"You lied to me," he said.
Zed'ith looked sad for a moment, "I'm sorry, but we had to or else you wouldn't have gone along with it."
"You had no right! You raped me of who I was, of what I could do! You took away my memories and made me something I wasn't!"
"Don't you tell me what we had no right to do!" Zedith yelled back, "my brother died poseing as your father, and everyone I knew died to keep you and that cursed magic in you safe!"
Forest felt left out since she didn't know what was going on. "What are you two arguing about?"
Solaris turned to her and hissed, "He turned me into a human!"
She blinked, confused. "No, he turned you into a unicorn, didn't he?"
"No, he turned me back into a unicorn!" he yelled.
"What?"
Zed'ith pointed an accusing finger and spoke, "He came to us asking for help when he was being hunted down by the witch. Most of us died trying to hide his magic form his new body in that amulet, and then my brother died while trying to protect him; and this is how he thanks us!"
"What do you mean 'that cursed magic'?" Solaris asked.
Zed'ith ignored the question and paused to take out his knife before continuing, "Well, it doesn't matter. All you need to know it that this place isn't safe for you anymore. For now you should go to the southwest and look for a cave behind a water fall. Go through it, you will be safe on the other side for a short time, but hope the cave doesn't show you anything, I can assure you that you won't like it."
He paused for a moment, and then raised the knife to his chest. Before she could do a thing he pushed it into his heart. For a moment he hung there, and then collapsed. He didn't hit the ground, though, he disappeared and all that made it to the ground was his clothes. As soon as they hit the ground they too disappeared.
Forest felt something like glass shattering around her, and was soon surrounded by others. It was mostly the foals; nobody else would care much. He was a mortal.
"What happened?"
"Why did he do that?"
"What did he say?"
She didn't bother to answer the questions since they would just come up with more anyway. Instead she asked Solaris, "What was he talking about, I'm very confused."
He stood up and looked to the south. "I have to leave," he said, "I'll tell you later."
"Why? What was he talking about?"
He didn't wait to answer her question, and bolted up the hill to the ridge of the valley. For a moment forest didn't know what to do. The mage had told her to go with him, but she was glad to finally be home. She didn't really want to leave so soon. Then she remembered that the mage had given her a reason to follow; to keep Solaris from getting himself killed. She had to follow
A breeze blew into the cave sending a mist of water from the waterfall into the cobwebs. The little drops of water hung there for a few seconds like jewels before evaporating. He didn't like the cobwebs. It reminded him of bad memories
"Is this it?" Forest asked.
He thought for a moment. It might not be, there could be another cave, but there also might not be. He wondered if he could spend the time to find out if this was the right cave. Then he thought he heard a whisper.
"I told you to go through the cave," it hissed.
He shook his head o clear out all of the stray thoughts in his head. The whisper came again. "Are you going in or not?" it asked this time.
"Yes," he whispered.
"What did you say?" Forest asked.
He looked up at her and said, "Yes, this is it," before walking in.
She followed him in, but he didn't notice her. For a moment everything was fine, but soon the light started to fade so that he could only see for a few feet. There were smaller paths branching off of the main tunnel all over the place so that he had to pay attention to where he was going. Then, before long he passed a small stream.
For some reason there was a light fog rising out of the stream, making it much harder to see. He called his magic to him and made a light breeze to help clear away the fog, but it was soon replaced by more fog, seeming to make the air thicker, and producing shapes.
He ignored the shaped and continued down the tunnel until he got to a group of stalagmites. It was brighter around the stalagmites for some reason, so he stopped for a moment. The light made him feel safer since he could see more clearly.
"What are you doing here?" asked a discontented voice.
He looked around and saw someone step out of the mist. It was his mother, his real one and not the fake one Zed'ith had given him as a human. At first he was happy to see her, then he saw the look on her face.
"I asked you a question; what are you doing here? Have you come to torment me further?"
"What do you mean?" he asked, and then remembered, "I thought you were dead."
"Good," she said harshly.
His ears wilted while he asked his next question. "What are you talking about?"
"I spent a long time on that illusion so that I could get away from your worthless hide, you mistake!"
He sank to the ground. "But you were always happy, always worried about me."
"I'm not going to pretend anymore for you! Get out of my life!"
When he looked up at her hopping that it was all just a lie, she just glared back. He closed his eyes and tried to push her words out of his mind, but they wouldn't leave. His eyes started burning.
In the back of his mind he could hear someone else, but the voice was drowned out by the pain. All of his life, he thought, was turning into a lie. Even his mother hated him, wanted him to leave. He thought she had cared for him, but now; now he had no one, nothing.
Then the pain in his side started. At first he tried to shout it out, but it grew and forced him to look at its source. He saw Forest's horn poking him in his ribs. He had forgotten that she was there. She held the pressure for a few more moments to make sure she had his attention.
"Who are you talking to?"
He looked from her back to his mother. His mother wasn't looking any happier, and was still glaring down at him. He squirmed under her gaze and looked back at Forest. He was having trouble seeing now that everything seemed wavy.
He tried to talk but couldn't find any words. Forest talked instead, "Get up, now."
He looked back at his mother. She wasn't there anymore. The temperature of the cave had dropped making it colder. It was getting uncomfortable.
He drew his magic to him to warm up, and he could feel it. There was a spell in the air. He couldn't tell where it was, or what it was; but it was there. It seemed to be everywhere. The tendrils of magic were brushing up against him. He suddenly didn't feel safe anymore by the stalagmites.
He got up and looked around. He felt alone. The thought ran through his mind again. He was alone, he nothing and no one to care for him. It had almost always been that way, why should that change now?
At the end of the tunnel was a small dot of light. He was glad that they would be out soon. He wanted to get out of the cave, away from where he had seen his mother. He just wanted out of the cave and into the sunlight.
The speck of light grew larger as he drew nearer. Soon it lit up the cave and seemed to have a blinding radiance. He had to squint to get through the opening of the cave so that the light wouldn't hurt his eyes.
"Get out of here! You don't belong here!" someone shrieked.
Solaris winced when he heard the voice. He recognized the voice of the old lady who had helped him twice. He was convinced that she was insane. So far every time she had a different personality. That made it hard to tell how she would respond to what was going on. She probably wanted them to get out of her imaginary mansion. She came running out of a patch of berry bushes and started yelling at a tree. "I told you to get out!" then she turned and glared at the rest of the forest, "And that goes for all of you too!"
She waived her hand in the air and murmured something under her breath. For a moment the air around her hand got dark, and then a black spear shot from her fingertips and struck a tree. The tree, along with a few others behind it, was leveled in an instant.
The old woman let out a small yelp of joy and said, "That's what you get! The rest of you should take a lesson from them!"
"What are you doing?" Forest asked.
The old woman spun around and gave them a relived look. "Good. Now I have some help. Let's get going!"
"What do you need help with? There can't be anything wrong," Solaris said.
The old woman blinked at him, genuinely surprised by the question. "Why the trees are invading the meadow! We must put a stop to this act of aggression!"
She waved her hands in the air and murmuring again. This time she was surrounded with a light. He light grew in intensity, and then shot forward from her and made a pathway through the trees to a pond.
When the wave of light had vanished she started waving her hands again. This time a large rock rose into the air. She made a shooing motion with her hands and the rock flew to a tree, imbedding itself in the trunk of the tree.
He felt Forest release her magic to try to restrain the old women. It glided up to the old lady and encircled her. For a moment the magic hung there, but then it moved inward and pinned the old women.
Forest walked to where the old lady could see her and said, "what do you mean that the trees are invading the meadow? This is the middle of the woods."
The old woman looked perplexed for a moment, then her eyes lit up. "That's why the trees are here!" she cried.
Forest relaxed the magic holding the old women and she immediately ran off toward to the west. They both stood there, and with lack of something started following her. Before long they came to where she was waiting for them, in the middle of a clearing.
"Welcome to my kingdom!" she shouted, "You will be safe from everything while you are here."
Solaris looked around and saw that there was nothing special about the clearing, it was a normal meadow with a stream running though it's center. There were small trees here and there that dotted the little clearing. Around the clearing was a magic spell that he could feel, but couldn't tell what it did. It was so light that when he felt it with his own magic that it seemed that it would tear.
"Rest now, time for sleep," said the woman.
Solaris frowned and said, "But the sun is still up."
The old lady's face turned red when she screeched her response, "This be my kingdom! You will obey my wishes, as dose everything else! Even the sun be willing to carry out my wishes!"
Before he could answer the crazy old lady waved her arms at the sun, and it obediently sank below the horizon. He was bewildered that she was right, and wondered what he should do. In the end he walked the nearest tree and laid down under it.
Some sort of spell stuck to his skin and made him tingle pleasantly all over. It seamed to ease his mind and made him feel like he was drifting around. Soon he felt like he was lost in its blackness, and fell asleep
He came out of the woods now that the men were gone. He saw his mother sink to the ground with weariness after having driven them off. It had taken all of her strength, but she had managed to scare the humans away from them. Now they didn't have to run anymore.
When she looked up and saw him, she smiled. "They won't follow us
anymore, don't worry."
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