Chapter 47: Otherworldly Encounter

That was an honest to god unicorn just standing there looking at them. Sapphire had seemed rather strange for the last few minutes. Had she just seen it and froze? The others had bowed to the creature, Kullinger downright falling to his knees. Tom guessed this was something very special to them then. He could see that being true. He bowed down himself before the magical creature.

“So you are the ones who disturbed my woods?” Tom looked to the others who looked to him in turn with worried expressions on their faces. He guessed they all heard that then... Shit. Mind games it was then.

He elected to speak so the dragonettes could hear him and stop him if he did something too stupid.

“Sorry, didn't know making much noise was bad. Didn’t know you existed, to be honest” Tom tried looking at the ground to seem innocent.

“Are you aware of how many creatures thought something truly terrible was happening here? That thing you used, they had never heard anything like it! I almost thought a dragon had crashed here or maybe even something worse.” The voice sounded somewhere between worried and annoyed to Tom’s… brain he guessed?

“Sorry, it’s a chainsaw. I won’t start it now, but here it is” he walked over picking up the saw from the trailer presenting it to the unicorn. it walked closer inspecting the saw.

“What is that smell, it’s horrid”

“Oil and burning I think, it’s a little hot right now” Tom just hoped the next question wasn’t what it had been burning.

“Ew” It went, backing off “please put it away” Tom did as instructed, putting the saw into its box closing and latching it. The unicorn was clearly looking him over while he did so.

“Yes you fit the description the deer gave” It sounded thoughtful to Tom “I’m guessing it was you and Sapphire here that scared the deer so half to death earlier then?”

Sapphire spoke up to “Yes we wanted to see how Tom would hunt he is new here. I do apologize if we scared the animals too much”

“No it's fine, that is the deal after all. You keep the woods clear of tainted beast and worse. In return, you are allowed to hunt here. Within reason.” There was a bit of pressure on the last sentence. It gave him a little headache in fact.

“We have been unable to hunt for a while now. We needed to get back ahead of schedule, so we thought bringing Tom along was a good idea” Sapphire replied.

“Hmpf. Well, I guess you have been going a little lighter than usual as of late. What would be preventing you from going though? I have heard no tales of the stupid wars you so enjoy”

“Two darkling attacks, Tom arriving, and a trader coming by”

“Darklings in my forest? Why was this allowed to happen!?” The pressure was increasing in Tom's head, it was getting rather painful by now.

“They followed the trader here. He was carrying some sort of dark artifact without knowing it. They attacked him on the way, we intercepted. Then they attacked our keep a few days later.” Tom could tell Sapphire was also under the effect of the headache as she winced back squinting her eyes.

“Why were they allowed to come here? That is your job!”

Sapphire had been extremely soft-spoken till now, she clearly held a great deal of respect for the unicorn, but this was unreasonable, they had done everything they could. So he elected to join in.

“They were assaulted by a force from far away. They fought them off at night, in a storm. The enemy got reinforcements including a black knight, which I'm told is rather nasty. The enemy took hostages and still they fought them and they won. This time not allowing any to escape or even live. They have done well.”

The unicorn turned its gaze back to Tom, it was rather hard determining the emotions of a horse's face. There wasn’t much there, to be honest, he just hoped that hadn’t been another mistake.

“I don’t know you, stranger. Why should I value your opinion? I don’t even know whether you should be allowed in my woods yet.” It didn’t seem angry, even it felt like it clearly found itself as the superior being here.

“For the record, I was sent here not told anything. Secondly, if you want your forest clear of nasties, I killed quite a few. Thirdly they killed a child I was supposed to care for!” Tom was almost shouting in the end. “So I can assure you, I will kill any I find”

The unicorn took a small step back. Then appeared to look at him closely, he felt kind of like a tingling sensation for a moment.

“You may not be lying, but DO NOT! use that tone with me.” Okay, that hurt a lot. Jesus what a migraine.

“Okay, can do that” Tom rubbed his temples a bit after that one.

“I guess you can’t keep them from setting foot on the island after all. You are certain no one got away?”

“Those who did we are confident returned for the second battle. To our knowledge, we wiped them all out there.” Sapphire joined in, thanks, girl. “The presence of a dragon of the royal guard has also been requested in case this was not the last of them.”

“I’m guessing you will have to spend even more valuable lives to feed that hungry beast?”

“Most likely yes” Sapphire admitted bowing her head.

“Uhg, fine, the deal is clear after all. As for that noise... Judging by the trees it had to do with cutting them down, yes?”

“Yeah, that is correct, it’s a saw” Tom answered

“Dammit... well then, I don't believe I’m allowed to tell you to not use it. It doesn't look like it did anything other than scaring the animals and ruin two perfectly good trees. Yet more voices to ignore I guess… just marvelous” The unicorn was sounding more like an annoyed telemarketer by now, Tom thought.

“Carry on if you must then. I guess I owe you for killing a dark knight after all. That could have been bad. Who killed it?” All faces turned to Tom who stood there slightly uncomfortably.

“Esmeralda did, to be honest, I just put him down”

“So what you landed a lucky blow to him? I don't smell an ounce of magic in you. Even if you cover your shoulders in something once so precious” Oh right, butterfly cloak, note to self might be offensive to hippies. Before he could answer Sapphire interrupted

“Tom is a formidable warrior despite him not utilizing magic. Trust me when I say, he may very well be the most dangerous thing I've ever seen fight”

“Hmpf, then you know little huntress, but as long as it’s dead I’m happy. He claims to have killed quite a few during, I’m guessing he is referring to the battle?

“Tom alone scored 15 kills during the two battles.”

Kalestine turned her head between Tom and Sapphire a few times eye narrowing. Tom getting the same tingling sensation as before.

“Why aren't you lying, surely you must be lying?”

“14, one might have survived the first battle. I think there was around 30 total right?”

“30 yes led by a dark knight and please you blew out its guts at altitude it didn’t survive that”

Tom didn't know horses or well, unicorns could shiver. He did now though, it almost did a little dance in place.

“My apologies, ugh the thought of that much taint in one place. Blessing be upon my forest…” It even did a little neigh, it was almost adorable “But you are no creature of magic? You can’t have killed that many, what are you?”

“I’m human and sorry to disappoint, You can tell if I'm lying right?” Tom didn’t let it answer, he just stated the truth as far as he knew it “I killed 14 darklings and a dark knight. Am I lying?” The tingling sensation returned, it was a rather strange sensation.

“You aren't... I guess you are as dangerous as she claims then. You may traverse my forests, as long as you stick to the deal I struck with the dragonettes”

“Pardon my ignorance, but what deal?”

“I told you already, keep the forest clean and you may hunt here.”

“Right Thank you, sorry if I’m being rude but you have a name?” Tom asked

“Kalestine” The unicorn had turned away and wandered off. It turned, going behind a tree trunk, and did not come out the other side.

“Huh, neat” he didn’t really know what else to say, to be honest, was that a teleport? I must be, at least sort of. Then he heard the voice again. “I don’t know what a hippie or a telemarketer is and I’m not going to ask, but call me something like that and I shall make you regret it.” Oh… whoops.

Sapphire seemed to almost deflate once Kalestine was gone.

“I’m not sure if that was amazing or terrifying. By the gods” She let out a long sigh as she sat back down.

“Guess you have unicorns too”

“Unicorn?... oh right. Well, yes. They watch and guard the forest, they can’t be everywhere and they don’t like killing, so they leave that part up to us.”

“Did you just shout at an equneora? Are you insane or something!” Kulinger shouted at him, clearly very upset. “They have killed people for less!”

“It wasn’t being fair, don’t seem that grateful either,” Tom thought most of all, it had sounded like a hippy annoyed at the fact the world didn’t agree with them on how it should work. It had appeared to see reason in the end though. So hopefully it wouldn’t be causing any problems in the future. The apparent murderous tendencies were a bit alarming though.

“Crazy then, that’s just brilliant, he’s crazy of course he is. The guy who runs around blowing things up and cutting up trees like they are twigs is utterly insane.” Kullinger went, turning away making large hand gestures. So much for getting that guy on side then.

“Don’t mind him” Sapphire tried, sounding dismissive. “He takes the whole beings of the forest rather seriously” Right then the woodworker was fond of wood things, made sense.

“Well, that was quite something.” Wiperna went hitting Raulf hard on the back “And you said we would never see one again.”

“Not sure if this was how I envisioned it, but no arguing we saw one,” Raulf replied, seeming a little star-struck.

“Should have taken a picture” Tom added. He had even brought his phone along for it. Still, he had gotten two good ones of Sapphire, he really should start taking more in fact.

__________________________________________________________________________________

So that had been a wild ride on the emotional spectrum. She had met a unicorn for the first time and it had not been pleased with her. Even if it was sort of grateful for the forces they had driven off. She had been told stories about their kind since she was a little girl. Noble creatures, the purest of the pure, but utterly unforgiving.

Somehow she was a bit disappointed, even if she should probably be relieved. They had done everything they could. It wasn’t like they had been slacking, in fact, they might have done more for the forest this spring than they sometimes did in a full year. Perhaps Tom was right, it hadn’t been fair. Still, the others were gonna be so jealous they had met a unicorn and lived to tell the tale.

The others had finished loading up the logs, everyone needing a minute to catch a breather following what had just happened. It was curious that Tom knew what these were as well much like with the dragons, she guessed it was the same reason too. Even if she couldn’t figure out how they had gotten this close with their stories.

They had waited for a bit watching the forest, almost hoping Kalestine would return, though of course, nothing happened. Had she done so it most likely wouldn't have been for a pleasant reason anyway.

They mounted up on the quad bike setting off back home, Sapphire looked back a few times, trying to see if she could catch a glimpse of the forest guarding, but to no avail. They rode back over the plains going slower again due to the heavy trailer. She started wondering if he would let her try to drive for once, it was rather boring sitting back here when they were just bumbling along.

She had spent quite some time on his quad bike by now and she had studied how it seemed to work. It was clear the handle he was holding onto was for steering. His right thumb used a little lever which made it go faster. There was a stick for forward, back and a third thing she didn’t know. The levers on the back of the handle were for slowing down. All in all, It didn’t seem too difficult.

“Tom, may I try?” She had asked as they were making their way, over a flat section of meadow. He seemed to ponder it for a moment. “I promise I’ll be careful”

“Sure why not?” Yes! This was going to be awesome.

He pulled to a stop. He got off and started explaining the controls to her. She pretended she hadn’t already figured most of them out already. She had guessed correctly with the additions of the key and start button. The key made sense, you wouldn’t want somebody to just steal this thing, she could only begin to imagine what it was actually worth.

He got on behind her putting his hands on her shoulders. Haven’t changed a shade have you? She mused to herself.

“Right then, start off slowly and not turn on hills we don’t want a flip. Oh and don’t look up or you take my eyes out”

what did he mean... Oh, the horns obviously duh. Anyway, she could manage that no problem. She put the lever forward, which apparently put it in gear. She could remember him talking about gears. It had been a bit boring but if it made this thing move she loved gears.

She slowly pushed the little lever forward and released the brake lever and they began moving, she was driving. She was quite possibly the first dragonette to ever drive. Sapphire Rayland, the daring pioneer. She had gone slowly like he said, experimenting with the steering while they were on flat ground. She had tried rolling over with this thing once before and it hadn't been a pleasant experience, so she took it slow. They were not moving much faster than walking or maybe a light jog as they moved along.

Once she was comfortable she tried picking up a little speed. They had a heavy trailer with them so it wasn’t too fast, but she did to get up to a decent speed. The others had of course come down to see why they were going even slower all of a sudden.

“Look I’m driving!" she had shouted up at them. This was awesome, the seat was comfortable and she didn't have to do anything strenuous. It was good fun too and when you were just going along it wasn't even that loud. She just hoped Tom would let her drive the remainder of the way back. Jackalope would be so Jealous.

“Why don’t you let the lunatic drive, then we might get home before dark” Kullinger had shouted down.

“Would you shut up for a minute” Wiperna snapped back at the woodworker ”Is it hard?”

Sapphire looked up to her getting a yelp from Tom as she felt her horn hit his head.

“Shit, you okay?”

“Yeah, no problem for once you missed something. You need to look at the road” Well she wasn’t to blame for being the best damn archer there was. Still poking his eyes out might not be the best acknowledgment of her skill.

“Right sorry” she looked back ahead “It’s not that hard really, you just have to be careful”

“And look where you are going” Tom added.

“Don’t let Jackalope near it then” Raulf joked.

As they drove he gave her tips and tricks along the way. She wasn’t used to having to read the ground for anything other than wind currents and the like. Picking the right route up a hill was clearly an art form in its own right. Then there was avoiding anything that looked wet. Tom nearly had a sixth sense for it, it seemed. She just couldn’t figure out what patches of ground were good and which hid a mud pit.

When she had argued though and gone through something he said to avoid they had gotten stuck almost immediately. The rear wheels spinning helplessly kicking up dirty brown water onto the both of them.

“Ahr yuck!” Was this its way of getting back at her for being a bad driver? Wait… was it mad at her… could it even get mad at her? Better safe than sorry so she tried patting it a bit. Tom always seemed to pat anything when he was unsure of how to calm it down so why not “I’m sorry”?

Tom seemed to find it greatly this amusing. He then proceeded to pat her on the head.

“Now now, not to worry, I’m sure she will forgive you” He was giggling quite a lot, was he taking the piss with her, or was it actually a girl? The patting was rather demeaning though, bent her head over backwards looking at him. He did seem rather unnerved by that leaning back.

“You do know I’m not Kiran, Right?”

“Nope, you’re Sapphire” He went before putting a finger on her snout “Boop” He then proceeded to get off in a hurry.

She pondered that one for a bit. What was boop? and was the quadbike a girl? If so, what was its name? After Tom confirmed she wasn’t about to chase him down for that, he cautiously told her to get off for a moment and as she stepped off into the mud, she could feel the soft soggy grass between her talons. She could get why it was mad here, mud was unpleasant and cold and it got in between her toes. She could use something like Tom’s boots right about now.

He had gotten on and shown her a little button which he pushed. When he gave it throttle as he called it, all four wheels were spinning. With some jiggling and a bit of a push from her, he got it free and drove it to the top of the hill.

“Practice makes perfect, try again.” She had thought that would be it for driving, but apparently not.

He had let her drive all the way back home and by the end of it, she was going almost as fast as he was. She had eventually asked if she, referring to the bike, had a name. He giggled a bit at that.

“Polaris I think will do. It even says so on the front” That was actually a rather nice name. A bit more inspiring than Tom or Tomas she guessed. Perhaps it was just him who had a boring name back home. Sapphire was fairly sure she would have been bullied with a name like Tom.

Maybe she needed to pay more attention when he was teaching about his alphabet, there was a lot of writing just about everywhere on most of the things he owned after all. She wondered if his rifle had a name too?