Green Eyes

“Mmmm-pah,” Selene closed her eyes and let out an explosive sigh as the four of them finally exited the Harosheth Hagoyim for the first time in well over a month.

The outside world was much different than when they went in. Over a month ago, it was cold and overcast mingled with freezing rain. Now the spring sun was shining, warming the cool morning air and brilliantly illuminating the rolling fields of Ammon. It was almost blinding to be out from under the canopy of the Harosheth.

“I think the Harosheth is pretty and all,” she commented. “But it feels good to be out in the open again.”

“Yeah, feels great,” Jared said nervously as his eyes shifted rapidly from left to right and back, scanning the horizon for threats.

“Relax,” Selene punched him in the shoulder. “We’re out of Kalashon, I haven’t sensed a sorcerer since I killed that sorceress, and we don’t have the Kalashonian army breathing down our necks. Stop worrying.”

Mara laughed at her. “It’s not soldiers he’s worried about,” she told her.

“Then what is he looking for?” Selene queried scrunching her eyebrows together.

“Unicorns,” Jared informed tersely.

“Unicorns?” Selene raised her right eyebrow.

“Unicorns!” Deborah suddenly cried enthusiastically from beside Mara. “I love unicorns!”

“Unicorns are pretty, as long as they are either far away or behind a fence,” Mara acknowledged.

“Micaela told me that there are herds of unicorns that roam the fields of southern Ammon and northern Anory,” Jared explained as he scanned the hills around them as they started down the road into the Ammonite fields. “And I remember being told the same thing when I was fighting for Ammon.”

“Have you seen any?” Selene asked.

“No,” Jared shook his head. “I’ve avoided the southern part of Ammon.”

“Why?”

“The war was in the north,” Jared answered succinctly.

“That’s not why,” Mara interjected with a smirk.

“So what was the real reason?” Selene questioned.

“That was the real reason,” Jared snapped.

“You forget who you’re talking to,” Mara mischievously retorted before turning to Selene. “Jared has a huge phobia of unicorns.”

“He what?” Selene’s eyes widened. She had a hard time believing that Jared was inherently afraid of anything. He rarely, if ever, showed fear. “How?”

“It’s a bit of story,” Mara looked up to study a passing cloud. “But when we were five, he had a very bad experience with unicorns. We were visiting Ammon via the southern route instead of going through the river and we camped out not far from here. That night Jared got separated from the rest of us and accidently discovered a herd of unicorns. Three of them chased him for nearly two miles and nearly killed him until a couple of soldiers came to his rescue. Ever since then, he’s been terrified of the things.”

“That’s horrible!” Selene exclaimed.

“They are,” Jared gruffly acknowledged. “People write about them like they’re these cute, fluffy, happy, magical creatures that are warm and friendly. Those idiots have clearly never seen an actual unicorn. The things have a three foot spike growing out of their foreheads! They are made for killing.” He paused and shuddered at the horrible memory. “Big, sharp teeth too. I bet that they don’t write about that in your books, do they?”

“No,” Selene cringed at the description.

“They’ve got a nasty attitude to boot,” Jared added. “So you can see why they make me uncomfortable.”

“Point taken,” Selene replied, slightly disappointed because she had really wanted to see one. Selene had read about the magical creatures and always pictured them as majestic creatures. She guessed they still were, but probably the kind of creature you wanted to appreciate from afar.

They walked in silence for the next couple of hours. Finally Deborah started lagging behind as the fatigue started catching up to the little one. Jared had to admit he was impressed with her toughness and bravery. Deborah did her best to keep up with the adults and had done a good job for the most part, which had to be a lot harder for her short little legs.

“Do you want to ride Barak for a little bit?” Mara questioned the six year-old.

“I’m okay,” puffed Deborah.

“Are you sure?” Mara pressed knowing that Deborah really was exhausted but too proud to admit it. She was getting a head start on being an adult.

“Well,” Deborah internally waffled, “I guess I could ride for a little bit but only if you want me to.”

Mara smiled. “It would make me very happy,” the older woman told her charge and wrapped her hands around Deborah’s waist and hoisted her onto Barak’s back.

Deborah situated herself on the saddle, patting the warhorse, who was looking more like a pack mule, on the neck. The bay shook his mane and raised his head before starting to plod along. The six year-old suddenly looked up and shaded her eyes as she studied something on a hill far off.

“Unicorn!” she announced ardently.

“What!” Selene shouted.

“Where?” Mara demanded sharply.

“There!” Deborah answered pointing to the crest of a hill to her left.

Selene and Mara’s eyes followed Deborah’s finger. On top of the hill Deborah was pointing to, a shiny white horse was standing and seemed to be looking at them. Protruding out of the horse’s head was a long, gleaming spike. After hearing Jared’s story, Selene couldn’t repress the shudder that went down her spine.

“Oh no,” Jared whispered. He was sheet-white and blue eyes wide.

“It’s okay,” Selene put her hand on his shoulder. “There’s only one; we can handle that, right?”

“No,” Jared shook his head, his voice raspy. “There’s never just one.”

“What do you mean?” Selene started to ask.

Just then the unicorn on the hill reared up and let out a shattering whinny before charging down the hill towards them. A moment later, a dozen more white unicorns crested the hill and bore down on them. Selene felt her throat suddenly tighten.

“What do we do?” Selene whispered quickly.

“Time for you to use your powers,” Jared grimly informed her as he began to string his bow. Mara already had her bow strung and was nocking an arrow.

“They don’t like fire that much,” Mara advised as she aimed her first shot at the lead unicorn. The beasts were closing the ground fast.

“Can we just run away?” Selene offered. She knew that they were supposed to be vicious bloodthirsty creatures, but she didn’t like the idea of killing animals that were just doing what came naturally to them.

Mara outright laughed at that idea. “Can we outrun powerful, unburdened horses with our tired and heavily-weighed down horses? I don’t think I need to really answer that.”

“Face it kid,” Jared locked in on the same unicorn as Mara. “We’re going to have to fight them and pray we survive.”

Selene sighed and closed her eyes to clear her mind. Blinking them open again, she flicked her wrists and ignited her fists on fire. It was her best power and animals seemed to have a fear of fire.

A pair of sharp twangs sounded near her ear as twin projectiles raced towards the closest unicorn. They struck home, piercing the neck and dropping the majestic creature. One down and at least a dozen more to go.

“Protect the horses,” Jared told the other two as he launched another arrow into the herd bearing down on them. It missed.

“Miss Mara, what are they doing?” Deborah asked from her perch. She was aware enough to know that the unicorns running them down was not a good thing.

“Nothing,” Mara answered tightly as she fired another arrow, striking one in the flank but it just kept on running. “Stay where you are.”

“Okay,” Deborah acknowledged.

They were about ten seconds from intercepting the group. Jared flicked another arrow, nailing another unicorn in the front left shoulder. The creature stumbled and collapsed, tripping up another couple of unicorns. One of them speared the unfortunate unicorn, deep red blood standing out in stark contrast to their pure white hides.

“Selene, if you could do something now, that would be great,” Jared said.

“Glad you value me now,” Selene snapped irritably, annoyed that she was nothing but chopped liver until one of the twins needed her special abilities.

“No one’s better at blowing stuff up,” Jared pointed out as he dropped his bow and drew his sword.

“Good to know that I’m useful for something,” Selene growled.

On each side of the road there was tall grass. Aiming her fists at the grass on the north side of the road, she hosed it with a steady stream of liquid fire, igniting the grass into a wall of flame. Beyond it, the unicorns screamed out and slammed on to the brakes. They blew their noses and stamped around on the far side of the wall.

“What now?” Selene asked as she extinguished her hands.

“I don’t know,” Jared answered. “Unicorns tend to be relentless, especially with such a large meal ripe for the taking. Unless you can keep that wall up all the way to Bashan, which is still about forty miles away, we’re still in trouble.”

“We can try to pick them off through the flames,” Mara offered as she fired off a round into the herd. It struck home, eliciting another scream for the herd.

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Selene cautioned. She was getting a strong, tense, agitated feeling but it wasn’t coming from her. It was almost as if she could feel the emotions of the herd.

“Do you have a better idea?” Jared growled as he shot down another unicorn. This one he managed to kill. The agitated feeling surrounding Selene was starting to grow stronger. It was like a dam that was getting ready to burst.

“Guys, I really think this is a bad idea,” Selene repeated more forcefully.

“Selene just let us do our jobs,” Mara snapped at the Navi. “We know what we’re doing. Just get ready to light one on fire or something.”

Selene’s jaw tensed as she watched Jared and Mara continue to fire through the wall eventually dropping another two unicorns. The agitation among the herd continued to build to breaking point. Then Jared fired another bolt, dropping another unicorn and that was the final straw.

The Navi felt the turmoil burst through into raw anger as the creatures howled in rage and they stampeded through the fire wall, heedless of the pain. They stomped around, nostrils flaring and keeping the sharp spikes lowered at the travelers.

Now that they were up close, Selene got a good look at their teeth. It was as close a look as Selene would ever want. Each unicorn’s mouth was filled with a couple dozen serrated, triangle shaped teeth not unlike a shark’s that gleamed in the sunlight. Selene felt her stomach turn.

“Stay back!” Jared shouted uselessly having dropped his bow again and drawing his blade. He wasn’t in his Form VII stance, instead holding out the steel blade, mirroring the cruel horn of his foes. The unicorns ignored him and continued to stalk forward, snorting angrily. Jared and Mara had cut down the herd to roughly eight which still left them heavily outnumbered.

Jared was trying to keep his cool as he faced down his biggest fear. It wasn’t easy; he knew how to fight men because you could get inside a man’s head. But a beast like this? You couldn’t outsmart an animal that acts purely out of instinct. Instead you had to just outmuscle them and by those rules, the unicorns had a decided advantage. That, and Jared had his friends and horses to worry about.

One of the unicorns, a stallion, made a run at him, horn lowered. Jared barely rolled out of the way, making sure to dodge the sharp hooves as well. The unicorn was surprisingly nimble and stopped on a dime and came right back at him. Again Jared ducked out of the way and slashed at the legs, taking the stallion out, dropping him on his horn. He popped up and drove his blade into the beast’s neck. Before he could catch his breath, another beast bore down on him.

Mara was being engaged with another set of unicorns. She was managing to keep them at bay by swinging her twin blades around almost wildly. The animals thrust their heads at her, but kept away from the flying razors.

Looking up, Mara saw that Jared was tied up with a pair of killer unicorns, desperately trying to stay out of the way of their deadly weapons. Just then she looked back and saw a pair of unicorns sneaking around to the back and going for the horses…and Deborah.

“SELENE!” she shouted to the younger woman. “The horses!”

Selene heard Mara shout, having backed out of the way to let the twins deal with this threat. She followed the War Master’s eyes and saw the unicorns heading towards Barak and the black horse. On impulse, she sprinted back to them, realizing she had absolutely no idea what she was going to do.

The unicorns charged, interestingly targeting the war horse first. Barak shrieked in rage and reared up, tossing a screaming Deborah off into the turf. The war horse kicked back at the charging predator, slamming his hooves into the base of the horse’s spike, snapping it off with a resounding crack. Staggering back several paces, the unicorn tried to shake his head only to collapse on the ground.

Another unicorn came charging in at Barak while Deborah was lying on the ground, crying and holding her arm. Selene dashed in front of the predator, wondering what in the name of the Creator she should do.

“STOP!” she shouted at the unicorn.

To her astonishment, the unicorn screeched to a stop inches from her. It stood there, breathing hard, eyes wide and appeared to be frozen in place.

Selene blinked hard, wondering what in the world had just happened. She suddenly realized that those senses and impressions she had been getting were coming from the unicorns. Wondering how long the spell would last, the Navi reached out with her mind to try to touch the mind of the beast in front of her. She couldn’t communicate with it; there were no thoughts there. Instead all she found were a swirl of predatory instincts and anger.

This wasn’t getting her any close to saving her friends, and herself. Sooner or later the unicorn would snap out of the spell she had it under. Thinking fast, she replayed what just happened. She had ordered the unicorn to stop and it stopped. Could she control them?

Micaela had told her that Anorian Navi had that power and Kalashonian Navi had all the powers of the others. Maybe it was manifesting itself now. Even if it wasn’t, it was worth a shot.

Calming her mind, Selene maintained her grip on the unicorn in front of hers mind and then projected that calm into the unicorn. The creature in front of her tensed initially at the invasion and then began to breathe easier. Tentatively Selene stretched out her hand and gently rubbed its forehead. It neighed appreciatively and Selene felt the animal’s tension ease.

“SELENE!” Jared shouted as he batted away a spike getting stabbed at his gut. “Quit playing around and save our butts.”

Just then Mara yelped as one of the unicorns got through, spiking the meat of her left thigh. She howled in pain as the flesh of her thigh was ripped apart and she was tossed on her back.

“MARA!” Jared roared in a helpless rage as he ducked away from another horn. “SELENE, DO SOMETHING!”

Selene was in horrified shock as blood gushed from Mara’s leg and two unicorns came in for the killing strike. In a panic she ran over to them.

“STOP!” she shrieked at them.

Immediately everyone froze. The unicorns looked like they had been flash frozen while Jared and Mara held perfectly still, wondering what exactly was going on and scared of doing anything to break the spell.

“Look at me!” Selene commanded, rapidly trying to figure out how to exercise her control over the beasts.

The white horses turned their heads and faced her. Selene felt primal emotions ranging from anger to confusion as to what was going on.

“Back away!” she ordered them, stepping forward and holding her hands out. In the back of her mind, Selene wondered if using the hand gestures actually made a difference but she wasn’t going to experiment with things now.

Slowly the unicorns began to back away and around from Jared and Mara, who still were barely breathing. Selene kept pushing back even as she felt her mental grip on them beginning to slip. It was simply just too much to maintain her mental lock on so many different minds.

Suddenly she felt one of the unicorns, a mare, break free. Instantly she felt a rush of primal instinct from the beast as she surged towards the wounded Mara. Selene had to relinquish control on the rest of the herd and focus on stopping the mare. Once they were free of Selene’s restraint, the herd stampeded towards the terrified group.

Selene mentally jumped from unicorn to unicorn as she tried to slow down the tide. It was exhausting work and ultimately, she knew, futile. She was sticking her fingers in a bursting dam and knew that she couldn’t get them all.

It was as if they could smell blood. All of the unicorns zeroed in on Mara, who was still lying prone on the ground, holding her bloodied thigh. She looked frighteningly pale.

Jared leapt in front of her, deflecting away an attempted spike into the ground. The horn drove in to the ground, sticking there for a moment. That precious moment was all Jared needed to slice off the stallion’s head.

But that was just one down and there were still another seven or eight to go. Selene’s heart sank as she realized that they were toast. They had fought soldiers, Blood Guards, sorcerers and now they were going to get killed by a pack of deranged horses. It was a sick cosmic joke.

A mare came charging down at them. Jared was holding his ground against the massive beast but Selene could tell that he was out of tricks. If he was going to survive, then he would have to jump out of the way, which would kill Mara. If he were to save Mara, Jared would have to sacrifice his own life.

Selene tried to mentally stop the charging mare, but she knew it was too late. The mare couldn’t stop her momentum in time not to run over Jared or Mara. All she could hope to do would be slow her down enough for Jared to pull a rabbit out his hat.

Suddenly the mare shrieked as a long black shaft appeared out of her neck. Jared threw himself over his sister as the creature bowled into them, crushing them. Selene breathed out a sigh of relief as the deadly horn slammed into the ground next to them, missing Jared’s arm by only a few inches.

More unicorns neighed in fear and rage as Selene heard the sound of thundering hooves from the east. Turning to the direction of the sound, Selene saw a tight knot of about fifteen mounted soldiers bearing down on them. One of the head riders raised his arm and flung a spear into the herd, striking another one in the flank, dropping her. Other riders were drawing bows, launching projectiles into the herd. Reflexively Selene raised a telekinetic shield over herself and the others, deflecting away any errant projectiles.

The Navi sensed the panic in the herd as they broke and ran from the riders. All of them except the first unicorn Selene had touched. She could feel the fear in the stallion but instead of running away, the unicorn cowered next to her, rubbing up against her.

Around them, the riders formed a tight circle with their weapons pointed out, defending against another potential attack. But the unicorns had fled and were already disappearing over the hills. Selene let out a sigh of relief before remembering Jared and Mara.

“Oh no,” she yelped as she scrambled around the horse bodies to where her friends were crushed.

At first she tried to roll the dead unicorn off but it wasn’t budging. It was way too heavy, probably weighing 1200 pounds. Selene straightened up and stretched out her hands, mentally gripping the corpse with her mind and telekinetically hefted the unicorn off. Jared’s chest heaved as he rolled off Mara and stared up glassily at the sky.

“Mara,” he breathed to Selene he gulped down air.

The Navi turned her attention to the female War Master who was lying in a pool of her own blood. Mara’s left thigh was horrifically mangled and her breathing was shallowing out. Selene was tired, despite the pounding adrenaline, but knew what she had to do. Hovering her hands over Mara’s leg, Selene closed her eyes and began to pour her life force into her friend.

The woman’s entire upper leg began to glow. Her tissues began to reform and Mara’s breathing began to deepen out. Mara’s eyes open and she sat up, grabbing Selene’s wrist.

“That’s good enough for now,” she told the sweating Navi. “Where’s Deborah?”

Selene dammed up her energy flow and examined the wound. It was far from healed but the deep tissue damage was repaired and the bleeding was stopped. Then she and Jared staggered to their feet to scan the wreckage. All around them lay bodies of slain unicorns while their comrades scattered over the hills. But nowhere could they see Deborah.

“Deborah!” Jared bellowed. “Deborah!”

“Deborah!” Selene called. Her power was drained and her energy was nearly gone but she tried to reach out and sense the girl’s presence. All she got was static.

“Find her,” Mara hissed between clenched teeth.

“What do you think we’re doing?” Jared snapped back.

“Deborah!” Selene shouted her voice sounding hoarse.

A sharp whinny suddenly broke out. Jared’s head snapped towards it to see Barak trotting over to where a dead unicorn lay. He pawed at it and whinnied again.

“Deborah!” Jared shot forward.

A moment later he pulled Barak back and started trying to lift the dead beast up.

“Selene!” he called back to the Navi. “I need a hand.”

“How can I help?” Selene replied as she hurried over to him. “I’m not strong enough to lift that.”

“I need your TK genius,”

“Do you need some help, my lady Navi?” a baritone male voice called to her from above.

Selene looked up to see a man sitting above her on a chestnut charger. He looked handsome in a white and golden colored breastplate with a gold-plumed helmet in his left hand. His complexion was deep brown with silver hair and dancing gray eyes. A gleaming white grin was creasing his friendly face.

“Uh, yes,” Selene stammered, trying to come back to reality. Everything had happened really fast. “I need some clean bandages for her leg.”

“Marco,” the man ordered another rider, “some clean rags for the Navi, quickly.”

The rider nodded, and brought his horse over to Selene. He rummaged around his saddle bag and produced several strips of clean linen. “Will this be enough, lady Navi?” he asked.

Selene considered the cloth and then Mara’s leg. “Yeah, this should do it,” she decided. “Thank you.”

Kneeling down, Selene ripped open Mara’s skirt, exposing her bloodied leg. Selene took out her canteen and poured water over Mara’s leg, causing the War Master to bite her lip and wince.

“Sorry,” Selene apologized. “This is probably going to hurt.”

Selene’s fingers felt stiff due to her fatigue but she pushed that thought to the back of her mind. All she needed to do was wrap Mara’s leg and keep her from bleeding out until tonight. Steeling herself, the Navi tightly wrapped the linen around Mara’s leg, eliciting a curse from her.

“There,” Selene exhaled. “That should keep you in one piece, until tonight. I’ll have to finish healing you then.”

“Thanks,” Mara grunted as Jared helped her to her feet. “Now,” the pale War Master looked up at their visitors, “who are you?”

“I am—”

“Andre?” Jared suddenly cut in as he noticed the rider for the first time. “Colonel Andre?”

“Senator Andre now,” the rider beamed. “Lord Jared I’d ask you what you’re doing here, but that’s fairly obvious.”

“Is Stella here?” Jared queried.

“Here,” a female voice called from several paces away. The woman rider pulled off her gold-plumed helmet, revealing a dark-skinned woman that was contrasted with honey blond hair. “I’m the other senator from this province.”

“You guys have really stepped up in the world since the war,” Jared looked proud. “Shouldn’t you be in Rabbah?”

“The unicorns have become a problem,” Andre answered. “The senate sent us back here to clean it up while it isn’t in session. Good thing too, you guys looked like you were in deep trouble. May I ask your companions names?”

“This is my sister Mara,” Jared introduced his sister.

“You have a sister?” Andre looked surprised. “That’s interesting.”

“My name is Selene,” the Navi introduced herself. “How did you know that I was a Navi?”

“Navi are the only ones that I know of that can lift dead unicorns with their minds and heal gaping wounds in peoples legs,” Andre shrugged. “It seemed like a logical guess.”

“Oh,” Selene replied. “I guess I hadn’t thought of that.”

“Clearly,” Jared snorted. “Could you escort us to Bashan, Andre?” he requested of the senator.

“I’ll do better than that,” Andre answered. “I’ll set you up in the senator’s mansion. How long will you be staying?”

“Only a couple of days,” Jared informed. “We’re already a couple of weeks behind and we need to get Selene to Jerel for her real training.”

“She looks pretty good already,” Andre observed. “She managed to tame that unicorn over there.”

Jared whipped his head around and locked eyes on unicorn standing behind Selene like a heeled dog. “What is that still doing here?” he snarled.

“Don’t hurt him,” Selene held out her arms defensively. “He won’t hurt anyone, I promise.”

“How do you know?” Jared snapped.

“Because I can sense what is going through his mind,” Selene answered. “I can control his thoughts. I can’t really explain it but I can read animal’s minds and control them. That’s how come the unicorns didn’t finish Mara off.”

“Been nice if you’d figured that one out sooner,” Jared sniped.

“Just be glad I figured it out when I did,” Selene shot back, getting tired of the constant belittlement.

“Anyway,” Mara cut in with a grimace. “Can we get going? I’m really starting to hurt.”

“We can,” Andre nodded. “Do you need a horse?”

“I can ride the black horse,” Mara hobbled over the horse stolen from Jasper’s castle. She couldn’t quite stifle a groan as Jared helped her into the saddle.

“You, my lady Navi?” Andre questioned Selene.

“No,” Selene shook her head. “I’m going to ride the unicorn.”

A ripple of surprised gasps ran through the riders. Even Jared and Mara looked surprised.

“Selene, it’s not—” Jared started.

“I can handle it,” Selene retorted sharply as she hopped onto the back of the surprised unicorn, using her telekinetic powers to levitate herself up. “Now let’s go.”

“Alright,” shrugged Andre. “Let’s move out.”

*******