* * *
They rushed quickly into their apartment, went to the cardboard TV box in the middle of the room, and started rummaging through it. Will pulled out a big white boxy shaped thing, roughly an 8 inch cube. It seemed heavy and kind of looked like a block of ice.
"Ew," Emily said, "What is that?"
"You shall see, my love," said Will, in a hurry. He rummaged some more and pulled out a thing that looked like a gray pen. He held it up to the light and read the tiny writing on it, then put it in the backpack. "Okay," he said. "Let's go."
Back out to the car they went, with Will trying to carry the block of white. He was walking quickly and trying to keep the backpack strap from falling off his shoulder and trying to hold the heavy cube. Emily opened the passenger door for him.
"Okay, read me in the right direction," Emily said as she started the car up.
Will picked up the alarm to read the GPS. "Well," he said, "They are somewhere out here," he pointed to the screen. "Which is probably into the mountains by now."
She sighed.
"But," he continued. "If we go to the field where we were, we should be able to draw them back."
"Really?" She looked brightened by this. "William, why didn't you say so?" She started to drive back to where they had been.
Once there, they got out of the car and she waited for an explanation for the white cube. They walked out into the field about half a block and he set it on the ground. She raised her eyebrows.
"It's a salt lick," he said proudly, as if he'd created it from clay.
"Eh?" Emily said confused.
"It's not a real salt lick. Or maybe it is, but not just that. It has other mystical stuff in it. It attracts all hooved paranormal creatures. Like a real salt lick attracts deer."
"Huh," Emily said. "Does that mean we have to sit here for 3 days?"
"No, it works quickly," Will said, digging through the backpack now. "You're gonna need this," he pulled out the pen-like thing and handed it to her.
"Me?" she said, appalled.
"Believe me, you're gonna want to be the one to do this."
She didn't look convinced.
"You like to skip," he said.
Now she looked confused.
"Just—" he started to say something, but the sight of many white creatures in the distance instantly had his full attention. "Look," he whispered.
She looked. The unicorns were coming out of the woodwork, so to speak. Coming out of the woods in actuality. They almost glowed. They were more than white. They were practically a light of their own. They trotted and walked toward them and the mystical salt lick cube. Will grabbed Emily's arm as the unicorns began to get close, realizing they shouldn't be standing right next to the salt lick. They stumbled back a few feet, then walked backwards slowly, watching the unicorns with awe as they got closer. Em and Will were about 20 feet away from the salt lick when they stopped.
The unicorns, 2 or 3 at a time, went up to the white cube and licked it. They each took turns, as if to be polite. It's like they were noble and wise and had manners. It was amazing. There seemed to be about 30 of them, and dark smaller creatures were weaving in between them. Will hadn't noticed them at first.
"Look," he said to Emily, "deer."
"Wow," she said back.
They were so lost in the amazingness of the moment, staring at all the graceful creatures, that they didn't stop to wonder what to do about the deer. At first. Then it dawned.
"We have to separate them from the deer don't we?" Emily asked.
"I have no idea how we would do that," Will said. Both were whispering, as if the deer and unicorns couldn't see them. But they knew they were there. They stopped to look at the people every once in a while. As if judging to see if they were a threat, and, deciding they were not, kept taking turns at the salt lick.
"I think we may have to send the deer back with the unicorns," Will said quietly. "I can't think of any other way to do it."
"I guess," Em said. "I guess they'll be happy in mystical fairy land, just as much as they are here. Probably more." She thought for a moment. "Unless we are separating them from family members or something." She looked sad.
"Don't think about that," Will said. "We want to get home sometime tonight, don't we?" He set the backpack down and pulled out the Veil Sealer. He got the pen light out of his pocket to look at the settings on the sealer. "It can create a tear too," he whispered, in explanation. "There's a specific code number for each dimension. I just have to enter the code and flip the 'Create Doorway' switch and press the button."
"Wow," Emily said, "They really thought of everything." She was astounded. She stepped closer to watch him enter the code.
"Now," he took the pen thing from her, "watch this." He shined the pen light on it to read something, then put the light away. He flipped a catch on the pen gadget and suddenly it sprang open. It quickly extended like an antenna and became about 3 feet long. He handed it back to her.
She looked confused.
"Now," he said, "when they are all gathered in a group—when we think we have them all—you have to run around them with this thing turned on."
"Why?" Emily asked.
"It creates a force field that contains them. Then I create a tear at the edge of the force field."
"Then what?" Emily asked.
"You ask too many questions," he whispered at her. He looked stumped. "I don't know, I have to read." He picked up the pen light and pocket guide again. "Okay, I..." he lifted up the Veil Sealer and pointed to a part of it, "Press that button."
She looked closer at the button. It said, 'Send.'
"Ha ha!" she said, then giggled.
"Okay," he said, "I think we have them all." He looked around. There didn't seem to be any stragglers or anything. Of the deer or unicorn varieties. "I guess it's time to do your thing."
"Won't they run if I do this?" She asked, a little nervous.
"No. That salt lick thing is really... attention grabbing," he told her. "Now, skedaddle."
"But, but..." she said.
"They like skipping," he said. He kind of rolled his eyes. "They like happy stuff like that." He kind of looked disgusted by this.
"Really?" Emily smiled. "Yay!" she whispered.
"Push the button and go," he said. "I will brace myself and deal."
She smiled a big smile at him and looked for the button on the antenna thing. She found it at the base of it. "Okay," she said. "Here goes."
She pressed the button, and immediately the pen-antenna grew even longer. Two more feet of thin metal came out of the end of it, and then something bizarre happened. A glowing white flag made of mist came out of that last two feet of metal. It rippled in the breeze and everything.
"Wow," Emily said, amazed. She turned to Will.
"Oh, my God," Will said as he saw her face. "Emily, your eyes."
Her eyes were glowing white like the mist. With icy blue irises instead of her usual brown. She looked serene. She smiled happily. "I feel a buzz," she said and kind of laughed.
"Yuh-huh," he said, totally distracted by the eye thing.
She waved the flag around in the air like a huge sparkler, watching it flutter and flow.
"Uh," Will said, "Maybe you'd better go do your thing before you become radioactive."
"Pft!" She said to him.
Then she took off. She ran at first and then skipped because she couldn't help herself. She just felt so happy. The unicorns, the deer, the mystical flag thing filling her with happiness and a high on life feeling that was barely containable.
She didn't know it, but every step she took while holding the flag created a bright glowing footprint on the earth. She was literally drawing a circle around the unicorns. With footprints.
The unicorns watched her with contentment as she circled around them. And Will could swear he saw or heard a few of them laughing. With joy. The deer were a little less joyful. They we
re mostly curious and kind of wary, but stayed calm.
Emily was done with her circle now and was galloping back toward him happily. Her eyes were less glowy now. Maybe she had stamped it out through the bottom of her feet as she skipped. He didn't know. "Weeee!" she actually said as she ran back to his side.
"Off now," she said aloud as she flipped the switch to 'Off.' The rest of the glow immediately left her eyes.
'Phew!' Will thought. No radioactive wife.
He walked over to the edge of the footprint circle as the animals watched. He held out the Veil Sealer and pressed the 'Send' button.
Instantly the entire herd of unicorns and deer disappeared, and the footprints with them.
"Whoa!" Will said, stumbling backwards from the shock. "I thought it would take more... be more of a process... shit." He had fallen to the ground.
Emily laughed. "Ahh," she sighed. "That was worth waking up for." She smiled. She walked over to Will and helped him off the ground.
They gathered their stuff together again, white cube of mystical salt and all, and started walking back towards the car.
"So, uh..." Will began, "do you have super powers or anything now?" he smiled at her.
She swatted his arm.
"No," he said. "You still hit like a girl."
"Hey!" She said, and tried to swat him again, but he jumped out of the way.
He had a mischievous look on his face as he started to run toward the car, out of her reach.
"Hey!!" she shouted as she ran after him. She tried to catch him, but couldn't. Even though he was carrying both the backpack and the salt lick again, running like a dork because of it, and laughing.