Thoth nodded in agreement to the notion that they should take the unicorns back to camp, his mouth set in a grim line. He’d had to bring far too many orphaned and injured animals home over the course of his lifetime; the majority of those creatures’ woes were caused by fairies. There was nothing right or okay about it, except perhaps the familiarity of this situation. Recently, the whole world had been turned on its head. Arthur was gone, Mordred enthroned, Tristan… there was a lot wrong with Tristan, only part of which Thoth could work out, but the root cause wasn’t hard to identify even for him. If nothing else, this outrage on the unicorns’ behalf, bubbling beneath the surface, was comforting in its normalcy.

He grimaced and shrugged at the question. He didn’t know the unicorns’ language, still. Without confidence, Thoth dutifully tried telling them that he and Tris didn’t mean any harm in the most common horse language for this part of Shaman, but they merely stared at him with wide eyes. Clearly, whatever language the forest ponies used wasn’t the same one as the unicorns’. Thoth shrugged at Tristan again, helpless. Polylingualism was no good if he didn’t know the necessary tongue, and it wasn’t like he could fix this situation with water or a book. There wasn’t a lot else he could do.

Celidon returned presently, dropping Tris’s canvas bag at his knees. Thoth watched with resignation as his friend knotted the ropes, wishing there was another way but unable to think of one. He sighed.

“Yeah, I guess.” He held out his hand to take one of the ropes. “One ea – ”

He broke off, turning back to look at the unicorns. One of them had just whispered do you think we should run? to the other, who was looking back doubtfully. Thoth latched onto the language, holding up one hand to stop Tris from doing anything.

“Hey,” he said softly in the unicorns’ tongue, mimicking Tristan’s comforting voice. The two foals started. “It’s alright,” Thoth reassured them, “I’m Thoth and this is Tris. We’re friends. We just want to help.”

They pricked their ears forward, eyes wide. After a moment, the golden one cleared its throat.

“Um, you can talk.” It said, its voice distinctly male and possessing a slight quiver. “I thought fairies couldn’t talk.”

“Yeah, I get that a lot.” He took a breath. This was a conversation he’d had numerous times before with various orphaned baby animals discovered in the undergrowth, but it never got easier. With practiced words and tone, and in as little detail as possible, he explained to them what had happened to their mother. One foal gave a heart-wrenching whimper while the other stayed silent. Both shivered continuously. Thoth gave them a moment to process it all before adding gently, “You can come home with us. We’ll take care of you.”

“You’re fairies.” The spotted foal whispered uncertainly.

“Fairies who know how you feel.” Thoth told them grimly. “We both lost our parents too. People were there for us, and now we’re here for you.”

He held out his hand, palm up. Both foals hesitated, but then the golden one clambered clumsily to his hooves and wobbled a little closer. Legs quivering, he paused just out of touching distance for a moment to glance back at his twin, before reaching forward to sniff Thoth’s hand cautiously. Thoth let him come a couple of steps closer before slowly moving his hand to rub his neck. Now that the unicorn was closer to Cel’s light, he could see it was actually dun in colour: golden yellow-brown with black stockings, nose, mane and tail. Behind him, his twin stood up cautiously. Thoth jerked his head towards Tris.

“My friend’s having a hard time,” he told the spotted foal, “he could really use a hug.”

Glancing at its twin first for reassurance, the spotted foal pottered over to Tristan with its ears pricked forward. Thoth glanced sideways at him.

“I don’t think we’ll need the ropes,” he said in English. “We’ll have Cel and Toby walk on the other side of them in case they bolt, but I think they’ll follow us.”

MASTER OF THE ORBIS . MASTER OF THE WATER ELEMENT . SON OF AURA