Once Upon an Adventure Page 4

  “It is.” the unicorn confirmed. “Why this one put you here we cannot tell. We have an understanding with this particular one. They show up again, and they die.”

  That was unexpected and unsettling.

  “What did they do?” I couldn’t help but ask, the words were out of my mouth before I could even consider how nosey they were.

  “That is too much information for you.” came the reply.

  “But if we’re not going to remember anyway, what does it matter?” Arnessa tried to reason, letting curiosity get the better of her as well.

  “I’ll take a wild stab here that something about them has highly magical properties that even a Daeum would want to take advantage of." Ash supplied. “So, what do we have to do to get home? As neat as this all is, I know I have some very concerned people waiting to hear from me. I rather not know what they’ll do to try and reach me.”

  The unicorns seemed amused, several even appeared to be smirking, if that was possible for them.

  “Then magic home.” the first unicorn said in a light, entertained tone.

  “My magic doesn’t do that.” Ash frowned, looking at us to see if we got what was so funny.

  “It does.” the unicorn nickered, as if it were laughing.

  Ash looked like she wanted to argue but paused. “Wait, do you understand my magic?”

  “Yes, why don’t you?” There was a bit more nickering, as if Ash should know her magic. As if it wasn’t complicated.

  “Because it’s not understood. Very few with my magic have mastery over it.” Ash stated, her words almost mirroring my thoughts. “But you do and that doesn’t make sense. None of the last twelve hours have made sense.” She sighed, looking defeated.

  “Because your kind learns from ours.” came the simple reply.

  Arnessa and I glanced at Ash who stared at the group of unicorns with a look of pure ‘you’ve got to be kidding me’.

  “My kind? What is my kind? How would we learn from you if you’re all hidden and everything?” Ash’s frustration was starting to show and I could feel the magic bubbling up around her.

  “Breakfast first.” With that the entire herd of unicorns turned and started walking away.

  I looked from them back to Ash who was starting to glow gold. “Are you okay?” I asked softly, hoping not to accidentally provoke her magic.

  “Far from it.” she muttered, but the magic waned and vanished from view.

  “At least they have answers.” Arnessa tried to reassure her.

  “But what will it take to get them?” Ash motioned toward the unicorns tiredly.

  Now that was the real question.

  Chapter 4

  ——Vincent——

  When we first started to regularly meet up, mother was worried someone would try and target the group. I had laughed it off, as did Arnessa. Who would really try and take on a group of mages that were extremely powerful in their fields?

  Apparently the correct answer was a deity.

  My illusions made zero difference here. Neither did my enchanting in the long run. My destruction magic was good, but it wasn’t better than any college grad in that field so I doubted it would do much here. Still, it was more than infuriating to be messed with.

  And they stole my fiancé!

  Stupid god like being messing with my life. I had found the perfect girl, became acquainted with an amazing friend group, and just when life couldn’t get much better, everything plummeted off the face of a cliff.

  Mom probably didn’t realize she’d be right in this particular way, but I fully deserved that ‘I told you so’ and the smack on the shoulder she’d give me. We had to solve this, and quickly. Not just for my mental well being either. Nadia was one wrong word away from shifting into a dire wolf and annihilating the next idiot to talk to her. I couldn’t blame her though. Even Rey who was normally too carefree to be human was tense and ready to pop.

  The good news was Marcus figured out several things after running some bots and getting friends to search for Donny’s location. After some airport footage and security cameras from random places, Marcus figured the jerk had gone to Pangwen several times over, always heading toward the Eethar Peak trail. We couldn’t figure out why, but every time he showed up with different hunting and tracking equipment.

  Still, people didn’t go there for a laundry list of reasons, primarily the weird magic that made people disappear. Some would show up months later on another continent with no memories, but those were the lucky ones. I remember reading that while everyone did gain back most of their memories, no one remembered the day before the mountains, the time they were gone, or anything before randomly appearing again.

  The other place he visited frequently was on Kiwanii. He got stopped at customs for having weird animal fur, but after a while it was determined to be wolf fur and was sent off with it. He claimed it was werewolf. The shifter community has always stated that it was a myth. Magic didn’t work that way. You had a bloodline that transformed into one animal, or the ability to shift into several of a certain mass.

  Whatever that Donny guy was up to, he was clearly losing his mind more and more. The pieces of which were now littering several continents. The one thing that couldn’t be answered was how he convinced anyone to magic our girls away. Donny didn’t have interesting magic. Marcus looked it up for us, or likely already knew from their last series of encounters. Donny was a master tracker, and could use magic to identify what made each trail. He could also change his vision to see at better distances, but not nearly as well as binoculars could. Aside from those niche gifts, he wasn’t noteworthy. Donny was a D student who sometimes pulled off a C. He was also caught cheating several times so even those higher marks were likely lies.

  Marcus had a needlessly long file on the guy, and every detail seemed to get more and more boring after he completed basic schooling. Why would anyone listen to him?

  I asked Nadia as we started traveling and she just laughed. “Why do Daeum’s listen to anyone? We are but ants. Make enough noise, build up enough nonsense, maybe even light a fire and you’ll eventually get someone's attention. Why him? Probably, as you would say, for the lolz. They were likely already in the mood to cause some chaos and Donny is easy to play around with. He’d listen to anything they say just for a chance at what he wants.”

  “I don’t know who we should feel more sorry for if that’s the case -him or us.” I shook my head. “Having a Daeum play around with you cannot end well.”

  “Us." Rey scoffed. “If he was dumb enough to poke a sleeping giant, then let him. I hope this ends badly for him. Terrible even.”

  “I just hope it doesn’t end badly for us as well.” That was my biggest worry. Even if we tried all we could, and did everything right, what if we didn’t really win? Could we get them all back? Were they even on this plane if a Daeum whisked them away?

  “It’s difficult to say. This one hasn’t presented real rules, just teasing guidelines they expect us to follow.” Nadia sighed.

  “How did you find out your rules?” Rey asked before I could.

  Nadia fidgeted with her sleeve as she replied. “Honestly, we all had a dream. I suppose the Daeum thought we’d be the most receptive to rules if we learned in our sleep. A blinding light told us while we were all dreaming. The rules were clearly laid out, the expectations equally so. We knew people could find and navigate the forest, it was just very unlikely anyone would.”

  “I’d take a blinding light with guidelines.” Rey let out a long sigh. I couldn’t agree more. This lack of anything felt ridiculous, and over the top movie villain-ish. Something needed to give, and quickly. We needed some form of hope.

  I wished on every star I saw that things would turn out okay.

  Travel was exhausting. Keeping us cloaked in an illusion for easier travel wasn’t helping that end, but the weather was helping even less. The air was much more humid here, and the greenery only did so much to make up for the temperature. It was nice
to be inside even after a brief trip from the airport to our hotel destination. We were eating dinner after traveling, trying to figure out our next move when Rey brought up a good point.

  “Donny claimed to have werewolf fur when he was trying to board in Kaelin right?” Rey asked rhetorically. “And he also spent a lot of time in Pangwen, where we are now, presumably in the mountains where people regularly vanish.”

  “Yeah, so?” I wasn’t sure why he was bringing that up. “That guy is losing it.”

  “Yeah, true, but what if the Daeum sent him here and there?” Rey stated more than asked. “What if, the task he needed to complete in order for the Daeum’s magic to work was to get these things that everyone believes is mythical, like the werewolf fur.”

  Nadia furrowed her brows as she thought. “That would be even more unpleasant and obnoxious for us. It would mean the Daeum needed mythical things for some reason, and that Donny would now know where to find everything should he ever so desire to again.”

  “You said there were two types of these deities right? How can we tell what one he summoned?” Rey continued on before Nadia could even answer. “What if there isn’t something good to be learned or gained from this?”

  “I don’t even want to guess at anything you’re implying." Nadia grumbled tiredly, rubbing her temples as a headache appeared to set in.

  “Dude, this would be an epic campaign if it wasn’t our lives.” I sighed and stretched my arms out as I considered my own guess on his statement. “So, let’s venture if it’s not the good one trying to teach a lesson, it’s the chaos one and just wants to bring disaster. Donny is the perfect match for someone who, if they can’t have their way, will continue to use their new gained knowledge from the Daeum’s tasks to continue to try to win a losing battle until the tides turn in his favor or he dies.”

  “That’s the last thing I really want to consider with all of this.” Nadia shook her head. “But it is likely. I can’t find a shred of how this can be a good Daeum. Too many people are missing, kidnapped, and negatively impacted.”

  “So, what do we do when we find them?” Rey asked, poking at the last bit of food on his plate with his fork. “Is the Daeum going to be there? Are the crazy families following us? What if it’s Donny? What if it’s both?”

  “I can hide us from Donny no problem.” I shrugged knowing that on his own he wouldn’t be able to break my illusions. “He’s honestly not my biggest concern. That bow to always hit his target is only a problem for targets. If he can’t see us, we’re safe.”

  “That just leaves the Daeum.” Nadia sighed. “Would help if I knew what one looked like.”

  “I still can't believe you’ve communicated with one and never saw them.” Rey gave a tired laugh.

  “They appeared as a bright and blinding light so their true form was less startling or some crap.” Nadia scoffed and crossed her arms. “If you ask me, they just didn’t want to be seen. There’s no way a being with that much magic couldn’t make themselves appear in front of a mortal without being blinding or terrifying.”

  “I agree, that’s really weird.” It was an odd thing to ponder. “Unless they didn’t want you to know who they were so they could continue to keep up with you in the future.”

  “Ha!” Nadia gave a short laugh at the idea. “Then they could look however else they wanted to!”

  “But you’d know their magic.” I countered. “If you were too blinded by the light to concentrate and really assess the situation, you got zero fix on them.”

  Nadia looked at me surprised. “Crap, you’re completely right. That jerk.” She went from surprised to enraged in less than a second. “I’m going to wring their neck if I ever see them again.”

  “You won’t, they’ll be too bright to see." Rey teased and Nadia hit him in the shoulder, hard, causing him to fall out of his chair.

  I chuckled. “Well, at least we have a few things to sleep on. Let’s get some rest. We have a lot of hiking even to reach the trail’s border tomorrow.”

  “This would be so much more fun if we didn’t have to hike there and back." Rey grumbled.

  “Sounds like you boys need to get out into the woods more.” Nadia gave a small laugh.

  “We all can’t go for moonlit runs as a wolf." Rey stated drly. “So I think I’ll stick with my games and lack of insects.”

  “Sounds boring." Nadia teased, getting up. “Goodnight then.”

  With quick goodnights, we separated. I was more than ready to have a few minutes alone. While I enjoyed my friend's company, I was too stressed and tired of vague planning to continue hanging out.

  The second I entered my room the door behind me shut and everything went black.

  “Not this again." I sighed as I summoned up a ball of fire in my hand.

  The walls next to me were gone and it took me a longer second than I wanted to admit to realize I was floating and not standing.

  I sighed again and accepted the nonsense around me. I wasn’t sure what could surprise me anymore, and I really didn’t want to be surprised at this point.

  “So, um, what now?” I asked the darkened void.

  “You’re needed elsewhere first." a voice stated simply.

  Okay, that was more than I was expecting for a response. “Where and why?” Was that too much to ask? It seemed like easy answers were, in fact, too much to ask.

  “You’re needed to stop a mage." the voice replied and suddenly I fell a few inches into a cave.

  I looked around surprised. “Where am I?”

  “Stop the mage first." the voice replied. “The rest will come in time, but only if you stop the mage first. Do not deviate. Do not show yourself.”

  “Okay then.” While it was straight forward I felt more confused than I did floating in the void. With no more answers I used my fire to get a good look around. Tunnels were here and there, and a feeling of cold magical essence. Was that who the voice meant? It wouldn’t hurt to see since I had no other leads.

  The second wind I was feeling was enough to keep me awake and I might as well make good use of this energy. Not that I had a choice. Apparently I needed to hunt down a rogue. I cast an illusion so no one would see me. Being invisible for now would be useful. The whole concept felt weird and off though. Why was I suddenly given instructions?

  It struck me that maybe this wasn’t the same Daeum. I wondered if we were right that the reason Nadia had no idea what the Daeum that bothered her looked like was because they were watching over her. Now we were all in a bind, and maybe that Daeum was still paying attention and lending just enough aid to guide us while not being involved enough for the other to know. Would the good Daeum take down the bad one? That would help us in the long run. Or was this just an amusing game for them both, with us like pawns at the center of a chess board? A good one may not be involved though, which was more likely. We were just on our own.

  Knowing I wouldn’t get an answer I closed my eyes and shut those thoughts out. Find the mage… There was magic coming from everywhere. The illusion magic was exactly like last night’s when everyone vanished. I suspected that wasn’t who I was being sent after. The only magic that felt different was that chilling ice magic.

  I racked my brain for what that could mean when I remembered Rey and I late night ranting with each other about evil step-sisters. Cat’s step-sister was equally vile compared to Diamond. The only exception was Diamond had very limited magic, whereas Melanie had reasonably obnoxious ice magic. This was likely her.

  I slowly followed her trail of magic, the paths snaking and winding for what felt like eons until I reached a deadend. The illusion magic was weaker here, and I was able to dispel enough of it to walk through unhindered. It, of course, led to the continuation of a long winding tunnel.

  Not much later I found a makeshift room with a girl sleeping in a small bed. Thankful, I had held in all the things I wanted to mutter angrily aloud. The magic radiated off of her even while she dreamt. I wasn’t sure how to ‘stop the mag
e’ when they were doing nothing that needed to be stopped. At least nothing apparent. The most I could do was trap her mentally in an illusion but that was a pretty terrible thing to do for any length of time.

  The answer dawned on me. I didn’t need to magically stop her. We were up against people with weapons from a Daeum. If this was in fact Cat’s stepsister Melanie then it would be best to remove the sword from the picture. It was the perfect idea. Of course she’d realize someone was on to her, but she’d have no way of knowing who or how without the Daeum’s help. Even if the Daeum responded to her quickly, at least the sword would be out of the picture for a bit.

  Slowly I moved and searched around the room, finding the sword under the bed. With nothing more to do, now felt like the best time to find my way out of this mess. Maybe I would find Arnessa and the others in the process.

  I hoped with all my heart I would.

  Chapter 5

  ——Rey——

  This was not the adventure I asked for. I was beginning to assume I didn’t like most real adventures and preferred every last one to be fictional. So, of course, life decided to ramp things up a notch and here I was, waking up not in the bed I fell asleep in. Nope. Instead I was waking up in the middle of a flipping field, with a goat licking my face.

  The startling wakeup call left my heart racing and the rest of me thoroughly confused. Tall grass surrounded me, the only clear path being where the goat had walked through, stomping down some of the grass.

  “Well, now what?” I muttered aloud to myself.

  I got up and started to wander, the goat happily trailing behind me. The trail led to a clearing with a small house in the distance, and the mountain range I was supposed to be hiking toward just past that. I wondered if Nadia and Vincent were faring any better. This messy scenario was not what I wanted. It added to our already stressful adventure.