Larka was amazed by the beauty and felt drawn to the mysterious animal, she
longed to follow it.
Pology was issuing forth a stream of "prrps" that drew her back to herself. Looking down at it she scowled and was even more annoyed when she saw that the unicorn had vanished from sight. Angrily she grabbed the small peeve and shoved it roughly in her pocket and tried to follow the unicorn, only to find her skirts had caught on some thorns. Pulling at a fold in the skirts she ripped them, leaving strips of material on the plants. For some reason, the jungle seemed to have sprouted thorns everywhere she looked, causing her to shred both clothes and skin.
"Why won't it let me follow it?" she cried exasperatedly, continuing to struggle until eventually she was free of thorns and into a more pleasant area of the jungle where she could pick up some speed. Setting off at a run, she soon found herself face-first in fallen leaves, as she tripped over a hidden root.
"Muttok?" offered Pology, saving her form issuing forth more curses.
"Muttok indeed," she murmured, as she climbed to her feet. Possibly, she reasoned, the unicorn didn't want her chasing after it. Well if that was the case, she added stubbornly, maybe she should just casually saunter after it. This course of action proved more successful than her previous one, as she encountered no more problems with walking through the jungle, save a purple kitten playfully leaping on her head.
Emerging from the jungle she found the doors to the fortress wide open even though she had only opened them a crack. Upon entering she found everything eerily still, there wasn't a breeze to stir the leaves of the palm trees or even a twitch of a tail from any of the stone lions as she ascended the stairs, and once again she found a door wide open as she came to the door she had left by, convinced she had remembered to close it behind her on the way out.
Having no idea where to go now, she anxiously chewed on a strand of her dark hair. Where would it go? To the kitchen for food? Surely a unicorn, being a magical being, didn't need food like she did. Maybe it was going to the sorcerium, where Jaive and Worabex would be giving lessons to the younger children? This made more sense and so she set off at a run and was halfway up a flight of stairs when she remembered that in the jungle the unicorn had made it difficult for her to follow it, so it couldn't be up there.
Trying to think more logically about the situation, she decided that a central location would be an ideal place to start her search. Now she quickly made her way to the centre of the fortress, where there was a grand ballroom that was never used.
It was an immense room painted in various shades of gold and hideous flowery gold wallpaper. Crystal chandeliers hung above her head covered in dustsheets and the polished wooden floor was bare save a thick layer of dust, in which she left footprints like in the snow. The ballroom had four gigantic sets of brown oak doors with lions for handles, one of which had swiped a paw at her when she had pressed its tail down to open the door that lead to the east wing, from which she had arrived.
Going clockwise around the room she opened the southern door first and set off at a run down the corridor, dimly lit by blue globes of light. Finding no difficulty, she ran back to the ballroom. This time she tried the westerly door. Down here was a corridor dimly lit by red globes.
Running down this one she felt as if she were running through water, something she had done when she was little and her mother and father had taken her on a holiday to a city by the sea and stayed in her aunt's palace. She never saw her aunt, as she lived across the sea with her emperor husband.
At the end of the corridor she came to a split, where two staircases lead in opposite directions. As she had done before, she tried them to see which one was hardest to walk down. Using this method, she continued through the entire house until she came to a dark corridor with only one door at the end of it. A door that was wide open and pouring out a silvery light. This made sense as the unicorn hadn't shown much preference for closing doors behind itself.
Casually sauntering down the corridor and pretending not to look at the door, even though the corridor was bare of decoration, she soon reached the room and nervously entered.
The room had a sickly sweet smell about it, which was odd as it hadn't been turned into a garden like some of the other rooms had. In fact it was quite a bare room save for a piano covered in a dustsheet. The source of the sweet sickly smell was a demon with the head of a fawn and a pink, sparkly, wispy tail, who was letting off pitiful "mews" as Tanaquil advanced on it. Her, the silver unicorn, substantial yet transparent, was slowly advancing on Tanaquil, its horn pointing towards her.
"Mother! Watch out!" cried Larka, causing Tanaquil to spin round and the demon to escape out of a window.
As she turned round the unicorn quickened and stabbed its horn into Tanaquil's heart. The woman looked shocked and cried out, afraid that she was dying. Larka whimpered, guilty. If only she hadn't called out, her mother wouldn't have spun round and the unicorn wouldn't have stabbed her.
The unicorn's horn being quite ethereal, left no mark, and as the unicorn drew its horn out of Tanaquil's chest it brought with it a young man in glistening silver armour, who was quite untransparent. He tumbled onto the floor, his untransparent armour making a terrible racket. Looking quite dazed, he stood up, well over 6 feet tall, and stiffly stretched limbs as if he had been sat down on a long journey. He was handsome with golden skin, white blonde short curly hair and bright blue eyes. The young man looked at them both, slightly confused, before bowing solemnly. When he turned and saw the unicorn, he whispered something inaudible and dropped to his knees, his hands clasped together under his chin as he stared at the unicorn in awe, tears in his eyes.
"I prayed for you for so long," he said, his voice cracking.
The unicorn silently cantered over, anod touching its horn to his head, vanished.
Pology was issuing forth a stream of "prrps" that drew her back to herself. Looking down at it she scowled and was even more annoyed when she saw that the unicorn had vanished from sight. Angrily she grabbed the small peeve and shoved it roughly in her pocket and tried to follow the unicorn, only to find her skirts had caught on some thorns. Pulling at a fold in the skirts she ripped them, leaving strips of material on the plants. For some reason, the jungle seemed to have sprouted thorns everywhere she looked, causing her to shred both clothes and skin.
"Why won't it let me follow it?" she cried exasperatedly, continuing to struggle until eventually she was free of thorns and into a more pleasant area of the jungle where she could pick up some speed. Setting off at a run, she soon found herself face-first in fallen leaves, as she tripped over a hidden root.
"Muttok?" offered Pology, saving her form issuing forth more curses.
"Muttok indeed," she murmured, as she climbed to her feet. Possibly, she reasoned, the unicorn didn't want her chasing after it. Well if that was the case, she added stubbornly, maybe she should just casually saunter after it. This course of action proved more successful than her previous one, as she encountered no more problems with walking through the jungle, save a purple kitten playfully leaping on her head.
Emerging from the jungle she found the doors to the fortress wide open even though she had only opened them a crack. Upon entering she found everything eerily still, there wasn't a breeze to stir the leaves of the palm trees or even a twitch of a tail from any of the stone lions as she ascended the stairs, and once again she found a door wide open as she came to the door she had left by, convinced she had remembered to close it behind her on the way out.
Having no idea where to go now, she anxiously chewed on a strand of her dark hair. Where would it go? To the kitchen for food? Surely a unicorn, being a magical being, didn't need food like she did. Maybe it was going to the sorcerium, where Jaive and Worabex would be giving lessons to the younger children? This made more sense and so she set off at a run and was halfway up a flight of stairs when she remembered that in the jungle the unicorn had made it difficult for her to follow it, so it couldn't be up there.
Trying to think more logically about the situation, she decided that a central location would be an ideal place to start her search. Now she quickly made her way to the centre of the fortress, where there was a grand ballroom that was never used.
It was an immense room painted in various shades of gold and hideous flowery gold wallpaper. Crystal chandeliers hung above her head covered in dustsheets and the polished wooden floor was bare save a thick layer of dust, in which she left footprints like in the snow. The ballroom had four gigantic sets of brown oak doors with lions for handles, one of which had swiped a paw at her when she had pressed its tail down to open the door that lead to the east wing, from which she had arrived.
Going clockwise around the room she opened the southern door first and set off at a run down the corridor, dimly lit by blue globes of light. Finding no difficulty, she ran back to the ballroom. This time she tried the westerly door. Down here was a corridor dimly lit by red globes.
Running down this one she felt as if she were running through water, something she had done when she was little and her mother and father had taken her on a holiday to a city by the sea and stayed in her aunt's palace. She never saw her aunt, as she lived across the sea with her emperor husband.
At the end of the corridor she came to a split, where two staircases lead in opposite directions. As she had done before, she tried them to see which one was hardest to walk down. Using this method, she continued through the entire house until she came to a dark corridor with only one door at the end of it. A door that was wide open and pouring out a silvery light. This made sense as the unicorn hadn't shown much preference for closing doors behind itself.
Casually sauntering down the corridor and pretending not to look at the door, even though the corridor was bare of decoration, she soon reached the room and nervously entered.
The room had a sickly sweet smell about it, which was odd as it hadn't been turned into a garden like some of the other rooms had. In fact it was quite a bare room save for a piano covered in a dustsheet. The source of the sweet sickly smell was a demon with the head of a fawn and a pink, sparkly, wispy tail, who was letting off pitiful "mews" as Tanaquil advanced on it. Her, the silver unicorn, substantial yet transparent, was slowly advancing on Tanaquil, its horn pointing towards her.
"Mother! Watch out!" cried Larka, causing Tanaquil to spin round and the demon to escape out of a window.
As she turned round the unicorn quickened and stabbed its horn into Tanaquil's heart. The woman looked shocked and cried out, afraid that she was dying. Larka whimpered, guilty. If only she hadn't called out, her mother wouldn't have spun round and the unicorn wouldn't have stabbed her.
The unicorn's horn being quite ethereal, left no mark, and as the unicorn drew its horn out of Tanaquil's chest it brought with it a young man in glistening silver armour, who was quite untransparent. He tumbled onto the floor, his untransparent armour making a terrible racket. Looking quite dazed, he stood up, well over 6 feet tall, and stiffly stretched limbs as if he had been sat down on a long journey. He was handsome with golden skin, white blonde short curly hair and bright blue eyes. The young man looked at them both, slightly confused, before bowing solemnly. When he turned and saw the unicorn, he whispered something inaudible and dropped to his knees, his hands clasped together under his chin as he stared at the unicorn in awe, tears in his eyes.
"I prayed for you for so long," he said, his voice cracking.
The unicorn silently cantered over, anod touching its horn to his head, vanished.