“Unicorns Walk Among Us”
By SgLee
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2011 SLee
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An
account of the hunter E. Wildwood, Year 300
as compiled in
"The
Collected Tales of the Big Bad Wolf," circa 1325
It is human nature to fear death. But there are those who fear it more than others, doing anything they can to avoid it. We seek out strange items that supposedly maintain our youthful appearance, we buy soldiers to protect us against those who might kill us, and we look for the mystical things that grant us immortality.
It should not be a surprise to most of you that the quest for immortality often is the pursuit of the wealthy. After all, there is no hope of everlasting life for the regular man who can not afford either these magic elixirs of youth or a hired army to secure these mystical items for them.
In a way, I fall into the latter category – a hired man in the service of a King who, having obtained great power too easily, lived in constant fear of losing it and becoming nothing. His wife was no better, a foolish vain creature, who spent too much time in front of the mirror admiring herself. They both wasted their vast resources to pursue youthful immortality.
And so, we hunters were made to do unthinkable and illogical things in the name of the King.
It continued as such for years.
That is, until, the unicorns came.
* * * * *
Lily was a girl without a last name.
She had no village either, to anyone’s knowledge.
When we found her, she was a slip of a girl, with long yellow hair that fell to her waist and the saddest blue eyes that I had ever seen, and a scar on her forehead that marred what would have otherwise been a beautiful face.
We discovered her, chained up with some other women who had been locked away in a dark part of the King’s castle. There was no valid reason for them to be there, other than they had been born pleasant to look at and, therefore, posed a vague threat to the Queen’s claim to beauty.
What became of these girls is something I’m not proud to admit to after all these years. These were not hardened criminals, just young women of various means. The sickly ones died in prison. The healthier ones did not often fare better. Often these women were taken deep into the woods to serve either as bait or protection against the dark things that the court magicians said could only be appeased with a human sacrifice.
Why this girl caught our attention, however, was because of her pale features. Here in the East, we are a dark lot and we don’t see fair folks all that much. The magicians said that the way to catch a unicorn was to use a young girl. The reasons for catching one was to take its horn and use it to make a potion for immortality.
Each of us sent down here picked one girl to take along with us to the far Western part of the kingdom, where there had been rumors of the fabled creature running about. If the stories were true, a young maiden was the only way to approach the creature. As it would be a long journey, we had to take several girls who looked as if they might be the sort of creature that could entice the animal to come to her.
Why I selected her, I didn’t know at the time, other than I found her mysteriously pretty. Later I realized that it might have been the hand of fate guiding that choice.
In total, we took five girls with us. To be suitable for this quest, they had to be reasonably healthy and young. We took them away from the castle quietly before tending to them. It would not have done to clean them up under the Queen’s jealous nose.
We handed them over to a capable innskeeper’s wife, who tackled months of grime and dirt, and who soothed the frightened girls’ feelings. Branwen stayed with them for-- of the hunters commissioned to hunt the rare unicorn-- she was the only woman and could watch over them without risking accusations regarding their chastity. It was she who made a point to learn all their names and share that information with each of the escorting hunters.
What she told them about the march to come, I do not know. But once they understood they were not to be sacrificed to the dark things of the woods, they did not fight us so much as we began our journey West. Still, we had to keep each of them appropriately bound and chained. We could not afford to lose these girls unless we, too, wanted our failures to result in our own loss of freedom and life.
The girl Lily was my charge during these long hours of walking. She accepted the water and food I gave her readily, but otherwise did not converse. It may seem foolish to not say anything to an obviously pretty girl, but as a hunter, it was simply not protocol to do so. There was no point, after all, becoming acquainted with someone who might be about to die.
Branwen was the only one who spoke with her easily and showed her an abnormal level of kindness. I did not understand that then, either, but many years after, she told me it was because she sensed something different about the girl.
As we neared the woods of the fabled unicorn, the ladies grew more easy in spirit. We had not encountered anything bad so far, and under Branwen’s watchful eye, they were treated fairly well. However, as I watched Lily out of the corner of my eye, I perceived that she grew more agitated the deeper we went into the woods.
The reasons for this agitation were in evidence later when one factors in all the events that transpired shortly after. But I digress, and should continue with explaining things in the order in which they had occurred to me.
We pushed through the woods until we had arrived at the point where the unicorn had been spotted. We then deployed our hunting dogs to do a bit of sniffing about, and based on their apparent interest in one area, decided there to fan outwards from that point and carefully tie or chain the women in place. The hunters would leave each girl sitting for a while, plied with food and water to keep them quiet and cooperative, and then retire to hide in the trees or bushes in the area.
To be honest, I did not see the point in such an activity. After all, given the large vastness of these woods, what chance was there that a unicorn would randomly wander through an area crawling with humans and decide to prance up to a girl sitting there, out of place? And yet, that is exactly what happened with Lily.
Whatever sense of fear or anxiety she had felt while on the march, she had pushed aside once she resigned herself to being in the woods. It was odd lying in the bushes watching her sit there looking up quietly at the sky for a time, saying nothing. And it felt even stranger watching her lean up against the tree and then close her eyes, looking more at peace than she had during this entire march.
I had begun to nod off when I felt a slight stirring of the air. Once the wind had passed, I saw a small figure peeking out of a nearby bush, looking about cautiously. At first, I thought it was a small child causing mischief, but as I was about to step forward, I saw the horn nestled in the tousled gold hair of the child.
I froze in place, watching as the young thing circled the girl curiously. For several moments, he danced about, eyes shining as he regarded the face of the girl. I could see that he was quite taken with her, and it was understandable. There was so much similarity between the two. Had he not had a horn, I would have thought them siblings or mother and child.
I was still not sure exactly what was happening, but as the child lay at the feet of the girl and settled into a nap, I watched the sleeping form of the child change shape.
A unicorn.
I spent too long watching this rather fascinating picture. Truthfully, at this point I did not want to disturb either the girl or the child. I was sincerely moved by the image, and loathe to interfere. I was torn, thinking perhaps it would be best to free them both and drag them out safely of the forest.
It was unfortunate that I was too slow in realizing how much time had passed. Too late, I realized that other hunters had breached the periphery in order to replace me at my guardpost.
They spotted the unicorn immediately, moving like dark shadows past me, hands reaching for the small white colt whose head lay innocently in the girl’s lap.
As the sun set behind me, I heard the sound of cries, a horse and a girl’s as they were bound to one another.
With the precious beast secured, we began our return journey the next morning. While the hunters were all in a good mood on the march back, I could not say that I was of the same good humor.
It pained me to be given credit for picking the girl that would catch the rare unicorn. It was hard to feel any sort of merit watching her out of the corner of my eye, crying silently as we marched ever so slowly back to the capital. She cried, burdened with the realization that she had been the one to trap the poor innocent creature. And I -- I had been the one to make her cry.
To be honest, I was too troubled to be doing what I ought. We had not yet arrived at the capital. If I had looked to Branwen then, I would have seen what she was up to at that moment. Instead, like the other hunters lost in their thoughts of their successes (in my case, failures) on this trip – I did not observe her talking to the other young girls from time to time.
I did not notice their feelings or their gloomy looks either. But later, I realized that they, too, were affected by their collective guilt. There was no pride in capturing a unicorn – a mere child who could do nothing except walk and cast confused looks at the girl who had been used to ensnare him.
But whatever Branwen may have been plotting then, perhaps it was for the best that I did not know. Had I, I think things might have ended differently. There was no way a handful of captive women and two renegade hunters could overcome the large number of guards that escorted our party and the prized unicorn.
As it turned out, rumors of the captured unicorn had preceded us and as such, we were forced to stop in town and hide both Lily and the unicorn in one of the King’s jails. We waited there for reinforcements to arrive from the capital. In that chaotic time, the other girls slipped out of their bonds and disappeared into the gathering crowds. I suspect Branwen’s involvement with this, but there was nothing concrete to implicate her. The other hunters did not or could not care, for they were too distracted by the crowds that were gathering.
The people of the town had gathered around the fortress out of curiosity. In time, they were joined by other people from outside the town. Some wanted a piece of the unicorn and its rumored healing properties. Others perhaps were simply desirous of having a good story to tell for generations to come.
As I stood on the second floor of this large fortress that served as the King’s jail and “home” to the unicorn and the girl and observed these crowds, I became afraid. The situation was becoming uncontrollable. There was no way we could leave now, not without additional manpower to guard our way.
And yet, in the midst of all of this chaos swirling about them, there was something happening to the girl and the unicorn. I could see the two conversing silently (for the child did not speak a language that was human). How that came to pass, I’m not sure, but again one might suppose that the girl knew the language all along. What I did see, very clearly, was a change in the girl’s eyes. Lily no longer looked at the ground when guards would approach her in her cell. She would look straight back at them, as if to challenge them not to be ashamed by what they were doing to her and the child.
After one week of this, the men could not help but apologize every time they approached her cell. See, most of them were goodhearted men, and the longer they were around this unicorn and the girl, the more they forgot their initial excitement at their accomplishment. And I, well…perhaps emboldened by the change in the girl, I finally spoke to Branwen. Quietly and traitorously, she and I began to discuss what could be done to free them for good.
Our options, however, were too late. The Queen and King were, in fact, already drawing closer to the city. Impatient to acquire their treasure, they had dragged their soldiers with them – both to secure the unicorn from any other interested parties and to capture the horn as quickly as possible.
Foolishly, they came in to the city and then demanded that the prisoners be paraded before their subjects as prizes. It was a proud and stupid act, full of risk to all involved. I was certain that amongst the thousands that had now gathered, there were a number of thieves and bandits amongst the onlookers.
I was nervous as we hunters marched the poor child and girl down the dusty streets towards the town square. The streets were lined with people of all sorts, pressing as close as they could against the soldiers that stood guard. And above all of us, a number of birds had flown in, following the people that had amassed in the town.
As we neared the wooden platform where the Queen and King waited, I wondered what could be done. Once the prisoners reached that platform, we would have to turn the unicorn over to the King’s own personal guard, who could not be easily overcome.
Around us, there was a murmuring sound growing from the crowd – a sound of questions and doubt. Having now seen the unicorn for themselves, the people were troubled to discover that unicorns were remarkably similar to us. They were wondering, like I was wondering, under what circumstances would the sacrifice of a creature be right.
Over the crowd, I heard the sound of the wind beginning to pick up. The birds began to crow, sing shrilly, and cry.
And then I saw fingers start to point upwards, towards birds circling ever so much closer in the sky. I heard the gasps, as a western wind blew, tossing the King’s guards like a deck of cards. And then I heard, I saw, I felt the flurry of white wings everywhere, beating those fools to the ground.
A thousand birds, wings thrumming, dashing through the air, rushed the soldiers. It was an explosion of chaos in the square-- a sound of screaming and terror.
And then in the middle of the cleared area, a woman appeared.
She stood, hair black as coal and eyes as clear blue as the skies on a summer day. Six large white swans circled overhead, ready to strike perhaps at any man who would touch the woman.
The cacophony was silenced.
“I’ve come for the unicorn,” the woman directed a scepter accusingly at the King and Queen.
For a moment, the crowd looked at this woman with unabashed wonder.
The King finally overcame his own shock at the challenge and choked out, “It is not yours.” His face turned an unflattering shade of purple at the obvious insult to his power. “Our hunters have rightfully captured it.”
“Oh?” The woman’s voice thundered. “Dare you challenge the claim of the Swan Queen?”
The
King’s face paled.
The crowd trembled.
“Where is the hunter responsible for this capture?”
It was at this moment, that my fellow hunters failed me. They, who had been so eager to share in the prize and perhaps even take credit for the hunt, stepped back from the line in which we stood. They had seen the power of the woman and her guards. They were leaving me to face her wrath alone.
I did not know what to do at that moment. But with a glance at Branwen’s determined face, I found the courage to speak. “Your Highness,” I bowed shakily in the presence of the one queen that we knew of only as legend, but because of that legend, would dare not defy. She possessed a type of magic that made the court magicians cower, one that would mete out its own version of justice should she be angered.
“Tell me exactly what happened,” her eyes pierced through me. I managed to do so, stumbling over my words as I narrated everything from beginning to end. In my nervousness, I also expressed my reservations and regret for what I had done.
To my surprise she then turned to the prisoners and asked them if what I said was true. They spoke to her in that strange tongue that none of us could understand.
But whatever they said, the anger on the Queen’s face lessened slightly. “It is fortunate that you have not done worse, King and Queen. Already a great crime has been performed against these unicorns.”
“These unicorns?” The King’s mouth fell open.
“You’ve imprisoned two unicorns,” the woman answered coolly. “But as the injury against the elder was not your doing, and you have not yet dehorned the other, be glad that I shall spare your life today. I will leave your lives for theirs.”
And with that last parting statement, a cloud of white descended once again upon the square. I saw the girl and the child being lifted onto the backs of two large and rather agreeable swans by some of the crowd. They did this quickly, before the soldiers could recover from the smaller birds that were mercilessly pecking them.
I was surprised, though, to find myself placed on the back of one such creature and handed a pair of reins. There wasn’t any time to question what was happening, as I could only barely cling to the bird as it rocketed to the sky. I was overwhelmed by a fear of being tossed off the back of this bird and plunged to a rather messy and deserved death. I had not realized the danger I was in – for my words to the Swan Queen had the appearance of treachery to the current King and Queen. The crowd had realized the danger, much to their credit, and paid me a great service that day.
As the birds leveled off, I turned my head slightly to watch the Swan Queen who rode aloft on the back of one of the six swans. The swan who was my mount noticed my attention, and then with a small sound, twirled about in the air such that I could watch her no more. And so I looked instead to Lily and the child, the two unicorns, riding happily on the back of a third swan. Their faces shone in the moonlight and their eyes danced just like the twinkling stars above. They sang a song that I did not know, but I heard the word ‘home’ floating in the breezes.
And I realized then that we were going west, back to the forest in which this messy affair had started.
* * * * *
When we finally landed some hours later, I found my legs unwilling to support me as I clumsily dismounted the giant bird. I would have collapsed to the ground if it weren’t for the sudden appearance of a dark-haired gentleman at my side, holding me up by my arm. “Careful,” he cautioned with a bit of an amused smile. “It takes a while to get your land legs back.”
I wondered where exactly he had come from, but as I looked around and saw there were five other gentlemen, I suddenly realized something.
“They are my brothers,” the proud Queen strode towards me. “Luckily for you, one of them was willing to carry you all this way.”
“My lady.” I fell to my knees. At this moment, I was truly terrified for my life. “Had I known that these unicorns were yours, had I a chance to do this all over again—“
“What would you do, young hunter?” She asked quietly, watchfully.
“Let them go,” I answered, truly ashamed how I had hesitated to do so just days before.
She said nothing for a moment, before nodding. “Then rise, Hunter. You shall do that now.”
Obediently I followed her to where the unicorns stood, comforting one another. She looked at them with a gentle expression before turning steely blue eyes upon me. “Undo their shackles, hunter.”
“But the key—“ I looked down at the irons, wondering what to do about them.
The Queen touched her wooden staff to metal items that bound the girl and child. With each touch, I heard a small click. And then with an eyebrow raised, she turned back to address me. “You do not need a key anymore.”
With all eyes upon me, I knelt before the two unicorns. I reached out with trembling hands towards those metal irons, then stopped -- paralyzed by the decision of who to free first.
“Hunter,” the girl breathed softly. “The little one first, please. He said the metal hurts him so—“
Lily’s compassion for my apparent indecisiveness was humbling. As gently as I could, I removed the shackles from the child who was watching me with rounded and slightly fearful eyes. But when I finally freed him, the fear vanished and he made a small joyful sound. While he began to dance in place, I turned as quickly as I could then to undoing the metal pieces on the girl. When finished, I sat there on one knee, frozen and unable to look up from the ground.
A set of hands came to rest lightly on my hair. “Mister Hunter,” the young lady patted my head. I looked up at her face and regarded the kindest, purest eyes I would ever see. “Do not worry. This was the way it had to be.” Her words were mysterious then, but in time I would come to understand them.
With the girls’ last words to me, the Queen bid me to rise. My judgment had finally been issued. My punishment was delivered. And somehow, I had received mercy.
With the matter between the girl and I addressed, the Queen turned her full attention to the girl. “Now free creature, do you know who you are?”
“Yes, my Queen,” Lily’s expression was grave.
“And is it your wish to be changed back to your true self?”
A look of uncertainty crossed Lily’s face and, for a moment, I saw her hesitate. But when the younger unicorn took her hand into his, she nodded. “It is my wish, my Queen.”
Solemnly, the Queen answered, “Your wish has been heard. “ She leaned over then to kiss the girl on the cheek. That act was followed by the brothers each stepping forward to kiss the blushing girl’s hand.
When they had concluded the ritual, the Queen smiled as did her brothers. “Your wish has been witnessed.” She then tapped her staff on the ground once before raising it to the sky. With a large voice, she spoke to the air. “And your wish now will be granted.”
At those words, the winds began to blow violently. In that sudden storm, Lily stood with her eyes closed and her face upturned towards the sun. As for the rest of us -- I looked around me and saw the varied shades of expectation playing out on faces-- young and old, sad and placid. Like her, we waited for something magical to happen.
“Do not look away,” the Queen spoke, directing my attention back to the girl. “Now you will see a miracle that few other humans have seen.” I turned my gaze upon the lovely creature’s face, noting the scar on Lily’s forehead appearing to close.
The wind stopped then and there was a ripple of childish laughter, a bubbling sound emanating from the younger unicorn to break the silence. He hopped about, changing from child to beast in an instant. The Queen’s brothers laughed as the small horse ran excitedly about the lovely girl in circles of ever changing size.
Lily followed, testing her unchained feet. She ran cautiously at first, unused to the experience of freedom. But then she began to run with great laughter and great strides, running until she fell into a ray of sunlight streaming through the canopy of the forest. As the warm light fell upon her golden hair, I caught a glimpse of a fully formed horn on her forehead. And then I finally understood the Queen’s miracle.
For a moment, I shielded my eyes against the sudden light that reflected strongly from the unicorn’s white dress and her yellow hair. After I moved my hand out of my sight, I saw her no more. There was no human girl there -- only a white creature chasing a much smaller horse into the forest.
The woman in blue drew up alongside me, watching the unicorns disappear like ghosts into the trees.
“It’s a beautiful sight,” the Swan Queen said.
I swallowed, deeply moved what I had witnessed. “The unicorns?”
She took my arm then, performing a very human gesture. “Unicorns are beautiful no matter how many times you see them. But there is something more wonderful a sight than even the unicorn.”
I wondered truly what that could be - for it was unimaginable to me that anything could be so purely beautiful as those creatures.
Her eyes took on a very far away look. “Today the greed that took her horn away was undone and Lily was restored to her true self with her memories intact. Today, she was also restored to a family she did not know.”
“That was due to your intervention--”
“No.” She looked off into the woods. “The credit goes to the child. He wandered out here to look for his lost sister. One of my subjects had spotted him while flying a while back and we came here looking for him, concerned by the sight of a small unicorn so far away from the others like him. We would have reached him had your troupe not caught him.”
Although she had not likely meant to cast blame, when she said those words I felt a queer sort of anger that we… I… had interfered. A band had caught him, but one man had failed by letting that happen.
As if she could read my thoughts, the woman known as the Swan Queen turned me to face her. “Do not worry. The girl is right. Things had to unfold this way for a reason. ” With a mysterious smile, she looked back east. “When you return to the capital, you will see that the restoration continues.”
Branwen would later tell me that hours after we had fled the city on the wings of swans, the people had been galvanized into action, punishing the cruel king and vain queen with exile, and putting the ridiculous court magicians out to sea. The restoration that the Queen spoke of not only was to the lives of two creatures, but to an entire nation. But not knowing this, I could only naively ask, “Will it be safe to go back?”
The Queen held her staff tightly for a moment before answering. “If necessary, we will make it safe, my brothers and I.” And in that moment I saw deep sadness in her face as she turned to look at her brothers, now six swans again. In response, the six men -- now swans -- bowed their necks, solemnly laying witness to her statement while the sound of their feathers rustled in the wind.
There was something more to that statement. I could hear the allusion to a deeper purpose for those seven. I did not ever have a chance to ask what that might be, for they flew away a few minutes later.
The Queen and her brothers disappeared completely from our lands shortly thereafter. As she had foretold, a balance was restored to the kingdom I called home. With a new, more peaceful ruler in place, I retired from the service and took the noble Branwen as my wife once I convinced her to have me.
It is at her insistence that I commit this story to paper. It may seem peculiar to some that I do so, but I do this because I want people to remember that something special once happened in our now quite ordinary kingdom.
I am writing this epistle from the table in our little home that we built near that special place where we caught the unicorns. We settled here to be far, far away from the mischievous kings and queens of this world and closest to the magic that we believe still runs through this land.
From time to time, I roam the western paths with my sons in tow. Occasionally when we walk these green trails, I think I see a flash of white out of the corner of my eye and hear the sound of laughter on the winds. When the children ask why I pause in my walk, I think of Lily and her brother playing again upon these green trails.
I tell them to whisper as we stand, looking at the sunlight streaming down through the forest canopy.
I tell them to be quiet, lest we scare the unicorns.
And when they -- round-eyed and innocent-- look up to ask me if I believe in unicorns, I smile and tell them:
“Yes, the unicorns walk among us.”
“Unicorns Walk Among Us” is an original story crafted as part of the series, “Tales of the Big Bad Wolf.” “Tales of the Big Bad Wolf” updates regularly and is viewable for free at http://talesofthebigbadwolf.com .