01
“What is it?” asked the unicorn, from behind him. “Humans,” replied Shane, regaining his composure, forcing himself to analyse the sounds that assaulted his senses and then, recognising the dull thuds that began to separate from the sound of the rain, he said, “The humans are building something. No other creature makes those sounds. But why are they doing it now? Humans normally prefer to shelter from the rains?”
Hearing only silence from the unicorn, Shane said, “I will return soon. I only want to check on what they are doing and make sure it is not a trap for the likes of you or me.”
“I will come with you,” said Flack.
Hearing the unicorn getting to his feet, Shane was about to tell him to remain but decided that, ‘Although it may be curiosity that drives the unicorn, he will still have to walk beneath the storm. So, he is being brave as well as cautious and if we have need to race from this area it is better that he is stronger in the face of the thunder and lightning.’
“Follow me,” whispered Shane, slowly moving forward, crouching low to make himself as invisible as possible and then, realising that it would be pointless as the unicorn could not do the same and would still present a large target, he began trotting forward slowly, his nose occasionally skimming the ground as he searched for any scents that may give him a clue as to what the human’s were doing.
The rain pounded hard against him at times as he made his way through the trees, always heading roughly in the direction that he wanted and making small adjustments when he saw areas that looked as though they would help conceal the unicorn from eyes that were ahead of them.
The noises grew louder, clearly evident against the backdrop of rain, as Shane thought, ‘They are hammering frantically. What is it that they are doing?’
Slowing his pace, Shane halted, listening to the sounds in the forest while peering though the trees and then, in the distance to his right, he caught his first sign of movement.
Whispering, he said, “There are many humans. They have much wood that they are using to construct something with. These are the red humans; I can see glimpses of the colours they wear, though their clothes are darkened by the soaking rain.”
“Should we move away from this area?” said the voice of the unicorn from behind him.
“We should, but I want to see more,” replied Shane. “The rain will make it difficult for the humans to see us clearly and by the evidence before me I would say that they are too busy with what they are doing to be looking around the forest for the likes of us.”
Instinctively crouching lower, while disregarding Flack’s inability to do so, Shane began moving forward again, suddenly breaking into a quick run and racing towards a large clump of bushes. Above the sound of the rain, he could hear Flack’s footsteps when he increased his own speed. Although it seemed loud, Shane knew that it would be heard by the humans, ‘Not with the commotion being made with their constant hammering.’
The rain was easily getting through the canopy in this area and Shane realised that whatever the humans were constructing it must be going up into the canopy of the trees.
“I want to circle around,” whispered Shane, adding, “Please try to keep quiet. It is wetter on the ground in this area so try to go where the soil is like mud as it will hide the sound of your footsteps, but just be careful in case you slip…” Without waiting for a reply, Shane raced off to his left, his head being constantly turned towards the signs of human activity as he ran, ‘If I keep this distance away from them then we should be safe.’
Glancing behind, he was surprised that the unicorn was so close to him, ‘He is following my advice and ensuring that he is quiet. I only hope that the humans do not see him moving amongst the trees, though I doubt they would be interested…’
Pulling himself to a halt, Shane had seen something that he was expecting to see but it still shocked him to the core. Before him was the evidence of the power of the humans.
“What is it?” asked the unicorn, moving slowly to stand beside him.
Looking at the immense rain-obscured bulk upon the ground, Shane replied, “It is a dragon. It is a dead dragon!”
“What is a dragon?” asked Flack.
“They are strange creatures,” whispered Shane, “And I had not heard of any in this new land. I know they existed in the land from where I came but I did not know that they were actually in this land.”
“What is this land and what is the old land?” Flack asked.
Hearing the puzzlement in the unicorn’s voice, Shane replied, “They are a creature from the old land and it is believed that they are not of Earth, that they come from beyond the stars.”
02
“What is it,” the unicorn asked.
“I am not sure. Perhaps we may have found some shelter for the night,” replied Shane, turning left and running along the edge of the slab before turning right when the rock began burying itself back into the ground. The unicorn’s hoof beats were loud upon the stone slab and Shane hoped that the unicorn would quickly follow him off the slab and back onto the soil.
Racing along beside the slab, Shane could see that the rock jutted out of the ground at an angle, creating an overhang. ‘A place to rest for the night,’ thought Shane, as he began to turn to move beneath the giant slab of rock.
Trying to pull himself to a rapid halt, Shane could not stop himself as he saw the heavily red-clothed figure that suddenly turned and lashed out at him with a foot.
With an agonising yelp, Shane took a forceful blow on the lower right side of his neck, the power behind the kick sending him spinning back and crashing to the ground.
Shaking his head, he saw the red-clothed human move toward him and suddenly stop and then, as the human turned to his left, the full force of Flack’s horn rammed into the human’s stomach, sending him flying back through the air, landing with a heavy thump on the damp ground.
Clutching his stomach, the red-clothed human took hold of something and pointed toward the foreleg stamping Flack. A red beam of light erupted from the device in the strange human’s hand and, as Flack leapt to the side, Shane saw the red light catch Flack’s side, making the unicorn shout in pain.
Scrambling to his feet while ignoring his own pain, Shane was about to leap toward the red-clothed human, whose scent he now recognised, but was stopped by a sudden shrieking, screaming sound that began emitting from the human’s lips.
The red-clothed human’s head began to violently move from side to side and, as the sound of the scream reached a crescendo, the figure suddenly burst into flames, screaming in agony and then, as the evil figure burnt, Shane saw it seem to change shape, elongating its limbs before, with a sudden flash of intense light, the figure vanished, taking the mournful screaming with it.
“What was that?” came Flack’s voice, invading Shane’s numbified mind.
Shaking his head, Shane replied, saying, “I do not know. I thought it was a human. I thought it was Koo-tansee, the strange human who joined my human camp a little while ago. No, I know it was him, I recognised his strange, horrible scent. But what was he? I have never seen that happen to a human in all of my life!”
“What is this?” said Flack, taking Shane’s mind away from his confused thoughts.
Looking at Flack, Shane saw that he was pawing the ground just in front of him and so Shane moved towards the strange object that blinked with strange lights of red and green.
Standing and looking down at the object, Shane was completely puzzled by what he saw. “Human’s only use tools for making things, breaking things and firing arrows. I have never seen anything as small and detailed as this. How does it make the lights blink? The only lights I have seen with humans have been ground fires and grass torches; I do not know what this is.”
Studying the shiny black surface of the object, Shane was trying to determine what might be the meaning of the strange markings upon the object when, suddenly, Flack’s foreleg flashed into view, his hoof driving down and smashing the object into a number of pieces.
Jumping back, Shane watched as Flack struck again at a piece of the object which still had a blinking red light illuminating upon it.
After a few more pounding hoof strikes, there were no more strange blinking lights and the object now only existed in a multitude of pieces, some stranger than others.
“What are the strange bits that have come from inside the outer shell of this thing?” asked Shane.
“I do not know,” said Flack, “But it was evil and had to be destroyed.”
Glancing up at the unicorn, Shane had become aware of the pain in the unicorn’s voice and then recalled that a red beam had struck out from the strange object, striking him upon his side.
“Are you all right?” asked Shane, concern in his voice but, before the unicorn could reply, Shane saw the unicorn begin to sway a little before he went crashing to the ground. The unicorn’s legs jerked as he came to rest and, as Shane shouted, “Flack!” he saw the unicorn’s eyes flicker for a moment before slowly closing.