A/N a one shot.
Lief looked up at his mother expectantly. Sea blue eyes pleading, jet-black hair arranged messily on his head giving him the ultimate defense.
"Pleaseee?" Lief pleaded with a stern Sharn. "One more story?" he said, giving Sharn the puppy dog eyes.
Sharn looked at him with a piercing gaze, like that of an angry dragon. Lief cowered hugging Monty tight and looking utterly upset.
"I promise I'll go to bed then." he said quietly.
Lief was six years old and at the stage of wanting to know everything and anything about everything. He asked countless questions about Deltora, about Monty, his toy Kin. The endless sea of trivia never ended, Sharn being very fond of Lief after losing all of her other children to various miscarriages and accidents, usually answered Lief calmly telling him the wonders of the world and what she knew.
Lief was very good at listening, and then telling anyone who would listened of what he had learnt. Therefore, Sharn had to be careful.
Her gaze softened. One more couldn't hurt tonight.
Lief saw her weakness, and gave one more mournful "Pleassseee!"
Sharn gave in. "Alright," she said, "what would you like to hear about?"
Lief screwed up his small freckled face in anguish, of trying to remember something.
" Dragons? The Belt of Deltora? King Adin?" she suggested, as these were favoured topics among Lief's stories.
"No." he said, still deep in thought. His face lightened. "No not dragons. Unicorns!" he said proudly, remembering the term.
Sharn laughed, "Okay. Unicorns, but it's a little scary. Can you handle it?"
"Yes." He said puffing out his small pyjamaed chest, "I can handle anything, cause I'm six!" he said fiercely. Sharn poked him in the chest, tickling him.
"Stop, stop!" he screamed delightedly.
"Alright." Sharn said, ruffling her
small son's ebony hair. She sat down in the beautifully carved
rocking chair in his room and beckoned for her son.
Sharn opened
the thick sapphire blue annual of stories which she had painstakingly
written out herself.
"Where should I begin." Lief sat up straight in her arms, looking intently into her silver-blue eyes.
" They are a legend. a myth. Before even
Adin, before the tribes knew each other. (A tiny gasp escaped from
Lief'' mouth at this point. He had never heard of anything before the
great king Adin's time.) They were just once horses, ordinary, and
the colour of shadows, intelligent and pure of heart. However
two were different, they loved each other dearly and each would
follow the other to the ends of the earth. The Female was heavily
pregnant. (Lief gave his mother a sideways glance at this) However a
human cruel and evil, came across the void that separated the good
from the evil in search of dragon's eggs. Because he wanted fierce
creatures to rule his master's Shadowland and help take over the
pure side. He saw the horses and thought them perfect to ride to find
his prize to protect him when the sun shone. However none where smart
enough or cleaver enough until he came across the black pair. They
were curled around each other. He was enraged. He despised
love and purity and wanted them destroyed. He called across
the dark void to the spirits of the dark realms to aid him. In
exchange for a vial of his black blood, he received a spiraled horn
shaped weapon with two blades. At nightfall when he was at the
height of his strength and the pair were sleeping, in a lush field
together. The field full of white flowers, he crept upon them the
flowers burning his flesh, as they were too pure. He stabbed them
between the wither. In Fantastic fury they woke and tried to ram him
and stamp him into the ground, each defending their lover, however
the two horned sword was more than a match and he rammed it into
their skulls as they charged. They fell to the ground, scarlet
blood pouring over the white flowers, staining them. It seeped into
the earth, killing everything except the blood lilies. The
Goddess Zakiah of purity however had when watching in horror of the
deaths and was enraged at the man how had in the past also slayed her
mortal husband, Ezekiel. She took pity on the charcoal
horses. She took the dead foal from the mother's womb and he
was reborn, his blood shining with pure white blood staining him
white. His own blood the same colour and she finally nointed him with
a swirled white horn in the shape of one of the blades of the sword
to remind him of his parent's murder and how they gave their lives
for him. The man furious with the goddess tried to kill the
foal but when he approached him, he was overwhelmed with the purity
flowing through his veins, that the goddess had granted him. So he
fled blinded and fell into the depths of the ravine into the
heartless sea, cursed to swim in the waters forever, a beast.
Sharn closed the book, but not before showing a small picture of the white unicorn, staring innocently.
Sharn looked down to see Lief's eyes close sleepily and for his breathing to slow down. She lifted him off the rocking chair, placed him on his bed with Monty, and covered him with his patchwork quilt.
In years to come Lief would remember the story. He would fight the beast itself. The Kobb of the Isle of the Dead.