by Rachel Danielle, age 14

« CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 5 »

Mirriam had given me a horse halter spun of gold, saying that if I wanted to capture the unicorn, this would bind him to me. Then she left.

After riding a bit farther by myself I came to what looked like a good spot. I tied Lightning up and then went to sit beneath a tree. In elder times, unicorns would often come to young maidens. The sight of a pure hearted maiden sitting beneath a tree was alluring to them, and they adored it.
But now hunters used pure-looking young maidens as a lure, to catch unicorns. And once captured, their horns were sawed off for their great value. It was awful.

I had enough food to last me a long while, my book, and my bottle of protection against griffins. Not that there weren’t other creatures of horror for me to flee from lurking in the forest.

I opened my book and wrote,

Garret? Are you there?

His words appeared not too much later.

Hello Meg!

I grinned. This book was fascinating!

How are you?

I’m alright. So you made into the Northern Forests. Any trouble?

Just a griffin, and Interceptor taught him a thing or two.

Interceptor? The sword wouldn’t have done much good without you to wield it you know.

I didn’t know why that made me blush.

Well, I didn’t slay him or anything. To tell the truth, I just gave him a scratch. He did worse to me than I did to him.

Are you hurt?

Mirriam took care of me. I’m alright.

So in the end, what happened, with the griffin?

He fled.

You bested him, all on your own. I knew you could do it!

Actually, I lied. The griffin wasn’t the only nasty monster I met on the way here. I met Kim.

Kim. Ode to joy.

Yes. That was precisely how I felt.

You know, what makes her so horrible is that you can never tell if she’s being sincere or not. She’s so two-faced. No doubt she told you what happened?

What? I wondered what he meant, then bit my lip in embarrassment. You mean when she went to visit you?

Yes. He paused for a moment, then wrote, She spread the word around like wildfire, you can be sure of that.

I’m sorry.

She makes sure everyone knows I’m on the verge of death. But she’s right. It’s like -

He paused.

It’s like me and my body are separated -

Another pause before he wrote.

Already.

Already. Before death even had the chance to come. I was surprised that the conversation had taken this turn. I quickly changed the subject. I wrote him for awhile longer, taking comfort in the conversation. It kept my mind off of the terrors that lurked in the forest around me. Then his writing broke off abruptly.

Garret? I wrote, and waited for a response. None came. Garret? Are you alright?

I waited, feeling suddenly shaken with alarm. It seemed like an eternity until I got a response.

Sorry. He wrote. I breathed a sigh of relief.

What happened?

Felt dizzy. Have to g-

He didn’t finish. After a few moments he came back. Can we talk later? He wrote. Please? I feel awful.

Of course. I wrote, praying silently for his health.

When Garret left I suddenly felt very alone, I was glad I had Lightning with me, otherwise this would be horrible. I waited in silence, feeling bad for Garret. He was dying. Try as I might I couldn’t deny it. And this was the only chance he had for life.

I thought of Kim suddenly with a flush of anger. How could she mock Garret as he lay dying? How could anyone be that heartless? I knew who else was. Kim’s mother. She pretty much ignored her children and they were left to raise themselves. When their father had died from The Death, Kim’s mother had coldly turned away from her children when they needed her most.

I sighed. There were some cruel people in this world, and they put a dark shadow on life.

~*~*~*~*~*~

The hoofed creature of silky white coat wandered through the forests in silence. He called himself Wings, even though that wasn’t his birth name, and he’d been driving griffins out of this area, though he didn’t know why. His kind was sent to this earth for the purpose of helping humans. And the humans thanked them by destroying them. They murdered the Pegasi for their feathers and the unicorns for their horns. How did humans manage to abuse every good gift given to them by the Great Creator?

He pulled to a halt suddenly, feeling his heart thud. When was the last time he’d seen such a beautiful sight? There was a maiden, a maiden with innocence in her eyes and wind-blown hair and a halter spun of gold in her hands.

The unicorns adored such maidens. Not that unicorns were happy little creatures that some people made them out to be, running around on rainbows all of the time and such. There was more than one reason they had such sharp horns. Unicorns were fighting creatures, made for war and human protection. His horn was even now dripping with griffin’s blood. He trotted to a creek and ducked his head, letting the water rinse the red blood off and take it away. His excitement was mounting. Many unicorns lived sad lives indeed, and all of them dreamed of someday finding a pure-hearted girl (And very rarely, boys), a kindred spirit, to love them and care for them.

For a moment the unicorn shut his eyes and allowed himself to dream. She had a halter spun of gold. She wanted one of his kind. Gold halters were the ties that bound them to humans, representing the beautiful ties of the heart, the ties of friendship. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a kind and caring human to ride with and to love?

Wait, the unicorn thought. What’s wrong with me? Have you forgotten, Wings, about the hunters? Have you forgotten about the humans and their traps and trickery? You know humans. How they appeal to the deepest wants of others only to trap them and hurt them. You saw the innocence in the maiden’s eyes, yes, but is it so deep that it dwells in her heart?

He turned his eyes and watched the maiden. Some creatures of his type could see auras of what the humans were inside. Wings was confused by what he saw. There was a beautiful aura coated over with a turmoil of darkness. He didn’t understand. Was she mourning? No… she was angry. Those given over to anger were not the type that a unicorn would approach. He was disappointed, and he almost left, but then he saw she was more than angry. She was in pain. Did her conscience grieve her? Had hunters made her do this?

He was intrigued. He wanted to see the true aura under the shroud of anger. He waited, and watched.