Nothing happened. No light. Not even a glow—and definitely no transformation.
Just as she was about to give up, the tiniest amount of light emitted from the tip of her horn. Unfortunately, it flickered out as fast as it had appeared. At this point, her coat was damp with sweat, and her breathing was ragged. Defeated, she let out a cry of frustration, throwing her head to the ground.
“That was a good start,” Damien said, tucking his legs to lower himself beside her.
“I need more than a good start. I can’t stay like this.” She picked her head off the ground, looking over her body, at her hooves. “I can’t believe I am a unicorn . . .” She sighed. If only this were all a dream. “I wonder why I transformed now after all of these years.”
“It is odd. Most unicorns transform when they are younglings. Something had to be preventing you from shifting until now.”
Luna replayed the events that happened before she transformed. “My necklace!” She had initially blamed the terrible shape she’d been in on all the alcohol, but perhaps it was because she was no longer wearing her necklace. It was the only thing that made sense, the only thing she’d noticed was any different. “I’ve worn it my entire life. Do you think it kept my true identity hidden?”
“It’s a possibility.”
The necklace was an heirloom that had been in her mother’s family for generations; someone, somehow, must have altered it to make it hinder Luna’s magic.It had to be that, she thought to herself. The alternative, that her mother had gifted her the necklace to inhibit her magic, was too horrible a thought to be true.
She looked around the open field to the forest surrounding them. “Where are we anyway?”
“Cumberland Forest.” He pointed his chin over his shoulder, gesturing to one side of the field. “The place I am staying at isn’t too far from here.”
Cumberland forest was on the outskirts of the Kingdom of Grythorn, easily a day’s ride away from the city center, or was that now a day’s walk? “How did we get here? It felt like squeezing through a . . . a stalk of wheat.”
“I teleported us here.” He spoke with such casualness, as if teleporting was a normal everyday mode of transport. Which, to him, it probably was.
Taken aback, she asked, “Unicorns can do that?”
“For someone so blindly fearful of unicorns, you really don’t know much about us.” He was right about that. She’d been taught unicorns were to be feared due to their destructive nature, and that they were most valuable dead. Damien only shook his head at her silence. “We aren’tthatbad, you know.”
The fact that she was part of the ‘we’ made her cringe. Slightly embarrassed, she admitted, “I’m figuring that out.” It was the truth. How could she call unicorns vile beasts if she was one? Besides, Damien didn’t seem as heartless as she had been led to believe unicorns were.
There was approval in his gaze as he explained, “There’s a special species of flora which an ancient unicorn blessed. It can pop up anywhere in the world, regardless of whether there are seeds for it or not. Its root system is said to have a connection to the very heart of the earth. The leaves from the plant contain the magic needed to teleport.”
She recalled him tearing a leaf before she had been consumed by shadows and brought here.Teleportation.Tilting her head, she asked, “How does it work?”
“When a unicorn rips a leaf open from the plant, an aura is released that allows the wielder the ability to travel its root system. All you have to do is focus your magic and you will be teleported where you want to go. The only restriction I have come across is travelling between Eloria and Ghelvina. It seems that moving between the two realms has to be done on foot.” Damien’s eyes widened, and he abruptly rose to his feet. “We could try a different way to get you transformed.”
She looked up, meeting his gaze. Trying not to sound too hopeful, she prompted him with a simple, “Oh?”
“There’s a herb that inhibits our magic: unicornbane. If you touch it, or consume it, it will drain your power. The process is quite painful and weakens most unicorns to the point of passing out. Since you have no control over your powers, it might drain them enough to force your body back into its human form. I should warn you—”
“I don’t care. As long as it doesn’t kill me, I will do whatever it takes to not be like this.” She rolled her head, gesturing at herself.
His lips rumbled together, making a funny noise. “Glad you’re willing to do anything, because I don’t have any more of the teleportation leaves on me. We’ll have to walk to where I have the unicornbane dust stored.”
She looked down at herfourlegs and then back up at him. “You expect me to walk with these?”
A soft chuckle escaped him before he nodded his head.
With no other option, she supposed she’d have to figure out how to walk. She thought about the horses she had seen throughout her life, trying to picture how they rose to a standing position. Attempting to emulate that, she put her two front legs in front of her and shifted her weight forward, then tucked her hind legs under her and pushed upwards. She got to all fours, shaking like a leaf with her feet out wide, but at least she was up.
“Now what?” she asked, feeling like a toddler—or rather a foal—standing for the first time.
“Now, you take a step.”
She rocked her weight back and forth from her front to back legs until she found her center of balance. Once she was confident enough to move, she slowly picked up a hoof and waved it in the air, testing the weight of it. Her entire body wobbled as she moved her foot forward a step, then another. Every time she lifted a foot and put another down, she had to pause to regain her balance. She surprised herself; she thought for sure she was going to fall, but she didn’t. Each step forward lifted her confidence, and soon, she was walking with rhythm.
“Not half bad for someone who never wants to be a unicorn again,” Damien said as he walked alongside her. She would’ve said something snarky if she wasn’t using so much brain power to focus on not tripping over her gangly, knobby legs.
They walked across the grassy field and into a forest. The leaves from the trees brushed along her body, tickling the tips of her ears. As they walked, her gait began to feel like second nature, and she no longer had to think so hard about it. There wasn’t a path, so every now and then, Damien used his horn to slash the greenery, opening up a gap large enough for them to pass through.
