Spirits of the Earth

His mind was caught in distant memories. Familiar faces came to him, with narrowed, distrustful eyes, hateful glares and bared teeth. He saw unicorns, humans, beasts and spirits, fey creatures and mundane mortals. He ran, but the ground was an icy slope, and no matter how he struggled, he slid backward toward the abyss. His screams made no sound, and as he scraped and scrabbled at the edge of the precipice, he heard cruel laughter, and felt a rough shove that pushed him over the edge...

Something tickled the end of his nose. It was prickly, and prodded him lightly as it began crawling over his lips. Aréharis took a shallow breath, and snorted.

Phbbbth.

The prickly thing shot up the bridge of his nose and lodged itself somewhere between his ears. He flicked them, dimly aware of birdsong greeting the dawn. The ticklish sensation quickly relocated to his cheek. Aréharis regretfully opened one eye, and stared down into the glassy black eyes of the giant tarantula perched on his face.

"Whick off."

The tarantula stared as only a spider can, then scurried off down his neck and burrowing into the messy strands of his mane. The unicorn blinked his other eye open, and shook off the stiffness of sleep, one leg at a time. His swept his tail from side to side, brushing down his barrel with his thick tuft of tail hair.

A wreath of mist lay over the silver surface of the lake. The unicorn had fallen asleep on a hillock overlooking the water. He could see all the way down the sloping embankment to the muddy shore where bulrushes grew, hiding crickets and frogs and other river-dwellers. The morning air was still, hardly a ripple on the lake's smooth sheen, and the leaves of the overhanging willows hung at rest.

Sniff. Sniffsniff.

"Hmm."

Aréharis wrinkled his nose. Amongst all the usual morning scents he was accustomed to was something he didn't recognise. He smelt dew in the grass, dead insects, the ripe scent of a male deer with an injured hoof that had come grazing through the area yesterday, the sharp tang of a predator (something feline, he was sure) following aforementioned deer... but what was that other scent? Goat? Sheep? There was something else too, a scent that stirred fragments of memory, of southern shores and orchards of ripe...

The unicorn started in alarm. He bounded from his hillock and down the embankment with the wind at his back. Something whizzed by his striped legs, and he gritted his teeth, scarpering from bush to boulder to tree as he tried to break away from his pursuer. Olive trees. That's where he'd smelt it before.

"What kind of hunter washes with soap at dawn?" Aréharis complained to himself as he slowed his pace to dart through the thick undergrowth. He could feel the tarantula in his mane curling her legs nervously, clinging with determination onto a clump of his hair.

"She's gaining on you," a voice called to the fleeing unicorn. "Reckon she'll have a shot at your arse in a moment. Dunno how she missed the first time, the target's big enough."

"She? That explains the soap," Aréharis panted, coming to a halt and squinting skywards through the foliage. The owner of the voice came into sight, a large crow which flapped down through the trees and alighted on a branch with a ruffle of its glossy black feathers. Aréharis eyed the bird hopefully. "Go peck her eyes out, then. I'll leave you the meat if I take her down."

"Get stuffed," the crow replied cheerfully, and cackled. He twisted his head to regard the way the unicorn had come. "She's almost here! Use sorcery, freak-horse!"

"I don't have-..."

"Five seconds!" the bird cawed loudly. "Four!"

"I'm not a-...!"

"Three! Two!"

Aréharis narrowed his eyes and reached for his arcane power, lowering his horn towards the ominous footfalls that were growing louder. He felt every blade of grass as it moved, every lofty branch and twisting root of the trees... and he had an idea.

"One!"

Just as the hunter, clad in mottled green cloak and an arrow nocked on her finely crafted bow, came bursting through the bushes, Aréharis channeled his energy into the thick roots of a nearby tree, and bade them to grow. The gnarled woody shoots twisted and coiled up from the soil, wrapping around the hunter's ankles and tripping her face-flat onto a boulder. There were a couple of nasty cracks and a heavy thud as she toppled over, and the forest was still once more.

"Hah! You'll have to get up earlier next time, if you want.... if you want to..." Aréharis trailed off and peered curiously at the motionless hunter. Elf, he thought, or half-elf half-human. Also, she wasn't moving. The rock was beginning to stain dark with blood as it trickled from her broken nose, and her neck was at an angle nature had never intended it to be. Aréharis scowled, and looked up at the crow. "How tragic."

"Fresh meat, just like you said," the crow said, and fluttered down to start pecking at her exposed neck. Aréharis watched, wondering what that uncomfortable feeling in his stomach was. He told himself it didn't matter. One less enemy out for his blood. He leaned over the body to tug at the roll of parchment sticking out from the hunter's quiver. The crow paused his meal to stare at him beadily. "What're you looking at, big-arse? Freak-horse! No meat for you."

The unicorn had long since stopped rolling his eyes at the ingratitude of others. Wordlessly, he picked up the scroll in his mouth, turned to flick his tail rudely, and stalked off to find a grazing field uncontaminated by talking animals or murderers. Only when he found himself alone, in a quiet, dark copse of trees atop a hill, did he drop the scroll, and roll it out with a cloven hoof.

"This looks bad," Aréharis muttered to himself, as the tarantula scuttled from her hiding place and settled atop his head. They both regarded the wanted poster. "They still can't spell my name."

The tarantula said nothing.

He made the journey on foot, or hoof, rather. His horse was sold to a farmer once his feet changed to hooves. The young man didn't fancy spending time around equines on account of his curse; they were an unhappy reminder of it. That being said, no one in La'marri stared or paid his hooves and tail any mind; they were used to such magical oddities out here. The act of balancing so naturally on hooves he'd had only a few days was worrisome. Whatever sorcery coaxed his transformation along was potent.

All the more reason to hurry, Kai thought as he followed his compass. The boy was no woodsman; but with a full pack, a good sword, and a compass pointing toward his quarry there was little worry about. Unless a real hunter got to his unicorn first.

He passed through flowery meadows an old growth forests tall as castles. Serendipity must have been like this, once, before it was tamed by bronze and magic. It was mid-morning now, the last vestiges of dew beginning to evaporate, and Kai stopped at a stream beneath a lone hill to fill his waterskin. That's when his compass began to gryate and his heart skipped a beat. The unicorn was near.

Finding a unicorn, of course, was only half the battle. Pleasing it was the other half. Those he summoned in Serendipity refused his pleas for fear of angering a god. This one, judging by the poster, surely the sort who'd offend the gods in exchange for a good offering and some eldritch trinkets. Kai reached into his coat and sheepishly withdrew a neatly stitched effigy with a maiden's lock of hair (a hated cousin's; he wondered only later if she was really a maiden). The moment he did it felt silly in his hand. What would a unicorn even want with this?

Kai slowly trudged up the hill, toward the great dead tree at its apex. "Hello? I know you're here, unicorn. I've a proposition, you see. I don't mean any harm-" and then the donkey-boy slipped, falling flat into the grass. Hooved feet weren't ideal for climbing.

"Fix 'im. Woss wrong? Bad nut? Brain worms? Fix 'im, 'fix 'im!"

Communication was never an indicator of intelligence. Whilst Aréharis could hear the squirrel chattering as a meaningless barrage of panicked noise, the 'translation' for lack of a better word was the result of the unicorn's magic affinity for nature. Understanding the speech of animals wasn't the real gift, Aréharis thought, it would be turning the damn thing off.

As he examined the patient, who was mercifully quieter than the chattery squirrel, the unicorn chewed his mouthful of leaves with deliberate, agonising slowness. Not to be vindictive of course, he wanted to get this squirrel and its... spouse? Offspring? Whatever-relation-it-was out of his life with as much haste as possible. Unfortunately, the headache-reducing effects of the leaves were best released with slow, thorough chewing. Ironic, Aréharis mused, he needed the leaves to deal with the squirrel, which was causing the headache for which he needed the leaves...

"Tzchk! Hurry hurry! Fix 'im! Man coming! Treekiller! Woodburner! Tchk-tk-tk!"

Aréharis spat out his leaves, fortunately missing the patient. Another hunter? What, was that crow from earlier giving everyone directions now? He'd have to pay off a falcon or a cat to take that blabber-beak down. The unicorn leaned down until his scruffy black beard was touching the slab of stone where the patient lay motionless. He eyed the wife/mother (was it even a female?) and spoke slow and deliberate. He didn't want to have to repeat himself.

"The patient is dead. His scent and bruising indicates he ceased living two days ago. The cause of death is blunt trauma to the head. It's astounding you failed to notice, indicating you also may also have suffered head trauma. Contrary to the opinions of the arcane medicine community, necromancy is not 'demonic' magic as such, it falls under the study of healing. I just won't do it, because it's impractical and results in exponentially diminishing returns for the energy put into it. Bury the corpse, or be a good neighbour and donate it to a carrion-eater in need."

Aréharis rarely wasted breath on either greetings or farewells, so stopped paying attention to the delirious little speck of a squirrel and rose to his full height, starting off at an elegant prance, before breaking into a canter. Despite trying to fill up his morning by actually doing some good for the forest, like encouraging a few poisonous toadstools with his growing magic, he could not shake the Hunter Incident from his mind. He had gathered from those that cared about money that a thousand gold suns was a lot, enough to tempt even amateur bounty hunters with sharp farming equipment and delusions of heroism. Barely a threat to him, but bands of gold-crazed lunatics roaming the woods and scaring the horses would do no good. No, this bounty hunting business needed to be nipped in the bud. For that, he'd have to find a live bounty hunter.

"..lo?... here, unicorn... proposition you see... mean any harm..." Human, judging by the timbre and pitch, or something very like human. His cantering gait pounded in his ears, making the words difficult to discern. The breeze was flowing downhill, so Aréharis wasn't aware just how close he had come to the human until he was almost on top of him. The unicorn stamped to a halt just as he came into sight of a ragged form crumpled face-first on the grass. He snorted in disbelief.

"Today gives new meaning to the phrase 'clumsy assassination attempt.' At least the first hunter was actually armed." The unicorn trotted carefully around the fallen... satyr? His scent was a bit of a mess, along with everything else. Aréharis could have left right then, but he was curious if the satyr had actually died of a broken neck too. If two bounty hunters cracked their necks on the same day hunting the same unicorn, perhaps his curse was actually gaining new and bizarre conditions. He leaned over the fallen satyr, and was surprised to find he was still breathing, and better yet, he was conscious. So much for the curse theory. The unicorn flared his nostrils, sniffing at the stranger.

The satyr was not only unarmed, he looked completely helpless. Clean too, at least by satyr standards. Aréharis was mostly sure the satyr was old enough to be considered an adult, but he was keeping an ear out just in case the youth's mother came bustling out of the hedges with a rolling pin.

"You're fine. Better than the last one. Though, if you're collapsing frequently, it could be a symptom of brain damage. As could your stupendously foolish decision to try and claim my bounty. Listen to the advice of someone with a functioning mind, boy. Go back to your village and enjoy your youth while it lasts. Oh, and do me a favour. Tell whoever keeps making those wanted posters that they're burning precious hours of their mortal lives better spent on doing literally anything else." Satisfied with his brief examination of the satyr, the unicorn now put all thoughts of him into the 'Not-My-Problem-Anymore' category, and turned his attention to something more worth his time.

There was a pretty brass compass lying on the grass besides the satyr (Not-My-Problem-Anymore!), and the needle was jittering fiercely in his direction. Aréharis flicked his ears forward, listening to it intently, lowering his horn until the tip was touching  it. He could feel the tarantula in his mane retreating down his back. She could feel it too, no doubt from hanging around Aréharis so much. Magic.

"Hmph. Rudimentary tracking charm. Must've keyed it to unicorn horn." He prodded it a bit more, sensing the arcane properties imbued in the device. "No... you're kidding me. They used unicorn tailhair. How cheap."

Kai yelped in surprise as an enormous shape loomed over him, and rolled to the side, struggling to his feet. The youth was poised to draw his sword, but stopped. Areharis was just puttering around after all. More sardonic than the indignant and judgmental creature that was expected. Besides what could he possibly do to a sorcery-wielding unicorn with his little sabre?

"You'd prefer a horn be used for the charm? Pinch of shed fur seemed the nicer alternative, you know. And it was hardly cheap."

Like an child remembering his manners he straightened his posture, dusted stray the straw from his coat. The youth's tail flicking involuntarily, which made him blush. "You're Aréharis, I suppose? I'm Kai Wilding.. of Serendipity. And I wasn't lying to you; I've no desire your head! In fact I'm sure the magic you're capable of, alive and willing, is much more valuable than gold."

There was a pregnant pause in the air. Kai chewed his lip, searching for a nice way to word his request. "I need a curse broken, you see. And given you're, uh, reputation you don't seem the sort of unicorn who deals exclusively with virtuous maidens and or godly knights."

Aréharis tapped the compass again with his horn, and the needle stopped jittering. A nice toy, but of little use to him. He wasn't seeking the company of unicorns, and even if he was, he had far more time and patience than most. Besides, where would he keep the compass? He couldn't leave it lying around here, he'd bet his thousand sun bounty on some witless animal coming along and trying to swallow it.

Oh, that's right. It already had an owner.

The unicorn had been pretending as best he could that he wasn't listening to the satyr, but as with the squirrel from earlier, he just couldn't walk away without at least hearing the whole story. It was his awful habit of trying to do good, a risky occupation that he was sure would get him killed one day. His ear had flicked to point at the youth all by itself when he heard the word 'curse', and that gave away the game.

"Take your compass," Aréharis commanded, turning as if to leave. He took a few steps, just to show the youth that he wasn't that curious about the curse, and that he could simply walk off at any time. It was one thing being taken for granted, but he didn't want anyone thinking he was tame or anything. He slowed to a stop, and turned his head to regard the satyr with one eye. He heaved a theatrically exasperated sigh, just to hammer home the point that he definitely did not care or empathise with the boy's affliction in any way.

"You do know what a curse is, don't you?" The unicorn's tone was bitter. "Don't waste my time on some prankster jinxing you to be clumsy. Breaking a curse is an art beyond those who only have one mortal life to study it. At least you were sensible enough to come to me."

Aréharis paused, and for a moment he seriously considered just turning tail. Even if the boy's curse was genuinely that, it didn't mean he could break it. Even if he could, it would not prove that Aréharis could be severed from his own terrible doom. Curses were as different to each other as magic spells were.

But what other leads did he have? It wasn't as if the forest was stuffed to the treetops with cursed wretches seeking deliverance. He could try, and if it only meant failure, than at least that was a fate Aréharis could see coming.

"I know not what my reputation is in Serendipity, but I don't make deals in gold. My abilities are too valuable to be bought. I suppose that makes them worthless in monetary terms, why put a price on something nobody could ever buy? What a stupid system." Aréharis paused, deciding he would not fully explain why he was taking an interest. Few knew of the curse upon him, and he preferred to keep it that way. So, the unicorn laid out his terms.

"If you are truly cursed, my price is that you are bound to me until I break it, or admit defeat. In other words, I call and you come running, preferably with minimal chatter. I subject you to experimental magic, you tell me the effects, without complaining. I have a particular interest in curse-breaking, and that is enough for you to know. I don't expect thanks or favours, so I'll make this a binding condition; once I am finished with you, leave me, and speak of me to no one. Oh, and if it turns out to be just some boring charm, I'll show you a real curse for free, and turn you into a maiden, virtuous or otherwise. Deal?"

Aréharis was already advancing on the boy, lowering his head to a position that would look submissive on any other creature, if not for the foot long spiraled horn, deliberately sharpened at the tip, that was now pointed directly between the boy's eyes. Aréharis didn't want to give the youth too much time to think over the terms of his deal, and starting right away would get his hopes up that this would be all over in a few seconds anyway.

The unicorn's poise was stiff, and his movements slow and calculated as he inched forward. This complex spell required him (a fully-grown unicorn heavy enough to crush the satyr) to delicately make physical contact using a twelve inch spear on his forehead. Fortunately, whatever Aréharis' infamous reputation, he was very experienced at doing just that.

"You can talk, but hold your head still," Aréharis said calmly, too busy concentrating to be acidic. "The last virtuous maiden lost it when she started fidgeting. Do you have any other ailments, while I'm working? Joint pains, weight changes... any hoof rot? Very common in satyrs your age."

Kai picked up the compass, idly tossing it in the air and catching it. The youth chewed his lip, carefully weighing Areharis' words. "What do you mean bound? An actual enchantment? How do I know you won't be binding me to steal my soul or cut out my heart?" Or brush your mane for all eternity? "...with all due respect."

There came no answer as the beast drew nearer, jumping into questions and diagnoses; perhaps the issue was moot? He hoped it was. Kai tried not to move as the spiral horn came alarmingly close to his body, though he couldn't help but fidget. It looked perfect for goring and impaling.

A bemused smile finally crossed the boy's face as Areharis spewed forth a slew of questions, "I'm not a satyr. That's the trouble. I had lovely human ears and toes before a tiff with a local spirit; less itchy chest hair, too. If its just a charm no mortal mage my family's hired has been able to reverse it." It was a bit disconcerting to find the unicorn so academic. Sylvan creatures practiced convoluted folk rememdies, didn't they? Kai suddenly felt very small, figuratively this time, despite his wealth of arcane education. He could really only guess at what this affliction was.

It seemed despite his skepticism, the boy had been correct about it being a curse. Not a prank or a magical mishap, this magic was quite deep, and disturbingly familiar to the unicorn. He gently withdrew his horn an inch, blinking and squinting as if he'd just received a headache. Identifying the magic elements that comprised the curse came with a sensation that was not quite lightheadedness, nor actual pain. Taking a moment to recover his concentration, Aréharis licked his lips and and stamped his hind hoof, which had been falling asleep. His mouth felt very dry.

"I'm not a lunatic living in a jar offering you three backfiring wishes," he clarified, if only to fill the time until his next attempt. "I just have this insane belief that people should honour their word. I'm guessing you have upbringing, boy. No, I think you've enough magical problems without me adding new ones. If you run off and start telling your human buddies where to capture the big bad unicorn, I'll just come and kill you. No whicking around with bogus magical contracts."

Aréharis mulled over his findings so far. There weren't that many conditions on the curse. In fact, the caster had been liberal to the point of carelessness with their phrasing. The boy's explanation filled in the gaps. Human uses arbitrary power to make the land he owns somehow profitable, old cantankerous faun bumpkin goes handing out a curse to make some facetious point about the boy's lowly ancestry. The unicorn snorted.

"What a persnickety old goat, wasting aeons of his time watching a graveyard, the one place where nobody needs his help." Aréharis shook his head. "Then he has the gall to get upset when humans come along trying to waste time in an equally absurd manner."

Time wasting. Bickering over old trinkets, and places that would decay and shift until they were no longer recognisable. It was hard for a unicorn to understand such behaviour. Aréharis was admittedly still a very young unicorn, who had yet to experience even a modest fraction of the lifespans of his forebears. What use were stone temples to a unicorn like his father, who had seen mountains crumble and trickling streams carve valleys?

"The conditions of the curse are simpler than... than other curses I've seen," Aréharis said evasively. He was far more interested with how this faun-curse might yield some interesting facts about his own. Unfortunately, there were no half-measures to be taken in curse-breaking. It was all or nothing. "I can make an attempt to break it. Curses cannot be negated, in other words I cannot put a spell on you that contradicts the original terms. Imagine trying to paint over rotten wood - it's still rotten underneath. Instead, it's like I'm going to unravel the core elements of what's making the wood rotten and... actually, forget the whole metaphor."

Aréharis paused, raising his head to look at the boy eye-to-eye. For all his harsh jabs, he would always make sure that his patient understood the risks. "I'm going to try something dangerous. It might hurt, or have unforeseen consequences, or kill you if that faun is smarter than I give him credit. So, is the deal on? I didn't hear a yes."

A faint look of indignation washed across Kai's face. "My upbringing was just fine, thank you.You can't blame me for being a bit suspicious. After all there are bounties for you plastered across every pub in La'marri."

"Its not true, is it? Just some crotchety druid cross with you?" he laughed nervously. The young man didn't want to know. Certainly the fey-folk and their priests were easily offended, Kai knew that better than anyone. But for the first time it struck the boy that he really was at the mercy of this strange and potentially dangerous creature. It was hard to imagine any necromancy or demoncraft happening in this lush, sunkissed meadow, but that didn't mean a thing.

This deal was sounding worse and worse. But he had to go through with it.

"I haven't much choice, do I? Either I'm fixed or I'll be a jackass pulling a plow forever," that was a slight exaggeration. But one he needed. "Well, I suppose I'd live comfortably in my family's stables, but its a humiliating prospect just the same. My answer is yes if you try your best."

That was all the permission Aréharis needed. He lowered his head, horn once again a moment away from impaling the boy. His eyes closed, there was nothing now in the material world he needed to see for this. He could hear the echoes of the faun's cursed words, feel them entwine the boy's destiny, like vines wrapped around a dying tree. The words were meanings and implications, the exact phrasing could be imprecise because the caster already controlled what form the punishment should take. The faun had decided on a donkey. Aréharis supposed any equine would have been suitable to work the land, but the boy just didn't have the figure to become a draught horse.

The curse was a sickness of kinds, it had symptoms that could actually progress into worse versions of themselves until the curse's terms were met. This curse revolved around transformation magic, and one of the basic ground principles of transformation was that the subject always had a 'true', or natural form to revert to. Most creatures went through their whole lives in their natural forms, the way it should be. If Aréharis tried to revert the boy to his true form, that would only be treating the symptom, not the cause. He needed a permanent solution, otherwise the curse would just keep coming back.

Aréharis had never tried directly affecting another being's destiny before. That was what curses themselves did, so most magic scholars assumed that tampering with destiny was itself casting curses on another being. The unicorn had another theory, that in fact, altering destiny back on-course was the equivalent of an anti-curse. It was, as he had told the boy, an incredibly dangerous thing to try, but Aréharis' best try was significantly better than most mortal mages. He would introduce a new term, effective immediately, that would hopefully cancel the original curse.

He will take his true form, Aréharis commanded, feeling the intrinsic magical field of the world tremor at his words. He will live and die a human.

Something was wrong. For the briefest of moments, Aréharis wondered if his brilliant theory had a flaw. Then, he found himself being physically propelled back from the boy. Pain shot through him as he collapsed onto his side, instinctively tucking in his legs so he wouldn't snap them under his own body weight. His ears were ringing and his body felt like he'd run headfirst into a pile of broken glass. A thousand sharp stinging points seemed to cut into him, and the unicorn let out a whinnyish yell.

Aréharis staggered up to his hooves and trotted around in a circle, snorting and shaking his head, blinking furiously. He was used to being on the receiving end of pain, but that typically came from being attacked by his enemies. He had never had one of his own spells fail on him that dramatically before. He felt the tarantula scurrying up and down his barrel in a frenzy, so he calmed himself down to an agitated walk, and bent his head around to nose her gently.

"I'm unharmed, Miss Mapleleaf. I see you're alright too." Aréharis did not bother apologising, he doubted the tarantula would understand the concept. Still, perhaps next time he tried anti-curses, he would let her crawl off into a bush first. He turned to look at the boy, his hope that it had worked dying as quickly as it had been born. For the first time that morning, Aréharis could think of nothing to say. He shuffled awkwardly, his ears folding back. The anti-curse theory might need a bit of work, he decided.

Kai felt the very tip of the horn touch his tunic. Areharis' eyes were shut; he seemed to be silently mouthing some phrase to himself. The meadow grew unusually still. There was no wind, no singing birds, not even the bees stirred. And then it happened.

An unseen force knocked Areharis and Kai appart. The youth rolled several meters down the hill. He tried to push himself up, but found his fingers numb and unresponsive. Black hooves had replaced his hands and russet fur was sprouting from his spasming forearms. Kai heard the sickening crunch of bone, but was relieved to feel only the tickle of pins and needles. The curse wasn't sadistic, he thought.

"Agh!" Kai let out a frightened yelp. "What did you-" his words were cut off by a loud, equine HAWW!

Now on four equine legs now and the change was migrating from his extremities to his core. It felt like he was being strangled as his coat and silk shirt were straining against muscle, fat, and viscera. With all his might he strained his neck to see just what was happening back there, though he already had some idea of the damage. Nonetheless, Kai's head wouldn't move that way. And soon the tickle of change crept up his neck which lengthened and thickened. The boy's vision momentarily blacked as his face rearranged itself. And in the span of a minute the young man was replaced with an ass.

"You said- you said you could fix me!" Kai sputtered in anger, fear, indignation, horror, and shock. At least he could still talk. And in a valiant effort tor regain his humanity he tried to stand up, only to rear, hooves flailing. Despite his inexperience at being equine his body knew very well what it was doing. The new smells, new perspective, and much greener world didn't faze him one bit.

"I'm a human turned into a donkey, not a donkey turned into a human! You've got to reverse it!" the transformed boy trotted excitedly in a circle.

"A very successful transformation," Aréharis added, trotting after the donkey, in the vague hope that some equine body language might calm down the more donkey-ish parts of the boy's mind. Aréharis realised he should probably try to remember the youth's name, since it seemed that they would be spending more time with each other than he had expected. "You make a fine donkey, actually... er, I mean, with magic as unpredictable as this, you're fortunate to have such a healthy conformation."

Aréharis hated trying to be comforting, it was the one time he started tripping over his words and coming out with awkward phrases. He could lecture for hours about magic and healing and various forbidden arts, but trying to make someone feel better was like trying to grasp with his hooves. It was absurd, and he gave up on it quite easily. At least in this case he was telling the truth - the transformation had been complete, and no apparent complications had arisen. For all Aréharis knew, the boy could have lost his mind entirely, or the body could have been disfigured into some even more horrid mix of species. Aréharis actually found it more reassuring talking to a donkey, the emotional cues were a lot easier to read for the unicorn than the expressions of a human face.

"Listen to me! Of all the equines you could possibly be, donkeys are sturdy, and have an excellent instinct for self-preservation. A lot of them outlive their daft human masters. That could have gone a lot worse, the fact that you are not screaming in agony is quite encouraging." Aréharis tried to corral the donkey into standing still, mainly because the unicorn was getting dizzy. "Boy! Er... Kyle. We made an agreement and I stick by it. I will restore your humanity, but it will take time. I can do many things, but if I had perfected the art of cursebreaking by now... you probably wouldn't know me from my wanted posters."

The hills were growing darker. Aréharis blinked, only noticing the clouds now as they blotted out the sun. They were hanging heavy, and there was the scent of a storm on the breeze. There was something unusual about the way the weather was turning, and Aréharis was sure he knew its cause. Powerful magics often had unpredictable side effects in the environment, it was fortunate that all his meddling had done was stir up wind, and impending rain. He supposed that was good enough for the son of Arweharis, the great summoner of sandstorms and hellish desert tornadoes they called dust devils.

"You need time to recover, and I need time to think. There is no more we can do here," Aréharis insisted, shaking his head. He felt the tarantula on his barrel scurry up to take shelter in the long black locks of his mess of a mane. By comparison, his companion's mane was stiff and upright. It was interesting, Aréharis noted, how the donkey's russet fur seemed to have inherited its reddish hue from the human's hair colour. Transformations didn't necessarily carry over traits of the previous form, hence why magical disguises could be so difficult to uncover. Perhaps this curse was tormenting the youth with reminders of his old self. Aréharis' ears flicked as the low distant roll of thunder reverberated through the hills. "I know where there is shelter. We should get out of sight. I've been found twice today, I wouldn't bet my life that a little rain will stop another hunter from trying to claim it."

Something in the very back of Kai's head told him all that prancing and pacing was inappropriate; much like standing when everyone else is kneeling. The donkey calmly halted, snorting at Areharis' explanation. The unicorn had no reason to lie; or to hurry along his transformation. He moistened unfamiliar lips with his tongue, "Its Kai!" he calmed himself, "And sorry, you did warn me. Suppose it must be a bit insulting for you to lament being a horse; it could be quite a bit worse. Could've had mis-matched hands and hooves. Or been made a rickety twenty year old donkey."

It felt better to say that. And Areharis was right. His body felt strong and energetic enough, but for an itch on his rump he was sure he couldn't reach. Anger and horror had passed. The whole situation simply felt unreal.

"Lead on," Kai murmured as Areharis turned to trot off. He had little choice but to stick by his new companion now. The donkey stood helpless for a moment, looking over his ruined clothes, his sword, and his pack. Jai tried grasping a small satchel in his teeth but it proved uncomfortable. He nudged it toward the shelter of the tree with his hoof, and trotted to catch up with the unicorn.

Kai always had a small streak of vanity. Though hardly an Adonis he had pleasing features. Being a shaggy donkey besides a unicorn didn't sit right with him. Areharis wasn't the archetypical white unicorn, though his sleek coat and wild black fetlocks certainly made him the standout amidst the two equines. Then he saw something move.

"There's- I think I saw a spider crawl up you."

"She's venomous, don't touch her." Aréharis snapped. Strangers sometimes tried to slap, catch, or claw the tarantula, so he had learned to ward them off quickly. He shot an annoyed glare at the donkey. "She minimises my unwanted social interactions, and keeps me clear of flies. Oh, that's something you'll have to look forward to. She can also eat small fairies."

Aréharis lapsed into silence, suddenly picking up the pace of the trot up through rocky slopes and thick exposed tree roots, as if he were daring the donkey to keep up. He knew he was being unfair, but the youth's statement had irritated him more than he knew it should. It was that same tone he heard everywhere. There was a spider on him, so something must be wrong. A unicorn could be friend to all beasts, but only the right ones.

The canopy of the forest hissed and rustled in warning of the storm overhead, as the two equines climbed the long spur of the hill, the ground sloping away on either side to two dark gullies. Fat raindrops were started to punch little craters into the dirt, speckling the stones and running cool rivulets down Aréharis' neck. He slowed as they reached a rocky outcrop. Slanted stone walls jutted up from the ground, where winds, rains and time had carved curved recesses that could shelter them from the storm. Aréharis' ears flicked as the rising gale moaned, sweeping through the pile of boulders and cracked stone shelves. He found a little alcove for them in the lee of the rock formation. It was bare of grass, not even deep enough to be called a cave, but at least the overhang of rock above them kept out the rain, and the air in it was calm, if cold. Outside, the branches of the darkening forest began to sway drunkenly.

"Spiders are solitary," Aréharis said abruptly. "It's just as well. Their constant diligence benefits all, yet they are hated. They do not know gratitude, nor expect pity. I know magical creatures that claim to protect nature's gifts, then are repulsed at the sight of a spider."

He fell silent again, regarding the donkey less harshly than before. He supposed transformations, curses and what must seem like all the evils of the magical world personified in one unicorn outlaw was a lot to handle for one so young. Yet was youth not the best time to experience such trials? After all, every beast faced the hardship of their fate the moment they were born. Kai was handling it better than some unicorns would, Aréharis thought, amusing himself at the idea of his proud and haughty fellow-creatures braying in horror as they turned into chubby little jackasses. And therein was the point Aréharis was searching for.

"Nature has many guardians," Aréharis explained. "Yet all their eyes are focused on the same select creatures, the ones in which they see something of themselves. So it is with me. I see a spider and love her for her industriousness, how her cunning geometry is both delicate art and ruthless practicality. I see mortal and fey alike sweep aside her works with a shudder, uncaring that yesterday she killed the diseased mosquito that would have infected them today. Then I see she goes back to work, for there is still tomorrow to come."

The woods were momentarily lit white, and the thunder cracked against the hillside moments later. Aréharis shook himself of the few droplets still clinging to his coat, and tucked his legs to lay down on the smooth, eroded stone floor. "Perhaps you see nothing of yourself in your new form. I don't know you well enough to say. But it would be easier for you, if you did. If you can live as a donkey for now, I can work out why you are not human instead."

Even as Aréharis spoke, he seemed distracted by heavy, painful thoughts. He had little idea of where to go with his theories, and every experiment he took would be an even greater risk to Kai. He was no closer to solving the original curse, and now on top of that, he had to work out where his own magic had gone wrong. The unicorn gazed out over the forests bending and bowing before the storm, but he saw little of it.

Kai burst into a trot. It was a brisk and uncomfortable pace, his legs were shorter after all, but they knew what they were doing. It was alarming how well he took to walking on all fours. What else of him, his inner self, had become donkey-like? It was better than breaking a leg.

"My family took in an orphan to clean the stables. We used to play together. He was a wild and rambunctious thing; the cook never let him dine with the other servants. Do you think its the unpleasant work of catching flies and mucking stalls that gets you shunned; or's it all you've left as an outcast?" he mused. "Just the same he was the only one who didn't tip-toe around my tale and just laughed. The honest was at least appreciable.

"But I don't know. Do you think spiders and stableboys say something about how we're ungrateful toward smallfolk?" he whickered. It was supposed to be a short laugh. The unicorn was surely touchy on the subject of bats, rats, snakes, foxes, and other vermin too. He was beginning to worm to Areharis but the spider briefly reminded him of a very permissive sort of gentry; the sort who took to slumming, let poachers run wild, allowed drunken youths to wreck up storefronts. "Or maybe we're rightfully leery of poisonous spiders and unwashed boys?"

The donkey watched Areharis lower himself on the stoney floor. He tried to mimick the gesture, bending his legs and tucking the left side beneath him. Kai rolled over with a sharp grunt. "Agh!"

"How long do you think it will take to try again? And live as a donkey?" the young man snorted indignantly. He didn't care one bit for the phrasing or implications, "I suspect I'll be eaten by wolves out here. Unless you're suggesting I wander up to a farm and volunteer to pull a cart."

"You should not stay with me long," Aréharis muttered, his eyes still focused on some distant point beyond the grey horizon. "I can protect you from harm, but you don't need a reputation as an outlaw's accomplice. It's your decision to risk, though."

There was nowhere truly safe, Aréharis knew that very well. Even if he used magic to hide the donkey's hoofprints and scent, the magic itself made its own print, for those who would be looking. Anyone mad enough to be chasing a wanted unicorn would have no qualms going after Kai too. Aréharis did not trust farmers either, they struck him as exactly the sort of creatures that would tell anyone anything, just to break the monotony of their existences.

"Stay away from your kind. They are a greater danger than wolves to you right now," Aréharis warned. "A unicorn might skirt the village of La'marri unaccosted, but humans see every donkey and horse as something to use, or break."

The unicorn leaned his head forward, and began rhythmically scraping the tip of his horn against the smooth rock. Scrape, scrape, scrape. Was there a herd that might take in the donkey? Not a horse herd, they would not slow down and wait for the shorter equine to catch up if there was danger to flee. Where was the nearest herd of wild ponies, though? Scrape, scrape, scrape. Could he transform Kai into something else in the meantime? He would rather not risk it, the curse would probably just tear apart any further transformation magic, and the boy would suffer even more. Scrape, scrape, scrape.

"It could be a week, it could be a year, it could be tomorrow," Aréharis said, seeming indifferent. He knew the boy treasured time greater than he did, but the unicorn felt no inclination to rush into killing his patient with another botched spell. "You may stay with me or go as you please - it will not be difficult for me to find you. Do you not have any compani- er, friends of your own? In my experience, this region is notoriously infested with magical busybodies who attach themselves to anyone with a pretty face."

"Pretty face..." Kai murmured with a snort. He did take some consolation in his face being pretty. He supposed older people must feel that way too. "I don't think I'll have nymphs and fauns chasing me any time soon like this.

"And I came alone. I've not exactly stopped to take in the scenery or make friends in La'marri. Shame. Its got a nice pastoral charm." It was foolish to come alone to a strange land, especially like this, but he had his reasons and didn't care. Though surely a unicorn, of all sylvan creatures, had ought to understand the importance of pride and image. "I hadn't wanted anyone to see me transforming. It'd hardly have reflected well on me or my family... to be forever remembered as the donkey-boy, you know."

The donkey turned to appraise the unicorn. Eating grass out here, alone, for weeks on end sounded maddening and horrible. But someone wanted Areharis dead, Kai reminded himself. And maybe there were worse fates than being a jackass. The sidhe and their ilk were not forgiving.

"So just what do I risk travelling with you? That is if I opt out of a year spent grazing in a meadow, which seems my only recourse... You never did say one way or that other if that bounty was true; because it read like something out of a Connlaothian hovel doesn't mean it wasn't," he hesitated. He was being rather pushy for someone asking for help. "I suppose I've not much right to ask."

Aréharis inclined his head. Of course, the boy had left his family. Memory was the one thing that lasted when it came to mortals. He tried not to sympathise with Kai, he didn't want to start becoming friendly or anything, that would only make things harder when inevitably his own curse would come back to bite them both. He had already experienced that enough times to avoid becoming too close with the few that tolerated him. Yet he almost envied Kai, in a way. He would no doubt outlive many of his family members, especially now he was entangled in a unicorn's magic - the sort of magic where health and longevity could be unforeseen side-effects. Aréharis on the other hand would probably never see the back of his father for good. When he had been younger and quicker to anger, Aréharis had considered dueling Arweharis horn-to-horn over the curse. Ultimately, he knew that would have been pointless; the curse had no stipulations about ending once his father was dead.

The storm seemed to be worsening, the torrent of raindrops hammering the hills and trees, an eerie greenish hue lighting up the swirling clouds overhead. Aréharis knew this sort of weather; it would put on a big show for an hour, peter out into a pleasantly quiet drizzle, then disappear as fast as it had come. As Kai mentioned Aréharis' bounty, another roll of thunder gently wound through the boulders. There was a moment of quiet after that, apart from the raindrops, and Aréharis was not sure he wanted to break it by answering. Yet, if he was going to allow Kai to travel with him, then the boy would have to know the risks, including the ones from Aréharis himself. That was fair, and fairness was a scarce and precious thing to the unicorn.

"The accusations some wish to behead me for are true," Aréharis explained, his tone suggesting no remorse for any of his actions. "Most magic users merely stand in the shallows and are content to explore no further, as you are aware by now. They see the vast ocean of knowledge beyond their paltry shore and deem it all too dangerous to be understood, and so anyone that tries must also be dangerous. So why explain myself to them? Why answer to their irrational fears and inconsistent laws?"

The unicorn seemed to realise he was starting to sound very self-pitying. He shook his head, amused at himself. The boy couldn't truly understand, unless Aréharis actually told him about his own curse, and that was something he was not quite willing to do just yet. "The charge of Demoncraft refers to my summoning of M'nemaxa, which is a long story worth telling in better circumstances than here. The charge of Blood Magic refers to a few of my healing spells that require a blood sacrifice. It's all done with consent, but apparently taboos on blood sacrifice outweigh the benefits of saving lives. As for the charge of Necromancy... you'll have enough trouble sleeping tonight. Perhaps I'll tell you about it another time."

Though unicorns are not known for smiling, as such human-ish expressions have little meaning in the equine world, there was something a little mischievous in Aréharis' eyes as he regarded Kai. "The storm should clear by evening. If you want a taste of the risks you'll be running with me, I have some errands to attend to near the village of La'marri. You're steady on your hooves already. That should come in useful, should we need to run."

Kai felt ill at ease in the rain. The inability to hear beyond a short radius was alarming; but the scents were intense and conjured old memories of summer. Like when he took the chandler's daughter out to the gazebo and it rained (they were both so shy; he felt bad about practicing on low born girls, but she was just practicing too.) Or how Channy, his little brother who was always surly and obnoxious, gripped his arm like steel when he told ghost stories in the attic. He'd rather not ponder reactions to his disappearance.

"I've only ever learned a few parlour tricks or invocations to turn away arrows. I suppose we do have magic in our blood but-" he truly hadn't paid that much mind to magical theory. Wizards tended to annoy him in how they thought they were the be-all-end-all of progress and civilization. "-we use metal tools too but it hardly means we need to learn smithing. I've found most mages don't like the idea there are short-cuts to things they've gone gray trying to learn. Or the idea a farmer's keeping everyone fed is just as important in the grand scheme of things.

"Making tea-cups float might be a usful bit of prestidigitation now. Is there some trick to working magic with your hooves?" his rump still itched. It didn't occur to Kai unicorns might work a different, more primal sort of sorcery than what humans could manage; or that as a jackass he might not have magic in him anymore.

The charges otherwise didn't mean much as he considered it. The young lord was grateful for any traveling companion, and Areharis'... justification for blood magic seemed sufficient enough.

"So what sort of errands does a wanted unicorn have amongst humans?"

"Does casual frolicking with the magical essence of reality amuse you?" Aréharis snorted at the absurd mental image of a donkey trying to drink out of a teacup. "A piece of clay defying the natural order matters little, but remember there was no storm before I interfered with your curse. Magic is never neatly contained. Don't humans have a saying about playing with fire?"

Aréharis considered Kai for a moment. There was no reason the donkey should not be able to use whatever elementary arcane knowledge he possessed, as far as the unicorn could tell. Donkeys were not inherently non-magical, unless they were born a Mordecai. The question was whether or not it could be applied in the same way. If Kai could only cast his tricks with his hands, then perhaps it would not be so simple. Aréharis knew a lot of a unicorn's healing magic was connected to the horn as a kind of anchor point. Could hooves be an anchor point? In all his travels, Aréharis had never met a donkey, horse or any other equine that practiced magic the way humans did.

He was distracted from his thoughts by yet another question from the boy. He rolled his eyes irritably, wondering if all human society was a never ending inquisition about motives and reasons. It certainly felt that way when they were so often questioning his own. "There's more than humans living in La'marri. I have need of information, if I am to survive this latest gold rush for my head. I have quick wits and a sharp horn, but it's easier if someone tells me where the next assassin's coming from before he actually arrives. Or she, considering this morning's casualty."

Aréharis did not bother explaining what he was referring to. Better to let Kai's imagination fill in whatever horrible fate befell the assassin that crossed the unicorn's path, rather than admit that her death was more the result of clumsiness and a hasty root-growing spell.

"You are a unique case. A donkey with a human education in magic, or at least the beginnings of one. Try a spell, if you can. It is worth at least one experiment," Aréharis suggested. "Even if nothing occurs, it's interesting from a scholarly perspective. Specifically, my scholarly perspective."

Aréharis doubted either of them would be recording the results of any of their experiments for posterity. After all, a unicorn's memory is everlasting, and in some ways better than a written history. Besides, the idea of being the only unicorn to know the secret of curse-breaking, if he ever did find it, was quite a thrilling thought.

"Serendipity is notorious for frolicking with the make-up of reality. Though it didn't work out too well for its for-bearers," the donkey snorted and thrust his head north, toward the nameless and forgotten sorcerer-kingdom. "I suppose some of your kind might be old enough to even remember it."

"Do you think a bit of levitation would really interrupt the cosmic balance? Clearly conjuring the odd daemon for augury doesn't," he would have smirked if he was able to. "I've no idea how your kind gets along without hands."

Kai looked toward  nearby crabapple, some yards away. The first cantrip he ever learned was to open doors and grab objects from afar. It was mostly all in the fingers, though he'd known amputees who projected the force from other muscles instead. "Iri'su," Kai enunciated carefully, staring at the fruit. He nipped the air, mindful of each muscle contraction. An unseen force plucked the crabapple and it rolled a few inches. It was meant to hover in the air as though gripped by fingers or teeth. "Shit."

The youth repeated the gesture nearly a dozen more times. The crapabble continued to roll a few more inches, but that was that. Kai snorted in frustration. "Sorry. Bet you're sick of that. As good as its going to get, I suppose..."

The storm-clouds began to clear. Kai's mind raced with the thought of what would happen if he had to go home like this. It was a ridiculous notion. Still, however sardonic and dour Areharis' was compared to his counterparts... he was still a unicorn.

Kai's thoughts slowly drifted into dreams. And some hours later he awoke in an alien body with a frightened yelp that came out a bray.

Aréharis never slept too long. A few decades ago he had gone through a lethargic phase of spending most days drifting from one shady napping spot to another, trying to let the world pass by in his dreams. It had been pleasant for a time, but an immortal being can hardly stand to act the same way forever, lest boredom drive him mad. Now his nights were a mess of fitful naps and rolling over into his back to gaze up at the stars. Sometimes, if the moon was bright, he would like to wander in the light, and watch the nocturnal creatures come out of hiding from the day.

The skies were clear by the time Kai awoke. Aréharis raised his head; he had been grazing quietly on the scruffy grass growing on the hillside, pondering the day's troubles, and the trouble that was yet to come. La'marri was almost entirely asleep by now; the routine of most villagers began at the crack of dawn. Yet there were a few night owls in that strange little hamlet that would be most curious if they caught sight of a unicorn in the moonlight.

"It's time," Aréharis murmured.

The way to the village was long an circuitous. it was difficult for anyone to find La'marri, since its residents knew enough spells to turn any careless wanderer down the wrong paths, or make them lose interest altogether. The lay of the land prevented most humanoids from stumbling across the village by accident; sheer cliff, mountain ranges, ravines and the ever-present threat of large predators made a trek through the countryside unappealing to anyone but the hardiest of rangers. A unicorn could pass relatively freely through such obstacles, however, at least when travelling alone.

"Watch your footing, and use your head. Don't follow me if you know you'll slip," Aréharis warned, as he leapt down a particularly steep slope, alighting from one boulder to another, his cloven hooves taking each precarious step with practiced precision. "It will be easier when we cross into La'marri's farmsteads."

In truth, Aréharis did not want Kai too close by his side while they were in the village. One loose donkey was an oddity, and the unicorn could easily be mistaken for a short, stocky horse in the dark. Two equines trotting around on a mission would attract attention, especially from excitable stargazers and divinators that saw every passing curiosity as an omen.

"There is no need to stay tethered to my side. It's not a safe village, so be cautious." Aréharis paused, pondering a growing list of what could possibly go wrong. "Just... be a donkey. Most humans like things to be what they seem."

The land was leveling out as the two equines passed the worst of the slope, crossing a shallow stream before the treeless plains of farming land stretched out before them. The field were separated by low, uneven stone walls, and in the distance, the tiles of the village rooftops glittered in the moonlight. A few chimneys were still smoking, a few of them issuing jets of violet and blue that coiled and twisted into fanciful shapes. Aréharis snorted. Show-off magicians.

Aren't mules suppoed to be sure-footed? Kai coordinated his hooves with surprising ease, but did almost take a tumble down a steep hill. He never thought he'd be so grateful as when the pair left the forested hills and found La'marri. The thick woodland put him on edge enough as a man with a sword, let alone an animal. And insects were everywhere. His tail and fur kept them at bay. Nonetheless, being unable to scratch an itch or touch your nose was quite disconcerting.

In the distance he saw the silhouettes of several grazing animals, dark against blue-orange haze of the rising sun. The thought of real equines made him feel strange. "I came this way on foot. I had a roan called Sojourner. I wonder what he'd make of me now?" asked aloud, after some moments of silence.

As the sun rose the village took on a cheerier countenance. It looked mostly like any hamlet, and yet it didn't. Everything was just a bit too bright and too saccharine, as though though something from a dream or gaudy painting: the slate roofs were colorful and many-hued, eldritch ornaments hung from doorways, and the flower gardens were just a bit too lush. A bleary-eyed boy trudged from a nearby cottage toward a chicken coup.

"I think you're underestimating humanity a bit. I'd wager most people would afford a bit more consideration and dignity for a sapient beast than a dumb one. And donkey without a brand just seems free for the taking. Or have you seen otherwise?" The thought of grazing in a field while Areharis tended his business wasn't too pleasant. He'd nipped at some grass on the way. Bland.

"And where are you going exactly?"

Areharis' business was due to take the unicorn roughly a mile north of La'marri. The Last Hearth. An old farmhouse which served as a dump of a tavern and boarding house. It was an eye-sore of mundanity amidst La'marri's cheer and whimsy. Poacher and rowdies banned from more respectable establishments liked it. One patron was Kaeryn nic Ellis; a girl bannished from Serendipity for her frequent trips to Fell.

Aréharis decided it would be best not to debate the character of humanity with a creature whose life goals now revolved around being human again. It was mildly amusing being lectured about dignity and consideration for others by someone who had specifically been cursed for being inconsiderate. Aréharis wasn't so sure the humans would treat a donkey better if he spoke their language, after all, it wasn't as if they treated each other all that well in the first place. The unicorn brushed his thoughts aside, narrowing his eyes at the winding dirt path that slunk its way between fields and farmhouses. He trotted on the grass beside it, avoiding placing his distinctive cloven hoofprints where any dimwitted farmhand could follow them.

"The less you know about where I am going and what I am doing, the better for both of us," Aréharis said firmly. "To answer your next three stupid questions; yes, what I am doing is probably against some piddling little law or moral code. Yes, it's both risky and very much worth it. And no, I don't care if you want to steal human food or piss on some magician's neatly trimmed hedges."

In truth there were probably a whole range of other things the donkey could have been about to say, all of them far more witty and intelligent than the unasked questions the unicorn had pre-emptively answered. Regardless, his real meaning was clear; the conversation and their midnight stroll together were over for now. Aréharis picked up his pace, and disappeared under the shadows of the village, which seemed that much more uninviting when wandering them alone.

"You're late."

Aréharis rolled his eyes. In over a century of dealing with the criminal classes, the vocabulary had remained the same set of vaguely menacing pass-phrases and posturing. The lookout by the Last Hearth had been leaning against a fence post by the rowdy old farmhouse-turned-tavern, sharpening his knife when the unicorn had come cantering up. The thing about doing shady deals was you wanted to be quiet enough to avoid notice by the authorities, but obvious enough that your contact didn't spook if you snuck up on them. The young lad blew on his knife, admiring the reflection in the moonlight.

"Funny. She said t'look fer a hoss. Y'look more like a liddle pony t'me. Wanna give me a ride, liddle pony?"

Aréharis bowed his head in mock politeness, which in turn lowered his horn pointedly at the youth. The white spiral with its sharpened blade glittered even brighter than the knife. "But of course, dear boy. After all, what virgin doesn't dream of frolicking with a noble unicorn under the moonlight?"

The young lookout furrowed his brow in a look of intense, stupid concentration. "You tellin' some big lies for a liddle hoss. You take that back, or she ain't seein' ya."

"You're right. There's no such thing as a noble unicorn," Aréharis conceded smugly, "and she will be seeing me. Believe me, our mutual exchange is entire orders of magnitude greater worth than your pride."

The youth muttered some other peasant curses under his breath, and slouched off the fence post, guiding the unicorn around the back of the building. "Yer lucky, hoss. If'n it was jes' you an' me, I'd 'ave watered the grass 'ere with yer blood by now."

When Aréharis spoke again, there was grim humour in his voice. "Watch closely then, boy. There's far more uses for unicorn blood than watering grass."

"Pr-probably get kicked to death trying to kill a horse with that little thing, let alone a unicorn. Let him b-be" came a mousy voice. Kaeryn's studder always spoiled the deliver of her jokes, though she never gave up on them. A tattered black cloak hung from the willowy frame in the doorway. Kaeryn looked to be in her thirties though its always hard to tell with mages; her hair seemed perpetually windblown. She was devoid of the bright colors and saccharine cheer which pervaded La'marri.

"You're done m-menacing guests there's firewood-" the hard look she gave the boy evaporated and she stood in silence for some moments before gesturing to a stable on the edge of the property, "--to be chopped."

The youth mumbled a yes'm and trudged off, looking like a scolded child. He idly tossing his knife in the air and tried to catch it - doing a poor job of the whole affair.

"Wasn't wrong about you being late. Should be more p-punctual. Hard enough to like you as it is," she mumbled, offering a tiny half-smile on realizing how harsh it came off.  She lead Areharis around the back of the Last Hearth to the stable, which was empty save for bales of moist straw.

Kaeryn folded her arms, each inked with eldritch glyphs. Most of them seemed to be wards against divination and possession, that Areharis could recognize. "T-talking to you's a risk, you know. You're p-probably scryed out already."

"Nothing p-personal but there's weight behind the b-bounty. I can't risk my skin for n-nothing,"

***

Kai couldn't quite think of a retort as Areharis left him. There was no sense in nagging the unicorn at this point. All he could do was wait. And wait he did. The first hour was tolerable. The sun hadn't risen yet and people do all sorts of things in the dark when they think they're alone; an man stole a kiss from his neighbor across the garden fence; an old woman drifted across the road to snip the heads off some roses. Then the sun rose and villagers drifted to the fields and shops. After three hours he had enough of mindlessly eating grass.

The donkey trotted along the village green, trying not to stray too far. Kai realized he was following his nose. He smelled fruit, sugar, and cinnamon. Not too far off was a little cottage surrounded by an orchard. A teenaged boy and aging man were filling a cart with apples. For want of some excitement and some creature comforts he decided to have a chat.

"Oh, hello," Kai sidled up behind the pair, speaking softly, "Bit of an embarrassing story. Gotten myself turned into a donkey here. I, uh, find myself for want of something to eat..."

Aréharis resisted the urge to look around; being scryed wasn't like having disembodied eyes floating around you or anything. Unfortunately, it was one of those magics where it was easier to fool the user than actually block the spell. He had been lucky so far; scrying wasn't much use looking for one unicorn amongst thousands of acres of unidentifiable, uncharted wilderness. Connlaoth had precious few magicians with that skill working for the government anyway, most of whom were presumably busy with the war.

That didn't mean there wasn't some petty, talentless wizard working for the town watch, though. How fast could one snooping scryer creeping around in his basement with a crystal ball find them, then hitch up his filthy robes to run to the nearest guard? How long before they formed a sizable enough troop to try and storm the Last Hearth? Long enough for Aréharis to finish his business and escape, he estimated.

He spotted a few moths hanging around the lantern hanging by the stable door. He didn't so much need to speak to them, their minds were quite limited. He could guide them though, his will like an overwhelming tidal wave against the miniscule, basic motivations they held. Fly. Feel vibrations. Search for bright light, warm light, many lights coming through the dark. It was as good an early warning system as he could devise for now. The moths silently drifted off, their determined flight paths almost eerily unnatural to anyone that cared to watch. Aréharis hoped a druid felt offended somewhere.

"I'll be brief," the unicorn commented drily, "and vague. No need to say what you have for me, and you can take the usual banter about 'Oh-how-difficult-it-was-to-acquire' as read. Pass it along to Miss Mapleleaf if you would, she is rather apt at holding onto... small items."

The large, dust-brown tarantula scuttled from the unicorn's tangled black mane to perch between his ears, raising her front legs up, knowing the task Aréharis had set for her.

"I take it you have a suitable jar, or vial with you. I'll hear no complaints from you about being short-changed."


"Pa?" The boy spoke nervously, as if expecting an quick cuff to the ear for speaking. "There's an ass loose 'ere. Pa?"

"Eh?" The older man stretched his back till the joints popped, and looked at the youth in bemusement. "Speak up, Benjy, ye're quieter'n a mouse."

Benjy pointed at Kai, not entirely willing to start projecting his voice through the village at night. "There's an ass. In t' orchard."

"Well, Oi'll be!" Pa exclaimed as he noticed the donkey softly nickering at him. "Benjy, there's an ass in t' orchard!"

"Tha's what Oi said, Pa..."

The older man was already fumbling around the cart. "'Ere, where's me rope, Benjy? Don't tell me ye left it..."

Benjy was already making soft clicking noises with his tongue, and holding out an apple to the donkey. Pa decided it would be wiser to be quiet than stomp around and scare the creature off. He squinted in the dark at the jack. It didn't have Mr. Cobston's brand on its flank, nor did it have a clipped ear like Miss Hennings', and those were the only jackasses around the village he knew of.

"Where'd 'e come from, eh? Fine lookin' animal, maybe a bit weak around the withers. Soon have 'im fattened up and strong enough to work," Pa muttered to himself. The initial surprise was wearing off, and a smile was creeping on the old man's face. What luck! He thanked whatever gods might be smiling on him (or the evil spirits that had looked the other way for now) and coiled his hands surreptitiously around his rope.

Kaeryn slipped a scroll from her pocket, neatly bound with red ribbon, and held it out gingerly for Miss Mapleleaf to grasp in her fangs. "And here is the n-name. Seeking it will not end well." And with that she motioned Areharis onward. They stepped out of the rain and into one of the eves of the inn. An old honey-jar and a curved silver knife sat on the bench. The sorceress washed the knife in a gout of flame then turned to the unicorn.

"Haven't b-bled one of you out in some time. Show me where, mm?" it seemed a casual affair for her; no different than twisting a tap for some mead. With the knife cauterized, and Areharis guiding her, she set to work...

***

"The hells are you doing?! Wait!" Kai tried to dance out of the way of the rope but to no avail. His further protests went on answered. All Benji and his father saw as an ass snorting and braying.

"Whoa there! Easy boy!" Benji reached out to touch Kai's mane. It seemed to calm his temper. Had the curse somehow domesticated him? Kai found himself obediently following the following the pair, and crudely roped to an apple-filled cart, as he pondered how to best scratch a message in the dirt.

"It never does," Aréharis agreed, "but I'll take catastrophe over capitulation any day."

Miss Mapleleaf delicately took the scroll in her front legs, and scuttled backwards out of sight into the unicorn's voluminous mane. Aréharis sighed as he lowered himself to the ground, his knees shaking as if he were about to collapse. If anyone had been looking, from a distance the sorceress and the unicorn might have been mistaken for a rider and her horse, tired from travel and taking a quiet moment together. A simple pleasure, but one alien to to the both of them. There was dark business to be done.

"Every time we do this, I feel older. And weaker," he grumbled. "Past my last rib, across the longissimus. Like you're pricking the backfat of a pig to see if he's ready for the slaughter. Don't cut that deep though, you'll be sorely disappointed."


"Tha's it... tha's the way," Pa muttered, watching his son settle the jack and get the rope on him. "Good, good. Reck'n yer Mam'll be roight pleased t'see 'im on th'morrow."

"Where'd 'e come from though, Pa?" Benjy asked, scratching his head and looking around as if expecting to see the donkey's owner materialise from the shadows.

Pa tutted, though secretly he was delighted to have an opportunity to impart his folk wisdom on his well-meaning but naive boy. "Now listen 'ere, boy, this is a lesson for ye. Fools'n'livestock mix nought. Keep ye quiet about our new ass, and serves right the fool that lost 'im to begin with. Aye?"

"Aye, Pa," Benjy said with little conviction. Taking a donkey, even a lost one, was still sort of... stealing, wasn't it? He petted the jack's ears a bit, then pulled on the rope. "C'mon then. What'll we call ye, eh? Pa, can I name 'im?"

"When we humans give b-blood that's what it is. Sacrifice. Lost p-pleasure. Faded youth." The warm knife glided along the unicorn's flank until it found its mark. And, without much hesitation, Kaeryn made a quick puncture, holding the grooved knife in place to allow blood to slide down it and into the honey jar.

"Thought age was a state of m-mind with your sort?" she gave a sharp laugh which might have been more of a gasp. The limits of her humor certainly.

***

He trotted a good ways down the road listening to Benjy and his father squabble. It felt almost dream-like. This new body did feel strong and powerful and the scents of the meadow were intoxicating. They were half way down the road and Benjy and his father had stopped for a passing horse-cart. Kai shook himself of the stupor and tried, vainly, to write "I AM HUMAN" With a hoof in the dirt. Of course equine forelimbs were hardly as flexible as their human counterparts. He'd written something of a sentence down when the boy tugged him onward.

Kai brayed in protest. Hoping to be noticed...

"Says enough about the state of my mind, then," Aréharis snorted. Too proud to leave the subject on that self-deprecating note, he took a metaphorical jab at Kaeryn. "Then I remember I'll probably outlive you all, and life doesn't seem so desolate. Small pleasures."

The wound stung, but it was strangely reassuring to Aréharis. It was familiar. His name might be on wanted posters, or on the tongues of his enemies as they sought him, but his blood was still just as worthy a bargain. It was rare that he'd spilt any without someone paying for it first, even those that hadn't meant to. Aréharis' thoughts wandered to the hunter that he'd killed. He might joke about mortality to Kaeryn, but he had made a true enough point. Mortals were fragile, and the more of them that dashed their lives to pieces trying to capture him, the less he dwelt on the fragments they left behind.

The unicorn gravely craned his neck around to look with one eye at the blood trickling into the jar. "As usual, you don't need to worry about blessing it. My blood comes with a guarantee that no gods, daemons or spirits will take offence to its use. Keep it safe and only take what you need. You'd be surprised how many supposed master magicians, arch druids and chief cultists splash around blood like they're still in first-year arcane tuition."


"'Ere! Lookee Pa!" Benjy exclaimed. The boy had almost missed it in the dark, but fortunately he had a habit of staring at the ground when Pa began lecturing. The gangly youth pointed to Kai's hoof-scratchings and beamed. "Ain't 'e smart, Pa? He already knows 'is own name. See?"

"Eh?" Pa blinked, his lecture interrupted mid-stream by the piping of his son. The older man blinked and squinted at the dirt. Being illiterate, it just looked like dirt that the donkey had been scraping. "What're ye babblin' about, Benjy? What's on the ground there?"

Benjy, who had hung around plenty of young scholars, wizards and odd folk around La'marri, was at least able to piece together some letters. "See, Pa! I...A...N. Ian! Maybe a wizard round 'ere taught him 'is name. Tha's a good boy Ian!"

The youth patted 'Ian' down his neck, while Pa's brow grew more furrowed. The older man tugged a little rougher on the rope. Messing in wizard's business was a different matter to just taking in a lost donkey. Wizards were Interesting, and that was something Pa's simple farm routine could do well enough without. Some wizards were even Eccentric. Pa shuddered at the thought.


"We have lingered here long enough to give our enemies a sporting chance," Aréharis mused. "Also, I left a mentally traumatised youth to wander around an unfamiliar village in the dead of night. I'd better find him before some ludicrous disaster transpires. I don't want to miss out on an evening's entertainment, after all."

The unicorn groaned as he clambered back to all four hooves. His moth spies had reported no disturbances, but there were cleverer foes abroad than local guards with torches and battered old farming gear. "Farewell, mortal, may the night shroud you from unfriendly eyes. That's a nice way of saying don't get caught, in case you didn't get it. I have the heart of a first-rate poet, but I've only a second-rate tongue to give it voice. Ta-ta, my dear."

"It should last me a b-b-bit. Though whose to say I won't use it all to open the way Beyond. Barter with a Prince of Winter. Get tricked. Have him c-c-come through. Turn this place to a glacier." Kaeryn gave Arhearis a half-smile and screwed a lid back on the jar, then drew a smear of paste from another jar and plastered it over the cut. Awkward business with the fur though it would stop the pain and keep filth out.

"Fair journey, Areharis. I h-hope your seeking it does not end you."

***

Kai whickered. Having your nose scratchd felt very good, especially when touching your face becomes such a trifle. He tried to at least indiciate the boy had done well. At least Benjy knew he wasn't a run of the mill donkey. That was a start. He tried another phrase. "IM HU-"

"Ey pa! He's writin again!" Benjy exclaimed, gleefully curious. Besides the occasional giant produce this was the closest he came to magic that was truly 'his' after all.

"He can write fer ya at the farm Benjy! What'd I say!" the old man hissed, then tugged Kai along. The Jac snorted in annoyance but kept trotting. His body responded to the guidance. There was always later he supposed. He just... had to be patient.

"I'm looking for someone you might have spotted on your hunt."

"Who?"

"A donkey to your eyes. Small, weak around the withers, probably up to no good."

"Who?"

"Yes, I got the 'Who' joke the first time," Aréharis deadpanned, eyeing the barn owl balefully. "I bet that gets a vacuous laugh out of your other unicorn friends, but trust me, every owl does that joke. I heard it before your grandfather was born, and I didn't laugh then either. Now. The jackass?"

The owl ruffled up its feathers until it appeared to be an indignant ball of bed-stuffing perched on the eaves of the blacksmith's shop. Its yellow eyes glared luminescently down at the rude, stocky little unicorn, and it clicked its beak in disapproval.

"Oh, fine. I saw the penny-pincher and his hatchling scarper back to their nest with a jackass in tow."

The unicorn tilted his head. "Penny-pincher?"

More beak-clicking. Aréharis suspected that was insulting between birds, or at least owls in this particular region. The owl tilted its head to match Aréharis' mockingly. "The dirt-scratchers don't like the penny-pincher. He squawks in the marketplace about prices, picks around middens for scrap, and chases after shiny pebbles in the river in case he finds a trickle of gold. The hatchling lurks around magic-folk and fills his head with stories."

"Hm. Trivial greed," Aréharis sneered. "A nuisance, but a tangle easily unraveled. Where does the penny-pincher nest?"

"There's a farmhouse north of the village. The barn's paint is peeled, the cows are lean, the hens barely lay. He keeps most of his pickings in the barn." The barn owl gave a displeased hoot. "The roof leaks when it rains. Always smells of damp."

"You're being overly forthcoming," Aréharis noted, a smile sneaking about his lips. "Perhaps the thought of the penny-pincher meeting an irate unicorn interests you?"

The barn owl gave an indignant hoot and turned its back on the unicorn. Aréharis laughed, and took off at a canter through the dirt paths of La'marri northward, to the overgrown fields and tumbledown farmhouse. Though Aréharis was determined not to get overly sidetracked, it was in his nature-loving instinct to wonder about the lean cows and nervous hens in the care of the penny-pincher.


Benjy's Mam barely passed a word to him as she eyed the jackass up and down, her meaty fingers reaching to pinch and prod him as if she were bargaining for him in the marketplace.

"Barn's crowded enough as is," she grumbled to herself. "'Ow much did ye get 'im fer?"

"Nought, Mam," Benjy replied dutifully. "He came to us, like 'e was lost."

"Only not lost now," Pa interjected swiftly. "'E's ours now fair'n'square, 'es not from round 'ere tha's fer sure."

"And 'e's roight smart too, 'e is," Benjy continued, "Can write 'is own na-..."

"Tha's enough boy, go put 'im in th'barn," Pa growled. No need to mention the donkey's peculiar intelligence. Whilst Pa's greed would let him overlook the possible wizardly origins of the donkey's writing talent, Mam would sooner turn a perfectly good jackass out into the cold if she got wind of magic.

"C'mon Ian," Benjy murmured as he led Kai to the barn. "I 'spect nobody's been feedin' ye proper. Wizards are s'posed to be smart, but ain't nothin' about keepin' livestock in magic books, eh?" He hooked his lantern on the barn wall, and squinted back at the farmhouse to check Mam had gone back inside with Pa. "Go on Ian, while they ain't lookin'. Can ye write fer me some more?"

Areharis' path took him down one of the poorer parts of La'marri. It was overgrown and scrubby; home to the sort who wanted nothing to do with magic and farmed to live, or less fortunate second and third children who deigned to make it on their own. Fences needed mending, brush clearing, and hens lived in fear of vulpine intruders. Even the fields were a little less lush. In Connlaoth or Serendipity no one would bat an eye.

As the unicorn trotted down the dusted road he saw a burly figure coming his way. As the traveller came into view Areharis might have surmised he was a hunter. The man was tall and bearded man with a green cloak, bow slung over his shoulder, and a big knife. He managed a grunt as the unicorn passed, but then stopped outright. "Oy! You the talkin sort of horse?

"Reckon I've seen you before..."

***

The pinch-penny's farm wasn't a very reassuring sight. After catching sight of a rusty plow and dry, weedy field Kai quickly got the idea of why the farmer might want him. Judging by mam's thick build the former was prosperous enough. He was certainly grateful he hadn't become a more edible creature. Somehow the donkey managed to stay calm during mam's enthusiastic prodding. Was it the spell? He was certainly following the routine of any old domestic animal.

Benjy's promise of oats made his mouth water as they neared the barn. It was a ricketty hing which surely leaked and let the cold in. The barn was empty now but it held cows and goats. His nose told him that much. If he couldn't speak to humans could he speak to other animals? Or was it only faeries and magical beasts that could understand him? It was a curious thought but he had to get down to business.

Benjy grabbed a rake and parted some of the straw from the dirt floor then turned to Kai excited, "Okay Ian! Ya can write now!" the boy was practically brimming with excitement, and then looked suddenly self-conscious. "Oh. Sorry. I'll get you some oats, huh?" the boy shuffled to a sack of grain and filled a feed bin near a water trough. Whether he was doing a chore or offering a guest a meal was uncertain. Maybe both.

Kai immediately got to work. The barn wasn't quite as moist as the muck so he had to be careful. The message was meant to be "IM HUMAN WAS CURSED."

Aréharis hesitated just a bit too long to pass for a mindless beast. In truth, such a ruse would not have worked for long anyway, both because of the clearly purposeful way he had been travelling by himself, and the fact that on closer inspection he didn't look too much like a horse at all. Besides, he had no riding tack to wear, and a wild horse wouldn't dare come so near to civil habitation. Aréharis winced and turned his head to flash the hunter a big, horsey grin.

"Shoot, it's been years since I've been on the show-pony circuit, but thanks for knowin' mah work! They use'ta call me Red-Ribbon Silver, on 'ccount of my unfortunate habit of not quite makin' first place. Heh, boy was I a mean one at dressage though, back when Ah could lift mah knees proper." Aréharis lifted a foreleg limply. He was starting to feel butterflies in his stomach as his 'farm pony' accent was slipping faster than an oiled seal on ice. "Ah'd sign you an autograph'n'all, but where'd Ah find a hoof-sized ink-pad at this hour? Well, happy trails, partner."

The hunter's face could have been carved from granite. "That was the dumbest lie I have heard that ain't come out the mouth of my six year old son. First off, you ain't a pony, not with that horn on you. And I reckon I know a wanted poster with that sneaky looking face o' yours all over it. Only show you're winning a ribbon in is a taxidermy exhibition!"

Aréharis scoffed. "Oh please, my horn alone could buy the whole venue for such an exhi- Woah!"

The mouthy unicorn jerked back as a knife flashed in the dark, nearly slitting his throat in one neat blow. Some hunters liked to do more banter before the chase was on. This was obviously a more practical man. Aréharis ran.

No time to play anymore, he thought as he galloped for the farm, thick overgrown grass and weeds lashing at his fetlocks as he barreled through the moonlit fields. Get Kai, then get lost!

Something whistled past the unicorn's ear, and he jerked instinctively, though the arrow had already buried itself into the ground. The hunter was not a slouch when it came to the bow, that was nearly on the mark, and at night too. Was that the farmhouse ahead? Aréharis put on an extra burst of speed, zig-zagging his way up the hill. Already his muscles were starting to burn at the sudden exertion.


"Im h-human... was... cursed?" Benjy stuttered out the words. The boys face seemed to crumple from the strain of concentration. Then his eyes went wide open. "Cursed? Hey, that ain't catchin' is it?"

The boy skittered back, as if he thought dark magic would start pouring out of the donkey. When no such malicious apparition presented itself, he shuffled forward again, a little sheepishly.

"S-sorry, Ian. It's jus'... in all them stories, about the fair folk'n' ought, they like turnin' boys what are rude to 'em into animals. Or as punishment for bein' lazy," Benjy's gaze was fixed on the floor. Clearly the accusation of laziness came his way often enough from both Mam and Pa, despite all evidence to the contrary. Then he looked up, realisation dawning on him. "Hey, is that wot 'appened to ye? Ye met a fairy and didn't tip yer hat or offer 'im wine or somethin'? Oh, um, I guess I should ask short questions, ones wot ye can jes' write yes or no to. Uhh... Did you get cursed by a fairy, yes or no?"

Perhaps it was all the excitement, but Benjy though he could hear the gallop of hooves drawing nearer.

The hunter snarled in surprise, but no arrows flew after Areharis as he galloped off. There were no angry shouts. Perhaps the hunter knew better than to tangle with such a magical creature? Perhaps he was biding his time? Perhaps he cared not for bounties or the edicts of druids...

***

Punishment for a rude and lazy boy. That was basically it. Benjy's cleverness and enthusiasm was no doubt wasted at a farm. The donkey snorted and tried to nod his head though the gesture felt a bit unnatural as a donkey. Rather, it didn't quite feel quite the same as nodding yes. Kai settled for scratching out an emphatic "YES" in the dust.

"Golly! How we cure ya? Do ya gotta drink dog's milk under the full moon or get kissed by a fair maiden? Bet pa will want ya pullin' a plow in the mean time." The youth, already forgetting his promise, continued to rattle off questions until he realized Kai was staring rather than answering any queries.

"DOKNO"

"ESCPE"

Kai was beginning to grow impatient. Hooves were hardly made for such precise movements and his was beginning to ache. Talking 'back' to the boy was frustrating but progress was made... but his nose caught a familiar scent. Then he heard footfalls. Had Areharis tracked him? He supposed if the unicorn had come there was no need to plot his escape with poor Benjy...