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Isibel has never seen an odder collection of fauna. She has not traveled extensively, but she is sure that creatures of this size - lizards as heavy as ten elves together, beavers eight and nine feet long, turtles with shells the size of small houses - are not customary. Yet the island is riddled with them.
The creatures have no particular fear of elves, but nor do they seek them, and none of her party have been attacked; she feels safe enough traveling through the forest on her own, stepping lightly, looking for the sweep of the treeline and any springs that might be useful for settlers if elves settle here. Besides, she is a student of the small magics, some of which may be cast quite rapidly if there is need; she could frighten away an animal that took too much interest in her. The ribbons tied around each of her knees and ankles (blending seamlessly with the rest of her travel outfit) are some of her finest small magic, guiding her steps so that she may place her feet as elves ought to be able to and bring no embarrassment to her House. They don't make her truly graceful, but she can walk, and care will do the rest.
She's deep into the forested part of the Unknown Island when she starts finding statues. Old statues. The trees have grown up around them, it looks like, they've been here that long; they're worn and weathered and have lichen growing on them.
And they're all of unicorns.
The oldest sculptures are none too skillful, but as she proceeds inward towards the center of the island, they become newer and better and it's plain to see that they're not of unicorns, but a unicorn. A unicorn with a broken horn; this is not, it soon becomes apparent, random damage to early statues. Someone has carved a specific unicorn, dozens - hundreds? thousands? - of times. And the art has been made with such intense love, and the newest of the statues are so delicately done that they look almost like real unicorns, with all the magic that implies, though they hold still and are on closer inspection all still carved from stone.
Someone loved this unicorn, and lived on this island, and made a thousand statues of her, and now the place is inhabited only by giant animals that certainly could have done no such thing. Isibel wonders what happened to the sculptor. To the unicorn, too.
On she walks.
small_magics
small_magics
Isibel moves on. Wood floats. Rocks sink. She can demonstrate by tossing examples of each into the pond. All this doodling she's doing is drawing; if she writes instead that's writing, and when she looks at the letters again later that's reading. "I could teach you to write," she says.
small_magics
She writes out the alphabet and each sound it makes, and starts spelling words he knows, from "dragon" and "elf" to "tomorrow" and "maybe".
small_magics
This occupies the rest of the morning, and then Isibel says, "I'm going to eat now," and pulls out her lunch from her travelbag.
small_magics
She nibbles on her lunch one-handed and writes out more words as she remembers having covered them to read for him later.
endragoned
He returns a few minutes later with a large basket of brilliant blue fruit, which he sets in his lap when he sits down on the bench again.
He offers her one.
They did not appear on the catalogue.
He offers her one.
They did not appear on the catalogue.
small_magics
Isibel peers at it. "You didn't draw this fruit," she says. "Is it good for elves to eat?"
small_magics
Isibel blinks at the fruit, then tilts her head and takes it and bites tentatively into its side.
small_magics
Yes, she snacks on those happily as they go.
Eventually she can call to mind no other words they've covered. "I have forgotten what else I've taught you. I knew it and now I don't," she says, writing this sentence as she speaks.
Eventually she can call to mind no other words they've covered. "I have forgotten what else I've taught you. I knew it and now I don't," she says, writing this sentence as she speaks.
small_magics
"If there is something else you want to learn to say, you can tell me and I will teach you," she reminds him.