“Jahrra!” Gieaun hissed again, her eyes wide with horror, “It could’ve been anything! It could’ve been a boarlaque!”
Jahrra ignored Gieaun’s dramatic claims and continued on, “We chased after it for fifteen minutes or so, and then stopped. It was then I realized we had gone too far into the forest.”
“You think so?” Scede inquired sarcastically, crossing his arms across his chest and giving Bhun free rein to pluck lazily at the field grasses.
Jahrra made a face at him and kept talking. “I wanted to turn back but Phrym started walking forward, farther into the forest.”
“Oh, sure, blame it on Phrym,” Gieaun huffed, placing her hands on her hips and giving Aimhe the same freedom as her brother’s horse.
Jahrra pushed on, undeterred. “After awhile we came upon a small meadow surrounded by thick bramble bushes. Phrym stepped up to a gap in the wall of thorns and looked in. I stood up in the saddle and looked in as well, and there, before my very eyes, was an entire herd of unicorns!”
Jahrra sat back in the saddle with her hands resting on the pommel. She gazed, unsmiling but attentive, at her two friends. Gieaun looked flabbergasted and Scede had a smile of surprise on his face.
“Do you think they’re still there?” he asked energetically, forgetting his officious posture.
“No,” Jahrra said in a disheartened manner, “they left the meadow and that’s when I left the forest.”
“Maybe some of their hair got caught on a branch or something,” he mused, shrugging slightly.
Jahrra sat up quickly in the saddle and stared, wide-eyed at her friend. Phrym nickered in slight irritation.
“I didn’t think of looking!” she blurted.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Scede asked, unable to hide his grin.
“NO!” gasped Gieaun, horrified, knowing exactly what they were planning on doing. “We’re NOT going into that forest. Are you nuts?!”
But Scede and Jahrra had already urged Phrym and Bhun into a steady trot down the gentle slope and Gieaun had no choice but to follow after them.
“You two are going to get us killed!” she yelled after them as she tried to catch up.
By the time the three friends reached the edge of the forest it was just before midday. They sat upon their horses several feet away from the woods, gazing into the trees.
“You go first,” Scede suggested timidly to Jahrra.
“Are you afraid, Scede?” she teased.
“No! I, uh . . . you just know the way already, that’s all,” he recovered rather clumsily, fidgeting with Bhun’s reins.
Jahrra shook her head with a smile and walked Phrym down the trail that led to the meadow. This time she paid attention to where she was going.
“Come on you two!” she called when she saw they weren’t moving. “There’s nothing to be afraid of!”
She could hear the two siblings arguing and finally, Gieaun stepped in followed by Scede. Jahrra could barely hear the other girl grumbling about “death” and “monsters”, but she only grinned and focused on the path ahead of her. After a half an hour the group found themselves in the place where Phrym and Jahrra had first stopped.
“Where are we?” asked Gieaun nervously, looking up at the trees as if their branches might reach down and strangle her.
“It’s only a little while longer. This is where we stopped the first time.”
Jahrra turned Phrym slightly to the right and up the tiny trail she hadn’t seen before and in no time they reached the solid wall of brambles.
“We’re here!” she exclaimed, causing her two friends to flinch.
Jahrra led Phrym into a quick walk and they came around the corner and up to the break in the wall. Phrym and the other two horses could easily step through, but Jahrra wondered if the unicorns wouldn’t come back if they did. They tied up their horses and slowly stepped into the meadow.
“Wow!” Gieaun exclaimed. “This looks like a scene right out of one of Master Hroombra’s fairytales!”
After soaking up the peace of the meadow for a while, Jahrra led her friends to where she’d last seen the unicorns before they disappeared into the forest.
“The stallion bowed his head at me. Then he led his herd this way.”
“He bowed his head at you?” Gieaun asked in disbelief.
Jahrra nodded and Gieaun looked over at Scede. He simply shrugged his shoulders and continued after his friend. The way the unicorns had left was quite obvious; there was a large break in the brambles straight ahead and a well worn path leading out.
As the three approached the opening, Jahrra kept her fingers crossed that the unicorns had left some of their corn silk mane behind. She was the first to reach the brambles, and as her eyes raked the edge of the opening, her heart skipped a beat. Not only was there a chunk of unicorn hair, but there were several in a variety of colors.
“Wow!” Scede breathed, sounding more excited than Jahrra could ever remember.
“Real unicorn hair!” Gieaun put in, running the small distance to the opening in the hedge.
The three happily began to gather as much as they could shove in their pockets and carry back to their saddlebags.
“Too bad we can’t show mother and father,” Scede said, sounding slightly disappointed. “They’d kill us if they knew we went into the Wreing Florenn!”
Once they’d gathered enough hair to make their own unicorn if they wanted to, the three friends returned to their horses and began the journey out of the forest. They decided to spend the rest of the day helping Jahrra in her garden and then perhaps try talking Hroombra into telling them a story or showing them another map of Ethoes.
The ride back through the trees passed quickly but not uneventfully. By the time they reached the field, Jahrra, Gieaun and Scede were overcome by a fit of laughter. Gieaun had been trailing behind when she thought she saw someone in a red cloak following them. She instinctually tensed, spooking Aimhe and frightening the other horses into a run. When Scede and Jahrra looked back behind them, all they could see were several shrubs in full scarlet bloom. They laughed at Gieaun and told her she was paranoid, but something behind them made a crackling noise and all three screamed, urging their horses past the last row of trees.
“There very well could’ve been someone following us!” Gieaun said, trying to catch her breath.
“Yeah, the terrifying shrub monster!” Scede wheezed, barely able to stay in Bhun’s saddle.
Gieaun just crossed her arms and tried to look annoyed. “Nothing is blooming right now, Scede. It’s too early!” she insisted, but gave up when she couldn’t hold on to her composure any longer.
“Come on. Let’s race back to the Castle Guard Ruin,” Jahrra said, wiping a tear from her eye.
“Oh, you always win! You have Phrym!” Scede complained.
They raced anyways. Phrym, Bhun and Aimhe tore across the rolling fields heading north. After several minutes they met up with the Danu Creek and turned to follow it westward. Jahrra and Phrym streaked far ahead of everybody else, frightening birds and other creatures that were bathing, drinking or foraging for food in the creek bed below.
Within ten minutes Jahrra came into view of the crumbled structure she called home. She gradually slowed Phrym to a walk and then turned him around to see where her friends were. A few minutes passed before Jahrra finally heard the horses thundering up the trail. She turned Phrym back toward the Ruin and kicked him into full speed once again, hoping Gieaun and Scede got the impression she wasn’t too far ahead.
Jahrra smiled as Phrym trotted up to her home, her two friends and their horses trailing far behind. She turned and waited for them, grinning as they pulled up.