Post by StoryGirl83 on Nov 9, 2011 9:45:03 GMT -5
Chapter Twenty-Three – A Unicorn Named El
Chris wobbled away from Brianna and sank down onto the ground. “Any way you can turn that thing down?”
Brianna bit her lip to keep from laughing. “Are you serious?”
“Yes, I am completely serious,” he informed her. “I don’t know what it is that makes me and . . .” he waved his hand in her direction, “blinking, incompatible, but is there any possible way to turn it down.”
She shook her head. “Sorry, no. There’s no voltage switch. Either I’m using it or I’m not.”
Chris chuckled weakly. “It was worth a shot.” He forced himself to stand back up and grinned at her. “You ready to meet a unicorn?”
She laughed. “How did your brother even end up with a pet unicorn in the first place?”
“Well, the elders send him when Wy as born,” Chris began as he walked over to a post and leaned against it, “because they knew magic would be stopped and they knew we’d need it. Of course they wanted him back afterward, so my parents returned him. When magic stopped again, he just kind of showed up. Mom got worried since this white ‘horse’ was catching attention. Wy begged to keep him.”
“And your mom just let him?” Brianna asked in disbelief.
Chris shook his head. “Not even close. I think he was seven when she finally relented. That’s about four years. We found out later he was the same unicorn from before.” He snorted. “Actually we had to find out that he was a unicorn first, because before then we thought we just had a white horse that was extremely attached to my brother.”
“You didn’t know you had a unicorn?” Brianna burst out laughing. “How could you not know? There’s a horn sticking out of its forehead.”
Chris chuckled. “Just wait.” He led the way down a dirt path through some trees and turned to look at her as they came to a break in the trees.
Brianna looked through the trees to see a stable. Saddled horses ran around in a pen at the lead of their riders. A smile tugged at her lips as she turned to look at Chris. “Do you come here very often?”
He shook his head. “Not really. El’s Wy’s and . . .”
“El?” she interrupted. “You named a male unicorn, you did say male, right?” When Chris nodded she continued. “You named a male unicorn ‘El’?”
Chris chuckled as he started walking toward the stable. “It’s short for Elder Whitelighter, but we don’t spread that around too much. If someone asks what El stands for, Wy has all sorts of interesting answers. I think he’s trying to find one he likes that isn’t magical in origin.”
“What kind of interesting answers?” she asked as she took several quick steps to reach his side.
“Eloquent Mane was one of the more believable, I think,” he informed her.
She stopped and stared at him. “Seriously?”
He nodded. “Quite serious.”
She laughed some more as she followed him down to the stable. He waved at some people as they passed through the stable. They stopped at the end.
Brianna looked into the stable and saw nothing. “Is this the right place?”
“El, safe,” Chris announced.
What at first appeared to be a pile of straw moreover as a small white horse resembling an overgrown Shetland pony stood up and shook about. El trotted over to edge of the pen and stuck his head out.
“El, meet Brianna,” Chris instructed. “She may be a friend.”
Brianna rolled her eyes. “I’m not sure that’s complimentary.”
Chris reached out and rubbed El’s nose. “I barely know you. If, in time, I get to know you better, maybe that will change.”
Suddenly El reared back, lay down on the ground, and seemingly turned into a pile of straw.
Brianna stared in surprise. “What . . ?”
“Halliwell,” a voice behind them began, “I heard you were here with a hotty. Wasting your time on your brother’s mangy pony?”
Chris turned around to glare at the intruder. “What’s your problem, Carson?”
“Your ‘horse’ has been showing up my Dandelion Queen,” the man named Carson announced, “I don’t appreciate that at all.”
“Well, maybe you ought to train Dandy rather than just use her to show to the girl of the week,” Chris suggested with a glare.
Carson glared back. “You don’t belong here, Halliwell.”
Chris shrugged. “I’m not too interested.”
Carson went off in a huff.
“Old rival?” Brianna asked as she walked him walk away.
“Of Wy’s,” Chris commented. “And more current, I guess. Carson is often complaining that El does better than Dandy, which might have something to do with Carson’s dislike of Wy.” He turned back to look at El. “El, Wyatt’s in trouble and we need some of your horn dust, please.”
“That’s it?”
“Watch,” he suggested.
The air around El’s forehead shimmered and a horn grew out of it.
Brianna watched with a child like glee. “That’s so cool.” She took out a small container and handed it to Chris.
He took is and held it up next to El.
The unicorn bent down his head and shook it, allowing dust from his horn to settle into the container. He stopped and looked at Chris with big brown horse eyes.
Chris smiled. “Thanks, El.” He capped the container and put it with the rest of the ingredients. Then, he nuzzled the unicorn’s nose affectionately. “I guess we’d best go before things get any worse at the museum.” He patted the unicorn one more time as the unicorn’s horn slowly disappeared. “Bye, El. I’ll make sure Wy comes to see you and to thank you personally.”
Brianna smiled. “Thanks, El. It was nice meeting you.”
“Let’s head to my apartment first,” he suggested as they began the walk to the entrance. “I want to see if Seth called. And I don’t particularly want to deal with my mom yet. She’ll coddle me.”
“You don’t have a cell?”
Chris grimaced. “Right. I forgot.”
She starred at him amazed as he dug into his pocket. “You forgot about your cell?”
He opened it up and blinked. “Six messages.”
He put it to his ear and listened. The first voice on there was Seth. “Hey, Chris. It’s Seth. I found something interesting about those articles I left you. Call me.”
His curiosity peeked, Chris listened to the next message, also from Seth. “Chris. Seth, again. It’s been almost an hour. Did you forget your phone despite your promise?”
Apparently Seth didn’t want to leave anything on there that might mention magic. Chris waited and listened to the next message. This one wasn’t from Seth. “Chris, we might have something for you. Apparently someone did this deliberately, but didn’t want it permanent.”
Chris tried to digest his mother’s words as the voice mail went onto the next one, again from Seth. “Chris, I still haven’t heard from you. What are you doing? And why don’t you answer your phone?”
Seth was sounding more worried. His mom’s words on the next message where more cheerful. “Peanut, we might have something for you soon. Call me.”
Chris liked the sound of that. He listened to the last message from only a few minutes before they arrived at the stable. “Chris, I’m at your apartment with Peter. We need to talk.”
Chris had no idea what Seth needed to talk about, but one thing was clear. Chris closed his phone and turned to Brianna. “Definitely to the apartment next.”