Spring was winding down. Haytham and Hyacinth were visiting, sitting quietly in a corner together while Kailtyn read one of her books for study. Fapallo was laying beside her on the floor, snoring softly. To try to alleviate the heat of the day, Kaitlyn had all the doors and windows wide open in the common room. She also had a pair of magic hands waving woven mats of reeds to create a breeze.

Her clothes still stuck to her skin and her hair hung in lank locks. She finished her page and stood. She looked at Fapallo and said, “I’m going for a swim, do you want to come.”

“Yes!” he yipped happily.

They stopped by Javorora’s tree, but she said she didn’t want to go, so Kaitlyn and Fapallo went down to the river together. Kaitlyn shed most of her clothing, leaving on just a short linen shift which came to her thighs. Fapallo lept from the bank into the water and wriggled upstream a bit.

Kaitlyn grinned at the dragon and waded in, sighing as the cool river water brushed her skin. She got up to her thighs in the center of the stream and then sat down so it covered her head. She bobbed back up and let her head and hair float on the water. Fapallo swam underneath her and smacked her with his nose. She cried out with some laughter and turned, trying to smack him.

“Come back here you overgrown lizard,” she laughed. Fapallo did, diving under her again and coming up through her legs so she was on his spine, dragging her through the water with him. Fapallo shook her off without warning and then turned and began to splash her furiously. She laughed loudly.

Kailtyn whirled to try to catch Fapallo and glanced up to the bank where her clothes lay. She screamed in terror and scrambled for the far bank, tripping and scraping her hands as she fell on the rocks in the water. Fapallo turned in the water, practically flipping over himself as he moved between Kaitlyn and…. a unicorn.

She hadn’t seen one in five years, and although she had thought about it a lot, in the moment she saw the creature her first instinct was run.

It wasn’t a white unicorn. Or a black unicorn. In fact, it was unlike any other unicorn Kaitlyn or Fapallo had ever heard of. It was red. Except for the bright white horn and a stripe of white running from ears to its nose.

“Well that is a different reaction,” the unicorn spoke aloud. “I’ve never seen a maiden run away from me.”

Kaitlyn sobbed and curled around her knees on a rock, pressing her bleeding hands into her stomach to hide them. Fapallo hissed and puffed his feathers around his neck as he looked at the unicorn. The creature didn’t look bothered but looked past Fapallo to look at Kaitlyn.

“Ah, you have some interesting magic on you,” the unicorn said. “Can I look…”

“Leave!” Fapallo half-barked the command. “I will eat you!”

“You can try,” the unicorn replied in the same language, sounding a little strange coming from essentially a horse’s mouth.

Fapallo now was staring at the creature and snarled with a deep menacing tone, “What are you.”

“You can call me Vatra,” the unicorn said, “I won’t hurt you maiden.”

“S-S-Stay away from me,” Kaitlyn stammered.

The unicorn looked at her a long time, then leaned down and sniffed her dress again. It slowly raised its head and said, “Interesting. Very well, I will go.”

The creature turned and slowly walked into the forest. Kaitlyn stared after it and then burst into tears. Fapallo came over and curled up next to her. He gently nuzzled her and she wrapped her arms around him and sobbed all the harder. The dragon sighed and whistled, “I’ll protect you. I won’t let any more unicorns hurt you.”

Kaitlyn half-laughed and then slowly rubbed at her eyes, “Thank you.”

“Are you hurt inside?” Fapallo asked.

“Physically, no,” Kaitlyn said, holding up her hands, “Except these of course. Let’s go home.”

“Do you want to talk?” Fapallo asked.

“I…” Kaitlyn began wading across the water, “Yes. I think I do.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“I listen,” Fapallo declared.

She didn’t actually start talking immediately, but when she did she said, “The unicorn Claus killed was small. I think it was still a baby, not a foal but definitely not an adult.”

Her hand buried into Fapallo’s feathers. He didn’t say anything, letting her talk about something she rarely discussed, “Claus had broken my feet, but even as it lay dying it healed me. It’s how I was able to run away.”

Fapallo asked, “Do you hate him?”

“Yes,” she replied immediately. Then added, “No? I don’t know. It depends on the day. I trusted him… I… I loved him.”

She saw down on a log and put her head in her hands, then pulled them away when she felt the sticky blood on her face. She looked up at Fapallo and said, “I think I should hate him. I shouldn’t miss him. I should… I feel…”

Fapallo suddenly growled and put his forepaws on the log, growling fiercely at something behind her. Kaitlyn turned and saw the red unicorn behind her, its horn literally aflame.

“You do not need to hate,” the unicorn said. “I will ease what I can. My brethren who cursed you did you evil… I can see the threads.”

The red unicorn stepped forward despite Fapallo growling and touched Kaitlyn’s forehead with its flaming horn. Immediately, she gasped, feeling the magic unwind from being quite so tight within her.

The house looked like a small hut again when Kaitlyn and Fapallo walked up. But when she opened the door, the large common room was still there. Javorora looked up and said, “Had a good time… what’s wrong?”

“It’s…. come outside please,” Kaitlyn said.

It wasn’t exactly like it had been as a hut, but it was very, very similar. The roof was definitely made of stronger shingles instead of thatch over wood. The windows were clear glass, although the scene inside was nothing like the actual interior. Around the side was a lean-to. When they entered this, it was a full barn.

“I’m so confused,” Kaitlyn said. “Is it because of that red unicorn?”

“A what?” Javorora asked.

Fapallo whistled, “We were hunted.”

Javorora stared and then asked, “Are you ok Kaitlyn?”

The human swallowed and said, “I don’t know. It said…. it said it was going to lighten the curse because the black unicorn was evil.”

“It removed your curse!” Javorora cheered.

“No, I am still cursed,” Kaitlyn held out her arms. “It’s just…. less?”

“But then why did your house change?” Javorora asked.

“I don’t know,” Kaitlyn said quietly. “I think… I actually think I might like it a bit better like this. It feels… more homey to me.”

“So… you’re ok with this?” Javorora spoke it as a half-question.

“Yeah, and maybe I’ll get a little less of people like those merchants,” Kaitlyn made a face. “As much as I realized I miss seeing humans, they were…. awful.”

“Well, as long as you’re happy,” Javorora said.

“I need to go lay down,” Kaitlyn said, “I am exhausted.”

In her room, Kaitlyn lay on her bed and closed her eyes. As she was drifting off, she sensed something around her. Her eyes snapped open and she stared at her ceiling. She had never sensed those threads of the house before.

She sat up in her bed and settled so she could meditate. As she sank into her meditation, she saw entirely new veins of magic around her. Almost not magic, they were not made of mana. She began to examine them mentally and followed them into the common room with her mind. She stared at what she could only describe as a cauldron where the fireplace sat, and it was almost empty.

Kaitlyn snapped out of her meditation and hurried back to the common room. She couldn’t see it with her eyes, but she could now sense it. Javorora tried to ask her something, but Kaitlyn held up her hand. She sank back into meditation and saw these new threads feeding into the cauldron, some of them pulsing as it drew the not-mana from the central space. Kaitlyn breathed and then carefully began walking, following the thread.

Both threads led to the bedrooms which were occupied. Kaitlyn opened her eyes and found Javorora and Fapallo next to her, looking concerned. She said, “Javorora, I am going to set you a room.”

Javorora looked confused, but she followed Kaitlyn into the hallway to the second door Do-Yun had used. Kaitlyn opened the door and saw a perfect little room for Javorora, filled with comfortable pillows. Javorora went inside, but Kaitlyn closed her eyes and found a new thread pulsing leading to this room. She opened her eyes and ran back to the common room.

Looking in meditation sight, Kaitlyn found the cauldron was very low. She tried to send mana towards it, but the mana didn’t convert. Kaitlyn frowned, worried. She could now “see” when Javorora left the room because the thread vanished. Kaitlyn looked at Fapallo and said, “I need an animal. Alive.”

Fapallo disappeared. Javorora asked, “Kaitlyn, what is wrong?”

“We know the past witches fed people to my house, right?” Kaitlyn said, “There is…. it’s like a cauldron. It’s almost empty. I tried putting my magic in, but that didn’t do anything.”

“So you’re going to feed your house an animal?” Javorora asked.

“Yes,” Kaitlyn said.

Javorora frowned deeply and said, “That seems… dangerous.”

“Javorora, I think the house doesn’t look like an inn anymore because it can’t,” Kaitlyn said. “This isn’t mana, what is it?”

“Maybe you should call Master Garthis?” Javorora asked.

“My house is almost empty,” Kaitlyn said. “It needs something now. I just… what changed?”

“The unicorn did something to you,” Javorora still sounded worried.

“Yes,” Kaitlyn said, “Javorora, I’m not going to feed my house people. I just need to get it back from empty. I don’t want it to… die or whatever.”

“I still would feel a lot better if you called Master Garthis and told him what happened,” Javorora said.

“He’s supposed to come tomorrow,” Kaitlyn said, “I don’t think this is an emergency. I do hope he knows what that cauldron contains.”

“How are you going to feed your house?” Javorora asked.

“I don’t know yet,” Kaitlyn admitted. “But I think it’s starving.”

“You’re talking like it’s alive again,” Javorora said.

“Maybe it is,” Kaitlyn threw up her hands, “or something like it. I feel it, I just wish it could talk too.”