Unicorns
The legend has it that, in a remote group of mountains in the heart of the tropical Africa, there's a patch of land that is still unexplored. They say it's inaccessible, and that anyone who ever ventured into it, never returned. They also say that it hides marvels without pair. However, Hero was interested in something else. As a zoologist, she knew there would be plenty of unknown species thriving in the isolated ecosystem, having evolved in a complete different way. She hoped that the ecological niche was different enough from what was seen in the surrounding areas to have produced species no one could have imagined before. She had dreamt of visiting that place for ages, since she found out when she still was a graduate student. And when she finally obtained a position as PI, she knew it was time to go explore.
During the flight to Africa, she was as excited as she had ever been. Hero travelled with her team, Liz, a postdoc researcher; Harry and Anne, grad students; and Mary, a weathered technician who was used to work in suboptimal conditions. Hero had been a PI for a short time, but she fully trusted her people. Furthermore, they would have a local guide, Bamidele, who would help them navigate through the jungle. It was not the first time Hero went to Africa for research, but it was the first time she decided where she wanted to go. It was a risky mission, and some of her colleagues confessed her they would never do it, but it was a dream of a lifetime, and nothing would stop her. The tropical air hit her on the face as she left the plane, warm, humid, and full of unknown smells. It promised adventure.
Hero's team was prepared, athletic, and used to long difficult walks, but yet no one expected the hardship they had to undergo. The tropical forest proved to be a maze with many traps, danger hiding everywhere, ranging from open sinkholes that forced them to reroute their path, to hundreds of different insects that seemed to appreciate European blood. They were lucky to have Bamidele leading them, as he was used to the harsh conditions of the rainforest. Still, sometimes there were things that escaped from his control, such as the time they came face to face with an almost vertical wall of stone, they would have needed to take a detour if it hadn't been for Harry, who was an expert rock climber. It was dangerous, but he managed it to the top, setting up ropes for the others to follow him.
Their venture through the woods was long and exhausting. But after two weeks they reached their objective, a valley, not unlike the ones they had been walking through, opened in front of their eyes. Looking closely, it was clear that it was the crater of an extinct volcano, and a large one. The journey downhill was hard, as the terrain was sheer, vertical in parts. They opened a line that they would be using to leave as soon as they were happy with their research. The vegetation was similar to what could be seen in the rest of the rainforest, but insects were slightly larger, maybe because of the lack of predators. On the first night in the remote region, they set camp in a clearing that was still far from the bottom of the valley. The ground was irregular, and the undergrowth thick, they kept an eye out for signs of larger animals to no avail. It took them four more days to arrive to the center, and the vegetation had been growing sparser every day, which made it more difficult to find traces of animals. They had already seen several new species of insects, but Hero was convinced there had to be some kind of larger animal, either reptile or mammals.
Sunrise brought them a surprise. As Hero was leaving the tent, she spotted something across the lake they had camped by. She silently woke up Mary, and they both looked through the binoculars. It was still quite dark, and they could only see some dark shapes, the size of goats, drinking on the shore. The lake was quite wide, so they were at a reasonable distance for the animals not to feel threatened. As the light grew brighter, they could start to define how the animals looked like. They were larger than goats, and looked a bit like horses, most of them were dark grey. There seemed to be some young animals too, judging by their size. The animals peacefully drank on the shore, and some of them lay on the grass nearby. It was clear they had no natural predators there. Hero was exultant, she had found an undiscovered mammal species. She needed to see them from close up, collect some kind of sample, maybe there would be some hair left on the grass.
That same day they organized an expedition. Hero, Anne, and Bamidele would border the lake to try to get closer to the animals, while Liz, Mary, and Harry stayed in the camp processing samples. Hero would have preferred having Mary with her, but she was the best in sample handling, and they had lots of them to take care of. The expedition set off before sunrise, with Bamidele guiding them through the undergrowth. At sunrise they were not even halfway, and it was already late in the morning when they arrived to the field where Hero had first seen the animals. Hiding inside the jungle they stared at them, Hero's first impressions had been good. The animals were small horses, possibly evolved from zebras, they were striped dark grey, and several of them were foals. Seeing them up close, Hero realized something else. Some of them had a bone growing from their forehead, it looked a bit like the tusk from the narwhals. "They are freaking unicorns" Anne whispered. Hero almost told her off, but it was true, they were unicorns indeed. "Wait in here" Hero told them.
Breaking all her self-imposed rules, and all the rules set up by science and survival, Hero walked towards the animals at a slow but steady pace. They didn't seem to notice her, until she was around one hundred meters from them, and still, then, they only looked at her with those wide round eyes, as if they were wondering what was that funny looking creature. She slowed down, a step at a time, getting closer and closer. One of the bigger animals approached her, she put her hands out, expecting the animal to understand that she didn't want to harm him. He bowed his head to smell her hand, allowing her to appreciate the polished beauty of his horn, making her wonder whether they would use it to settle territorial battles. The animal put his head up, looked her into the eye, and charged.
Inside the forest, Bamidele restrained a desperate Anne who was trying to claw herself free to go save her PI. Hero was beyond saving, the unicorn had pierced her straight in the heart, and she had died almost immediately. It had been a horrible show, as he kept stabbing the dead body of the researcher once it was on the floor. As soon as the animal was satisfied, he reached for the water, made himself clean, and resumed his normal life. By then, Anne was curled up in the woods shaking from the shock, in her mind, the images replayed once and again. Bamidele stayed calm, he had seen people mauled by animals before, although never like that. He stared at the body lying next to the herd of unicorns, he would need to wait until they left to retrieve it, and it wouldn't be an easy feat.
