The Secrets of Nedeanah

It was the year 2454, and in one hour, the world as he knew it would end.  Edward Cox, a genetic engineer, had been sequestered in an abandoned underground nuclear facility for seven years.  He'd made it his personal laboratory and conducted experiments so secret that only he knew they existed.  Now life on the sphere known to most as the blue planet was nearly over, and so Cox readied himself to set the lock-down code on the facility until the year 3000.  "Would it be long enough," he wondered, "for the world to regenerate?"

Cox would not be around to see it, but he hoped that his charges would come out safely on the other side.  He had been the last human entrusted with their care and survival, an honor passed down from a secret society in hope of saving a dying species---the mythical unicorn.  By the year 3103---more than a century after the release of the lock-down---the world was a very different place.  The territories were ruled by the mute swan Laeya, who commanded the armies of the Bastion Guard.  These massive, beautiful beasts stood ready to protect avian and mammalian creatures alike, all under Laeya's protective eye.  But what of the elusive unicorns?