It probably wasn't a good sign that Zip seemed to be tense. Or that he hadn't put his bow down. For that matter, the arrow was knocked, now, and he and the other centaurs all had weapons trained on the animal in the center of the clearing. Jack wasn't worried about that, though. His eyes were only on Daniel, and in the light of the willow wisp spell, there was no mistaking the fact that his friend was bloody and drenched – and unconscious.

At least Jack hoped fervently that he was only unconscious.

He started to move to dismount, but Zip felt him shift and sent a shiver through his horse part, shaking his head at the same time.

"Don't…" he muttered, very gently – as if trying not to startle the animal in front of them. "Stay where you are."

"It's a unicorn…" Jack told him, just as softly. "Aren't they supposed to be gentle?"

Every story he'd ever heard about unicorns (not that there'd been all that many) had mentioned them as the symbol of purity, innocence and the epitome of gentleness. Of course, none of them had mentioned that the thing was at least as big as the centaurs were – at least as big as they would have been if they were strictly horses, anyway – and the horn sticking out from the animal's forehead had to be two feet long, tapering to a very sharp looking point.

"They're as dangerous as anything in the Forest, Jack," Zip told him.

"Do you think it hurt Daniel?"

"No. It's a male."

Like that meant anything to Jack. He turned to look at Carter and Teal'c, but both of them were staring at the unicorn as well, and it was clear that neither had any idea what to do to get Daniel away from it.

Mine

Jack was almost knocked off Zip's back by the force of the voice in his head. It was deep, masculine and laced with what he was pretty sure was suspicion. Certainly the creature was watching them intently. There was no doubt in his mind that the unicorn was the one who had spoken.

"It talks!" Sam couldn't help the shock in her exclamation, and was too surprised to keep her voice down.

The unicorn's head snapped up, its ears going back in a classic position of equine annoyance.

Barl hushed her, even as he back off a pace to get Sam out of the creature's line of sight, letting Zip and Jack have that dubious honor.

"What do we do?" Teal'c asked, his voice much softer than Carter's had been. "A spell, perhaps?"

Zip shook his head.

"Unicorns are immune to magic, same as we are."

"We don't want to kill it," Molly said, just as entranced as the other humans were. Of course, the wizards were far more familiar with unicorns than the Muggles in the group, but only the centaurs truly seemed to grasp the danger they were in.

"I doubt we can kill it," Zip told them, still watching the unicorn.

"But Voldemort killed unicorns in the first book…" Carter said.

"No. He killed one," Minerva corrected. "And if anything, that should tell you how powerful he was – even as weak as he was at the time."

The unicorn snorted.

The Dark One is no more

Which meant that not only could it speak to them, it could also understand them. And was eavesdropping on them. Which made it that much more dangerous as far as Jack was concerned. But he needed to get Daniel away from those dangerous feet. If the thing stepped on the unconscious archeologist, it could do a lot of damage. He remembered reading somewhere that someone had described a unicorn as more of a goat like creature than a horse, with cloven hooves. The creature Jack was looking at was stark white and as much a horse as the Lone Ranger's Silver had been. If you could ignore the horn, that was.

But there was no ignoring the horn.

"Let me down, Zip…" Jack told the centaur, sliding down off his back before Zip could stop him.

The horn shifted at the movement, the unicorn turning its head so that Jack was the primary target for its most obvious weapon. Zip turned his hindquarters to put them between Jack and the unicorn – which was a true testament to the kind of friend he was – and scowled at the leader of SG-1.

"Are you out of your mind? Get back up on my back before he decides to kill you."

"If it can talk, it can be reasoned with," Jack replied. "We need to get Daniel back before he bleeds to death."

Mine

Jack scowled, looking at the unicorn from over Zip's broad back, since the centaur hadn't moved from his previous position. He didn't think the unicorn would be willing to be reasoned with and definitely didn't trust his friend to the creature.

"He's not yours."

I found it

"And if he was a dollar, I'd say you could keep him. But he's not. He's my friend and he's hurt."

Mine

The single-mindedness of the unicorn annoyed Jack, but Zip shuddered his horse end once more to get his friend's attention. Even though Jack wasn't actually sitting on him, there was no missing the motion. He looked over at the centaur – and the others who had moved to circle him without him even noticing. Apparently none of the centaurs trusted the unicorn.

"He's not going to give up a prize like a human male, Jack…" Zip told him. "Not without a fight."

"What? Why would he possibly want a human male?" Sam asked, curiously. "It's a male unicorn, right? From everything I've heard, it's the female unicorns that are so enamored of human males…"

"Exactly," Barl agreed. "Having Daniel here will attract a female to this area. A potential mate for our white friend there…"

More than one, maybe… because it is injured

The unicorn lowered his head and nuzzled Daniel's inert body. Jack started forward, concerned, but even from the distance they were at he could see that the creature was being careful.

Small comfort.

"He's hurt," Jack said, knowing from the way the unicorn was replying that it could hear him just fine. "We need to get him to a doctor."

Or Fawkes, he realized, wondering where the phoenix was.

I need him. I will not return him

Well, crap