Once they reached the stable, Jahrra let out a tense sigh. She was grateful to be away from that stupid dragon and her credulous friends. She looked over at the small yard attached to the enclosure and smiled as Phrym trotted around, trying to con Jahrra into playing with him.
“Not today, boy, maybe another time. I’m not in the mood.”
Jahrra grabbed her pack from the saddle bags and turned to walk back to her traitorous friends and their unpleasant visitor. Phrym watched as Jahrra trudged back towards the Ruin, then shook his head and occupied himself with eating his oats.
As she moved closer to the crumbled building, Jahrra saw that Hroombra had finally joined the crowd. Master Hroombra won’t let Jaax be so rude! she thought hopefully with a tiny smile. Once she was within a few yards of them however, she noticed that both the dragons were watching her intently and her two friends had their eyes to the ground. They all seemed like statues, standing stark still and rigid. Something that felt like an icicle slid down Jahrra’s throat and settled in her stomach. Why is everyone so quiet? What has happened? she thought with a twinge of uneasiness.
“What’s wrong?” she asked warily.
“Scede here was just telling us about your day,” Jaax answered, his face for once without expression.
Jahrra glanced over at Scede, who looked as guilty as a fox in a henhouse. She then looked to Gieaun, who happened to be giving her brother a nasty look.
“What did he say?” Jahrra asked carefully.
“He said that you’d seen the most amazing thing today, and just as he was going to tell us he suddenly stopped talking, refusing to go on.”
It was Hroombra this time, but his tone sounded more curious than accusing.
Jahrra looked daggers at Scede, and he cowered even more. Great! Now what am I going to say! she thought furiously. I can’t tell them I chased after a unicorn into the Wreing Florenn! Master Hroombra will kill me, and for Jaax to know too! He already thinks I’m a trouble-maker! Jahrra fished around for an excuse in her head, and decided that the best method was to tell the truth, at least part of the truth.
“Well,” she began delicately, “we were riding in the fields between here and Nuun Esse on our way back from Wood’s End Ranch, and I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I looked towards the forest and saw what I thought was a herd of deer. But they weren’t deer; they were unicorns Master Hroombra, real unicorns!”
Jahrra barely heard the gasps of relief, and disbelief, coming from her two friends. Jaax looked taken aback and Hroombra just gazed at her, as if trying to comprehend what she’d just said.
Jahrra continued after a while, “When they saw us, they went running into the trees, so Gieaun, Scede and I decided to see if any of their hair got caught in the brush they were grazing near. And it did, look!”
Jahrra reached into her bag and pulled out a wad of the hair the three children had collected in the meadow, hoping this proof would distract the dragons from questioning her honesty. She knew she shouldn’t have lied, but at least this way she’d told them some of the truth, and she wouldn’t have to tell them she’d been in the Wreing Florenn. Hroombra was the first to step forward, with Jaax looking over his shoulder. Both dragons stared down at the unicorn hair as if in a trance, even Jaax, who always seemed to keep his true feelings hidden.
“Jahrra, did you happen to sketch them in your journal?” Hroombra asked, sounding like he could barely hang on to his excitement.
“Yes.” Jahrra smiled and pulled out her journal. She opened it up to the pages where she’d drawn the stallion and some of the foals.
“Incredible!” Hroombra proclaimed, his multitude of wrinkles bunching around a huge smile.
Jaax, however, wasn’t as enthused. He sat back on his haunches after looking at both the silky hair and the sketching. He glared at Jahrra as if she were someone untrustworthy, his usual cool gaze back once again.
“Jaax! Do you see this?” Hroombra asked, his voice still filled with awe.
The other dragon looked at Hroombra and said simply, “Has she seen drawings of unicorns before?”
Hroombra’s expression went from complete joy to slight confusion. “Why, yes,” he answered, his brow furrowed. “I’ve shown her many sketching and drawings of the creatures of Ethoes. Why?”
Jaax took a deep breath and said, “Isn’t it possible she is making this all up? She could’ve drawn these from memory or copied them from your manuscripts.”
Hroombra looked rather befuddled, and Jahrra gaped blankly at Jaax.
“What?!” she breathed, her blue eyes turning storm-cloud gray. “I didn’t copy these from any other drawings, I saw the unicorns just today, I swear it! Here, I even have their hair to prove it!” Jahrra thrust out her hand, clutching the unicorn hair. “What more proof do you want?”
Jaax looked down at the hair wadded in Jahrra’s hand. Then he moved his cool green eyes up to Jahrra’s angry ones, saying quietly and calmly, “Some horses have fine hair. Your friends told me that their parents breed palomino horses. You could’ve taken the hair from them.”
Jahrra couldn’t believe that Jaax was accusing her of lying. She was severely tempted to kick him as hard as she could, but knew it would hurt her more than it would hurt him, not to mention give him one more thing to smile about. Alright, Jahrra thought miserably, I did lie about where I saw them, but I saw them! And how can he tell I’m not being truthful anyways? She knew it shouldn’t bother her that Jaax didn’t believe her. She hated him, so why did it matter? But for some reason it did.
“I’m telling the truth!” she demanded. “They were gold and copper and silver, they had one long horn that curved back over their forehead, and when they whinnied, it sounded like chimes!”
Then she added weakly as her shoulders drooped, “It made me feel very happy.”
Hroombra, who’d remained quiet and pensive for the last few minutes, shot his head up immediately, his yellow eyes blazing.
“You heard them Jahrra? I never told you what they sounded like.” His smile returned once again. “Jaax! There’s no question about it, she did see them! She might’ve known what they looked like, but she didn’t know what they sounded like!”
Hroombra was as giddy as the children had been the second they found the unicorn hair.
Jaax looked unnecessarily unhappy with this information and Hroombra’s reaction to it, but for some strange reason, Jahrra didn’t think it had anything to do with her.
“Jaax! Unicorns!” Hroombra said once again, wondering why the younger dragon was staying so calm.
Jaax turned his gaze to Hroombra and said simply, sternly, “Unicorns have not been in Oescienne for . . .”
“Nearly five hundred years.”
Hroombra finished the statement with both a tone of wonder and revelation. Jahrra just stared back, not knowing what to say, not understanding the relevance of this fact.
The young dragon looked back to Jahrra, trying hard to read her expression. There was a glimmer of truth in the young girl’s eyes; he couldn’t deny that. But there couldn’t be unicorns in Oescienne, it just wasn’t possible . . .
“Hroombra, you and I know that what she claims is impossible!” Jaax snapped, growing irritated with his own thoughts.
He was no longer concerned with whether or not Jahrra was telling the truth. He was just concerned with what it meant if she was telling the truth.
“Jahrra, you may go and play with your friends now, we’ve detained you three long enough,” Hroombra said, sounding serious all of a sudden.