Wade smiled. "You, sir, are a man after my own heart.”
As the rest of our friends left, Daniel pulled out the map and spread it on the hood of the car. Wade pulled up his phone and showed Daniel where he’d put the camera on his phone. My bear shifter easily found the spot on the map, and then began to show all of us the closest road and trail, before tracking it back to where we were now.
When they were done, the map was folded back up in Daniel’s hand. He looked eager to go, but not as eager as Wade and Beth. Both of them were practically bouncing on their heels.
"Here." Daniel tossed me the keys, the metal jingling sharply against my palm. "You drive. I need to focus on the directions."
"Got it," I replied, catching the keys mid-air.
Daniel's truck loomed like a sentinel guarding the path to adventure, or madness. I couldn't decide which. Climbing intothe driver's seat, I adjusted the mirrors while Beth and Wade got in behind us.
"Seatbelt," Daniel reminded me, already buckled in and scanning our surroundings. The protective streak in him never rested, not even for a second.
"Right." I clicked the belt into place and threw the vehicle into drive. Gravel crunched beneath the tires as we left the safety of civilization behind.
"Head for Old Miller's path." Daniel pointed toward the darkening woods. "It's the quickest way to where Wade's sensor was tripped."
"Okay." I turned the truck onto the road that wound its way toward the forest. The trees loomed taller as we approached, their branches reaching out like hands ready to pull us into an ancient world.
"Do you think we should call Trudy and Nam and update them on the case and what Jamur just told us?" I asked.
"Good thinking." Beth nodded from the backseat. "But we’ll be careful not to accuse them, especially since we don’t believe Jamur.” She pulled her phone out, dialed, then put the phone on speaker. The line crackled, then a voice answered.
"Beth?" It was Trudy's calm tone through a bunch of static.
"Hey, Trudy. You two okay?" Beth asked.
"We're still at the hospital. Nam's resting," she replied. The background beep of medical equipment filtered through.
"Listen, we might have something big. A unicorn, caught on camera, on the lands that Jamur was fighting over. The lands the committee is now in charge of protecting," Beth said.
"A unicorn?" Trudy repeated, disbelief clear in her voice.
"Are you sure?" Nam's more gravelly tone joined in. "Unicorns are incredibly rare, and I’ve never heard of a report of them in Mystic Hollow.”
"Pretty sure." I glanced at Wade, who was nodding vigorously.
"Unicorns are protected," Nam said. "They're like rhinos or elephants back in our day. If what you're saying is true..."
"Then they're safe," Trudy finished. "Nobody would dare harm them now that they’re on committee lands. It would be an absolute stroke of fortune that they didn’t fall into Jamur’s hands."
Name gave a tired laugh. "Luckily, the document he had to prove his ownership was absolutely forged.”
I was relieved. This sounded like news to me. So Trudy and Nam were either very good liars, or innocent just like we thought. "We just wanted to keep you in the loop."
"Call us if you need anything," Trudy said before the call ended.
"Wait, Trudy," I interjected before they could hang up. "Who would enforce that? The protection for the unicorns, I mean."
There was a brief pause on the other end of the line. "The committee overseeing the land would," Trudy explained. "They've got resources. If there are any unicorns out there, no one will touch them. That's a promise."
"Good to know," Daniel said.
"Absolutely," Nam chimed in. "In fact, the committee is prepared to hire people specifically for patrolling the areas where protected species are known to reside. They would act as wardens, ensuring the unicorns, if they're really there, stay safe."
"Good," Wade replied, his excitement barely contained. "Now let's reach them before we lose the trail."
"Never thought I'd see the day," Nam added, his tone echoing Trudy's amazement. "We're all for protecting them. No question about it."
