“Are you sure?” The giant of a man asked, his sweat stained shirt straining against his muscles. Sarah was a bit worried he’d start kicking the creatures.

“As sure as I can be.” She responded in as calm a voice as she could muster. The sounds of the rain forest around them did nothing to calm the man’s nerves. “Maybe you should calm down a bit.” The suggestion only produced a scowl.

 “They’re amazingly soft.” Ricardo was squatting a few feet away from Sarah, a smile permanently plastered to his face and surrounded by half a dozen of ‘them’.

 They had accidentally stumbled upon the animals while searching for a rare orangutan spotted in the area. Nobody had been ready for the surprise… least of all, the former soldier now getting nuzzled by one of the critters.

 “Ricky,” she spoke a little above a whisper so as not to startle the group of animals, “don’t do that.” This time, her reply was a tongue stuck out at her. The sound of Ray’s camera caught her attention. “Don’t you have enough, yet?”

 “No.” Ray’s clipped answer was followed by more clicking as his digital camera churned out picture after picture. Sarah hoped he was getting video, too.

 “I should probably give them a call.” She sighed before picking out a relatively flat spot to sit down. The second she did, a few of the creatures came up to nuzzle her. Even though they fit the classical descriptions, she still couldn’t believe they were real. “Maybe in a little bit.” She murmured to herself as she absently ran a hand through the silky fur of the closest one. They were soft.

 Sergeant grunted and stomped off to secure their perimeter or something. The fidgety man at the dock that had introduced them had only referred to him as Sergeant… and she just assumed it was his name. Ricardo giggled.

 Gaining a bit of nerve and confidence, Sarah pulled one of the creatures toward her and held it on her lap. It immediately flopped down and snuggled into the hollow, laying its head on her hand and purring. Purring! “Are you really…?” She let the question hang in the thick air.

 The others were nibbling on the greens laying about the clearing, slowly working their way across the area and away from Sarah and the solitary creature in her lap.

 She reached her other hand up and ran a finger across the flat, pudgy face, eliciting a few blinks and an increase in the purr’s volume and intensity. She gently touched the bump protruding from the creatures forehead, a smallish, squashed cone of what looked to be bone. It didn’t seem to bother the little animal at all.

 She noticed the little cloven hooves, too. Three toes, not two. Completely unheard of. The size and shape of the little guy? gal?… reminded her of her dog at home. Hamilton was a Boston Terrier and was barely smaller than this thing… yet much heavier. Ham was opposite to these guys in almost every way, except size. He would snuffle and sneeze and snort, even when relaxing. None of the animals in the clearing had made a single noise since they had entered the clearing. Sarah wasn’t chalking purring up to being a noise quite yet. Ham was a solid chunk of dog… a speedy ball of muscle and slobber and farts. These things seemed to be made of perfectly coiffed clouds, and drifted along as slowly.

 “They’re like little fat goats.” Ricky called out, giggling again. One of the creatures had climbed up onto his upper thigh and was chewing on a tail of his shirt.

 Sarah saw the goat aspect just fine, but there was also equine in there, too… underneath the fat… or bilious fur.

 “Is that supposed to be a horn?” Sergeant grumbled. Sarah jumped, not realizing just when he had snuck up behind her.

 “I believe it is.” Even the rumbling voice of the big man didn’t seem to bother them.

 “Stupid.” He walked over to a log and sat on it.

 Sarah felt the heavy satellite phone resting against her hip. The research vessel needed to know about this. She took one last glance around the clearing, knowing for certain that it would probably be the last time any of these creatures would ever see of it. Maybe she could just NOT tell anyone. Try to convince Ricky, and Ray, and Sergeant… yeah, no. She sighed, reaching for the phone and thumbing the power button on. It only took a few seconds to load the software. There was only one phone number saved in memory. She selected it and made the call, waiting for the digital ringtone.

 The creature in her lap blinked bright blue eyes open and lifted its head. “It’s okay, little guy.” The line clicked over, but she knew it would take a second. “We’ll take care of you.” It laid its head back down and began purring again. A voice came from the speaker, slightly garbled.

 “Yeah?”

 “Doctor Caspar?” She asked gently.

 “Of course, it’s me.” He sounded as if she’d interrupted something… which was a good bet.

 “It’s Sarah.” She waited for a response, but didn’t get one. “Uh… we’ve found something.”

 “The orangutan?”

 “No…” She was still nervous to inform the man of their discovery.

 “Then what?”

 She noticed Ray lying down on his belly, filming a trio of the creatures playing with each other, having a three way game of tag. “We’ve discovered a group of unicorns.”