Luckily, I regained the use of my limbs before hypothermia set in. I was able to slowly make my way off of the snow and flop into the hot spring. I let myself sink into the warm, relaxing waters for a moment before surfacing. Okay, I guess it's time to wake up the others. I gingerly stepped out of the pool, sore all over. I walked into the room to see Michiko and Laser stirring from the cold being let in. Hanzō was still snoring away. I was suddenly struck with not quite knowing what to say. Too much had just happend all at once. "Er...hey guys? Could you wake up please?" It was a start. I walked over and gently shook Laser and Hanzō awake.
Laser sat up, her red mane a mess. "Ugh, what is it--oh Celestia what happened?" Hanzō got up at that and looked at me with concern.
"Is it bad?" My face hurt when I talked.
"You're all bruised and bleeding! What did you do to yourself?" she got up and started looking me over.
"I didn't do anything. Our friend the fawn just paid us a visit. Or rather, Hanako Yamada."
"What?!?" yelled Hanzō. This woke up Michiko.
"Daaad, you're being too loud." She rubbed her eyes and sat up.
Hanzō closed the screen door and tucked his daughter back into bed. "I'm sorry Little Flower, you can go back to sleep. We're going to go into the other room, okay?" She laid back down and fell asleep without another word.
Once we were all in the dining room, I relayed what had just happened. Hanzō spoke up when I mentioned her etherial horn. "Ah, it seems our thief is not a deer. What you described is a kirin. She has been concealing her true nature from us until now. Also, she did not give you her real name. Hanako Yamada is the default name we use in Neighpon, like you use Jane Doe."
"Oh, how very clever of her." I raised my most pressing suspicion. "Do you think she's powerful enough to use the Vestments herself?"
"Hmm...perhaps. Though she is a kirin, that doesn't change the fact that she is a fawn. In any case, she is displaying very odd behavior for a kirin. They are usually very nice," Hanzō said sadly. "Fortunately, they are also very rare. Tracking down her true identity will be much easier now."
~~~
The Valley of Magic was everything I expected it would be. Around every corner there was some new little conclave of ponies or other creatures, weaving subtle and powerful magics into being. Large foxes with multiple tails were leaping and cavorting through floating rings of bright pink flame. Turtle creatures with goofy haircuts were wading in a small stream, swirling the water into shifting, complex patterns. Ponies and fawns tended to their gardens, which were ridiculously lush and bountiful. It seemed like paradise. Who would want to spoil this with moon- and dream-controlling magic?
After we all split up and conducted an initial exploration of the area, we decided to come together at lunch in a small wooden stall that sold big bowls of noodles. The grey earth pony shrugged and let the sword shift into a more comfortable position on his back. "Well, I've been asking my usual contacts, and nobody has seen a kirin who matches Hanako's description. Most of them hadn't seen any kirin in the past few weeks."
I tried switching tracks a little. "Do you know how many kirin live in this area?"
Hanzō's brow furrowed in thought. "It's hard to say. They keep to themselves, mostly. You only see them when they occasionally visit the market or attend a festival. Maybe a few dozen?"
Laser spoke after noisily slurping her noodles. Classy. "Well, that probably means all the kirin know one another. If we can find a kirin, we should be able to find Hanako."
"Oh, speaking of kirin, you've meet one before, right Hanzō?" There was no way I could finish this giant bowl of buckwheat noodles. The amount of noodles and soup didn't seem to be getting any smaller, no matter how much I ate.
"Yes. Quite a few, actually. They are noble creatures who use powerful nature magic. If they do not concentrate on holding their powers in check, flowers and ferns and the like spring from the ground where they tread." He grimaced into his bowl. "For a kirin to use electrical magic to hurt another...it is blasphemy to her kind."
"What do they look like exactly, since you said Hanako was concealing her true appearance?" I had to know exactly what we were dealing with, especially if she or someone like her happened to visit me in my dreams.
"They are not so different from ordinary deer in appearance. They are still cervines, but they have one horn in the middle instead of two on either side of the head. The horns are angular and jagged, with a texture more like ram's horns than the smoother deer's. Their tails are longer, with a little tuft at the end like a lion. And, as you saw, they can hide those traits and appear to be regular deer."
We really had work cut out for us finding a kirin, if they didn't want to be found. "Ugh, I could use a soak."
"Same here," said Laser and Hanzō at the same time. "Jinx!" said Laser. Hanzō looked puzzled.
Laser explained, "Yeah, it's just some silly filly thing. When two ponies say the same thing at once, one pony can call 'jinx' and the other pony can't talk until the first pony says their name three times." We continued eating in silence until she said. "Hanzō Hanzō Hanzō!"
He grinned. "Haha, that sounds good. I should try that with Miichan, I think she would enjoy it."
I slurped my noodles violently, trying to ignore how well they were hitting it off.