Chapter 15: This Changes Everything

As Altin fought his way through the brambles and briars of the Unicorn's field, his mind was on other things. Particularly, he was promising the Watcher over and over again that he was never drinking again. EVER. Bad things happen when he drinks.

It's a pity he didn't have that revelation before he splurged for a new bar, though. Oh well. He certain wasn't about to stock it now.

The pinks and blues of sunset still shone in the sky as the Diamond's equine pedestal appeared through the mist. The fog played over the bronze, creating shifting shadows that made the statue almost look as if it were breathing. Creepy.

Time to finish this. He lightly set the stone on the pedestal, immediately yanking his hand back and backing away as if he expected it to explode, and...

...absolutely nothing happened.

Except for the arrival of the Unicorn, that is. 

Altin made a note to himself. Unicorns can teleport. Must remember that.

 /That's just a display, not a mystical artifact./ Huh. It was possible to sound patronizing in telepathy. Who knew? /It needs some help to make it work./

"What sort of help?"

/The magical kind./ The Unicorn pushed past him to reach the Diamond and bowed its head before it until its horn was nearly touching the bronze stand.

And then things got weird.

The Unicorn's horn began to glow. Then its eyes, and coat, and the Diamond, everything. Even the air around them danced with power. It flowed between the Unicorn and the Diamond in a loose beam before a thin tendril broke off to encircle him, too. Altin was almost too entranced to notice when he began to float. Almost.

"PUTMEDOWNPUTMEDOWNPUTMEDOWNPUTMEDOWN--"

/Please stay still. Your flailing is making it difficult for me to insulate you, and the feedback from the bonding process can be quite...uncomfortable. So I've heard./

"PUT ME DOWN!"

/If you insist./

Then everything went black.

When Altin came to, his phone was shrilly ringing in his ears, the Unicorn was gone and the grove had changed completely. Life had returned, in a hundred different colors. As he groaned and sat up to grab for his phone, something rolled off his chest with a slight clink and fell to the ground. Altin caught a flash of the glittering pink, and retrieved the Celestial Diamond from the lush grass. The pulsing energy he had felt this morning was gone, returned to the Unicorn, and all that remained was the gem itself. 

Oh right, his phone. Checking his voicemail, Altin found three messages. Elsie's was nearly incoherent with glee over the real life unicorn that had showed up in their yard and could they please keep it please please please? The phone beeped over to the next message and Altin grumbled absentmindedly to himself as Agent Ryans' deep baritone came on, extolled his talents as an undercover informant and assured them that following that morning's successful arrest of one Erika Kanzler, wanted for conspiracy to commit grand theft, his record had been purged and he was a free man. Altin sighed as Ryans invited him over to some safehouse of the SCIA's for some "minor details" remaining, then blinked in surprise at the third caller.

Sage Oxendine? He hadn't heard from her since he fled Appaloosa Plains. She wanted to know what in the name of the Watcher he was getting himself into over here and suggested in no uncertain terms that the next time he decided to singlehandedly remove the most powerful member of the Organization, it would be nice if he could give his dear friend Oxy a little warning so she could prepare! Old age hadn't changed the old crook one bit.

Come to think of it, she might be able to help him with something. But he'd need to multi-task, there was another outstanding issue he needed to take care of. Altin consulted with Oxy all the way to City Hall, pausing only to sign the paperwork necessary to transfer ownership of the grove into his name. If there really was some sort of magical wormhole boundary whatchamacallit -- and after the incredible change surrounding him when he woke up, he believed it -- then the responsible thing to do was to see it safeguarded from those who would abuse it. And Altin was responsible. Sort of. Maybe. Okay, not really, but he bought the land anyway.

Maybe now he could go back to being a normal fugitive ex-con zebra owner.

------

Okay, progress report. As of this play session Altin's technically completed the Real Estate Powerhouse requirement for Generation 1, but because it was so cheap and because the storyline requires that he not open it to the public (and therefore won't actually make income off of it) I'm going to try for a second. 

And yes, as you might have noticed from the screengrabs, he successfully adopted the unicorn today, too. So now I have four horses and two stalls. Spot is not very pleased with me right now...