Temperamental

Chapter 12

At first, Roan's control over his transformation was fairly weak. His form fluctuated at random between unicorn and human. It took several days before he grasped full control over his two forms. He had gained the ability to change certain features- almost everything apart from his silvery white hair and large golden eyes. Roan was amazed when he also discovered how to disguise himself as a normal horse. Well... almost normal. At least he no longer had his golden horn visible for humans to covet.

When disguised as a horse Roan was a roan. However the patches of fur were a brilliantly gold and blindingly white. Roan wondered whether his mother from the previous life would have appreciated how "flashy" he looked. His opinion, when looking into the stream and critiquing his appearance, was that he was simply too "bling" for his liking. Give him a pair of sunglasses and he may start rapping like Donkey.

However the one true benefit- at least to Roan- was that he could now verbally reprimand Kazimir. Roan felt an almost sadistic glee at pointing out all of Kazimir's redundant or pointless actions. It was payback for all the hard times!

"You shouldn't be so picky about what you eat." He would say when Kazimir stared vengefully at the freshly gathered herbs. "Do you know how valuable the food you are eating now would be if taken to a human market?"

Kazimir could only roll his eyes and eat unhappily, having learnt that there was no escaping Roan's poisonous tongue. And so Roan could be found sitting in a tree swaying his legs and enjoying the scenery while Kazimir drew circles in the sand and voiced his grievances to an uncaring bird.

Callinan and his men were extremely fatigued. They had been scouring Gaia Forest for two weeks and the environment had not been friendly. His men were camped by a river stream to recuperate. Suddenly he heard a shout.

He quickly stood up, temporarily forgetting his lethargy.

"What is it?" He asked the nearest soldier that was rushing towards the commotion.

"Sir!" The man saluted before explaining; "Rogers found some strange tracks by the river side."

Callinan felt slightly disappointed but still proceeded towards the river side. If it was threatening to the people nearby, they may have to hunt down the beast.

"Where is Rogers?" Callinan asked once he reached the gathered men.

"Sir!" The one called Rogers stepped forward. He was young- near fourteen years of age. His skin was tanned brown and his hair was the typical black of a Tuathalis native.

"What is the commotion?" Callinan asked with a tinge of impatience.

"We noticed some strange tracks in the mud around the river. One pair belongs to a boy of roughly his Highness's stature and the other tracks are unidentifiable." Rogers pointed to the messy prints in the ground.

Callinan frowned. "How can you tell that these tracks belong to his Highness's stature?" He asked.

"Respectfully sir, this one comes from a family of hunters and had learnt tracking from a young age. The size of the print indicates a young boy... see here the bridge of the foot is flat and the depth of the print is deep- this shows the gender is male... and you can see the heel of the print is deeper then here by the toes- this means a relaxed walk..." The soldier, Rogers, rambled on. The other men in the group rolled their eyes. They had obviously experienced the lesson in reading prints.

Callinan turned away from the rambling Rogers and to another nearby soldier. "Is there a way to follow these tracks?" He asked.

The other man nodded nervously but then added "However, Sir, the other tracks are puzzling and somewhat worrying."