The Hidden Forest

By J. L. Ender

The portal closed behind me with a whumph and a sharp scent like fresh mustard. I shielded my eyes against glaring sunlight. A great desert stretched as far as I could see, dunes slowly baking in an oppressive heat.

I checked my list.

A. Valis – The Vanishing Unicorn

I was hunting a human this time, so maybe today wouldn’t be as messy as the goblin incident. I pulled a marble-sized tracking sphere from a pocket.

Hopefully I wouldn’t fry my delicate human skin hunting this criminal. For just a moment, I pictured myself sunbathing, scales glowing in the rich sunlight, then shook my head. I wasn’t giving in to the dragon. I had a job to do.

The sphere floated across the scorched landscape of cracked and crumbling earth up a small rise. Opposite the dry hill, a little village of adobe buildings lay in the shadow of a dry ravine.

I sighed. Again with the out-of-the-way little towns? They thought they could hide from the law of the library if they went far enough, but there was no distance I wouldn’t travel to reclaim a book.

The sphere led me through the cluster of clay houses and shops. They huddled together as though hiding from the sun. I groaned when the sphere kept going, leading me beyond the town. It floated into a green and brown forest of saguaro and cardon cacti. Some of them were easily forty feet tall.

“You gotta be kidding me,” I muttered.

No distance I won’t go, eh?

Through the thick branches and bristles I spotted the husk of a decrepit, abandoned house. Small, and made of wood. Black windows gaped at me like insect eyes through the cacti.

I fought the temptation to burn away the spiky greenery with a spell. I couldn’t risk revealing myself early.

I grimaced and stepped into a small gap between two lofty saguaro that didn’t seem likely to skewer me—

—And found myself standing in a lush forest of actual, leafy trees.

Huh?

The wind blew cool and sweet through my dark human hair. I rubbed my palm against the rough bark of a tree. Not an illusion. I cast a bit of Impression on my human form, heightening my senses, magical and otherwise.

The tree was indeed a tree. I took a step back and returned to desert sand and high heat. It felt even hotter now, with my spell at work.

Curious. That’s a powerful glamour.

I stepped through it again and walked under the boughs of oak and maple toward the house. Inside the veil it transformed into an immense manor made of stout white bricks.

A short man in a flowing black tunic strode toward me. Valis. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“I have a talent for that.” I reached into the waterskin at my belt, preparing ice magic. I liked ice magic. It kept the dragon at bay.

I’ll start with a clone distraction.

I stepped left and an ice-sculpture replica of me stepped right. The man gasped and threw a fireball at the icy me as it rushed him. I darted forward while he was otherwise engaged and clutched his arm.

I immediately Withdrew body heat, dropping his arm’s temperature below freezing.

“Don’t move or you’ll lose the limb,” I said. “I don’t care what you’re doing here, I’ve come to retrieve our library book.”

The whites in his eyes widened with shock. “You what?”

“I represent the… enforcement arm of the Taori Wizarding Library. You have a book overdue.”

“You came all this way for a book?”

“That’s what I said, isn’t it?”

“All right, release my arm and I’ll go get it.”

“Fine. No funny business.”

I let go, and the man rubbed his numbed arm as he returned to the manor. After a few minutes, I regretted my plan. What if he was preparing a spell? Worse, if he knew portals…

Something whinnied from around the corner of the house.

No. You’ve got to be kidding me.

A unicorn with white fur and red eyes walked into view. My human palms grew sweaty. Unicorns were dangerous. Don’t make eye contact.

We locked eyes. Its nostrils flared and it charged, hooves thundering on the grass. It lowered its horn. Aiming at my chest.

I whipped an apple from my pack and held it out in one hand.

The creature slid to a stop seconds before I had to freeze it into a uni-cicle. I released the ice magic I’d been preparing and let the beast eat my snack.

It gulped down the whole thing in one enormous, slobbery bite. Unicorns could be vicious, but they loved apples.

Two more unicorns rounded the corner, one a slimmer, sleeker female, the other a tottering foal.

Great. I wasn’t hungry or anything. I retrieved my last apple and split it with my pocketknife.

“Please don’t tell anyone.”

Valis stood on the steps, watching me feed his unicorns. He held the book in his hand.

He closed the distance and handed me a slender blue volume with a unicorn on the cover.

“Look, my grandfather’s dying wish was to see unicorns brought back. If people knew they were here, they’d tear this place apart.”

I nodded. “Nothing more valuable than unicorn horns.”

“Gramps swore that when he was a boy, a unicorn saved him from a bear. They’re not always vicious. It’s a myth.”

I patted the male unicorn’s neck, and he glared at me. I withdrew my hand. “Right…”

“Plenty of other spell ingredients in the world. Unicorns need a chance to make a comeback. Please.”

I’m not exactly one to preach about secrets. What would the man think if he knew I’d been born a dragon?

I shrugged. “You want to bring these pestilential equines back, that’s your deal. You pay your late fee, and I won’t say a word. Next go-around, please return your books on time. Have a nice day.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

J. L. Ender is the author of the superhero series Steel Fox Investigations, as well as a number of novels and short stories across several genres. Ender has worked as a dishwasher, a beef jerky labeler, a warehouse worker, a shelf stocker, a greeter, a traveling technician, a laser engraver, a package handler, a copywriter, a graphic designer, a librarian, an editor, destroyer of worlds (in an unofficial capacity), a dispatcher, and a phone operator.

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