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“I’m not making it up…”
Tammy shifts her weight. “Maple, maybe?”
“Wait, hold on.” I face my eldest daughter. “Are you telling me unicorns are real? They exist?”
“No clue.” Tammy shrugs. “They could be mythological creatures… just like vampires.”
“Touche.” I chuckle.
“But if enough people believe in them...” adds Tammy.
I rub my chin. “And they likely do. Okay, let’s go see this ‘unicorn’.”
Paxton bounds through the kitchen, and heads for the door out to the yard, leading the way.
I’m not entirely sure what to expect out there. Perhaps Kingsley decided to surprise her with a pony or something and dressed it up in a unicorn costume. I seriously doubt he’d do something like that without at least asking me first. Taking care of a horse is not a small project. Heck, a horse would go through almost as much food as a teenage boy. Then, there’s the cost of stabling it and other care. We’re not really making tons of money with the PI business. While I’ve got a bit of a cushion left over from the sale of that mansion, a horse is definitely an unnecessary extravagance I really don’t want to deal with.
Paxton leads us a little past the halfway point of the yard before she stops, smiling at something, then facing us as if to say ‘see? Here it is!’
Only, there’s nothing there.
Whew. The kid’s letting her imagination run away… or is she?
Even though I can’t see anything, the area feels magically charged, even more so than it did the other night when Tammy did her little recharging ritual. Oh, crap. That’s what happened. Some sort of trickster demon came through and it’s teasing Paxton with an illusion of a unicorn.
“There’s nothing here,” says Tammy.
Pax moves her hand through the air as if stroking the mane of, well, a horse. “What do you mean? She’s right here.”
Tammy folds her arms. “I don’t see anything.”
As if hit by sudden realization, Pax shifts to look at the empty space beside her. “Oh… you’re hiding, aren’t you? It’s okay. That’s my mom and sister. You can trust them. Pretty please?”
“You know,” says Tammy, lowering her voice, “they say only virgins can see unicorns.”
I stare at her.
“Your face!” She snickers, grinning at me.
Pretty sure she’s only teasing me. Something like that, she’d have told me. The way she’s giggling confirms she’s pulling my leg. This isn’t some weird way to bring the subject up.
I lose my train of thought. After all, a gleaming white unicorn appears suddenly, standing beside Paxton. Yes, I can see it. So much for that virgin theory.
The creature is, to put it mildly, magnificent. It’s obviously not a horse, though. The body proportions aren’t quite the same, and last I checked, horses don’t have metallic silver-colored manes or a single, silver horn. My warning bells aren’t going off, so I am going to guess the horn is only silvery in color and not made of literal silver.
Paxton continues lovingly brushing her hand over the unicorn’s mane.
It’s a bit smaller than a horse, though not by too much. This is not a micro pony or whatever they call those super tiny ones. Compared to Paxton, the unicorn is about the same size as a normal horse would be to me. Tufts of silvery fur/hair cap each of its hooves and I swear the ground glows faintly blue for a few seconds wherever the hooves touch. Bright sapphire-blue eyes regard me with a sense of knowing well beyond what an ordinary animal should possess.
“Wow,” whispers Tammy while hesitantly approaching it.
The unicorn seems to tolerate her presence, so she, too, brushes a gentle hand over the mane. Tammy rises up on her toes to peer over the unicorn’s head at Paxton. “She’s not a horse, Pax. We can’t keep her.”
Paxton laughs and rolls her eyes as if Tammy told her people don’t wear shoes on their hands. “I know she’s not a pet; pretty sure she’s just visiting me. You know, for my birthday.”
“Say again?” I ask.
“She was my wish,” says Pax, hugging the creature’s neck tight. “I wished to meet a real life unicorn—and here she is!”
