Note: This is NOT the story Penny refers to in The Stories of the Family Nas-Kan series. Instead, it takes the title and a few hints from that unpublished story and shows something that might have been had Kalindra and I ended up on The Road Not Taken …

Have you ever had a flash of anger that made you so mad, that just for an instant, you wanted to kill someone? Were you truthful when you answered that question? Think about it a little more and then think about what might happen if the impossible were actually possible, if raw anger or other intense emotions could actually alter the fabric of the universe and bend it to your will. Imagine what it would be like if a Mage got that angry …

The first time I’d gotten that angry I’d blown a hole through book with a wave of my hand, the day I’d found out I was a Mage and I’d kept the book as a reminder. The second time I’d done it had been two days ago and the only evidence left behind was an undersea volcano in the Pacific Ocean, some unexplained squiggles on seismographs, and the fact that the planet only had two living Mages now.

When Kimi, the lady who’d taught me Magic, had retired, there had been two other Mages on the planet. She’d selected me to succeed her, and Jon, her other apprentice, had made his displeasure quite clear. In the years since then he’d repeated the claim that I wasn’t fit for the job after every mistake I’d made, especially after the fact that Magic existed and I was a Mage had become public knowledge. The fact that I hadn’t lost my magic when that happened, as had every other Mage that had been accidentally revealed over the centuries just fueled his anger with me.

Two days ago he’d decided I needed to be replaced, by him, by force if necessary.

I’d been alone in my office when he’d teleported in and ordered me to hand over the Book of Mages that was both the symbol and confirmation of my title. My laugh had barely broken the silence following his demand when he’d launched his first attack. That had been the start of a running battle between us that had ran almost twelve hours and it had only ended when I’d trapped him in a hideout he’d created on the ocean floor. He was good, I’ll give him that. Hiding behind a protective barrier he’d created that I couldn’t force my way through, he’d made his fatal mistake. He’d started taunting me with what he intended to do to my friends and family when I finished wearing myself out trying to get to him. I’d once focused the power of a star into a weapon to save a world, this time I only punched a hole in the Earth’s crust and Jon was standing in the middle of the bullseye.

Two days ago, two long, agonizing, guilt ridden days ago. I’d returned to my office, locked everybody including Penny out and spent those days sitting at my desk staring out the window as I replayed the memories over and over again in my head.

***

It had to be a joke, but damned if I could figure out how they were doing it.

It had been six months since the "Unicorn" had deflected the crossbow bolt that would probably have killed me. Whoever was behind the prank, I owed them my thanks, but the joke was getting a little old. It had put in two appearances since that day, though I'd sensed something going on in the grove a couple of other times as well.

Its first appearance had been while a couple of Velan musicians had been playing a lunch concert near the World Gate in the center of the park. Nobody remembered seeing it get there from the corner grove, but about half way through one of their pieces, the Unicorn has stepped out from behind a nearby tree and started singing along with their music. It stayed there about ten minutes before it apparently had gotten the attention it had been after, then it spun around and ran at a full gallop back to the grove.

Suffice to say that we had Unicorn groupies from all over the world stomping around the park for months afterwards. Kalindra and I had to enhance the spells protecting the park environment just to keep them from wearing permanent paths in the grass as they searched the grove and surrounding area for the thing. I'd gotten irritable enough after one particularly bad weekend that I'd started "altering" any clothing that entered the park that had a Unicorn on it. People got the idea quickly and I stopped seeing hundreds of variations on the 70's cute unicorn motif everyplace I looked.

Its second appearance had been at the annual fall BBQ. A feisty little silver haired grandmother had taken her grandkids to the park for the BBQ, and brought along some stuff of their own that they'd spread out on a blanket near the grove. While the kids were off playing, the Unicorn had stepped out of the grove, walked over to her and knelt down on the grass next the blanket. I'd talked to her afterwards and all she'd say was that it had loved the chocolate cake. When I asked her about anything else it had said, she'd blushed and told me it was none of my business.

My joke Unicorn was apparently a pervert as well.

***

"Telepathy?"

*Telepathy* came the confirmation in my mind. *Now remove your hands from my muzzle before ke bandi fastinicly ...*

And then I stopped hearing him completely as I mentally threw up steel walls and everything else I had available to keep the unicorn I had my hands around from digging around in my head. As he pulled himself free of my hands, which wasn't hard to do, he started to snap at me and I reacted. Large animal, needle sharp horn, the safest place I could think of other than bugging out completely was onto its back, which is where I teleported before he could turn me into shish-ka-bob.

"Ok, you bastard, I've had enough of ..." and I grabbed hold as best I could as he took off at a dead run. I let out one hell of a yell, half in anger, half based on the memory of what had happened the only other time I'd been on the back of a horse. When I managed to get a look at where we were headed, I knew this ride was going to end the same way if I didn't do something because we were headed for the trees at the edge of the meadow.

"No fucking way" I muttered to myself and as I sang to myself my defense field snapped into existence around me, molding itself to the unicorn's back. It took him a couple of seconds before he found what he was looking for, and I watched as a tree with a branch just a bit higher than his back was came into view ahead of us. We hit it at a full gallop and both of us were surprised when the limb exploded from the impact with my defense field. I felt him stagger, then he turned and continued on towards an even larger tree at an angle. I might not be swept off his back as easily as he thought, but he obviously intended to see just how big an impact my defense field could take before it lost it's hold on him.

I didn't intend to find out.

"Ok, my turn" I yelled and I began to sing again. The defense field transformed itself into the normally tightly fitting flight field that I used to fly with and then I expanded it to include the unicorn I was still clinging to. "You want to play games? Ok, try this one!" I yelled into his ear as I tightened my grip around his neck. Looking up into the sky above us, I waited for his next step and then I pulled both of us into the air.

It was his turn to yell.

God only knows what it looked like from the park, probably like some kind of missile launch. I did manage to get a glance behind us long enough to see people pointing up at us and I saw the meadow shimmer oddly and return to its normal size once we were clear of it. At about 50,000 feet I leveled us off and lowered my mental shields ever so slightly.

*Ok, either I find out why the hell you're stalking me or I find out if you can fly*

*Both, actually*

It barely had time to sink in before I got caught square on the chin by his head as he snapped it backwards. The blow stunned me just long enough for me to loose my grip on him and throw me off his back. My flight field kept me from falling, but to my surprise, when I recovered, I didn't see him falling to the ground below me. Instead, he was floating in the air in front of me.

*Humans don't have a monopoly on being Mages*

I looked from him, to the ground, and back into his eyes.

*Never get on my back without permission*

*Never dig around in my head without permission* I snapped back.