I lied on the my bed, the cool air brushing against my skin as it seeped in through the glass of my window.  Reminding everyone in town that winter was soon going to be coming.  But the cold months were the least of my worries, for now my gut was chastising me for lying to my best friend.  But I couldn't tell him what I did.  I've dragged him into enough situations that I knew that this would have made him explode.  Sometimes he acted more like my mom than my friend.  So I couldn't tell him.  Right?  At least that's what I was telling myself.

I sighed and rolled to my side, looking out the window. The night sky held nothing in its vastness, even the moon sat out of view. It didn't ease me at all.

I closed my eyes and hoped that I would soon be asleep. Maybe my conscious would be clear by morning.

I let out a kept breath and listened to the silent commotion outside. The chirping of insects had all gone in the past few weeks, chased away by the cool purring air, and so I was left with the call of the lone owl. Who roosted in the loft of our barn years ago, and had never left. It was almost like family.

After what felt like a few minutes, I could feel myself start to drift off. But, that was swiftly interrupted when a bright light shined on the other side of my eyelids. I scrunched my eyes shut even more to keep from waking up, I wasn't ready for it to be morning. Immediately after a string of chirps sounded off, were the crickets back already? "No, not her." A familiar voice said.

I quickly opened up my eyes and looked around the room. But, everything was dark, even the sky was still dark. Did I imagine that? Was it a dream?

I sat up, and looked over to the window. I wasn't sure if I should answer or not, nor was I sure if I really heard anything. I stared over at the window for a few seconds, and my heart paused for a moment when un-expectantly a horse walked into the frame. It snorted, and I calmed down. I started to get out of bed, ready to put which ever trouble maker had snuck out of the barn back in my their stall. It was probably Buck, but the horse standing next to the window didn't have as dark as fur, so maybe it was Moo.

"Good, you're awake." The horse spoke, making my heart jump as I remembered the creature in the woods. Had it followed me out?

I jumped out of bed and rushed over to the creature.  "Shhhhh." I said, trying to silence its voice.  If it were to wake up my family then I'm sure my secret would be let out, or worse, they would hurt it.  "You need to talk quietly."

I could hear the creature shake his head, clearly annoyed.  "Why?" It questioned.  "Your family sleeps.  I don't think that they'll notice."

I shook my head.  "And your voice could wake them." I told it.

"No.  It won't." I heard it say. "They are all sleeping like rocks."

I sighed, that didn't make me feel any better. There was still a chance that one of my younger brothers would wake up. But if they were anything like last night, then maybe the creature was right.

Confidently it said.  "Wick made sure of it."

A small amber light jumped out from the side of the window and peeped quietly.

I jumped back, heart pounding at the sight of the pixie.  The sight of bad luck.

It flew forward, shining it's light around the room.  Why did I go into the woods. Why did I feel the need to go? I had hoped my good deed wouldn't be punished. I kept backing away but it kept closing the distance.

"She's not going to hurt you." The creature said matter-of-factly. "While pixies are mischievous, they have a pure heart. Actually I wouldn't say they're mischievous, curious is a better word to use." It told me, and I looked over to the pixie who was playing with some woven twine on my nightstand. Happily chirping as it inspected it, trying to figure out what it was for.

As I watched my heartbeat calmed, but only a little. I turned back to the creature, the pixies light highlighting its face. I squinted closely at the creature through my window, and my heart nearly froze. I was right, it did look like a horse. Its fur was white as fresh fallen snow, its mane blended into its coat, and its eyes were a light shade of blue. But that wasn't what my eyes were glued on, underneath strands of mane, there was an amber circle with shards of bone in it. I could feel myself go pale, and the creature dipped its head down. "Am I making you uncomfortable?" It asked me.

But my mind didn't think about answering the question, instead I blurted, "You're a unicorn."

"I am." It confirmed, sticking its snout through the window. "Why are you afraid?" It asked me, its head swaying to the side so that it could see me better.

"I'm not...it's just that...I was told that you guys were dangerous." I said, feeling guilty. Despite helping this creature before, I couldn't help but feel a little uneasy. Which I knew was wrong. It hadn't done anything to me before, but I just couldn't seem to shake the feeling.

"Dangerous?"

The pixie flew up to my face, and I had to fight my instinct to swat at it like the flies and gnats in the field. "Yeah." I said, my voice fading as I watched the pixie smile at me with the thread trailing behind it. It held it out to me, pointing and happily chirping at it. It tried to tie it around my wrist and I couldn't help but pull away. Immediately my face fell. I shouldn't have done that. The pixie didn't seem to catch on to my blunder as it tried to rush to my wrist again. This time I didn't rush my hand away, and I allowed it to wrap the thread around my wrist. She didn't seem dangerous, she seemed sweet, like a young child.

After she was done she looked up and grinned, chirping quickly in delight. I smiled, she didn't seem dangerous, but what the unicorn said rang back in my head. "What do you mean make sure of it?"

"No need to worry. She just sprinkled a little sleeping dust on your family, used normally on elves so that they heal properly after an injury. Although, elves require a lot more to get the same effect. They're always on the lookout for danger, they put too much stress on themselves." The creature rambled on.

I could feel my fear try to build up, so I did my best to push any negative thoughts away. As foolish as it sounded, I didn't feel that they would try to hurt my family. "Okay." I told the unicorn, while the pixie inspected my strands of hair. I took a step closer, the unicorn had made an effort to be here; I doubted it was just to say thank you. "Why are you here?"

He nodded his head. "I need you to help me get my horn back." He told me.

My eyes glanced up at his forehead and it started to make sense. That was why he was in the trap, someone had trapped him, taken his horn and left him behind. "How could I help you?" I asked him. I would be lying if I said that I didn't feel for him, but I have no idea how I would track it down.

"You can get us into the capital." He started, and I kind of wanted to laugh. I have never been outside of this town. I would love to go, but , "I don't think mum would let me go by myself." I told him.

"You're not going by yourself." He said confidently. "You're dark haired friend will be going with you."

My dark haired friend? "Do you mean Arthur?" I asked.

The unicorn's eyes shined. "Is he the one who you are to marry?" He asked, curiously.

"Was to marry." I corrected. "But yeah, that's Arthur."

I could feel a tug on my hair and I looked behind me.  The pixie had been braiding it.  But my hair must have been to thick for her, so there was a lot of small braids. 

I looked back to the unicorn and asked.  "How did you know about him?"

He snorted happily. "You really don't know anything about us. I know because we unicorns are tasked to keep watch over our land. Your village happens to fall into mine."

I sat down on the chair at my desk, and faced him. The pixie flew down and investigated the book that laid on top of it. Trying to lift the hefty cover, but struggling. I lifted it for her as the unicorn continued on with his speech of sorts.

"I used to visit it many a time. Passing through the village and checking up on everyone. But when the relations between your people and magic soured it became unsafe for me to visit. So, I've kept to the edge of the woods. Visiting your home occasionally while you sleep. I don't travel into the village anymore, too many people to be wary of, no clearing to run into. But that doesn't mean that I see nothing, I have the pixies travel around, their my eyes of sorts. But they're not too reliable, I prefer to get information myself. But in this day and age, I have to rely on them."

I cleared my throat, hoping that it would help him get to the point. While I found it interesting and a tad strange, I didn't want them to be here longer than they needed to.

He seemed to take the hint. "You're friend visits quite often."

I nodded, that made sense.  "Why him?" I questioned, feeling a little on edge.  He was my friend and I didn't want anything bad to happen to him.  I had no idea what we were going to encounter, except maybe an angry trapper, and he didn't do well in those kind of situations.  He was too careful to get into them in the first place.

The unicorn looked at me with lowered eyes.  "Because he's journeying to the capital tomorrow isn't he?"

"How did you..." I thought back to what he said before.  I guess he had his spy's of sorts.

"I had known for a while, one of the pixies told me." He nodded his head toward Wick who was flipping pages.  "It was fortunate that he was going tomorrow.  Had I waited any longer I might never get my horn back.  I thought with the relationship you two have, you could join him."

"So you want me to go to the capital, with my friend to get your horn back." I summed up.

He nodded.

"How do you know that's where your horn will be?"

The unicorn looked down sadly. "The pixies tell me that the trapper is headed in that direction," He brought his head back up. "and magical goods tend to be sold there quite frequently.  It would be odd if he wasn't going to the capital."

I nodded, that much was true.  I've heard that tons of wealthy people would pass through the capital.  While our crown hated magical creatures, they put a high bounty on them, encouraging hunters and trappers to hunt them down for the betterment of our people.  Which I was starting to think was a lie.

"If my horn gets sold, I'm afraid I will lose it forever." He said sadly, his strong demeanor weakening.

My lips dipped. That was sad to think about.  I sighed, knowing the decision I was going to make was a poor one.  "I'll help you." I told him.  His head rose and he looked at me as if he was smiling.

"But I'll need help."

"I wasn't planning to send you on your own."