Unicorns' Opal (11 page)

Tedi grew irritated as he watched the two girls talking. Yesterday, Niki acted as if she would use her magic to kill Tanya and today they were talking like old friends. Tedi shook his head as he pondered the mysteries of women. Seeking some insight into their bewildering behavior, Tedi rode forward and rode alongside Arik, passing the two girls without a comment.

“Coming up to spell me as point man for a bit?” greeted Arik.

“Not exactly,” frowned Tedi. “I’m trying to figure out why Tanya hates me.”

“What makes you think she hates you?” questioned Arik. “I haven't detected any of those feelings from her.”

“Every time I try to talk with her, she gets angry and leaves,” explained Tedi.

“That doesn’t mean she hates you,” chuckled Arik. “You approach her with romance in your heart and she doesn’t know how to react to it. Perhaps you push too hard.”

“I didn’t think I was even pushing,” Tedi sighed frustratingly. “She gets along with you all right.”

“That is because I treat her the same way I treat you,” stated Arik. “She thinks of herself as one of the boys and that is how I act towards her. That type of relationship is comfortable for her because that is how she sees herself. At least, most of the time.”

“What do you mean most of the time?” inquired Tedi.

Arik turned and let his eyes roll over the column of Rangers behind him before turning his attention towards Tedi. “I think she is in love with Alex and she doesn’t know how to handle it.”

“Alex?” remarked Tedi. “He is old enough to be her father and he is already married to Jenneva. How could she be in love with him?”

"Perhaps it is a poor choice of words on my part,” Arik backpedaled. “Infatuation might be a better choice for the word. At times she idolizes him and then she turns around and hates him. No matter which way her feelings are at any particular time, you can be sure that they are strong feelings. There is no middle ground in her feelings toward Alex.”

Tedi stared down at his horse’s mane and fell silent for a while. Arik rode on without talking and let Tedi digest what he had said. After a few moments, Tedi straightened and shook his head.

“I guess there is a lot of truth in what you have told me,” Tedi declared. “There is not much hope of me competing with Alexander Tork for her affection.”

“Not true,” smiled Arik. “Alex loves Jenneva. You can see it every day in the way they interact with each other. Despite the age difference, Alex would not be interested in Tanya, anyway. Someday she will realize that and get over him. Her infatuation is probably due more to her uncle’s stories than Alex himself. I think that is the source of her mood swings. She loves him based on her uncle’s tales and hates the fact that he is fallible like everyone else in real life. She gets angry with him when he does something that her legend wouldn’t do.”

“It is all too confusing,” admitted Tedi. “I don’t want to feel this way about Tanya or any other girl, but she invades my dreams every night. In the dreams we get along well with each other, but then I wake up and reality is very different.”

“Enjoy the dream and forget the rest,” advised Arik. “Women are too much trouble for the effort. They just complicate life and our lives are already too complicated. It’s getting pretty late. Why don’t you scout ahead and find us a suitable place to bed down tonight?”

Tedi nodded and moved ahead while Prince Midge climbed out of his pocket and stood on Arik’s shoulder. “So, you are an expert with women now?” chuckled the tiny fairy.

“Not exactly,” laughed Arik. “In fact, they confuse the daylights out of me, but, at least Tedi will have something else to occupy his mind instead of drooling over Tanya.”

“We fairies do not have such problems,” smiled Prince Midge. “Mating is not for life with the fairies. It is just something that happens when it does. A fairy may have many mates during his lifetime.”

“Isn’t that awkward for the children?” asked Arik. “I mean, his father might live with someone else and his mother might have a new mate. His brother could have a different father or a different mother.”

“With the fairies, that is not a problem,” smiled Prince Midge. “Fairy children are the responsibility of the entire village, not their parents. A fairy child may not even live with either of his parents, but with a favorite mentor, instead. In fact, it is considered proper to live with your mentor instead of your parents. Your parents only gave life to you, but the whole village will nurture and educate you. If a fairy child wants to be a song singer, why should parents who have chosen other paths bring him up? It makes more sense for him to be brought up by a master song singer, doesn’t it?”

“It may make more sense,” admitted Arik, “but I have a hard time thinking that the parental bond is so useless. I could not imagine myself thinking of my father as a master fisherman and enjoying life with someone else because I didn’t want to fish for a living. My father taught me many things that had nothing to do with fishing. He gave me his values and his love and shaped me into the person I am today, yet I am not a fisherman.”

“But if you had grown up with Alex and Jenneva, imagine how fine a warrior you would be now,” replied Prince Midge.

“I will grant you that I might be a better warrior and I’m sure Alex and Jenneva would have cared for me like their own son,” responded Arik, “but I would not trade that for the childhood I had with my father. There will always be a special place in my heart for my parents, no matter what they decided to do with their lives. I would not change our style of family unity if I had the choice.”

“Your mother and father must be special people,” smiled Prince Midge. “I would be honored to meet them some day.”

“I would be very happy if that was possible,” sighed Arik. “I have not seen my mother in years. She was stolen by bandits while my father and I were fishing.”

Prince Midge nodded solemnly. “I will help Tedi find an appropriate site for tonight,” bowed Prince Midge just before he leaped into the air and sped forward along the trail.

Within half an hour, Arik halted the column at the spot Tedi had chosen. A small, clear stream bordered one side of the clearing. Towering pines bordered the rest of it. Tedi already had a campfire going and three rabbits skewered over the flames. The ground was dry and mostly covered with pine needles and pinecones in abundance. Arik noted as he dismounted that everyone was riding single file except for Alex and Jenneva. Whatever conversation had salted the trip, they appeared to end it before they reached the campsite.

Alex glanced around the campsite and as his eyes passed over Niki he addressed the Rangers. “We will need sentries tonight,” he announced. “We do not want any Yaki sneaking up on us while we are in the open.”

“I will take the last watch,” volunteered Tanya. “I’m tired enough to go to sleep now.”

“I’ll take the first watch,” offered Fredrik.

“And I will fill in between them,” stated Tedi as he gathered the horses from the dismounting Rangers. “We have some rabbits roasting if anyone cares to supplement them with something else, they'd better hurry.”

Arik pulled the Sword of Heavens from its sheath and turned around in a circle. The bulging of his muscles was a clear enough indication of the direction and distance they had yet to travel.

“We are very close,” reported Arik. “No more than a day or two and directly east of here.”

Alex nodded as he pulled his trip wire from his pack and disappeared into the pine forest. Tedi turned back towards the clearing after securing the horses and saw Fredrik and Tanya sparing with staffs. He thought Tanya looked pretty energetic for someone who just claimed she was tired, but he pushed it out of his mind as he went to check on the rabbits.

Dinner was a very quiet affair and nobody made any serious attempt at conversation. After dinner, instead of lighting a pipe and sitting around the campfire, Alex moved off with Jenneva to their sleeping area and sat talking quietly. Everyone except Fredrik turned in and went to sleep.

Fredrik interrupted Tedi’s delightful dream and announced that it was Tedi’s turn at watch. Tedi shook the dream from his mind and lifted his staff. The woods were very quiet and very dark. The moon no longer shone under the Darkness of Sarac and Tedi realized how much he missed it. He let his mind drift back to Lorgo and wondered what his father and Master Clava were doing and whether or not they had heard of the sunshine in Cordonia. He chuckled to himself when he thought of them finding out that he and Arik had something to do with it.

The hours clicked by swiftly and Tedi’s attuned ears failed to pick up any sounds of trouble emanating from the dark forest. Without a clear indication of time, Tedi arbitrarily decided when to wake Tanya. Tanya awoke easily and wordlessly took her turn at watch. Tedi lay back down and tried to return to sleep.

His thoughts turned to Tanya once again and he fought the pleasant images. With the issuance of a very light sound, his eyes popped open and peered into the darkness of the clearing. Filtering out the sounds of the wind moving through the trees and the brook babbling behind him, Tedi focused on the area where he had heard the sound and wondered where Tanya was and whether she was still awake and on duty.

As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw Tanya near Jenneva’s sleeping spot. He watched with suspicious eyes as Tanya bent and started going through Jenneva’s packs. Torn between shouting out to Jenneva and staying quiet to watch, Tedi decided to observe quietly. Tanya extracted something from Jenneva’s pack and, after glancing around the campsite, stole into the forest with the item. Tedi thought about sneaking after her to find out what she was up to, but knew Tanya would discover him. Instead, he decided to remain quiet and see if Jenneva noticed anything missing the next morning.

Unwilling to return to dreams of Tanya, Tedi lay awake and wondered what game she was playing. The thought of one of the Rangers turning against Alex and Jenneva had not occurred to him before and he was especially surprised that it was Tanya who was involved. Perhaps there was something more to her than he noticed before and he was determined to start watching her closely.

Shortly before the first lightening, Tedi saw Tanya creep up to Jenneva’s pack again. Whatever she had taken, Tanya was putting it back into its rightful place. He gave her credit for her stealth. If he had not been already awake, he would have missed her returning the object. He closed his eyes to a mere slit as Tanya walked around the campsite looking at each of the Rangers. She passed by Tedi without so much as a hesitation and Tedi smiled inwardly because he had watched her without being discovered. Within minutes of the episode, Tanya started the morning fire and people started to wake up.

Breakfast was almost as quiet as dinner the night before and Tedi began to get concerned that something was wrong with the Rangers. Tanya finished eating first and announced her intention to ride out and check the trail, saying she would meet up with the group as they left the campsite. Alex’s protest fell on deaf ears as Tanya rode out of sight. Mumbling under his breath, Alex ordered everyone to quickly clean up the campsite and follow Tanya.

Tanya smiled tautly as she heard Alex’s orders to the other Rangers. She raced away from the campsite leaving tracks, which even Niki could follow. Choosing her path carefully, she reversed direction and headed back towards the campsite. While she was still out of sight of the Rangers, she left the trail, being careful not to leave any readily visible tracks. She rode perpendicular to her tracks for a short while and tied her horse to a tree. Dismounting, she stole her way to a place where she could watch the Rangers.

She watched as Arik and Tedi readied the horses while Niki took care of the fire. Alex, Jenneva, and Fredrik gathered everyone’s belongings and brought them to the center of the clearing just as Arik and Tedi arrived with the horses. Everyone mounted up and rode out of the campsite.

As soon as Tanya was sure they were out of sight, she dashed into the campsite and went straight for the fire Niki had extinguished. Using a stick to move the ashes, she found what she was looking for. A small note, which she had seen Niki scribbling during breakfast, was the prize under the ashes. Tanya opened it and read it. Shaking her head, she brushed the ashes off of the note and put it into her pouch.

Swiftly, she turned and ran to her horse. She moved quickly along the trail and was surprised at how far the Rangers had gone in such a short time. It took almost five minutes for her to catch up to the Rangers and nobody was pleased with her when she did reach them. Even Tedi chose to ride alone in single file and Tanya suddenly missed his constant bantering.

The next night, Tanya volunteered to share the watch with Alex and Arik. Tedi again observed Tanya’s antics and decided to arrange his sleeping spot closer to Jenneva next time so he could get a good look at what Tanya was doing. Breakfast in the morning was a little livelier as Arik expressed hope that they would find the unicorns this day. Tanya did not rush off early again as she had the day before. In fact, she dawdled and was the last Ranger to leave the campsite. Her pouch contained another small slip of paper as she rode to catch up with the Rangers.

Around midday, Alex rode forward to talk with Tedi who was leading the Rangers for this portion of the trip.

“We are being observed,” Alex whispered. “Don’t look around, but someone is watching us.”

“I know,” answered Tedi. “I started hearing them a few minutes ago. That is why I slowed down. What do you want to do?”

“I’d like to get a better idea of who they are before I have to make that decision,” Alex answered. “Can your hearing pick up anything we can use to identify them?”

“No,” replied Tedi. “They are very quiet. I’m surprised you even heard them.”

“I didn’t hear them,” smiled Alex. “I sensed them. I can’t explain it, but I get a certain feeling at the back of my neck when someone is watching me. They are very quiet, indeed.”

Alex rode alongside Tedi for some time, straining his ears to pick up any sounds of the stalkers.

“
They are my people
,” sent Kaz. “
We are surrounded. I would suggest that Yorra and I show our horns and stop in the next decent-sized clearing. It has been many years since I was home and I do not know what has happened here since that time. We should tread carefully.
”