Chapter 181: Stéropès

Nicky and Blanche rode for nearly four hours on Steropes's back, the unicorn having exceptionally agreed to carry not one, but two riders.

Exceptionally being the important word.

The unicorn clearly wasn't accustomed to sharing his back. From the very first few minutes, he made his displeasure known with several loud snorts and a few indignant tosses of his head, as though reminding Blanche that he had been designed to carry one rider, not an entire troop.

Blanche had tried to reassure him, gently stroking his neck.

Steropes responded with another disdainful snort.

Nicky, sitting behind her, seemed perfectly delighted with the situation. He had naturally wrapped his arms around Blanche, using the journey as an opportunity to comment on absolutely everything they passed.

A particularly crooked tree.

A river.

A herd they spotted in the distance.

A rock that, according to him, looked like a face.

Eventually, Blanche stopped trying to make sense of him.

Steropes, meanwhile, moved forward with a steady, powerful gait, his hooves striking the ground in an almost hypnotic rhythm. His mane streamed in the wind, and his horn occasionally caught the rays of sunlight, sending fleeting silver flashes around them.

Despite his obvious annoyance, the unicorn seemed to enjoy running.

Whenever the terrain allowed it, he sped up, lengthening his stride until the landscape blurred past at dizzying speed. Blanche then had to tighten her legs and hold on more firmly, while Nicky let out enthusiastic exclamations behind her.

The journey might almost have been pleasant.

If Phoenix had answered.

Blanche had tried to contact him.

Once.

Twice.

Then enough times that she began to suspect her familiar had deliberately decided to pretend he didn't exist.

Nothing.

Not the slightest sign.

Not even a telepathic response.

Completely unreachable.

She eventually gave up with a resigned sigh. When she thought about how Saphir had answered Kysten within seconds...

Her familiar was probably busy with some kind of photo shoot.

With Phoenix, that was a perfectly credible explanation.

For a moment, Blanche imagined him posing in front of a camera, wearing his eternally blasé expression with practiced perfection while an entire crew fawned over his physique.

Blanche shook her head.

"Of course..."

Steropes snorted immediately.

She looked down at him.

"What?"

The unicorn shook his head with offended dignity.

Just like her friend's familiar, Phoenix, Steropes couldn't speak to her in this form—or at least, not directly.

Blanche let out a small laugh.

"You think he's exaggerating too?"

Nicky burst out laughing behind her.

Steropes seemed to confirm it by suddenly picking up speed.

Blanche jerked upright and grabbed his mane firmly.

"Hey!"

The unicorn continued running, looking extremely pleased with himself.

And so the journey continued: four hours of riding, one overexcited pixie, one unicorn apparently convinced he was being exploited, and one Blanche who was beginning to seriously wonder which of the three—including Phoenix—was actually the most difficult to handle.

They passed the Goblin dungeon and continued toward the Woodland Elves' forest.

It was also the first time Blanche had seen Steropes's second form.

Usually, he took the shape of a hawk.

It was only then that Blanche noticed something unsettling: his left eye was perfectly normal, while his right appeared clouded.

Blind in one eye.

She didn't dare ask any questions.

The rain, which had followed the snow, stopped as abruptly as it had begun.

Blanche looked up, surprised by the sudden change. A few last drops still trickled down the leaves and branches before falling into the void, but above them, the sky seemed to have miraculously cleared.

She quickly understood why.

Steropes had come to a halt at the edge of a cliff.

A sheer cliff a good sixty feet high, its rocky face plunging almost vertically beneath their feet. The ground stopped abruptly, as though cut with a knife, revealing a landscape below so different from the one they had just crossed that Blanche remained silent for several seconds.

Nicky had stopped his familiar at exactly the right spot.

Only a few yards from the unicorn, a staircase had been carved directly into the rock. The steps, uneven and ancient, descended in broad zigzags along the cliff face. Some had been smoothed by countless footsteps, while others were partially covered in moss and small plants that had taken root in the cracks.

Blanche leaned forward slightly to get a better look.

The staircase seemed endless.

It disappeared behind a rocky outcrop before reappearing farther down, eventually vanishing into the vegetation.

"Is that the way?" she asked.

Nicky nodded.

Blanche turned her attention back to the landscape.

Below them stretched an immense countryside plain.

After the white snow and damp grayness of their journey, the green almost hurt her eyes. Grass stretched as far as the eye could see, dotted with small flowers, bushes, and a few scattered trees. Large patches of wet ground still glistened beneath breaks in the clouds, retaining the memory of the recent rain.

A narrow path crossed the plain.

It wound peacefully through the grass before eventually reaching the forest far beyond.

And what a forest.

The trees were enormous.

Not quite gigantic enough to seem supernatural, but large enough to give Blanche a strange impression: their size seemed perfectly suited to humans, as though this forest had been shaped specifically for them.

Their trunks rose straight toward the sky before branching into countless limbs, forming a dense, lush canopy.

As far as the eye could see, there was almost nothing else.

Trees.

More trees.

A sea of vegetation stretching all the way to the horizon.

A few gaps allowed the sunlight through, casting golden patches across the ground. Here and there, a thin mist still drifted between the trunks, a remnant of the shower that had just ended.

Blanche remained silent.

She felt as though she had arrived at the border of another world.

Behind them: rock, cold, traces of snow, and rugged terrain.

Ahead: a peaceful plain, followed by this seemingly endless forest that appeared to conceal an incalculable number of secrets.

Steropes breathed softly through his nostrils.

Blanche placed a hand on his neck.

"Nice detour."