Alfred was the only safe thought for Sioni right now. Just thinking about him caused butterflies to flutter madly inside her stomach. No, not butterflies; too delicate a metaphor to describe the churning emotion inside of her whenever her thoughts turned to the prince.

“They’re probably bats, not butterflies. At least they feel like bats,” Sioni addressed the unicorn, sliding gracefully off its back.

She stood barefoot on moist bracken, her shoes having been misplaced a long time ago. Her hair hung loose and in muddy disarray, bits of leaf and twig dotting it here and there. But her face, upturned in the little light that managed to break through the trees, was as radiant as a diamond and no less beautiful.

“Oh my goodness,” she breathed, staring.

White creatures pranced in and out of the trees, throwing their heads back as if in laughter. There were no less than twenty.

Sioni’s new friend came and gently nudged her with its head.

“There’s more of you?” She asked and it neighed happily in response.