my voice above a whisper. "They won't hurt you. We're nice."

"Alpherina," she murmured suddenly.

I had to blink at her for a second before I understood that she had just told me her name.

"Hello, Alpherina." I smiled happily and gave her hand another reassuring squeeze. She returned the smile. "Where did you come from?"

She cast a half glance over her shoulder. "We live here."

On que, several other unicorn-people emerged behind her, close enough to be seen while remaining at a safe distance. They all sported the same candy blue bob and pink horn, along with similar outfits: barefoot, skin tight pants, the two females in strapless bikini tops, the one male shirtless, all candy blue to match their hair.

Then it dawned on me. They were native here. First contact. Instead of charging out to meet us full force, they had watched, waited, and followed until they had reason to believe we weren't hostile. Then they'd sent a single, non threatening female to interact with another single, non threatening female.

I shot a glance back over my shoulder at my friends before returning my gaze back to Alpherina and her friends, silently asking permission to call the Doctor and Rose over. Alpherina gave the barest of nods.

"Doctor!" I called just loud enough for my voice to carry over to him, and even then, Alpherina's hand started trembling again. I squeezed her fingers again and held her gaze, trying to communicate my good intentions to her.

"What?" The Doctor loudly shouted back, causing Alpherina and the male behind her to flinch.

Sound sensitive?

It occured to me that he couldn't see Alpherina from his angle, but I didn't dare call back. I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from shouting 'get your ass over here now!', since I doubted that the skittish people would respond well to it. Instead, I kept my eyes on Alpherina and hoped my body language would be enough to draw the Timelord over.

It was. I heard his shoes shift around in the sand as he stood.

"What is it?" His voice came again, closer this time. I could hear his footsteps in the grass.

Not taking my eyes away from the girl in front of me, I muttered cooly, "I thought you said that this planet was uninhabited."

"It is…" His voice trailed off as he brushed around my shoulder and his eyes settled on Alpherina. "Oh, hello!"

Alpherina winced.

I elbowed the Timelord in the chest. "Volume!" I hissed.

"Right, sorry," the Doctor apologized in a much softer tone. He rubbed his chest ruefully. "Who's your friend?"

"Alpherina" I informed him.

"Hello, Alpherina." The Doctor offered her one of his trademark grins and a rough, calloused hand. "I'm the Doctor."

The girl carefully dropped my hand and took his with a hesitant smile. Her gaze flickered past us to Rose, who had ambled up behind us to look on curiously.

"Rose," the blonde offered warily.

"You lot live here, then?" The Doctor prompted Alpherina, his eyes flickering to the other people behind her. "You evolved here? You're native to this world?"

Alpherina nodded.

"That can't be right," the Doctor protested, forehead furrowed in confusion, "the Shadow Proclamation records don't mention intelligent lifeforms. You should've been catalogued."

"We do not know of this Proclamation of Shadows," Alpherina insisted, more confident now that none of our trio appeared aggressive. "Large shiny mountains came from the sky, carrying people inside. They were loud. So much noise. Our people hid and watched. They searched our lands, but never found us. We thought they would leave, but they stay."

The Doctor's face softened with concern. "Spaceships," he said, mostly to Rose and I, "they came to this planet looking for intelligent lifeforms, but they couldn't find anyone."

"Couldn't they, you know, run scans or something?" Rose inquired.

"Might not show up on scanners," the Doctor frowned. "If they're researchers, it would be illegal to interact with a developing species, especially one that doesn't have a concept of 'space' and 'spaceships' yet."

"They stay and destroy," Alpherina insisted, urgency creeping into her voice. "They eat our lands. The forest is dying. Please, will you help?"

The Doctor's grip on her hand tightened and his face turned dark and serious. "Yes."

Alpherina slipped away from his grip to glide back into the forest. "Come."

The Doctor didn't hesitate to follow. He shoved his hands into his jacket pockets and strode off purposefully behind the unicorn-people, leaving Rose and I to trail behind.

Instead of birds, this walk was shadowed by the Alpherina's people. They flitted in and out of sight between the trees, ghosting behind bushes and vines, the odd tell-tale flash of porcelain skin the only indication that they were there at all, accompanied by the odd flicker of magenta eyes, a flash of blue, or a pink horn jutting awkwardly out of a shrub.

"Unicorns, though," Rose whispered, a grin crossing her features as her eyes tracked the progress of a candy-blue bob of hair that gave away the hiding spot of one of the aliens.

I giggled. "Unicorns."

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Hey Guys! Guess who's back! Well, I've been writing, just not on this story. I'm bad about obsessing over one story at a time and then burning myself out with it. Hopefully I can get back to working on this one.

And If you haven't already, check out my other story Buffy: The Space-Time Anomaly Slayer

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