Amalthea looked at her husband, and then her friends. "I used to be a unicorn. I came to this place to find the others and became a prisoner myself." She stood up and moved towards the door. She turned at the last moment and said sadly. "I've been held prisoner by the ones I love the most."

She closed the door.

~*~*~*~*~*~

She ran upstairs, hurrying past the maids, to her chambers and shut the door, locking it tight. She walked briskly through her drawing room past the tapestry. She stopped suddenly, and then walked back to it.

She had never really noticed the details of it before. All she saw was simply a pure white unicorn standing on a hilltop with the castle in the distance. Or what used to be the castle; It had changed the moment Lir and Amalthea wed, as if it were under a curse.

Now she saw so much more, her eyes and mind open to what the truth was. Beside the unicorn, a very small, blue butterfly was hanging onto her horn, as if whispering in her ear a tale. 'A tale of the Red Bull' Amalthea thought dimly. A small brown wagon, a cage really, with a crude banner draped over the door was in the distance behind the unicorn. 'Mommy Fortuna, the Harpy Caleno, Rukh.' She touched her hand gently to the hanging, running her fingers over the white unicorn. 'I used to be a unicorn. The others are in the sea, lost forever.' She was struck suddenly by a deep sadness, even greater than her heartbreak over her friend's betrayals. Unicorns were lost to the world. She wandered in a daze over to her chambers and fell to the bed, sobbing. She didn't hear the small door on the side, the one that led directly to the opposite room, the nursery and her daughter's bedroom, open, nor the small footsteps of her daughter as she came into the room. The footsteps increased and the young princess Aurora hugged her mother tightly.

"Mama, why are you crying? Did you fall down?"

Amalthea looked at her child. Aurora had long white blond hair like her mother and the same deep blue-violet eyes. Those eyes looked up at her mother questioningly.

She dried her eyes and lifted Aurora up onto the bed.

"Sweetheart, your mother just found out some things about herself that Daddy, Schmendrick, and Molly were keeping from her. Since you are my daughter and I may not exactly be on friendly terms with them in private you should know about everything. I'm going to tell you it exactly as it was told to me, if you don't understand something just ask me and I'll try to explain it as best I can. Are you ready?"

Aurora looked at her mother and nodded solemnly. She took her mother's hand and held it in hers. "Mama, what's wrong?"

Amalthea began. "Six years ago I was a unicorn. Like the one on the tapestry in the hall.." Aurora looked at her mother in awe as she told her tale. She laughed at the idea of a butterfly talking and hid behind her mother as she told the tales of the harpy, and even more at the tale of the Red Bull. ". Lir came into the door way and told me that he knew the whole time, but he wanted to marry me."

"What will you do, Mama?"

"I don't know, my child. I'm human now. Schmendrick said no magic in the world could change me back. The tapestry on the wall."

". Is all about you. I never understood all the images I saw, but I do now."

Amalthea looked at her child. "Images?"

"Yes, Mama, like the harpy, and the witch and that ugly old man, he must be Rukh. And that red light that sometimes shows up after dark."

"Aurora, I looked at it today. There are no such things on the tapestry, only the butterfly and the cage. I'll show you." She took her hand and then walked to the drawing room.

They both looked at the same tapestry. Amalthea saw the same thing she did before. The castle, herself, the butterfly, and the cage, they were the only things shown on the tapestry.

"Mama, who are those men? They have Schmendrick tied to a tree."

Amalthea blinked and stared first at her child, then the tapestry. "Are you making up tales, child? This isn't funny. There is nothing there!"

For the first time in, well, any of her lifetimes, Amalthea raised her voice. Aurora stepped back and her eyes went wild with fright. Amalthea immediately felt ashamed for yelling at her daughter.

"Aura, please forgive me. Mama didn't mean to raise her voice." She cooed, beckoning the girl closer to her.

Aurora could only gesture to the tapestry in horror. Amalthea turned her back and screamed.

The tapestry was engulfed in ghostly red flames, and the face of her nightmares, the Red Bull, snarled back at her.