The Unicorn's Forest

Beth wasn't sure where they were going. Even though she kept asking and prodding her guide, she never got an answer out of the woman she'd dubbed 'Sidney.' Though, being called that certainly made the woman look at Beth with annoyance, which was its own entertainment for Beth.

One thing she did notice as they walked down the streets was that there seemed to be mostly horses and horse-drawn carriages as the most common form of transportation, though at the moment, the streets were rather deserted. Yet, there were a few old-style cars here and there.

Beth had even had to keep her puppy from wandering out into the street where she could get run over if she wasn't careful. Beth didn't want to tell Zepha that the puppy had gotten run over when she was looking away for a minute. Not when she couldn't help but think of it as a way of Zepha giving Beth a piece of her heart. Yet, she did her best to not think too much about it.

Then there was how she couldn't help but wonder if this was a world that was getting ready to enter the modern-era. Or at least what she herself thought of it as. Especially with how Amelia had been interested in seeing it.

"What're you thinking of?" the woman asked Beth, while they walked.

To Beth it looked like they were in a downtown area of a major city, though, most of the buildings looked like they were either built in trees or with a tree style of architecture that made the building look like a tree. Mostly, she couldn't be sure that any of the buildings were in trees or not, with how so many of them looked. It was beyond anything she had even thought of before in her life.

"Well, I'm at least admiring the architecture of the buildings you have. Though, I have to say, it's the first time I've seen any cars that old. Well, outside of pictures, I mean," Beth answered conversationally.

"What do you mean 'old?'" the woman asked. "These are the latest models."

Beth shrugged. "In my world, the internal combustion engine was developed over a hundred years ago and they'd made cars like these about a hundred years ago in my world as well, Sidney," Beth replied, first looking at the cars then at the woman. "I'm guessing these cars don't go much over about fifteen miles and hour at top speed, if they can reach that."

"'Miles?'" the woman asked.

Beth nodded, realizing things like that don't always translate well. "It's a unit of measurement," Beth answered.

"I recognized that," the woman snapped. "What I don't know is how far that is."

Beth nodded. She should have realized that, but found it hard to care too much about it. "Uh, I think a mile is around five thousand feet and a foot is roughly the length of a person's foot, though, I think mine measured at around nine inches and it takes twelve inches," Beth said, then paused. "Well, seven or nine. I just remember it was an odd number for my feet."

The woman looked like she was doing the math in her head, though Beth didn't envy her doing that. Math was always trying to pick a fight with her and she'd long ago lost her patience with trying to figure out what it was trying to do, and that was when she could write it down. Inside her head, she was barely able to do simple math. Forget any complicated or problems with lots of numbers.

Beth let the woman think about if for a minute before speaking. She had no idea how long it'd take the woman to finish the math, but she didn't have the patience to let her take any longer on that. "Oh, and then there's the feel of your city. It's like I'm watching an movie that takes place around the early twentieth century. Everything just feels rustic, almost like I traveled back in time," Beth said, hoping to continue the topic they'd started before getting on the tangent about units of measurement.

The woman nodded. "So, I take it you're not opposed to progressing with science and letting magic not be our main focus?" she asked as she indicated Beth turn down another street.

As they made the turn, Beth couldn't help but notice a very large tree-looking structure that almost was hidden by most of the other tree-buildings that were closer. The large tree looked like a twisting tree that had branches with leaves that lit up the tree itself. She couldn't imagine how long it had to have take to build it, let alone how much it would have cost.

"No, I'm not opposed to science. In my world, magic has been long forgotten and is only considered slight of hand tricks that can be easily explained once you know the secret behind them," Beth answered. "It wasn't even a year ago that my friends and I had our magic unsealed and we started to learn how to use it." Beth sighed, pausing for a minute as she reflected how much had changed in that period of time for her. "Sometimes I feel like I've been in a dream since then."

The woman looked at Beth in a strange way, though she didn't seem to be hostile or looking at Beth like she was lying. It was more like Beth was a puzzle that needed to be figured out and solved.

"Why did you and your friends come to this world then? Why not stay in your world if its so much better?" the woman asked.

Beth couldn't help but laugh. "Better? We have politician's who act like they're trying to help people out, but when the bills they pass don't turn out to work like those politician's advertised, those bills get left in place and never improved or anything. Just left to hurt those I'm sure it was intended to hurt. We have people saying that people are destroying the planet because of the amount of carbon dioxide, and that we need to reduce the worlds population by around four billion or something. Then we have people who will make themselves look like victims while they try to kill people they don't like for the single crime of existing. Then if you say that statement to either side of the conflict, they'll say it applies to the other side!" Beth suddenly felt herself run out of air. Her rant kept going on and on, more than she had thought it would, not that she'd planned it in advance.

"Yeah, I thought as much," the woman replied, sighing. "I always hear how much better the future will be if we can just improve our lives."

"Maybe, but where are we going?" Beth asked, getting tired. While she didn't mind the conversation, she would like to at least sit down sometime soon. She wasn't sure how long they'd been walking, but had a feeling it'd been at least an hour, if not longer.

"Not much farther. Just a couple more lengths," the woman answered.

"I guess lengths are a unit of measurement on your world?" Beth asked with a wry grin.

The woman nodded. "Yeah, it is," she answered, then chuckled a moment later. "So, I guess it wouldn't mean much to you."

"Not really," Beth sighed. "All it really means to me is that I can't sit down for a while longer."

"Don't worry. I'm sure once we get where I'm taking you, you'll be able to at least sit down."

Beth nodded, but wasn't sure she really trusted this woman. She had a feeling that while she might be able to 'sit down' it might not be in a way that she'd like or think. Especially with the way things had been going in this world.

However, she didn't feel like that was something she needed to let the woman know. Especially since she wasn't sure that she was being as forthcoming as she was starting to seem to be. For one thing, she still hadn't said what her name was. Then there was how she kept dodging other questions of Beth's. It made her wonder just how much she was trusted herself by this woman.

She might appear to be able to move around as she chose at the moment, but Beth wouldn't be surprised if she tried getting her pack from the police station right now, they wouldn't let her. That they'd have some excuse or other of why they couldn't let her get it back. For her or her friends.

Beth picked up her puppy when she noticed that the hellhound was starting to be a lot less energetic. Beth couldn't blame the dog. They'd been walking for a while. In addition to how they'd kept her in that station for a long while already.

"So, what are the biggest differences from this world to yours?" the woman asked.

While it was subtle, it also felt like she was talking about Beth being from a another world as if she believed her. Beth wasn't sure if the woman was aware of it herself or not, but that's how it was coming across to Beth as.

Part of it seemed also like it was from when she'd mentioned the Heart of the Forest, while part of it seemed that she was able to give coherent answers to the woman's questions. Not that Beth received many answers to the questions she'd asked.

"Well, for one, the city isn't as bright as the cities in my world," Beth answered. "Another is I haven't seen any lights from airplanes moving across the sky. Oh, and not only are the cars here a lot slower, but I never saw so many horses being ridden around like this."

"Why would there not be as many horses?" the woman asked. "Cars won't ever be able to replace a reliable horse."

Beth could only chuckle at that. "Maybe, but you also have to consider caring for the horse. In my world, it's just easier to work with cars and not spend as much on what horses need to be healthy," she replied. "A car needs a tune up every so often and only needs to be filled up with gas when its tank runs low, but a horse needs to be fed every day, groomed, and get medical treatment, among other things like getting horseshoes. In all, I think people found cars to be less expensive over all."

"You know, that' not something I ever thought about," the woman answered. "I've heard some people complain about cars pushing horses to the side, but I never really thought about it that much."

Beth wasn't sure how to respond to that, so she merely waited quietly for the woman to ask another question. While she didn't have a coat, she suddenly started thinking about how warm of a night it was. She was surprised to just how relaxing she found it.

The woman seemed like she was about to ask another question, but then suddenly, a car pulled up on the street next to them. With a few people in the car wearing the same uniform as the other woman who had been in the room when they were asking Beth questions, Beth could only assume it was a vehicle for the police. Not that it explained what they were doing there at that moment.

The person in the driver's seat said something to the woman and all she could make out was what she thought was a name. Piya. Beth couldn't tell if the speaker was a man or woman with how their voice sounded and how dark it was right then.

The woman walked over to the car, opened the back door and got in, motioning for Beth to join her before turning back to the others.

"I was heading there myself. I have a feeling these people might actually not be cut-ears, but something else," the woman said. "We might have a bigger problem than the cut-ears."

"What are the 'cut-ears?'" Beth asked as she got in next to the woman, who's name seemed to be 'Piya.'

"Some elves will cut their ears short to make a statement about how we need to move away from science and back towards magic and nature. They claim that if we don't, that we'll ruin the lives of everyone and will destroy everyone's ability to work and earn a living," Piya answered.

"Why would they cut their ears?" Beth asked. "I mean, wouldn't that hurt?"

"I'm sure it does," Piya answered, sounding like she wasn't really interested in talking about it, nor did she answer Beth's first question. Instead, she merely asked one of her own from the others in the car. "So, what's the situation?"

"One of the cut-ears is a thought mage."

"What? I thought they were supposed to be registered as soon as they started showing signs," Piya gasped.

The driver said something that Beth couldn't understand and wondered briefly what it could be, but at the moment she was tired, so she didn't really feel like speculating too much on it. She'd rather either be done with this for a while or to at least find a place she could go to sleep in.

"Uh, actually, two of my friends are thought mages," Beth commented, feeling like she was tossing a verbal grenade in the car.

To her complete amusement, she found she was right. Although, at first it was only Piya that freaked out, but the others seemed to catch on quickly with what Piya said in response. In a couple minutes, the car was completely engulfed in pandemonium. Beth let them lose their minds for a minute before she decided to continue talking.

"If you really know anything about thought mages, you'd know there's more than one kind. In fact, one aspect of them is that they can understand languages others speak and have others understand them when they're not speaking a language the other person doesn't know," Beth merely said, looking outside the window, feeling a little cramped inside this car. She hoped that this world would be quick in their upgrades of automotive technology.

"Who's the other thought mage in your group?" Piya asked, which Beth felt a little obligated to ignore. For the moment at least.

"Then there's also how some can even see into the dreams of other people," Beth continued. "Though, I hear they have less control over that because they're asleep themselves usually when that happens."

"Tell us who the other thought mage is or we will head back to the station right now," Piya snapped.

"Geez, no need to get so bent out of shape," Beth commented, doing her best to sound shocked at the tone Piya was using. "I mean, you should already know who the other thought mage is. I mean, there's only two of us that can understand you guys without using whatever that is in your hand and can understand whatever is said to them."

"We don't even know what your names are," Piya said, still very cross.

"You would if you guys would actually listen," Beth retorted. I mean, when Charlie tried introducing herself, even though she had her hands up in surrender, she was hit in the stomach and she told me that she was accused of lying. Then, I think that happened to Ralph as well. Besides, you haven't really tried answering any of my questions since we've been talking,"

"We do listen," Piya protested.

"Maybe you wait for another person to finish talking, but that doesn't mean you actually listen," Beth replied. "I mean, I've asked you several questions and you've ignored almost every one of them. So, I don't really have much patience for a weak attempt to justify your lack of listening. I mean, you can say your listening, but that doesn't necessarily mean you are. I mean, you at least hear what I say, but listening is something else altogether."

Piya glared at Beth. "Who is the other thought mage?"

Beth smiled at Piya. "Well, I could tell you, but that might mean I tell you about the one you do know about. After all, you never did say which of my friends you learned was a thought mage," Beth answered, doing her best to sound bored.

Whatever Piya was going to say in response was cut off before she could say anything. The driver said something and then Piya looked at Beth and said, "We're at the royal palace. You can explain about the thought mages that you said are your friends to the King. So, you'll be coming with me and don't try to use your magic or anything. It won't end well for you."