Pretty Isn’t Everything: Part 1

Just a little story idea from my Witch of Atlas world, inspired in part by all the interesting unicorn books I’ve read.

Not all unicorns are pretty…
Image from WikiCommons by Conrad Gesner.

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When late last winter, Randall saw a little winged man break onto the television broadcast, he figured it was a publicity stunt. Everyone else in the diner where he’d been eating breakfast thought it was CGI, too.

And for a few weeks, it seemed the doubters were right.

Until people started reporting more winged men and women, odd little green furry creatures, mermaids, and a wild assortment of other magical beings. Attention-seekers or kooks… Except more and more people came forward, and some got pictures, others video.

The evidence piled up as the weeks and months passed by. Something weird was out there.

Eight months after that day, Randall got out of his car on a stretch of one-lane road. He’d been driving for hours, and wanted to flex his leg muscles, and maybe take care of another pressing issue. On his way back to the car, he heard something rustle in the woods. Something large.

Randall froze, the rustle between him and the safety of his car.

The rustle repeated, something pale emerging from the greenery. The pale shape resolved into a large white, four-legged shape. A deer? A horse?

Randall took a step forward, staring intently as the unicorn picked its way out into the light.

Built in a delicate fashion, the unicorn’s pure white coat and gleaming golden hooves shone as if it hadn’t emerged from a dusty, dirty wood. It’s spiraling horn gleamed gold, also. It clopped through the grass, sidling towards Randall.

It was almost as if the unicorn was shy, taking a few steps towards him, pausing, and then taking a few more. At each pause, it swung its head around, as if looking for predators.

Something that big shouldn’t be pretty, but that’s what the unicorn was. Pretty.