A Hero's Last Quest
By Misha
Disclaimer- I do not own "The Last Unicorn", the story was created by Peter S. Beagle and belongs to him and probably a bunch of other people. I am not making any money off this story, so please do not sue me.
Author's Notes- Alright, this is another fanfic inspired by me reading "The Last Unicorn" today and then, of course, watching the movie. Lìr is one of my favourite characters and I've always thought that the ending was tragic. But I didn't want to change it, so instead I was inspired to write this. It's kind of sad and it's kind of confusing, but I believe it's a good story and I hope you like it.
Rating- PG
Lìr looked at the horse he had saddled for his journey and wondered once more if he were making a mistake by doing this. He was an old man now, probably much too old for such a journey, but he had to do it. He was going to die soon, he knew that, and he needed to see her one last time before he did.
He had never gone after her, his first and truest love, before because he had known he'd never find her, but now... Now he was close to death and he had a feeling that if he looked, he would find her.
He needed to say goodbye, to finally tell her what had been in his heart all the years since he had known her. He still loved her, nothing had changed that, could ever change that. He loved whom he loved, just like he had told her all those years ago.
"Father, are you sure you want to go on this journey?" His son asked quietly as he climbed onto his own horse.
"I'm sure." Lìr told him. "Son, I have to do this."
"Do what?" The young man asked curiously. "Why won't you tell me what your quest is?"
Lìr looked at his son, they had named him Nathaniel, with a sad smile. "It doesn't concern you. It has to do with something that happened many, many years ago. I don't even know if I'll find what I'm looking for, but I have to try."
"Father, will you tell me why you are doing this?"
"I'll tell you on the way." Lìr agreed, realising that his son was old enough to hear the tale, the tale that had turned Lìr into a hero.
"Alright." Nathaniel agreed. "Let's go."
Lìr mounted his horse and led it away from the castle he had built to replace the one that had fallen years before. He had a basic idea of where they were going, Schmendrick had told him the last time he had seen the wizard, now an old man as well. Schmendrick had warned him not to try and find her until he was near the end and Lìr had agreed and he had kept his promise, only setting out on his last quest now because he knew there was not much time left. Just enough time to find his Unicorn.
"Father?" Nathaniel prodded a few nights later as they sat around the camp fire.
Lìr sighed, but began his tale. They were close to the Unicorn's forest, only a few more days now, and Nathaniel did have the right to know the story.
"The story begins when I was a young man." Lìr began. "A little younger than you are now and I had yet to become a hero. My father, King Haggard, had long driven all of the Unicorns into the sea below our castle. All except one."
"What does that have to do with the quest?" Nathaniel asked impatiently.
Lìr sighed, wondering if he had been wrong about his son being able to understand his story. "It has everything to do with our quest. But I guess I should explain things better, for the story really does come in three different parts. I guess I should start with the curse of Hagsgate."
"The curse?" Nathaniel asked, his interest piqued.
"It's a long story, but the crux of it is that if anyone there had children, they would bring the town down. Someone did and I was that child. But I was raised by the king and I was his heir. Haggard was a nasty man, one who very little pleased. There was only one thing in the world that made him happy and that was the unicorns. He wanted to keep them all to himself, so he could always have them with him, and he had the red bull drive each of the sea. But the bull missed one. She heard that she was last by chance and she set out to find the others and to free them." Lìr's voice grew soft as he spoke of her. "Along the way, she met two people who joined her in her quest. One was a magician, though not a particularly good one, and the other a woman whose youth had passed her by. Their names were Schmendrick-"
"Schmendrick!" Nathaniel interrupted. "As in our Schmendrick? But he's one of the great wizards!"
"Now he is, but he wasn't always. In many ways, this is his story as well as mine." Lìr told his son with a smile. "I'm sure that you now know who the woman was."
"Molly?" Nathaniel guessed.
"Yes." Lìr confirmed. "Molly and Schmendrick joined the Unicorn on her journey towards the castle and then... Then they came across the red bull. He would have driven the unicorn into the sea, with the others, if the magician hadn't done the only thing he could. He changed her shape, he turned her into a human girl."
Lìr stopped suddenly, picturing her in his mind. She had been the most lovely thing he had ever seen and she had been his. Or she would have been had things been different, she had loved him, he knew that without a doubt.
"Go on." Nathaniel encouraged, actually looking interested by this point.
"Schmendrick gave her a name, Lady Amalthea, and they came to the castle. Haggard let them stay for a distraction and because he knew what she truly was. I never guessed the truth, I just saw her as a beautiful girl and she was the most beautiful there ever was." Lìr's voice went even softer with the memory. "At first she paid no attention to me or to any other, but I tried hard to win her approval. It was for her sake I became a hero, but my heroic deeds meant nought to her. Still, in time I won her heart and she began to love me like I loved her. She started to truly become a mortal woman. Schmendrick knew if that happened, nothing could change her back and it was around that time that the way to the red bull was discovered. We went, them on purpose, and me because I knew that if I didn't go, I would never see her again."
"What happened next?" Nathaniel asked quietly, as if sensing his father's pain.
"She didn't want to turn back into a Unicorn." Lìr said quietly. "She told me she wanted to stay a human girl and grow old and die with me. It was then that she told me that she loved me. But it was not meant to be. I was a hero after all, it was what she had made me, and I had to do what a hero had to do. We finished the quest. She defeated the bull and I died, only to have her bring me back, then she left. I haven't seen her since then."
Nathaniel stared at Lìr for a moment. "You still love her, don't you?"
"Always." Lìr confessed. "But that does not mean I did not care for your mother. What I felt for her and what I held for the Lady Amalthea were too different things. Amalthea has haunted me for years, I love her as I always have."
"She's what your searching for." Nathaniel stated quietly.
"She is." Lìr confirmed. "I'm going to die soon and I hope that because of that I'll be able to see her one last time."
The Unicorn walked along her woods, feeling a sense of apprehension. Something was coming. Suddenly, she saw two men on horses coming towards her. They would not hunt her here, she knew that, so then why were they in her forest?
As they came closer, she got a better look at the men and she knew why they had come. There were two men, but she only saw one of them. He was old, near death, yet she still recognised him. It had been many years since she had seen him, but she had never stopped thinking about him. She was the only one of her kind who could regret and this man, he was a part of her regret.
She understood why he had come and instead of hiding as she would for any other human she moved slowly towards him.
The younger man with him stared at her, stunned by her beauty, but he simply dismounted and walked towards her. When he stood in front of her, he reached out to touch her and she moved closer so that he could.
"I knew you would come to me." She told him softly. "I do not know how I knew, but I knew it."
"I had to." He told her. "My last quest was to find you."
The Unicorn watched him for a moment. "I was wrong you know. I remember you even now and I still love you. I shouldn't have been able to."
Lìr didn't say anything for a moment, just stared at her.
"Of all my kind, only I can feel regret." The Unicorn told him. "Only I have ever known love. Only I have ever been human and a piece of me still is. Your Lady Amalthea, she never truly went away. She's still inside of me, she always will be. And as long as she is... I will never forget you, nor will I ever stop loving you."
"There was so much I wanted to say." Lìr told her after a long moment. "But I don't know how."
"It is alright." The Unicorn comforted. "I understand."
She looked past him to the younger man, who was starting at them, unable to comprehend the situation. She wondered briefly who he was, and then she turned her attention back to Lìr.
"I came to tell you I loved you." Lìr told her and saw that the light in his eyes was fading away, but so were his years. "You touched my life like no one else ever could."
The Unicorn didn't say anything, just watched sadly as the life poured out of Lìr's body and gave him whatever comfort she could at the end of his life. For now that he had fulfilled his last quest, his strength was deserting him. But as she looked into his eyes, she saw that it did not matter to him. He didn't care that he was dying, he was just glad that he had made it to her. That he had been able to see her one last time.
"I love you." He whispered with his last breath before his eyes closed a final time.
The Unicorn watching him, knowing that one touch of her horn could bring him back to life, it might even be able to make him young again. But she did not do that, for he would not want it. He had not come to her for that reason, but just to see her one last time before dying.
She looked at him again, feeling over-whelming sorrow and wishing desperately that she could cry for him. But she could not cry, she could feel regret, but she was not able to cry.
The younger man watched her for a moment and then walked over to him.
After a moment the Unicorn fled, giving one last glance to the man she loved and disappearing deep into her forest, wishing desperately that she had never learnt what it was to be human.
The End