They headed across the camp. The obstacle course was on the far side of the field, next to the woods. Most of the ropes and swings had been disassembled and stored over the winter, and some of the equipment was covered with tarps, but a few of the obstacles were still accessible.
Sure enough, they found little Leaf playing on the balance beams, hopping from log to log like a mountain goat. Flash loitered nearby with the sullen air of a teen tasked with watching over a younger sibling. Catching sight of them approaching, she whinnied in alarm.
“It’s all right, kids,” Leonie said. “We’re not here to send you home. Though I’m surprised to see you. I thought you weren’t supposed to hang around near the camp.”
Leaf pranced over, tail high. Leonie got a confused blur of telepathic images, along with a general impression of smugness. She wasn’t quite sure what the unicorn was trying to convey, but Leaf was definitely pleased about something.
“I’m glad you’re here,” Shan said to the two unicorns. He crouched, putting himself more on eye-level with the young fillies. “I need to speak with you about an important matter. I promise you won’t get in trouble, but I have to know the truth. Have either of you been entering human houses?”
Both unicorns blinked at him. Flash’s horn brightened fora moment. An image of a room flickered through Leonie’s mind, along with a sense of a question.
“No, not Buck and Honey’s house,” Shan said, evidently having received the same mental picture. “I mean, places you are not supposed to go. Have you been sneaking into houses occupied by non-shifters? Or heard of any of the other unicorns doing so?”
From Flash and Leaf’s wide-eyed stares, this was a level of naughtiness beyond even their imaginations. They both shook their heads.
“Truth,” Shan said under his breath. He straightened, brow creasing. “In that case, would you mind teleporting back to the herd to fetch Alder-in-Winter? I need to speak with him right away.”
Flash snorted, flicking her tail. Her sister bounced up and down, and another barrage of images hit Leonie’s brain.
“Slow down, sweetie,” she said, struggling to make sense of the rapidly changing pictures. “Talk to me like I’m a baby, okay? One thing at a time.”
Leaf seemed to concentrate. Leonie got a sharp, detailed picture of Alder-in-Winter standing in a clearing. Then, the image flickered. The trees and plants stayed, but Alder was gone.
Shan frowned. “Alder-in-Winter is missing?”
Both unicorns nodded enthusiastically.
“How long has he been gone?” Leonie asked.
Flash answered this time, sending a telepathic image of a moon changing phase. Leonie wasn’t surepreciselyhow much time the unicorn meant, but it had clearly been a while.
She glanced at Shan. “Does a missing unicorn fall under your jurisdiction?”
“I can’t say it’s ever come up before.” He ran a hand through his hair, looking somewhat at a loss. “He’s not a shifter, but it’s certainly a matter of interest to my department.Thank you, Flash, Leaf. Tell your mother I’ll look into it.”
Flash flicked an ear, as if to say she didn’t see why anyone wouldwantto look for Alder. Still, she nodded agreement. In a flash of light, both unicorns teleported away.
“We should tell Zephyr,” Leonie said to Shan.
He nodded, gaze abstracted. She could tell he was already making plans to track down the missing unicorn; who to ask, where to look. “I’ll need to alert the rest of my team as well. We’ll have to alert the local shifter community. If something’s happened to Alder-in-Winter, it could be a threat to us all.”
If they’d taken the same route back to the office, she would have missed it. Later, she would wonder what would have happened if she had. How much would have been different.
But they were in a hurry, and it was faster to cut past the kids’ cabins than follow the winding footpath back to the central area. Leonie was leading the way, Shan at her heels, when her griffin suddenly surged up, tugging at her mind.
Stop.Something is wrong.
Shan almost walked straight into her back. “Leonie? What is it?”
“I’m…not sure.” She rotated on the spot, trying to figure out what had caught her animal’s attention. “Just…something seems out of place, somehow.”
Shan looked around. “I do not see anything amiss.”
She sucked in a breath, staring. “I do.”
It was just a faint impression in the dirt, right in front of one of the cabins. Without griffin eyes, she would have walked right past it. But once she’d spotted it, the shape was unmistakable; a heel, five toes.
A bare human footprint.
