Princess Extraction

Mir and Ari met the unicorn as children, escaping lessons to wander the enchanted wood when Ari should’ve been practicing deportment, and Mir should’ve been drilling sword strikes; not just best friends, they were a princess and her bodyguard, both in training. Decades later, Mir stepped into the unicorn’s glade, whistling into the darkness for help. Suddenly, there was an impressive stallion with a fearsome horn, breathing inquisitively into her neck. She turned, saying “Ari’s been taken.” They galloped through the night in seconds, arriving at the warlord’s keep while the moon was still high. Sliding down, Mir tossed a folded paper hawk into the air, following its flight to a far tower. Creeping lethally through the shadows, dispatching patrolling guards, she tossed a rope ladder through the window, climbed up the tower wall, and vaulted through the window. Mir embraced the bruised and tattered Ari, then pulled an egg from her pouch and broke it on the floor, releasing hundreds of ghostly white spiders, who skittered under the door and into the keep. Mir listened maliciously to the screams, then jimmied the lock and opened the door, saying “Come. There is a unicorn who wants to take you home.”