Page 53 of What did you do?

I looked up to see the crown prince of Seelie attempting to put the tiny unicorn in a headlock.

I couldn’t help but laugh and realized someone was joining me with thick, crackly laughter.

“Oh, she likes you very much, sir!” shouted the old unikeeper as he held a bloodied rag over his hand.

“Likes me?” But Eli’s words were muffled by the mare’s armpit, where he was now pinned.

“That’s the meanest girl in the bunch! She’s just playin’ with you though,” the keeper said. “I’ll move them to another field. You can watch them pollinate the stonopolis.”

The man walked over to a gate and, with a great squeak of the hinges, opened it. Immediately the floricorns leaped up from my lap and trotted through the gate and into another field, this onemore forest than the meadow. All of the fluffy creatures left but one.

The chestnut mare remained next to Eli, watching the rest of her mob graze. When she noticed I was standing alone, she stalked over to me—and began rubbing her muzzle against me.

I made a ridiculous face at Eli, unable to contain my adoration.

He rolled his eyes dramatically. “Come on, you can see how they pollinate the flowers.”

The soft unicorn walked between us, pausing at the gate, making certain we followed her in. Large pink flowers spread out in hundreds and hundreds of small patches throughout the grass and around the trees. Butterflies fluttered about, collecting in a mass on a large pine tree, giving the impression of a Christmas tree.

“There is a Seelie portal in the tree,” Eli said. “See the ring of mushrooms around it?”

Clumps of large, white, toothy mushrooms were attached to the surrounding maple and birch trees. Each clump in the perfect circle dangled down, long white spines almost giving the appearance of a beard. “Lion’s mane,” I murmured in awe.

After Eli denied my pleas for a closer inspection due to limited time, he hastily moved me along to watch the floricorns do their work.

“Name’s Patty,” the weathered unikeeper said with a slight bow of his head.

“It’s great to meet you, Patty. If you ever need a hand around here, I’d love to help with them,” I replied.

“That’s kind of you, miss. They sure do seem to enjoy your company. Never seen anything quite like it, as a matter a fact,” Patty replied. He pointed out some of the animals closest to us, telling me their names: Nettle, Rose, Greenbriar, Honey Locust.

“All thorns, huh?” I said as I raked my fingers through the coat of the sassy mare still between us. “Let me guess: Cactus?”

Patty snorted. “It’d be fitting, but she goes by Thistle.”

We watched as she walked a few paces to the nearest clump of flowers and dipped her wide head and, ever so gently, set the tip of her iridescent horn in the center of each flower. Thistle closed her eyes, a blissful expression on her fuzzy face. She looked sweet and friendly like this.

“Their horns and magic are the only things capable of pollinating the stonopolis flowers. The flowers couldn’t exist without them,” Patty said with a soft nod.

Eventually, we said our goodbyes, promising to return soon. I’m not certain the mini-unicorns even realized we left, they were so busy with the flowers. That was probably for the best. I think Thistle might have maimed Eli or I had she seen us leaving.

16

PRESENT DAY

Caly

“You need to be more discreet with your animal gift, Cal. Someone’s going to figure out what you are if things like that keep happening,” Eli said softly.

“They liked you, and you aren’t Artemi,” I replied.

But he was right, and I knew it. I needed to think ahead. Now wasn’t the time for me to slip. In fact, I shouldn’t relax again until I found a way to break the tie to Eli.

“They didn’t like me. Thistle did, if you could even call it that. She may be worse at handling affection than you are,” he laughed. “Come to think of it, maybe that’s why I started to like her—she’s the unicorn version of you!”

The path ahead began to widen into a cobbled street. Each side of the road was filled with sparse, Tudor-style shops. People and creatures of all shapes and sizes bustled about from shop to shop. Merchants sang and called to people passing by, several making their skin glitter and flash in the hopes of gaining others’ attention. Steam billowed from various storefronts, clearly foodvendors of some sort. The air was thick with savory, appetizing scents, though none I quite recognized.

Eli’s voice was stern as he spoke now. “Stay with me in town. I don’t want us to get separated in the crowd. Here,” he said and pulled something from his pants pocket, then placed it in the palm of my hand.

---