Custos Unicorium 1 ~Longe Aluid--Something Very Different~

Chapter Fifteen: Puzzling Puzzle

"Baxan!" 

I'd gone strait to the Dispatchers after Koriun agreed. Josephine, insisting she be there, followed. The smart girl had left the pasture by another way than I, and rounded about when out of sight. Koriun must never know of this meeting.  

They had agreed to keep a close, invisible, eye on Koriun as the problem escalated. And oh boy, did the problem escalate. Only nine days later, and there had been sightings of tracks of our man. He'd been getting closer and closer to the haven. A trickling of rumors had begun in the villages. The trackers are so edgy. Something must be up. 

My new duties kept me around the haven mostly. The Dispatchers had--carefully-- informed the other Keepers. Even Josephine was faithful in their loyalty to the unicorns. She had no trust problems with this. It kind of promoted me. It was kind of awkward, me, being the newest Keeper, and I was, for now, in charge of them all. The siivlays and brozys I got reflected that. 

In a way, I was above Deverell now too. Even in such a short time, it was really annoying him. Apart from stress, it was all pretty cool, well, except for that I hardly had any extra time with Allistair. Oddly, half way through the week, he'd become very understanding. 

Recently, our tracking meetings had been held at the haven. Thus was the case today. I'd woken up, Allistair was already gone. Strange. I'd mounted Howl, and rode to the meeting point. I had earned a night off, but that didn't mean that stuff hadn't gone down. I needed to get right back on top of things. 

"The closest yet." Josephine's words drew a groan from the group. 

"How are they getting past us?" Edgar whined. 

"It's almost like they're taunting us." 

"I know it's stressful," Josephine breathed, "but I think it will all be over soon." 

"Why?" 

"They're almost at the haven. We'll get them if they get that far." Josephine omitted what would happen if we didn't. 

"Where aer they at now?" I asked. 

"Back corner of the village," came the reply. 

"That close? Really?" 

"Yeah." 

"Damn." 

"Why is he giving us so much of a warning?" Edgar asked.  

"I don't know," Josephine's eyes closed, deep in concentration. "It doesn't make sense! We have to be missing something...Find it!" 

"How?" 

"Find it!" 

"Who?" 

Josephine sat, breathing heavily. Her eyes shot open, and our group needed no reply. Rathor, Selena, and Olivenia sprang up, and ran off into the forest. The looks on their faces agreed with my thoughts. None of us had ever seen Josephine like that.  

Edgar, Josephine, and I sat silently. Josephine was right. Something was missing. We were missing some vital bit to the puzzle. And it was annoying as hell. I highly doubted that Rathor, Selena, and Olivenia would find it out there. This man knew we were after him, and was toying with us. Why? 

"Such a puzzling puzzle," an oddly accented voice broke my thoughts. I was annoyed, until I realized it was Jicarilla. Duh! The Puzzler! He should be able to unpuzzle something. My eyes flew open. The sun was going down. Edgar was no longer there, and Olivenia had replaced him.  

"We didn't find anything. Edgar went out on night-patrol," Olivenia whispered. What a sweet little child she was. I felt sorry for all the stress this whole thing must be causing her.  

"It took even me a while to figure it out." Something about Jicarilla's accent made even his every sentence difficult to decipher. Wait, what? He'd figured it out? 

"You've got it?" 

"I've found a very important bit of information." 

"Well?" I asked. 

"What is it?" Josephine demanded. 

"That's the thing," Jicarilla hesitated, "I can't straight out tell you." 

"Why not!" Josephine almost exploded. 

"I've been coding important information, like this, in riddles for so long. My brain, it won't let me just outright say it. I've tried." 

Josephine's eyes flared. She shook, visibly, in anger. 

"Honestly." 

"Were up-stream...with a broken paddle," I muttered. Silence enveloped.  

"Simple." Josephine's voice was short and crisp. 

"Huh?" A chorus from Jicarilla and I. 

"Give us a riddle, but make it simple," Josephine half-growled. 

"I can't." Jicarilla's words were somber. 

"Dammit, why not!" 

"I can't even think of them. My ability is so far beyond that, they don't even come to my mind. I've tried. Are you trying to insult my Puzzling!" 

"Are you trying to insult the common duty that we all share here? We have to protect the unicorns." I had had it with all the yelling. It was not helping us at all. 

"Could you at least try again?" Josephine had calmed down some, but anger still lingered in her voice. 

"I guess...I could try--" 

"Josephine! Regina!" Edgar's voice rushed into the clearing, disintegrating the conversation that had been going on.  

"What is it?" I replied, figuring Josephine would be in too much of a fluster to answer decently. 

"He's been sighted again!"  

"Dammit!" Josephine spat. 

"Not what you think!" Rathor panted. 

"How not!" Frustration boiled over her voice. 

"He's further away," Selena replied. "What's got you so worked up?" 

"Nothing," Josephine huffed.  

"So what's this mean?" Rathor inquired. 

"I'm not sure." Josephine answered, but it could as well have been any of us. "The sun's going down," Josephine stated after a long moment of silence, "as many of us as possible should get some rest." 

"That's you for sure," Selena told her. 

"No," Josephine argued. 

"Yes. You, Regina, Edgar. Deverell will be returning soon. We can handle it." 

Josephine growled. She wasn't liking this. 

"Go," Selena demanded. 

We filtered out. Once I got home, Allistair wasn't there.  

"Allistair Marcor. Where the hell are you," I muttered. Only slightly disgruntled, I quickly fell asleep. 

My morning came early, my sleep bothered by thoughts and ideas wanting to connect with each other. When I got up Allistair still wasn't there. Or rather had came and left again. There was a note affixed to the wall. 

Sorry I missed you. 

Another note caught my eye as I went to the cooking space. 

I love you. Hopefully we'll get time together soon. 

And then it hit me. I figured it out. The man we were tracking. The haven... 

"Oh shit!" I said out loud. We had to act now.