Note: fanfic is sans
a bit of made up mythology that was originally intended only for my own entertainment
(history and math for an hour and a half each. You figure it out), and to aid me
in an RPG I was playing with. Ah, here goes.
_____________Prologue
Poseidon's handsomest creation was the love token he
contrived for Demeter. The harvest queen had always repulsed his rude wooing,
and fled him down inland ways, until one day he presented her with the most beautiful
creature ever seen on Earth. It was the horse, which delighted the goddess
and made her change her opinion of Poseidon. It had taken him many trials to
make the horse and he cast aside his unsuccessful attempts: camel, hippopotamus,
giraffe, donkey, zebra. It was also in his attempt to create the horse that Poseidon
made and discarded the unicorn. They were too pure, too white, too dangerous, and far
too beautiful. They were made with stolen stars, twisted into ivory horns, and sea
foam spun into main and hoof. It was as if there was something overly extraordinary
about the creatures, and he brooded. In turn of mood and with hasty, irrational hand,
he cast the beasts away from him into the sea where they could drown.
had been made with the wild foam from the sea, and so they survived the waters and traveled
away from Greece. Once across the sea, they branched away from each other. Some traveled
to Africa, into Arabia, into China and to the islands of Japan, and a few into Western
Europe: England, Ireland, and France.
As the millennia passed, each evolved to its surroundings. The Chinese K'i-lin
and Japanese Kirin developed scales and colorful plumes of flesh, resembling dragons.
Those in the desert turned black from the sun and their horns turned crimson. Those in
the quiet green forests of Western Europe remained white and pure, and hid in their trees
and meadows, away from the growing population of man.
Hunts for them were ceaseless. The cleansing, healing power of a unicorn's horn
was much desired in an age of mutinous courts, assassins, and paranoid kings. The
last unicorn, after freeing his fellows, was at some point robbed of his horn. His
immortality wounded he was changed to a human form, grew old, and died. He had felt
love, and regret, and was so far removed in mind and spirit from the other unicorns,
his soul was specially regarded by the powers that be, and was allowed to move forward
in the circle of life, to be reborn into the future.
It was late afternoon and the forest floor glowed in the light that filtered
down from gaps in the canopy. Two dogs ran ahead of two horses, topped by two young men,
each equipped with bow and arrow, and the elder with a sword. The first stopped, looking
around with cornflower blue eyes that sparkled with barely hidden amusement. He ran a
gloved hand back through his wavy bronze hair, and whistled sharply to call back the dogs.
The younger stopped and looked over, icy eyes flashing, clear in the hazy late-day air.
"What is it?"
"I mislike the feel of these woods," the elder said, looking off to his left.
"What are you on about, Treize?"
"Creatures that live in a unicorn's forest learn a little magic of their own
in time; mainly concerned with disappearing." The younger man merely raised a thin blonde
eyebrow.
"Unicorns? I thought they only existed in fairy tales. This is a forest, like any
other-" he paused, giving the clearing a look about, and turned his horse around to face
the other, guiding it forward until he closely faced his friend. " - isn't it?" Treize
merely motioned around as he responded with a graceful tone.
"Then why do the leaves never fall here? Or the snow? Why is it always spring here?"
He reached over and gently cupped the other man's chin. "I tell you, Zechs. There is one
unicorn left in the world, and as long as it remains in this forest, we'll find no game to
hunt here." Zechs merely sighed, nodding, as Treize let his hand drop away and moved back
to the reigns on his lap.
"Let's turn around," the blond said resignedly. "Hunt someplace else." They both
urged their horses silently forward, and took off at an easy trot the way they had come.
Before they exited the ring of open space in the canopy, Treize turned back at the waist,
one hand resting on the back end of his saddle.
"Stay where you are, noble beast! This is no world for you. Stay in your forest and
keep your trees green and your friends protected. Your strength brings peace, but may you
keep it here. And good luck to you, for you are the last." With that, the two road off
again, and the dogs rushed ahead.
In the cooler greens shadows of thicker leaves, a delicate white, cleft hoof picked
its way past harmless brush, and stopped bare inches away from the beginning of dusky sunlight.
Expressive eyes of green ringed with blue stared after the two young gentlemen, and a lovely
white head dipped inquisitively to the side.
'The last?' the unicorn thought. 'I am the last there is?' He darted nimbly back
into the cover of trees, feeling at once naive and very old. 'That cannot be. Why would I
be the last?' He effortlessly vaulted a thin clear stream running between soft grey, rounded rocks. 'Oh, but what do men know?' he thought reproachfully, walking almost sullenly into darker trees. 'Just because they've not seen unicorns for a while doesn't mean we've all vanished! We do not vanish.' He exited the deep green blue underbrush and strode into the clean light that poured down over a small hill that rolled down to a large pond. 'There's never been a time without unicorns. We live forever!' Stating the facts to himself seemed greatly to reinstate his sense of permanence, and fuel his incredulity towards the two young men from earlier. 'We are as old as the sky, old as the moon!' He lifted his head towards said heaven and it's bodies, and his horn glinted delicately in the dusky sunlight. 'We can be hunted, trapped; we can even be killed if we leave our forests, but we do not. . .vanish!' He paused a moment, tipping his horn gently to the grass, feeling suddenly off-center. 'Am I truly the last?'
A merry voice broke through the immortal's thoughts, and a sandy auburn peppered
butterfly, marked by two emerald circles on each wing, fluttered about the princely creature's
horn as he lifted his head.
"Wave the flag for Hudson highborn show them how we stand! I am a roving gambler-
how do you do?" The unicorn danced on his delicate hooves a moment in delight.
"Hello, Butterfly, welcome!" The unicorn was thrilled at the presence of one he
could speak to. "Have you traveled very far?"
"How far would I travel?" the butterfly serenaded, "To be where you are? Clay lies
still but blood's a-rover!" The fluttery creature darted down around the unicorn's eyes and
forelock. "Red rover red rover let Charlie come over!" He backpedaled through the air.
"Won't you come home Bill Bailey? Won't you come home?" He embraced the unicorn's horn,
wailing a mournful tune. "My wild Irish rose!"
The unicorn blinked, waving his horn lightly around, going still a moment- his voice
was admonishing but kind. Almost friendly. "Have a little respect, butterfly! Do you know
who I am?" The butterfly slid down the unicorn's horn and grinned cheekily into one lovely
eye.
"Excellent! Well, you're a fishmonger!" He spiraled off towards the pond. "You're
my everything! You are my sunshine- you are old and grey and full of sleep, you're my pickle-
faced consumptive Mary Jane!" The unicorn gave a single impetuous sniff.
"Hardly. Say my name then. If you know my name, tell it to me."
The butterfly rested on the bending stem of a forget me not. "Your name is a golden
bell hung in my heart. I would break my body to pieces to call you once by your name. . ."
"Say it, then." There was a pause as the butterfly lifted off the stem and swung
around in the air a moment.
"Rumplestiltskin! Gotcha!" It laughed cheerfully.
"I should know better than to expect some silly solo butterfly to know my name."
"And Solo is my own!" The unicorn turned away and began to walk back towards the
trees, then paused. "Butterfly. . ." he barely turned his head back in the direction of
the foolish little insect. "In all your wanderings, have you seen. . .others, like
Have you seen even one?"
"Oh have you seen the muffin man, the muffin man, the muffin man. . ."
The unicorn turned full around, a sudden sense of urgency rising in his throat.
"Butterfly, even one? Tell me that you saw only one!"
"One? One alone to be my own! To catch a falling star. . ." the butterfly called
Solo fluttered dramatically about, reaching towards the far off sky with the tips of its wings.
The unicorn turned disappointedly away.
"It serves me right for even asking you. All butterflies know are songs and poetry,
and anything else they hear. I guess you mean well. Fly away, butterfly." Cleft hooves
picked gingerly at the edge of shadow.
"Oh I must take the A train, oh I am a cook and the captain bold and the mate of the
Nancy brig." He skimmed the water and floated on the breeze. "Has anybody here seen Kelly?"
The unicorn gave a resigned inner smile and glanced over his shoulder. "I hope you
hear many more songs! I must find someone who knows me, who has seen others like me." And
with that, the forest's prince stepped into the shade.
But a studious, serious voice halted his movement.
"Unicorn." Old French, "unicorne". Latin, "unicornis". Literally, one horned:
"unus", one, and "cornu", a horn." As the unicorn whirled to look again at the butterfly,
the voice changed and it darted over to attach itself once more to the lovely spiraled horn.
"A fabulous animal resembling a horse with one horn!" It turned soft in tone. "Visible only
to those who search, and trust, and generally mistaken for a white mare. Unicorn!" It stated
matter-of-factly.
"Oh!" The young voice cried, white tail flicking excitedly. "You do know me! Please,
all I want to know is if you've seen others like me, somewhere in the world!"
"See you later alligator! Close cover before striking." The unicorn turned,
darting forward after the butterfly, feeling for the first time he could remember, desperate.
"Solo, have you seen the others? Where have they gone? Tell me which way I
must go to find them!" The butterfly's voice shifted, changed, turned strange.
"No, no, listen. Don't listen to me, listen. You can find the others if you are
brave." As he spoke on, the unicorn shivered slightly, eyes transfixed on the darting
golden wings. "They passed down all the roads a long time ago, and the monster Epyon
ran close behind them and covered their footsteps." The unicorn blinked.
"Epyon?" He asked, confused. "What is Epyon?" The butterfly sprang up in song.
"Hold tight, hold tight, hold tight hold tight!" But his voice shifted once again.
"His firstling creature has majesty, and his tails are the tails of a wild serpent and his
horns those of a great wild ox!" The unicorn blinked, eyes widening at the frightful
description. "With them," Solo continued, "he shall push the unicorns, all of them,
to the ends of the earth. Listen, listen, listen quickly!" The unicorn darted forward
again, following the butterfly's erratic movements.
"I am listening! Where are the others, and what is Epyon?" But the butterfly was
spiraling upward and away over the pond.
"Listen, listen! Haha! The king is in the counting house, counting out, counting
out, counting. . ." He dipped below the horizon then back up into the sky, and Solo faded
into the distance crying, "It's you or me moth! Hand to hand to hand to hand to hand
to hand. . ."
The twilight white unicorn simply poised his head at an elegant angle, watching
after the flittering thing as it disappeared from sight. 'He said I could find the other
unicorns,' he thought. 'But. . .where? Or was all that talk of a red bull just some story
or song?' He danced disdainfully away from the butterfly's last location, and on light hoof
started back towards the forest. He paused on the hill's crest. 'But. . .what if there are
others. .and they are in danger? What if I am the only one left, and all the others are
somewhere, far away from me, in need of my help?'
They passed down all the roads long ago, and the red bull ran close behind them and
covered their footsteps. He whinnied, starting suddenly towards the safe, warm shadows of
dusk that cloaked his forest. He continued through to the edge of the lush green, were the
dirt started drier, and stretched on like a long road towards the far off horizon. He
steeled himself against the idea of homesickness, thinking instead of the weighty
importance of the task before him. He cast a lingering look over his shoulder, at the forest
he knew and guarded, and was now leaving.
'I must go quickly, and come back as soon as I can,' he thought resolvedly, before
taking off with a start towards the west.
______________________Chapter 1
