Celestia - The last unicorn

by BlazeGriff1n

Chapter 3 - winter wrap up

In the rest of the winter time, he humans helped the unicorns to repair the castle. Soon it was again very livable in there, at least from the inside. Molly made a good seamstress, as she tied new carpets and other things from surrounding parts that was left in the castle. Schmendrick talked with the unicorns and get valuable information in dealing with magic. Prince Lir coordinates the work. Earlier he could never use his talent of organized delegation at Haggard's Castle, because there were virtually no people he could delegate. But was the counterpart of King Haggard. No single of structure damage of the castle escaped his attentive eyes. But he must wait until the end of the winter till he could examine the external condition of the Castle. As the first rays of the spring sun filled the upper halls of the castle with light, it was obvious: It was spring. Soon they could repair the last parts of the castle. When they opened the big doors of the Castle again since months, the castle was surprisingly in good condition. It would take only a short time until the castle is very well prepared for the next winter. But the first thing they needed was more material, a few pieces of wood and stone. Amalthea and Luna went on the way to find these materials, so the other unicorns could then help them during transport later. The path led along the old road from which they came here for the first time.

A few miles away from the Castle, Luna suddenly noticed something in the sky. It seemed like a large bird flying above them and moved in circles. Luna saw how the bird came closer and closer. But something was different about it. As closer the bird got, as greater it grew. Not just a little. It was a very large bird. The color of the coat was completely dark. Under the bird Luna noticed some large claws. This was no ordinary bird. Luna had to think just where she had ever heard the name of the bird.

"They have Ice cold eyes that will let you feel like your blood is freezing at the sight of fear. Their bodies are equipped with sharp large claws. And their beak is as sharp as their scream, which sounds like a Banshee."

Luna was certain: it was a harpy who flew down from above onto the two unicorns. She nudged Amalthea in hope she would recognize the big bird above them. Luna panicked because she thought the Harpy would attack them every moment. But she landed quickly in front of the two unicorns, which scared Amalthea a lot.

"Hello sister." How are you?" said the Harpy in a very unpleasant tone.

"Who are you? Do I know you?" asked Amalthea.

"Of course you know me. You freed me, you don't remember, Mommy Fortuna and her great curiosity circus?"

"You're Celaeno, the Harpy that…killed the Mommy Fortuna and her mate” Amalthea turned in a defending position in front of Luna "...and you tried to kill me."

"Ah, you DO remember." the Harpy replied confidently.

"I don’t want to fight you. Leave us alone. What do you want here?"

"Calm down, sister. I live here. I live here with my brothers and sisters. Apparently just like you."

"What you want, Celaeno?" asked indignantly Amalthea.

"You need to tell ME. You're here in MY area. I recognized you back there very fast and thought to myself that I should make me noticeable. But..."

"What do you mean…"but"?

"But wouldn’t you like to know why I tried to kill you?" said Celaeno with a sneaky look.

"There is no justification for the killing of innocent creatures. I helped you."

"THEY HAVE CAPTURED ME! LIKE A PET! I'll never allow anybody do this to me! ", screamed Celaeno. Then she continued quietly: "You know? I'm a proud creature of the skies and belong to freedom. I was so angry that I could have killed every creature, what I had met back there. It didn't work for you because your magic has protected you. Congratulations! You've survived."

"So, you're here to make it good again?" asked Amalthea.

"PAH! As if I have to apologize for being a proud creature that fights for his freedom at any price! I just wanted to tell you, this is my territory and we Harpy like to stay among us."

Celaeno noticed Luna, who hid under Amalthea.

"You should be careful, little foal. Here in the forest you can get lost very quickly. And you never know who or what creatures you find in the Woods." Celaeno said while she stared at Luna with her icy eyes. Luna could feel the warm breath of the Harpy already on her face.

"I'm not afraid of you. My sister will protect me." Luna said brave to the Harpy.

"Your Sister? Good. Then I hope that your sister will be always on your side to protect you." Celaeno said before she rose into the air. Then she turned again to Amalthea:

"I give you small advice: Look for what you desire and then leave this place soon. This is our hunting area, you know? And you don't want that something would happen to you? I hope you know what I mean." she laughed and flew away.
"Luna? Promise me, that you're staying with me the whole time. We get what we need and then we leave this place."

Luna agreed. Soon Amalthea gathered some wood and Luna tried her levitate charm on a stone, which was as big as herself. But her magic was not so trained, so that the stone fell down immediately.

"Don't worry Luna. You need just a little practice. Here."
Amalthea gave Luna a smaller stone, and took the great stone by herself, for her it was no problem to carry the wood and the stone. Luna would train her magic well enough soon, but for first this small stone should be enough. Luna could levitate this stone with ease.

Both left the area of Celaeno again on the way to the Castle. They would probably never go on that route. It was too dangerous and they didn’t want to fight. The unicorns the humans managed to prepare the castle over the whole summer. The work was remarkable. The Castle looked quite new. Now, this shelter was prepared for the next winter. The fire in the basement was no longer needed. Instead, the grand hall was now a perfect place for cooling off on hot summer days.

---

Many unicorns went back to the forest after the first summer days. The Harpies moved to another location, so the unicorns had access again to their forest. When they arrived back they felt truly save again. Only Schmendrick, Molly, Lir, Amalthea, and Luna stayed in the Castle. They wanted to solve the mystery of the mysterious objects.

"So I cannot think straight here. It’s still uncomfortable somehow. Can we rename the Castle? Hagsgate sounds not pleasant to me. In particular it no longer belongs to the King. I would be up for a new name." Molly proposed.

"Tss, woman." You want to give the castle a new name? How did you come with this idea?" asked Schmendrick confused.

"It's an idea. I would not consider about improvements in a castle, as long as the name is not pleasant." Prince Lir agreed with Molly.

"Well, what name should the Castle get?" Amalthea asked interested.

Many ideas came to Schmendrick’s head.

"Oh...I know. The castle of unicorns? That sounds good!"

"Yes, but in fact it was only Amalthea, which has brought the group. And Luna is always at her side. I think the castle should be named after them. I would be up for ‘The castle of the two unicorns’." Lir said.

"That sounds very good. But I would like to put in some more emotion. The two are closer than any other two unicorns." said Molly.

Then it was clear to everyone. They all had the same kind of idea:

"That's it. We call it 'The castle of the two sisters'."

Amalthea and Luna agreed. They found the name very nice and pleasant. For sure they will spend a very long time here. They have wrapped up this castle for the next winter, so they would have to leave it that soon.

"Where we are now talking about re-naming..." Molly hooked.

"Why? We have found a name?" asked Schmendrick.

"No, I mean for other things. Like for example the beautiful forest out there."

"Why women always need to discuss about pointless stuff like this?" asked Schmendrick.

"Why? We have nothing to do either." Lir replied.

"False. We wanted to solve the mysteries in here. Do you remember?"

"We will do this later…So... about the name" Molly insisted. "Amalthea, would you have any idea how we should call your forest? What kind of feelings do you connect to it?”

"We connect with our friendship and our freedom to this forest." Whenever we enter the forest, we feel as if we were forever free."

"Forever free? That sounds good. Do you not also Schmendrick? ", asked Molly.

The wizard looked pretty annoyed. He wanted to solve the mysteries.

"So I think that's also beautiful." Then until today the forest is called "Everfree." Lir said.

"Wonderful." said Molly, "Now we can take care of the mysteries if you want, Schmendrick."

"Hrmpf." mumbled Schmendrick in impatience.

Amalthea turned to her sister. The two were so happy about the name of the new castle and decided to live in here for a long time. In the forest, they could go at any time, because now the Harpies are gone. So, Amalthea and Luna decided to help the humans with the puzzle. The search began in the throne room. There stood the most items of the former King. They investigated everything, all chests, cabinets and the throne itself. However, they found nothing suspicious. Above the throne room were a department of old books and records from the time, when Haggard was ruling this kingdom. The shelves were filled capacity. Schmendrick went between the dark racks as he discovered that one book was lying among the shelves on the ground. The wizard looked up to the book. What he read on the open page shocked him. It was one of Haggard's diaries. He read the following on the page:

„… I knew that it was the last one of them. I could no longer win her for me. They were all free and ran up the beach into the wilderness. I've lost them all because of a single Unicorn which I had overlooked. This thought made me laugh, when I fell and let my body handed to the sea..."

Schmendrick had a very bad feeling about this. It was Haggard's handwriting. He must be still here. But Schmendrick didn't know why the rest of the pages were blank. Had Haggard not enough time? Did he interrupt him? Most importantly: How did he survive? If he would be dead, how could this note could be in this book? A bad feeling came over him, when he heard a voice before him in the darkness.

"You are interested how I survived? This research is very dangerous, because you were involved in my fate, wizard."
It was King Haggard, who slowly came out of the darkness towards the wizard. His sword shone brightly in the low light. As he stood directly in front of the magician, Amalthea came around the corner. She reacted in a panic and casted a spell against the King. Suddenly he disappeared in a grey fog cloud. A cough was heard. On the coughing followed a laughing. As the cloud fades, the King was gone. Instead, a frail old man with a black robe was sitting on the ground. As the man set up himself, he said exhausted:

"Oh, good old Unicorn magic. It’s hard to beat that, or is it Schmendrick?"

They recognized the old man. It was Mabruk. The former Wizard of King Haggard.

"Mabruk? But you're dead?"

The old Wizard laughed.

"Dead? I was never dead, I disappeared. Right after I was replaced by King Haggard, my boy. Do you remember? Apparently you didn’t have success either to make him happy."

"But why are you here? And what was that for?" Schmendrick wanted to know.

"Boy, this is my home. At least since the old castle of King Haggard fell apart in the sea. Please forgive my appearance. I wanted to make me a joking with you. A Joking like I did it to you, Amalthea."

“To me?" asked the Unicorn.

---

'Yes. You should've seen your face when I pushed you towards my clock in your dream. This tension and the feeling of being hopeless...just priceless!"

'Hey. That was absolutely nasty. I should...wait, did you just say 'your clock'? The clock belonged to King Haggard."

"The Castle belonged to King Haggard but I have created this clock for him, because he was looking for a shortcut to the cave of the Red Bull. And it should be unobtrusive. It was not important if it should work or look nice. Nobody should come up with the idea to approach the clock. But then he destroyed my clock, and I had to fix it after I saved it. It took a very long time until the clock worked again, how it should work. The portal was finally re-opened, but however now it goes to a place somewhere in a nearby forest here. Therefore, it was rather uninteresting for me. But I still wanted to keep it as a memory of that era."

"What era?"

"The era of the liberation of the unicorns of course, that Amalthea has so perfectly done. What a great performance, girl, what a great performance. I could watch everything from the distance."

Lir and Molly joined to the group.

"Old man. What are you doing here?" asked Lir.

"Prince Lir, what a pleasure to see you. I introduced myself already to your friends and the enchanting Lady Amalthea."

"Now spit it out already: How long you been here and how long you need to get out of here?" We want no trouble. said Molly directly.

"Uh, I have the answer to the first question: I'm here since the King is dead. But I don’t have an answer for question number two, because…I will stay forever here? HAHA!" laughed Mabruk.

"Listen. We have wrapped up this whole place and we not admit that you are stay in our way. Got it?" countered Molly.

"I beg you, Molly. Why should I damage my own home? That would be a lot amount of chaos. Even though, when I think about it..."

"Please interrupt your thoughts, old magician" Amalthea interrupted him "If you want to stay here, behave appropriately. If not, the door stays always open for you to leave this place."

"Oho, seems like the women are in control now. Now well. I will conduct myself properly, but I will continue my hobbies. Otherwise you have to leave. This is still my home, remember? I will play after your rules when you're following mine."

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[narusakufan]

And so Everfree Forest and The Castle of the Two Sisters are born.