The Unicorn's Forest

Dephna yawned. The day was ending and there wasn't anything else to do but close everything down. While it wasn't dark yet, she still found herself exhausted. What was it about the job that drained her so much?

Dephna couldn't think of what it was, especiallysince everyone else didn't seem to have as much trouble with it. Yet, she could train with the guardians for hours and not feel winded, but give her a few hours of work in the library? She'd be out like a light in less than an hour if there wasn't anyone to keep waking her up.

Not only did it get on her nerves, but she knew that it was also aggravating for those who ran the library. As she walked around, making sure the doors that were supposed to be locked were in fact locked, she couldn't help but consider the importance of what the library contained.

While she didn't find it particularly interesting, she couldn't deny how important it was. It had been the crowning achievement of the elves since it was finished a mere three years ago. While it wasn't especially grand on the architecture like the other important building for her people, this library stored the latest in breakthroughs, not only in magic, but technology and science as well.

While it didn't interest her as much as she felt it should, she couldn't deny what it represented to her people. What it showed could be done. What strides her people were making to better everyone, not just the small nation that they lived in.

Dephna sighed. Maybe she should ask to be reassigned. She knew most everyone she knew would be better at this job than she was. If her duties were to merely stand guard and keep it safe, she was sure she'd be able to do that better than this.

However, she was in charge of keeping everything in order and organized. In addition to maintenance on the machinery that were stored here. What helped make this library so important.

As she was finishing up the second floor, with only the ground floor left to check, she couldn't help but glance outside the window as she spotted movement. Movement in the courtyard of the library that was supposed to be empty.

At first she thought she'd merely imagined it, but when she stopped to look closer, she saw seven people and a purple canine in the courtyard. They were walking around as if they were taking a casual stroll and had every right to be there. Which Dephna knew they didn't.

She glanced briefly at the main gate to the courtyard of the library, briefly wondering what the guards were doing and why they let the trespassers in. She shook her head as she started to walk briskly towards the nearest stairs. Whatever lapse they had in the security, dealing with the intruders was the first priority here. The mistakes could be dealt with after.

The trespassers were still milling around as if they weren't either aware they weren't supposed to be there or had every right to be there when she reached the ground floor. Regardless of which it was, Dephna felt incensed at the audacity of these trespassers. She couldn't help but feel like it was a slap to her face and twisting of her ear for them to act this way.

As she opened the doors to the outside, the trespassers looked in her direction in surprise. Dephna felt a twinge of amusement at that.

Yes, you didn't think anyone was still here, did you? She asked herself, feeling a cold passion beginning to burn inside her, Thought you could just walk in here and do whatever you wanted to, at your leisure, huh?

"What are you doing here?" she thundered, not speaking her thoughts out loud. "You should know that these grounds are off limits to unauthorized personnel at this time."

Their reaction incensed her even more. They merely looked at each other like it was nothing! Almost like it was a 'sorry, we must have gotten the wrong time' sort of situation they were in.

"All of you are now under arrest!" she stated, feeling her anger rising for every second these trespassers didn't show any sign of realizing the mess they'd made for themselves.

Then they started talking, or at least making some kind of noise. If they were talking, it wasn't in a language Dephna knew. She knew twelve languages from having trained with elves who spoke those languages and the sounds these trespassers were making didn't even sound anything like any of those languages.

She felt like she was about to scream at them again when she realized the canine that they had brought was sniffing her. It looked like a puppy, but it caused the words in her throat to freeze. It had a light purple coat, almost a lilac, and had four eyes. She'd never seen an animal like that before.

She quickly looked at the trespassers in alarm, unsure if she was caught in a deadly trap or some threat that she needed to warn her people about. The clothing these trespassers were wearing was nothing like the clothing she'd seen. While they were near the age when and elf's age became difficult to determine, she could tell that they were still young. Then there were their ears. No where near as long as they should be. Unless…

Dephna's eyes widened in fear as she realized who they had to be. They had to be from the group of ear-cutters. The group that had stated its purpose was to ensure the elves returned to their proper path as one with nature and forget everything they knew about science and technology. The ear-cutters were ruthless in what they did.

Their clothing and four-eyed dog wasn't anything she'd heard about before and couldn't say if it meant anything, but the fact their ears were so short meant that the people at the gate weren't being negligent in their duties. It meant that they had to have been killed.

Dephna returned her gaze on the ear-cutters in front of her. She wasn't going to let them kill her. Not without at least taking some of them with her. She wasn't going to let her family be thought of as associates of ear-cutters. She was going to stop whatever they had planned here.

"You know, I think she's not happy with us," one of the ear-cutters said.

It astounded her that she could understand him, not only because he spoke in the little known language she had learned growing up, but because his mouth didn't move the way it should when speaking that language.

"Wh-who are you?" she asked, felling like the world was turning upside down and was threatening to drop her off of it. If this was going to be the last moments of her life, she wasn't sure she would really know what killed her with how things were going at this rate. If nothing else, she felt her will to fight deflating, like a popped bubble.

"Uh, that's kinda hard to explain," another of the trespassers said, a girl who looked like she wasn't a cold-blooded killer that Dephna knew she had to be. "You see, we're from another world?"

Dephna scoffed at the poor excuse, somehow feeling like her desire to fight for her own life and to stop whatever these trespassers were planning reignite. "What are you talking about? If you're from another world, then how'd you get here? You can't just appear out of thin air like that," she stated flatly. "No. You're here to do something about the library. Well, I won't let you do whatever you want to it. That is the pride of our nation. A symbol that we will move forward no matter what obstacle is thrown our way."

"Actually, I can show you how we, uh, appeared out of thin air," the girl said, walking over to a place that was completely empty. Not even trees were planted there.

What was she planning? Dephna couldn't help but wonder as she tried to keep an eye on the others as well.

Yet, she wasn't sure what to make of what her eyes saw when she saw that girl's hand disappear in the air. Even as she moved to see it from a different angle, it was clear it wasn't there.

Dephna looked at the trespassers in surprise. Who were they and how did they get here? If they were ear-cutters, then how dangerous was that group really? She couldn't help but be terrified at the possibilities.

What she hadn't expected of herself, though was that when she opened her mouth, even though she wasn't sure what she was going to say, all that came out was her terror. She couldn't even turn it off.

_

Charlie was still trying to figure out what happened between Beth and Zepha. Not only had they completed the morning chores by the time Charlie had gotten over there, but it was clear that they were enjoying each other's company.

Beth wouldn't say what they had done, although, Charlie didn't care for specific details. She just would have liked to know what had occurred that made them look so close. She had her suspicions, but didn't care to leave them as just that.

Then there was how Zepha had given Beth the puppy hellhound. Beth had tried to refuse, but after Zepha gave Beth a kiss, one that said Charlie's suspicions of them being lovers might be accurate, Beth accepted.

Charlie also couldn't deny that just watching that kiss made her want to disregard what she'd told Beth about being faithful to Alex and forget her discomfort about others seeing her naked and see what would happen.

Maybe it was that happening that made her not pay as close attention to their surroundings when they entered the other gate from the fungaloid's world. Yet, she hadn't realized how late in the day it was for the world, nor did she realize that they weren't away from others.

When the woman showed up, at first they were all startled, and Charlie hadn't understood the first thing she said, but then waited as she announced that they were all under arrest. While that would be inconvenient, she wouldn't resist. After all, she had no idea what to expect an any new world. Worst case scenario was that they'd just have to sneak back to the gate and leave. She didn't expect it would be very difficult to do that. Though, she was surprised at how long the woman's ears were. She couldn't help but wonder if maybe they found a world that had elves on it, or maybe she was wearing a costume or something.

The woman seemed rather angry too, but Charlie wasn't sure if she should try to look into her mind to find out what the reason was. Then when she looked at Beth's new puppy, who had gone up to the woman to see who this was, the woman started to look at them a little differently. Though, the longer she was quiet, it seemed like the more scared she got.

Finally she felt she should try to diffuse the situation and see what would happen when she tried explaining things. She'd thought that they'd be able to talk calmly and maybe keep her from freaking out, but maybe she should have walked through the gate rather than sticking her hand through. Whatever it was, the woman started screaming.

Or maybe shrieking would be the better word, Charlie mused to herself. Whichever word applied best to the situation, it at least attracted the attention of others nearby who came running.

"Hey, I think we're in a kind of enclosed area," Tim commented, looking around.

"So, maybe we're in a secured area?" Hannah asked dryly. "Great."

"Maybe, but I think this might be something else," Wes remarked. "Maybe it's a research building or a library. I see a lot of books in that building."

"What building?" Amelia asked. "All I see is the wall on one side of us, and that gigantic tree on the other."

"Maybe it's just designed to look like a tree," Wes replied. "I'm pretty sure I see windows on it."

"I think we're about to get more company," Charlie commented over the woman's shrieking, not sure if this was a good thing or not," and I think we're in trouble for just being here."

"Well, we might as well meet the locals this time," Beth remarked, picking up her new puppy.

"Come up with a name for her yet?" Hannah asked.

"Not yet. I'm still thinking about it," Beth replied, rubbing the hellhound's head.

"Can I make a suggestion?" Amelia asked.

"Probably, but that might make me less likely to use it," Beth answered honestly.

Amelia smirked. "Thought I'd at least give it a try."

"Uh, guys, maybe we should indicate we're surrendering?" Charlie suggested as she noticed what looked like rifles the newcomers were carrying and were pointing in their direction.

"Probably not a bad idea," Tim remarked, slowly raising his hands above his head with his hands open.

"Have you tried holding a puppy while doing that?" Beth complained as she settled her dog on her shoulder before raising her own hands, and Charlie suspected she was using her magic to hold the puppy in place, given how much the puppy was wriggling around.

Charlie couldn't help but wonder what they were thinking about as Charlie and her friends were surrendering without a fuss. Though, she couldn't help but wonder how long that woman was going to keep her shrieking up or when she might knock herself unconscious with not breathing any air in. Regardless, she couldn't help but be impressed at the woman's lung capacity.

"Who are you and how did you get here?" one of the rifle carrying men demanded.

"I'm Charlie Rivers and we came through a gate," Charlie started and was about to introduce her friends when one of the men walked over to her and slammed the butt of the rifle in her stomach, making her fall to her knees as her mind was enveloped in pain from that act.

"We're not interested in your lies!" the man snapped.

Charlie shrugged and didn't say anything, just waited until the pain subsided after a couple minutes and then climbed back to her feet, keeping her hands in a show of surrender. Though, she had no idea why they immediately assumed she was lying when she'd hardly said anything.

She was at least glad that one of the men had gone over to the woman and gotten her to stop her constant shrieking. She couldn't help but wonder if that was normal on this world to have such a lung capacity. She knew she'd probably have passed out from lack of oxygen if she'd just screamed for around half as long as that woman had. Though, the woman clung to the man who'd started speaking to her, clearly in an emotional state as Charlie could see her body shake with her sobbing.

Yet, she decided right then that if they weren't going to let her explain, she wasn't going to try and make them listen. Though, sneaking back through the gate was looking more and more preferable right now.

One of the other men pointed a rifle at Tim and snapped, "Who are you and what're you here for?"

Charlie opened her mouth to translate, but stopped when the man who'd hit her raised his rifle like he was going to hit her in the stomach again. So, Charlie sighed and spoke to Tim with her magic.

–Tim, he's waiting for you to tell him what we're here for and who you are.–

–What should I do?– he asked, clearly a little uneasy about the situation.

–Just answer them.– Charlie replied. –It's not like they'll understand you anyway.–

–True.– Tim replied with his magic, but aloud he said, "I'm Tim and why we came here is to search out new worlds and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before."

"Enough with the Star Trek already," Ralph complained. "Let's just go back through the gate and find the next nearest one. I'm already tired of this world."

"Who are you?" another man demanded of Ralph.

"I'm Ralph Ward," he replied casually. "We just came through a gate to this world. My friend Tim was saying that we came in search of new worlds and new civilizations and yadda yadda."

Charlie was at least happy to see that he got the same treatment as she did when she tried explaining that. Though, she still did feel bad for Ralph. Since she'd already experienced the pain full on, she could imagine the agony he was going through at that moment.

–Maybe we should make ourselves invisible and head back to the fungaloid world.– Charlie suggested. –I get the feeling they're not going to really listen to us on this world.–

–Come on, it might be fun to see how easily it'll be for us to break out of wherever they put us and make our way back to the gate.– Wes said. –Might be good experience in case we need to do something like this on the world that has the griffin canyon we're looking for.–

–I think we should go too, though not for the same reasons.– Amelia said. –I think the rifles they're holding are similar to the ones that were used in World War I.–

–And why would that be important?– Tim asked.

–Well, I want to see what else they have that's old to us.– Amelia answered matter-of-factly.

–You know, what if we used our magic to talk with them?– Beth asked. –At least they'd be able to understand us.–

–But can they talk to us with magic?– Ralph asked. –They might have ears like elves are supposed to, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're elves.–

–I can ask them.– Charlie volunteered. –At least then we can know if they can reply to anything we say with our magic.–