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Isibel has never seen an odder collection of fauna. She has not traveled extensively, but she is sure that creatures of this size - lizards as heavy as ten elves together, beavers eight and nine feet long, turtles with shells the size of small houses - are not customary. Yet the island is riddled with them.
The creatures have no particular fear of elves, but nor do they seek them, and none of her party have been attacked; she feels safe enough traveling through the forest on her own, stepping lightly, looking for the sweep of the treeline and any springs that might be useful for settlers if elves settle here. Besides, she is a student of the small magics, some of which may be cast quite rapidly if there is need; she could frighten away an animal that took too much interest in her. The ribbons tied around each of her knees and ankles (blending seamlessly with the rest of her travel outfit) are some of her finest small magic, guiding her steps so that she may place her feet as elves ought to be able to and bring no embarrassment to her House. They don't make her truly graceful, but she can walk, and care will do the rest.
She's deep into the forested part of the Unknown Island when she starts finding statues. Old statues. The trees have grown up around them, it looks like, they've been here that long; they're worn and weathered and have lichen growing on them.
And they're all of unicorns.
The oldest sculptures are none too skillful, but as she proceeds inward towards the center of the island, they become newer and better and it's plain to see that they're not of unicorns, but a unicorn. A unicorn with a broken horn; this is not, it soon becomes apparent, random damage to early statues. Someone has carved a specific unicorn, dozens - hundreds? thousands? - of times. And the art has been made with such intense love, and the newest of the statues are so delicately done that they look almost like real unicorns, with all the magic that implies, though they hold still and are on closer inspection all still carved from stone.
Someone loved this unicorn, and lived on this island, and made a thousand statues of her, and now the place is inhabited only by giant animals that certainly could have done no such thing. Isibel wonders what happened to the sculptor. To the unicorn, too.
On she walks.
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small_magics
small_magics
"I - can't understand this conversation," Isibel reminds Magania in an undertone.
"He asked me who I am, and why I speak his language but you do not, and then he wished to be reassured that I do not plan to have him killed," she murmurs back. "I told him that I know Tialle's story, and he asked me what more I might tell of her, and I told him that she remembered him fondly all her life and spoke well of him to her children."
Magania also nods.
endragoned
The demon weeps like a child, unrestrainedly, with tears and tremors and loud graceless sounds.
small_magics
"Surely he must have known that she would have died, in all this time. Perhaps they have not been counting the years," Isibel murmurs.
"I do not think he weeps because she died," Magania murmurs back. "I think he weeps because she loved him."
endragoned
Eventually, he quiets down and hugs himself and leans against a tree and says something in a soft, tired voice.
Magania replies briefly, then explains to Isibel, "He thanks me for telling him."
small_magics
"I do not know how our expedition could be turned aside without explaining to any of our companions why," Isibel says. "Nor do I know a place that would readily welcome him, perhaps not even with our vouchers for his - his character and the history leading us to believe in it. I do not know where he and his Bondmate might go or how the island might be left to them."
Magania contemplates these matters for a few seconds.
Then she speaks to the demon.
Then she speaks to the demon.
endragoned
He blinks in surprise, then shakes his head and answers with a short sentence and a gesture at the forest around them.
She nods, and makes a similar gesture, and speaks some more.
Magania turns to Isibel and explains what just happened.
"Tialle's friend has no house," she says, "but he considers this island his home. He says we may let this be known, without including any... troublesome details, if it will keep curious people from entering his forest and discovering him for a time."
"Tialle's friend has no house," she says, "but he considers this island his home. He says we may let this be known, without including any... troublesome details, if it will keep curious people from entering his forest and discovering him for a time."
small_magics
Isibel nods. "This will prevent any of our expedition from crossing the border into his forest. But if we settle on the unforested parts of the island, then others may come and go, and some of these include those who are not elves. One day there may be children on the island, too, who are not so careful about protocols of privacy."
"Before any of those things happen," says Magania, "I will speak to the dragons, and take counsel of them."
Magania replies, then translates with a smile, "He wants you to know that you are specifically welcome in his forest."
Magania translates this for the demon.
