"What were you doing in there all day?" she asked.
He looked surprised at the question while he answered, "What do you mean 'all day'? I was only in there for a few minutes."
"Look at the sky, you have been in there all day. Did it seem that you were gone for only a few minutes?"
Devin did look at the sky, and then nodded.
"What was going on in there? What happened?"
He shook his head as if to clear it, then answered, "I can't seem to remember what went on, except that I shouldn't go back. There are a few other things, but they are too tangled together to understand."
"You have a spell on you. A spell of oversight, it will probably wear off in time," Forest said with a large amount of certainty, "I've seen my parents do it once."
She fell silent, and refused to say anything else. She was still extremely young, and had only reached her full size a year ago. Her magic hadn't even started to manifest in her, but she could start feeling the signs of it forming within her. It would be at most a week. She knew what would happen when it did.
The path Devin had chosen would lead through the forest that her herd lived in. They would see that her, and that her magic was with her now. Some might question why she was letting a human ride her around, but everyone would be happy to see her; especially the stallions. Then they would make her choose a mate.
All of the stallions would start showing off, and her parents would urge her to pick their favorite, probably Radiance since they always favored him. Then that night she would have to pick, and everyone would be happy, except her. She didn't want that, not yet. She liked travailing, and maybe they would come across another heard of unicorns with one she liked more.
"Let's get back to the woods," she heard.
She looked up, and saw that he was smiling, so she answered, "How fast?"
"I'm in no hurry, there's no place that I need to be anyway, lets take our time."
"Don't lie to me," the old lady yelled, "you've come to steal my cat!"
Devin shook his head. He knew that there was more to the blind old lady then met the eye, but she was hard to deal with. He didn't know how he knew that there was more to her then met the eye, he just did.
He interrupted her ravening and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't know that you were so smart. I won't try to steal your cat ever again."
"Good," she said in a horse voice, "don't you ever try again."
He was about to try again, but got an idea and instead mixed the two powders that were given to him together and threw them on the old lady, and then wondered why he did.
She blinked her eyes, and let out a yell, "I can see! I can see! Oh, what wonderful colors I can see!"
Then she started hopping up and down, "Thank you, stranger, how will I ever repay you?"
"I think you know something that I need to know, but I'm not sure what."
The old woman giggled, and started talking quickly, "You mean the secret to controlling emotional magic, you do. Well, it's easy; they be controlled by your emotions. If they be allowed to get strong enough, the carrier dies. That is the trick, know I. You will have to learn the rest your self," then she let out a shriek and ran out the door with her arms waving in the air, leaving Devin standing in the old hovel and feeling very confused.
He walked outside, feeling very strange about actually being able to make some sense out of that, and shaking his head slowly. He couldn't believe that he had waited and worked so hard for three weeks to learn that bit of nonsense.
"What was that all about?" Forest asked.
Devin looked up, and answered, "I have no idea, but I think that it's the most I'll ever get out of her. Let's go to the next city."
Forest visibly tensed at the mention of the next city. She knew what it meant, and didn't like it. She had full use of her magic now, something she had waited for most of her life to happen, and now she didn't want it; now even less then ever before, but she couldn't quite tell why. All she knew is she wanted to keep travailing with Devin, and she put that feeling down to her having been affected by wonder lust.
The old lady came running out of the woods, and started talking again, "You be a wonderful creature. Oh! And you have full use of your magic now, what a big girl. You know what that means don't you? Of course you do," and she ran off giggling again.
Her taunts didn't make Forest feel any better, but instead of crying like she felt she should do, she just turned to Devin and said, "Let's go."
Ever since the old woman had talked to Forest, she became more and more with drawn. She even let her head sag, something he hadn't seen since he first met her. No matter what he did, or said, made it better. He tried to get her to tell him what was wrong, but she just shook her head and said that he wouldn't understand. He just became more and more worried about her.
"What is this? Forest, who is he?" Devin heard a commanding voice ask.
He looked up and was surprised to see two more unicorns, one male and one female. "What is the meaning of this?" said the female.
Forest looked at him over her shoulder, and softly said, "Those are my parents. You better let me talk to them, alone."
Devin only rubbed her neck and said, "You go do that," then got out of the saddle.
Forest walked slowly to her parents, and when she got to them, they lead her into a ring of trees, and politely ignored the saddle on her. "Who is this human?" her mother asked.
"That is Devin, he's the one that saved me."?
"And why would the person that saved you be forcing you to carry him around?" her father asked in a testy voice.
"He isn't forcing me to carry him around, I want to help him."
Then her mother brought up what she had been fearing, "I see that you now have your magic. Will you be choosing a mate soon?"
"NO!" yelled Forest, and then said it again quieter while shaking her head, "no."
"And why not?" Her mother asked.
