Unicorns

Eriu was all that Edward had ever said it was; vast, green, bright and shining from tall summit to pale beach, and the long and difficult journey was worth it if only for the sweetness of the dew on the morning air. Edward rides along in the content, breathless trance of a man endlessly satisfied, but he looks upon Xiana as often as he does the hills, for there is still but one small sorrow that tugs at his mind--the knowledge that their travels together are almost over, and the sad realization that the unicorn would never be as attached to him as he to her. They had met the ends of their bargain, and he knows well that she needn't stay for much longer, though he had pleaded with her to at least come with him to the edge of his old village. It has been so long that he doesn't know what to expect, and he seeks her company as much for comfort as for the desire to keep her by his side for just a little longer, before he might never get to see her again.

Xianae - Along Edward the unicorn trots, the slightest spring to her step as if she were a young filly again. The spell that Genn cast upon her was long since broken, and in this new and vibrant land she did no longer tolerate anything that hid her nature. Xiana often broke into a gallop when they came upon grasslands, she would dart over the plains in a speed no living horse could hope to match, but still she felt slower. This land had such a life and an ancient magic that for the first time her relatively young age showed to her, as she added so little to the magic of the land. As a result, not every blade of grass carried her, for the very first time she nearly walked into a branch, while she weaved around it deftly enough that Ed might never have noticed the event, she was genuinly shocked by it. But the fear and slight indignance she'd felt in the beginning had made way for a youthful curiousity, this land held so many secrets for her, she did not think that even her life was long enough for them all.

Edward had laughed, at first, when first he found the sight of the running unicorn, as exhilerated by her freedom as she herself must have been, and as glad of it, too, but he only watches her now with a small smile on his face, relishing these last few moments of her company. His own horses travel swiftly along the wide, open road, not foolish enough to try to match the speed of Xiana (though Muiredach, in his own foolish youth, had tried to run alongside her once before) but instead hurried along by their master. Burg was just below the crest of the cliff; these areas he knows well, so well that, even after all of these years, the mere sight of them is enough to fill his mind with dear memories.

Xianae - Xiana had been heading back to Edward and his horses when she suddenly froze like a startled deer and quickly looked out to the small town ahead. Despite the sudden movement though, she displayed no other signs of fear. For all the world she looked as if she'd only spotted something interesting but harmless, something worth only a second of attention. Yet she could not stop herself staring at it, no mater how calm she was, and there was a tension to it that even she could not bring home. Something felt familiar about this location, it was familiar, the grass and the trees... but she had never been here. She knew she could never have.

Edwarde: It is a matter of minutes before Edward reaches the top of the hill, and the sight of the small village below causes his spirits to soar. He calls to his horses, and they pick up speed, leaving dust and distance behind them, for Maire, too, recognizes this old town, having left it with the wizard so long ago, and recalls the sweetness of its grass and its pleasant bustle. They thunder clumsily down the path with the impatient glee that only short-lived mortals would ever know, and soon come to a stop at the edge, that last place at which he would see Xiana. He jumps off the wagon and lands hard, but he doesn't mind as he stumbles, he doesn't care--he is home. Would anyone recognize him? Would anyone forgive him? >>
Edwarde: It takes him a moment to realize that there is no anyone. He pauses, and his nervous smile fades away as he listens. He hears the small noises of breezes and rustling branches, but otherwise, there is only silence--no chatter, no hooves, no sound of wheels or wagons. There is nobody standing around to greet him; there is nobody at all. He stands there stupidly, dumbfounded and confused. The buildings were unmistakable, but where were the people? After a moment, he reasons in his mind that, oh, perhaps they were all off on the other side of town, or maybe it was a day on which most had gone off to market--but there is no denying the ill repair of the doors, the dust in the windows... >>
Edwarde: There is only one presence here, but the baffled chronomancer, as confused and afraid and innocent as a child, is not aware of it. It is very old, and very powerful, but also very kind--indeed, kind. It is a peculiar thing; things so ancient often had no inclination towards anything of the sort, but there is an undeniably benign air to the entity, as though it were not hiding but only waiting patiently to be found.

Xianae - The unicorn seemed to be looking at herself from a hilltop at that moment, to her it seemed another unicorn was foolishly following the wizard towards the last place she'd want to be, a human town. But still Xiana moved towards it with the same calm she had when walking through a forest. The benign air kept her calm, and seemed to call out for her. She felt there had to be a creature here, so much more older then she was, she truly did feel like a foal again.

Edwarde: Edward rests a shaking hand on Maire's flank, seeking some comfort from the reassuring and certain feeling of her hide, and then, suddenly, he steps away from her and begins to wander towards one of the roads he had once walked lifetimes ago, emptier now than it had ever been before. He doesn't even glance back to see if the unicorn was still there, because he knows that if he had looked and she had been gone, in this moment, it would have destroyed him. >>
Edwarde: But she is not gone, and as she approaches, the source of the presence makes itself apparent; it stands a small distance away from the deserted town, still, tall and quiet. A tall, spiraling golden horn crowns its pale head, the color of the gleaming clouds at dawn, and a great, shining mane spills down the long, strong neck in a smooth curtain, matching the twisting beard, the elegant fetlocks and the thin lion's tail.

Xianae - Xiana noticed the creature, and when she did she suddenly felt like she had known all along, that she had known it could only have been another unicorn. And a unicorn a thousand times more ancient and wise then she was at that, she felt humbled before him much like the wizard had once felt humbled before her. She did not become meek though, she could not, instead she raised her head high and approached the other one carefully. As the sun caught her mane it shone green, and with sways of her neck she showed that oddity off to the other, accompanied by not a single sound. Xiana did not address him, not in words at least, but in the subtle way that unicorns had, the way that required no words but actions and emotions.

Edwarde: There is something in the deep black eyes, something that Xiana's eyes don't have, and it is not the great wisdom or the sound intelligence--it is something foreign to unicorns. Indeed, it is more like the emotions Xiana may have seen in Edward's eyes than anything she would have ever thought to be found in those of her own kind. It is so... human, and yet so old. The elder unicorn likewise raises his horn and meets her gaze with his own strange one, and even the grace of that, too, is touched ever so slightly with the affability that characterizes mortal greetings, but the gesture itself is one of calm acknowledgement.

Xianae - Although Xiana was intending to nudge the unicorn with her nose in a proper greeting, she stopped a few feet short of the unicorn and remained there, one leg still held up which she kept there as well. It struck the unicorn how the ancient one moved, she'd dismissed it to his greater age, that he moved with a weight that she could barely imagine. It were his eyes that held the green-maned unicorn in place, the slight ancient touch that made her unable to simply turn away and leave. "What is it you are? Wear you merely the skin of my kin?" Xiana then suddenly asked, breaking her almost sacred silence to actually use mortal language to converse with this unicorn.

Edwarde: "Ah," says the other unicorn, and his voice is deep and thick with so many accents that it is hard to place any one of them alone. "Do you not know your own?" He speaks this tongue with comfortable ease, and something about the way he does suggests that he speaks many others, as well.

Xianae - Tilting her head to the side just the slightest bit the unicorn takes a single step back, then a step forward again. Xiana felt confused, an emotion that had not visited her in a little while. "I would know one of mine, in any form or shape. Even should I be blind I would always know another unicorn." She snorts then, so soft it sounds more like a dainty sneeze. "But you I do not know. I can see you not for what you seem to be, neither can I see you for what you are. You are not like I am, even where you are."

Edwarde: "I am as much a unicorn as you are," says the other. "But I can tell that we are different, still. Yes, I thought it would be so. It has been many moons since I have seen another of mine." He pauses and begins to turn with that old, perfect grace, and in that moment it becomes most clear that he could be nothing but a unicorn. "Ah, but no, perhaps you are not so different. Perhaps I am not so different." The golden horn glimmers in the morning sun as he turns his head, and one of the warm, dark eyes fixes on her. They are strange, not aloof with wisdom but kind and grandfatherly. "Walk with me."

Xianae - The unicorn finally steps closer when he turns, for the grace he just presented was one none could possibly hope to imidate, none could even understand enough to imitate. When Xiana is close enough she would rub the side of her head along his neck, a greeting and a show of her friendliness and respect. The touch erased all thought, event he slightest creeping demon of doubt that might have still lingered in her mind, that this was indeed a most ancient unicorn. When she found his eyes she still spied that oddness about them though, and this continued to unsettle her. Again wordless, the younger beast complied and followed the older one.

Xianae - The unicorn finally steps closer when he turns, for the grace he just presented was one none could possibly hope to imidate, none could even understand enough to imitate. When Xiana is close enough she would rub the side of her head along his neck, a greeting and a show of her friendliness and respect. The touch erased all thought, event he slightest creeping demon of doubt that might have still lingered in her mind, that this was indeed a most ancient unicorn. When she found his eyes she still spied that oddness about them though, and this continued to unsettle her. Again wordless, the younger beast complied and followed the older one.

Edwarde: The other unicorn touched her gently with his tail as she drew abreast of him, and began to walk as he had said he would; it is the slow, leisurely walk of a creature with all the time in the world, and no worry or fear of being seen. While Eriu's old magics were foreign to Xiana, this unicorn seems to walk with and among them, and their playfulness is echoed in the easy way his hooves meet the ground and the shimmer of his thick mane. He seems content to simply be in the presence of another of his kind, and says no words, himself, but he stops, often, to gently nose a dying, trampled flower and bring it back to bloom, or to watch the changing shapes of the thin clouds on the horizon. The wizard's empty town recedes further and further into the pale distance, the heads of his two, tethered horses gazing longingly after them all the while.

Xianae - For some strange reason Xiana would never be able to explain, the unicorn suddenly gave a look of interest to the town, and a genuine spurt of interest accompanied it. "What is the story of this place?" The unicorn asks with a strange certainty, and a curiousity nearly foreign to the beast. There was something about towns and hamlets in these lands, they felt much like another animal nest rather than what she was used to. The unicorn suspected it might be the magic of the land playing tricks on her mind, it will still be a while before she'd know it.

Edwarde: "This place," the other unicorn repeats, slowly lifting his head away from a patch of wildflowers and gazing back towards the small, grey buildings. "It was a prosperous town, small, one of many of its kind. It was called Burg by those that also called it home. It is empty, now." To match his eyes, there is something amiss in his voice, too--a fragment of emotion, though it is nearly hidden. "I knew each of its people, from the day it was built to the day it came to its quiet end. I was here before it, and I will be here, still, when it is but traces of rubble beneath the roots of the grasses."

Xianae - A sorrow fell over the unicorn then, the extend of sadness she could feel. It was genuine and pure, but devoid of regret. She could nearly sense it where she was standing, sense the sadness of her wizard companion when his hopes were crushed. Something moved her then, made her set her hooves into the direction of the town. "You 'knew' the people? Each of them? How can that possibly be? They live such flighty lives." She almost seemed unaware she was moving towards the town, or she did not seem to think it needed mentioning.

Edwarde: "Perhaps that is where we differ," remarks the other unicorn, as though musing aloud in the way men sometimes do. He, too, turns, and follows after Xiana, now. "I walked among them. They came to me for guidance and aid, and I gave it to them. I knew them, and they knew me; and as much as I taught them, so, too, did they teach me many things in turn." The sadness in his own voice becomes more evident as he speaks. "There is one of them there, now. He looks for others, and he looks, also, for me."

Xianae - But Xiana continues to canter towards the town, if the older unicorn follows she might even settle into a brisker trot, she wanted to show herself to Edward like never before, to soothe him with her presence as she seemed to have done so often before. "It is not how it was meant to be. I've known since my birth, a unicorn should not walk among humans. They are dangerous and led by strife." The unicorn pried the town for her wizard companion.

Edwarde: "Not all men are of wicked heart," calls the other unicorn gently, matching her speed with ease. "Many are kind and wiser than their years should allow, and they know, feel and see things that we do not. I do not know from whence you come, my sister, but the smell of the sea is upon your mane, and that of lesser magic, as well; perhaps the men beyond it are not so gentle." He slows as they near the town, and hesitates by the edge when Xiana ventures further in. The dawn unicorn's head lowers solemnly, and the strange humanity in his eyes leaps forward, causing him to slowly lift a hoof--but in the end, he simply lowers it again, choosing instead to linger there, just out of sight of the waiting horses. >>
Edwarde: Xiana finds the town quite deserted, indeed, and though the wind that blows through it is fresh and sweet, some old, thin magic lingers in the air, a fragment of lost history. The weathered door of one of the small homes is open, built of wood, its roof full of holes, its remaining windows cracked and dirty. The room just inside had once been cozy and full of voices and laughter, and even now retains some of its old charm, but it hasn't seen a kind hand in many years, and sits now in silent, desolate disrepair. On the dusty floor, in turn, sits Edward, facing the inside as though his knees had lost the strength to hold him as soon as he had stepped in. His face is buried in one of his hands, with his glasses held limply in the trembling fingers of his other, and while his shoulders shake, he makes not even the smallest sound, as quiet as the dead buildings around him.

Xianae - Xiana remains silent as she enters the town, her tail swishing behind her as she trots along in her light-hooved step. The unicorn peers back when the other stops, but she does not even slow down herself. Instead she looks on ahead and slows into an ordinary walk. The unicorn looks curiously around the town, this is but the second time she has set a hoof in the one, the first time being when she and the wizard had to find a ship to Eriu. Even then it had been a need though, this time she willingly went towards a town, and already she can feel the wild magic leaving her. Oddly enough, it leaves slower, and a part remains that usually would not. >>
Xianae - It does not take long for the unicorn to find Edward, the despairing sadness finds her and leads her to the forsaken house. Gently the unicorn pushes the door open with her horn, the thing had been blowing shut due to the wind, a high-pitcked creak filled the room, followed by her hooves gently clopping on the wood. A sorrow fills the unicorn when she finds Edward, she can not imagine what the wizard feels like, even if she can feel him feeling it. Xiana can not find any wisdom to share, nor believe that wisdom will help the wizard, if anything could. Even her horn can not cure sadness, but she can at least offer her warmth, a gift gladly given to the wizard who had been by her side for two months now. The unicorn gently lays her muzzle on his shoulder and would then hold her soft-furred head gently against his.

Edwarde: Xiana's quiet, calm touch at first startles the grieving man, and for the briefest of moments, he might have thought she was something or someone else, for he'd fallen into such mental turmoil, the sort of confusion that only one so struck by loss or sorrow could sanely allow their minds to succumb to. Still, her soothing, magical presence was unmistakable, and he knows her as soon as he'd doubted her; he knows her, and still he turns to press his face into her mane, wetting it with warm tears and muffling in it a single, shuddering sob.

Xianae - The beast embraced and soothed Edwards's sadness, uncaring for the tears that soiled her mane. The unicorn solemnly maintains her silent aid, all the aid she could give at this point.

Edward weeps against her neck for a time; it is hard to say whether it is for minutes or hours, but perhaps it is all the same to the unicorn. At long last, he quietly dries his eyes against her mane, and then his own sleeve when he realizes what he is doing, pulling away from her to try to regain himself. He fumbles sluggishly with his glasses, dropping them twice when he tries to put them on, and then he stares with empty, lost, helpless sorrow at one of the dirty walls, feeling as hollow as this ghost of a village and as dead as its people must be. It is written so clearly on his face; he has nowhere to go. They are both displaced creatures, now, wanderers with no old home to ever return to, no firm ties to place or kin, more alike now than they had been at the start of their journey.

Xianae - Xiana's mane hangs a bit soggy, wet from Edward's sadness but she doesn't even seem to notice as she flings it backward across her back. She looks at the lost wizard for a while, then turns her head to look outside the door. "The story of this forlorn village is not lost, even if the people are." The unicorn takes a few steps towards the door. "There is one who saw them be born, live and then their end. " Whether the unicorn is trying to cheer the wizard up or not, even she is not entirely certain. "The memory of the town will persist, even when this town is nothing but a few stones jutting out of the ground, there is one who will always remember."

Edwarde: Edward turns his head towards her and looks at her with his red, unfocused eyes, his freckled face stained with tears and dust. In this moment, he is more like a child than he has ever been, and perhaps that makes his grief all the more potent. "Who?" The word is a whisper.

Xianae - "Follow me." The unicorn says, walking back outside the house. She waits a little until Edward comes out as well and then slowly walks though the abandoned town towards where she left the ancient unicorn. She is not entirely certain he will yet be there, were the sitations reversed she knows she would not be. But this unicorn was so odd, he might just have waited.

Edwarde: Edward numbly finds his feet, and does as asked, but when they arrive at the place where Xiana had left the other unicorn, he is quite gone. There are no traces of him; even the clear feeling of his presence is absent. The wizard, who doesn't know what they had come to see, looks around with a mixture of fear and hope, staying as close to the unicorn's side as he is able without touching her.

Xianae - Her eyes dart around, as do Xiana's ears, but he is completely gone. "He has passed. I shall likely never see him again and neither will you." The unicorn paws at the ground where he had stood, trying to find a trace within the grass, but it concealed him, all sign of him, for all anyone would ever know the unicorn had never been here at all.

Edwarde: Edward wipes his eyes again, fighting back a fresh wave of sadness, but he manages words, miserable and choked. "P-p-perhaps... perhaps.... p-perhaps it is... is f-f-for the best." They are breathless and hoarse, and seem to catch in his throat as they come.

Xianae - Xiana did not nod, but something about her pose seemed to imply she agreed. The unicorn stepped towards the road, for a moment it might seem like it was getting ready to leave, but before she is gone she turns around, and strides back to Edward. It seems the unicorn had decided to look over him for just a little longer.

Edwarde: That single step had within it the power to either save Edward or damn him. To have seen her go--it would have crushed him, every last fragment of his spirit, and he knew it, he knew he was on the very edge of that absolute, hopeless despair, and already he felt it begin to creep over his heart. His breath had stopped when she made that smallest of graceful movements, one of many he had seen her perform before, but so different, now, at the end of their agreement, in the heart of their destination, at the broken place where they had said they would part after so long. >>
Edwarde: But she did not go. She came back. And that was enough to cause him to drop to his knees and cry into his hands anew.

Xianae - And Xiana waited, with the patience of the forest for Edward to regain his spirit. Then she travelled with him again, whether aware she had missed crushing his spirit, or whether with some other motiver he would not know for a while. She speaks as little as before.