Where do unicorns go?

By Belldandy-sama

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Chapter two: The sighting

                Trish stirred in the new rays of the morning sun and sighed deeply. It was too early… she could still sleep a little more… she rolled on her side, covering her eyes with her arm. The sun was surprisingly strong after the horrendous storm they had last night. Splatters of rain still remained on the windowsill and the congested streets were filled with puddles. But at least the sun was shining…

"Mornin'," Dante said gruffly as she stirred on the bed. He had only just gotten up himself, his streams of untidy silver hair fell into his eyes where he had neglected to brush it so far that morning. His loose black T-shirt and shorts sort of half-stuck to him where he had been sweating when he had been sleeping, but that didn't bother Trish.

She opened her eyes and smiled gently at him, it was quite normal for him to come into her room to wake her up in the mornings. "Good morning Dante."

"Sleep well?"

"Pretty much."

"Dreaming about unicorns were you?"

"Maybe."

He smiled and brought his hand through his hair, pushing it from his eyes. "You know, I had a thought…"

"So did I," she said quickly; "I thought that you were a bit to heavy to be sitting on my legs."

"Oh, sorry," he shuffled off of them and she smiled uncomfortably. "You know we were talking about unicorns last night?"

"Yeah?" she peeled the quilt back and sat next to him on the edge of the bed.

"Well, I do have a few books on them somewhere… I'm sure they're in the loft somewhere, I'll dig them out so we can check for any sign of other horse-like creatures. You never know, we might find something about the stallion in there."

"Oh really?" she eyed him suspiciously; "Dante, you never told me you had a soft spot for unicorns."

"Well, you never asked."

She sighed, he often came out with answers like that. 'You never asked' and 'eeiee' were among his favourites. At first she could never figure out what 'eeiee' meant, but since he always said it with a sort of shrug she soon figured it must have been his word for 'I don't know.' Simple, effective, yet extremely irritating.

"We'll dig those books out later," he added as he stood up. "I'm going to get dressed." He stopped at the doorway and turned around with a sly smile, "No peeking!"

Trish shook her head with amusement at this last comment, "Of all the things in the world, why would I want to look at you getting changed?" She called.

"You might do!" came the reply before she heard his door close once more.

She sat on her bed for a few minutes alone, thinking about nothing in particular. She knew that they had to stock up on groceries, as she had said time after time that had couldn't live on pizza his whole life.

"You'll get faaaa-aaaaaat 'Te," she had teased. But he never did, he seemed to be on of those incredible beings that could eat like a horse and not have it affect him in any way but to irritate his friend further.

'Well that's life,' she thought as she opened her wardrobe in search for something to wear. She chose a small black dress, neat, casual, quite flowly. She liked it anyway. A thin silver chain served as a sort of belt around her wait. She had fought many demons in this dress, it was surprisingly manoeuvrable.

(***)

                Dante was already downstairs when she finally came down, which surprised her slightly, as it was she who was usually the first down. He was making tea, which he seemed to have a strange obsession with. If something went wrong, he'd drink tea. If he couldn't think of anything to do, he'd drink tea. If he'd just come back from a long nights hunting of the demon tribe, he would again drink tea; it was just the way his mind worked.

"Hey Trish!" He smiled at her as she entered the kitchen, "Want some tea?"

"Go on then," she slipped into one of the kitchen chairs and leant her arms on the table top. "And biscuits."

"Aah, tea and biscuits. It's a British tradition," he laughed; "Not that I'm British or anything, but that's not the point."

"I see…" she rolled her eyes and looked out of the window. "I suppose it'll be a busy night tonight."

"It always is Saturday…" he answered; "Of course, it's when most humans come out, so a lot of demons come out too. It's a good night to feed."

Trish shivered, she'd seen too many human corpses that had been half eaten by the savage demon monsters. It was morbid, made her sick to her stomach. Meanwhile Dante would just shake his head and say, "My my… this isn't pretty is it?"

She hated the way he was always so casual about everything, but maybe it was the only way he kept himself sane?

He placed her tea in front of her and slipped into a chair opposite her.

"I hope we see that stallion again," she said eventually after he neglected to say anything.

"Why?"

"I just want a closer looked at it."

"You got a close enough look the other night when it charged at you."

"I was terrified you ninny," she scowled; "I didn't think to take in what it looked like."

"It looked like an eight legged black horse," Dante said with a shrug; "That's all there is to it."

"But there must be something special about it!"

"I don't think so."

"For crying out loud Dante!" she said, slamming her mug down on the table in impatience; "It had eight legs!"

"Spiders have eight legs."

"But this isn't a spider! It's a bloody horse!"

Dante smirked darkly to himself and looked at the small puddle of tea on the table from where she had spilt it in annoyance, "You made a mess."

"Dammit!" She snapped intolerantly. "Stop being so god damn-…"

He raised his eyebrow, waiting for an answer.

"…I can't think of a word…" she slumped over her arms.

"Dense?"

"No, it's not that. But I'm not saying that you're not dense."

"Arrogant?"

"That's the one!" she said suddenly, her head snapping back up. "It drives me crazy when you don't listen to me!"

"Trish my dear, I always listen to you."

"Then why don't you show it?!"

"Jeez, will you chill out a little?" he rolled his eyes. "Stop being so touchy already. If you're like this all the time then you might as well go out and fight the demons alone, goddess knows you'll scare them off easily enough."

Trish shut her eyes tight and swallowed her anger, it was all she could do not to lash and a wallop the bastard where he stood. Like most demons, she found it hard to control her quick temper. Her hands began to shake in frustration and she slammed them down on the table to try and keep them still.

Dante noticed this and shook his head with a deep sigh, she was trying a bit too hard to control her anger. Once or twice it had completely dominated her and he had been forced to knock her out when she would calm down. With yet another sigh he placed his mug down on the table and stalked around her like a panther. She only noticed he was there as she felt his arms snake around her waist and felt his hot breath on the side of her neck.

"Come on, calm down…" he said gently; "You don't want to go into another anger fit, do you? That'll never do…"

She took a deep, agitated breath. She knew he was right, but after his little wind up game she also found it difficult not to take advantage of his position and hit him harder than she perhaps would have done previously.

"Shhhhh…" he whispered as he felt her breathing become but short sharp breaths. "Calm down. Shhhh…"

She could feel it, her anger was subsiding, her breathing was receding and it seemed that maybe she could calm down after all. Dante seemed to be doing a good job anyway, right?

Wrong.

In another fit of anger she rammed her elbow into his gut and he drew back, half out of surprise and half out of amusement. After a few seconds it seemed his amusement overcome him and he burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?!"

"Ahahahahahahahaaa…" he shook his silver locks with a snort of laughter; "I love it when you get angry. Man, you're feisty today."

"Whatever!" She gave him another quick push as she stood up. "We need to find those unicorn books right?"

Dante rolled his eyes, "Can't we look later?"

"I need to find out about that stallion, Dante."

"But we've got the whole day to do that. It's still morning, Trish. And anyway, I'm starving." He opened the cupboards but found nothing that he found particularly appetizing. "Aah, rats."

"I told you we to go shopping more than once a fortnight," she laughed at his disappointed face. "We eat all the best stuff within the first couple of days."

"Yeah, I know…"

"Hey Dante…"

He turned to look at her. Her bad mood had certainly seemed to have gone now and she was leaning on the tabletop, her chin in her hands. "You don't think there are unicorns still around do you?"

He sighed, "Unicorns again…"

"Oh come on! I just wanna know what you think."

"I don't know," he shook his head; "I hope so, but we can never be too sure."

"Do you think they've all gone?"

"There's a possibility that they may all be dead."

"Dead?!" Her eyes widened in alarm.

"Yeah…" he replied, reaching for his cup to fill it up with tea from the pot. "Wiped out."

"What from?"

"What not from you mean," he turned to face her. "Human's have been building for thousands of years, their territory has expanded greatly. The unicorns probably all fled in fear. Also, there has been a great increase in demons ever since the middle ages, I expect what remained of them has been slaughtered. If there are any left at all, then I expect they're hiding away in an undiscovered forest somewhere."

"It's such a shame…" Trish sighed.

"It is," he agreed; "But if I remember what my mother used to tell me, they have a protector. He is seen around when unicorns are in danger. He leaves when they are safe. He will disappear altogether when they all die out."

"Oh, what did this 'protector' look like?" she raised her eyebrows with curiosity.

"Dunno, can't remember now. Some horse like thing. I think it was an eight legged black sta-……" His voice instantly cut off and he dropped the cup on the floor, where it smashed with a loud crack. "Why didn't I remember sooner? Dammit!"

The pair looked at each other. "We have to find those books," he said quickly, brushing past her making her hair blow in the sudden whoosh of air he created.

"Dante?" her alarmed eyes followed him across the room. "Dante, wait up!"

He had already torn up the stairs like a crazed dragon, suddenly excited by the ancient memory. Trish darted behind him, but couldn't quite match his speed.

"Dante, will you slow down?!"

He finally came to a rest on the landing and was staring up at a hatch in the ceiling. "They're up there," he said, pointing.

"Oh, and just how are going to get up there Mr Oh-I-Only-Do-What-Trish-Says-When-I-Remember-Things?"

He gave her a dark glare before suddenly darting into his room and coming back out with one of his swords from his collection. "Like this."

He held the sword upwards and pushed at the hatch so it swung open. They could hear the hatch door hit the attic floor with a thump. Putting his sword down carefully by the banister, Dante bent his knees and jumped as high as he could up to the hatch, grabbing the side and, with the agility of a cat, swung himself inside the entrance. There were some advantages to being part demon after all.

After a few seconds, his head appeared at the hatchway and looked down at her. "Are you coming or what?"

She shrugged and did the same, managing to get straight into the attic with a single leap. Once there she looked around, it was pitch black, she couldn't even see Dante.

"Dante, where are you?"

"Over here."

"Where?"

"Here."

"Ow! What the hell did you do that for?"

"Sorry, I didn't know it was you."

"Well I believe I'm the only blonde-haired blue-eyed part demon wearing a dress in here thank you very much."

"Well I couldn't see you."

"You're a demon, for crying out loud. You should be able to see in the dark!"

"Well I can't, so sue me."

"Sure is dark in here, huh?"

"Uuh, you figured?"

"I really can't see a thing…"

"Dear dear… it looks like we'll have to start stoking up on carrots for you, Trish."

"Oh don't get started on crap like that."

"I'm sure there was a light around here somewhere."

"Well, hurry up and find it."

"I'm hurrying, alright?"

"No you're not, you're shuffling around like a rat in the corner."

"I'm trying to find the light switch!"

"Ow!"

"What?"

"I think I just walked into something…"

"Aahahahahaa…"

"It's not funny, it feels like a chest or something."

"You must have found the book chest."

"Have you found the switch yet?"

"No- oh! Here it is!"

                She sighed as a light finally flooded one of the corners. It was only dim and the whole attic itself could only really be described as murky, but it gave her enough light to see Dante at the other end of the attic, who had just rather amusingly hit his head on one of the lower wooden beams.

"Don't laugh!" he snapped; "It's not funny!"

"Devil may cry," she taunted with a roll of her eyes.

"I'm not crying. Besides, you fell over a chest."

"Yeah, and it hurt."

He made his way over to her, ducking at the low beams so he didn't hit his head again. "Can you open it?"

She knelt beside it and tried to push the lid off, "Nope, it's locked."

Dante sat next to her and gripped the padlock in his hand. With a single, swift motion he tugged it and it came loose, falling to the floor with a clatter.

"Ta-da."

She looked at him blindly, "How… did you do that?"

He shrugged, "Practise. Right…" Pushing the lid of the chest back, he leant over it, his blonde haired companion following his example.

"Wow, these books are old," she commented as she watched him take one out and place it on the attic floor carefully.

"They were old even when I was reading them when I was younger."

"That's beautiful…" she pointed to an ink illustration as he opened the cover.

"Yeah…" he smiled gently; "Man, this brings back memories."

He turned over the pages carefully, making sure not to miss a single page out, in the hope that there might be something about the silver-maned stallion.

He cast the first book aside. It had been nothing but general bits of information and pictures he had collected when he was younger. The second book he had more luck with; it had belonged to his mother who, like her son, also had a soft spot for unicorns. At least she did before she died…

"Here's something," he said eventually.

Trish looked over her shoulder from the book she was reading, "Huh?"

"There is said to be a protector who guards the unicorns with its immortal life," Dante read from the text. "He comes in the form of an eight-legged black stallion, often described with a silver mane and tail."

She placed down the book she had been reading and slumped on her chest beside him, listening to every word that passed his lips, suddenly captivated.

"After a time, this guardian become known as the Moon Stallion, though his real name was said to be Sleipnir," Dante continued; "He is said to be able to travel amazing speeds and can gallop for days at a time over large distances. Though he is not a demon, devil hunters worldwide have often mistaken him for one, though he will not hurt any creature without due cause…"

(***)

                This continued throughout the day, both as equally fascinated with the information as each other. After what seemed like only a short amount of time, Trish raised her head from one of the books. "Hey, what time is it?"

"Ummm…" Dante looked at his watch; "Jesus! It's quarter to eight!"

"We've been up here all day!"

"And we haven't even eaten!"

"Oh god, your stomach again!"

"Man, I've only just realised how hungry I am…"

"Can you think of anything else but food?"

"But we've been up here for nine hours flat and we haven't even noticed! That's rare for me, I can't even sit still for nine minutes, let alone nine hours."

"Look on the bright side, at least we gained some information about Sleipnir."

"But there is no way that I can accept that we've been up here for nine hours. Check your watch again, are you sure it's quarter to eight?"

She checked again, "Oh. No it's quarter to six, sorry."

"That's still seven hours."

Her mouth opened to say something, but just as suddenly the phone started ringing. "I'll get it," she offered with sigh, standing up. "Oh man, it kills being down there too long."

"If it's Claudia again then tell her get stuffed, I'm not interested."

"Okay, roger that!" Trish smiled before getting carefully down from the hatch attic entrance from whence they had entered. He shook his head in amusement as he heard her thundering down the stairs like a stampede of wild horses. She would jump at any chance to give a nasty comment to one of Dante's self appointed girlfriends.

Dante was lying flat on his stomach, his arms folded and his chin rested on them, gazing at the pages and pages of beautiful calligraphy and incredible illustrations that were in the books spread before him.

Sleipnir… the guardian of the unicorns… it was all like it had just sprung from a fairy tail. But coming from the same sort of immortal blood, Dante knew of course that such creatures existed. In fact, they were the only earthen guardians of the planet that the Heavens had against the demons.

He frowned, if the stallion was indeed Sleipnir then that meant good and bad news. On the good hand it meant unicorns, or at least one of them, were still around. But of course, it also meant they were in trouble. And for Sleipnir to appear in a busy city such as New York. It couldn't be a good thing, there was no chance in hell that it meant anything in the way of divinity.

Maybe it all somehow linked to the other demonfolk that were appearing? Where they somehow threatening the unicorns?

"Dante!"

He heard Trish's cry from the hatch and he looked over it to speak to her, "Ya?"

"Get your arse down here double quick!"

"Why?"

"There's been a sighting!"

"Of what?"

She turned tail and started to thunder down the stars again, "Of the Moon Stallion! Someone's seen Sleipnir!"

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End of chapter two

Now this is wear it starts getting heavy. Review it now, please! The more review I receive the faster I churn out the chapters.

And a big thanks to Ari who was one on the first to review this fic. If it hadn't have been for you, I wouldn't have carried on with this. =^-^=

Good Hunting

Belldandy