Unicorn Lost

Presents

L	isten, guys," said Kathy, with a toss of her head, "I can move a little faster on my own...let me run ahead a ways and see where this trail's leading."

"Okay," Florence nodded. She placed a paw on the unicorn's shoulder. "Just...BE CAREFUL."

A faint smile touched Kathy's velvet lips. "You're preaching to the choir, my friend. Believe me, the LAST thing I want to do, is get hurt."

"What we want...and what we get...are often two different things, " the wolf nodded sagely.

Freed of the weight of a rider carrying a blazing torch, the unicorn could now skip lightly through the torturous twists of the canyons, almost revelling in the nimble speed of her dainty cloven hoofs. "I could almost get used to this," Kathy thought, recalling her erstwhile body shape--which had been charitably described as having been made of all the leftover bits God had in his parts collection. "Yes," she thought. "Being a unicorn is far preferable to..."

WHAM!!!

Kathy reeled backwards, her vision obscured by a spangle of blood-colored stars. Her horn throbbed unmercifully as she struggled to see what it was that she had run into. Imagining that some low arch in the rocks had caught her on the unaccustomed length of her alicorn. But there was nothing there.

Her vision blurred and her ears ringing, Kathy stumbled drunkenly through the fractured rocks of the arroyo. "What's wrong with me?" she forced herself to ask aloud, and the sound of her voice startled her. She paused and blinked blearily. "I feel... realllllly bad."

She had no way of knowing that she had once more come within the field of influence eminating from their unseen enemies. In the same way that the touch of the emerald bracelet had sapped her strength and disorganized her thoughts; and how the same bracelet had fogged the brain of poor Kamida, this was the very same mysterious power responsible for the death-like torpor which had overwhelmed Florence's missing White Pony. She was fortunate that she had not continued onwards, for she herself would have fallen victim to the ogre's insidious trap. But she had no way of knowing that. She also had no way of knowing that, at that very moment, Quicksilver and Blackfoot where high-tailing it in her direction.

The donkey was huffing and puffing, mostly from fear. "What a narrow escape!" His nostrils still tingled from where those nasty little chipmunk brats had pinched him. For a moment, he wondered if all of his Machiavellian machinations were worth the effort. A glimmer of doubt seeped into his heart and mind. To capture a dragon and overthrow the ogre, in order to gain possession of the power of the unicorn, so he could take over the world--what kind of an ass was he to think that such a thing could be possible; and with only a convicted thief to help him?! Quicksilver rotated an ear back toward Blackfoot, who was clinging to Quicksilver's scrubby mane, his toe-nails digging into the jester's coarse brown fur. "You just can't get good help these days," Quicksilver thought gloomily. "Even if you threaten them with death." His forward-facing ear suddenly heard the sound of a voice up ahead, and Quicksilver bore down on his haunches and skidded to a pebbly stop, which nearly pitched Blackfoot off over his head. "Eyaww!" the jester snorted. "I hear someone coming!"

"Oh, no," Blackfoot moaned softly. He was feeling sick and hungry, and absolutely knackered from his sleepless night and day of hard travelling.

Quicksilver drew back into a niche in the rock, with only the tips of his ears poking around the corner. And those well-designed ears picked up the words:

"Did I come this way? Where did the others go? Oh, great, everyone else is lost! Ooh, my head! Why I had to come here, I'll never know."

"It's the unicorn," Quicksilver whispered sharply to his minion. "Hah! Our luck's changing!"

Blackfoot felt a sudden sinking in his chest. "What do you mean?"

"If we capture her, then we have a bargaining chip," Quicksilver explained, his dark eyes narrowing with malicious glee. He shrugged his shoulders and unseated the ferret. "Go! Catch her!"

Blackfoot indignantly picked himself up from the dust and glared incredulously at his master. "Me? Why me? Are you out of your mind? I'm just a ferret."

"Fake an injury. Unicorns are suckers for hurt things. She'll feel sympathy for you, and then we can catch her."

Blackfoot drew himself up to his full height, thrust out his chest, and snarled. "That does it! I am NOT going to be party to your evil schemes any more, Quicksilver!"

The donkey glared at the ferret with a mixture of fury and astonishment on his face. "What?!" he demanded.

Blackfoot spat into the dust at the donkey's feet. "I QUIT!!" he snapped.

"You can't quit!" Quicksilver insisted angrily, although there was a taint of fear under his whispered words. "Are you forgetting that my testimony could have you hanged?!"

"I don't care!" Blackfoot growled. "They can't hang me if they don't catch me. And anyway, this quest will be the death of me. So what do I care? Good-bye, Quicksilver, and best of luck. They say you never see a dead donkey, but I'm not so sure!" And with that, the ferret turned and melted into the fissures of the canyon.

Quicksilver felt the bottom drop out of his stomach as he watched the ferret leave. He was a bold creature, but the sudden realization of his situation sent a chill of genuine fear through his body, a fear that made his knobby knees knock. But he did not have much time to ponder his new predicament, for he could hear the dainty patter of the unicorn's footfalls drawing near. He rolled his eyes, shut them briefly, and then cut loose with a bray of pure agony which echoed in the canyon. "My leg! My leg!" Quicksilver moaned, as he collapsed to the ground; right at the feet of the rather astonished unicorn.

-page oo56-
written by Kathy Garrison.
(edited by Jeanette)

Copyright and Credit:
  · Florence from "Freefall" © Mark Stanley.
  · Magic Gardener © Hortmage.
  · Jeanette © Jeanette Isabelle.
  · Kathy from "Carry On" © Kathy Garrison.
  · Kamida © Guest #1.
  · ToraKiyoshi - Writer.
  · Tiger_T. - Writer.
  · White Pony from "Cross Time Cafe" © S.Kidwell.
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