The Unicorn's Gift

Elizabetta, just turned eighteen, slid her slippers from her feet and hiked her skirts to her knees so she could wade across the stream. She shivered with delight and smiled as the cool waters licked at her ankles. If there had been someone nearby, they might have noticed that a smile turned her otherwise plain face into something quite charming. But Elizabetta didn't often smile. As the seventh daughter and final child of the family, she had little to look forward to for marriage prospects. What dowry she did have was insignificant and wouldn't draw the attention of any man under the age of sixty unless he were even more homely than she. But today was her birthday, and she was determined to have some spark of joy in the day, so she was headed to her favored glade.

The trees rustled softly creating a kind of music around her as she ended her trip. The grasses were soft beneath her feet and the smell of honeysuckle filled the air as the breeze stirred the blossoms. She remembered the first time she had been brought to this very spot. She had been only nine. Her mother had said she would show her the most magical spot in the world. It had been the only special thing she had done with her mother. None of her six sisters or her seven brothers knew of the glade. She came here to get away from them but especially to spend her birthday. She spent many of her summer days here but it was mid-summer's day, her birthday, when the unicorns came.

She heard a light snort across the glade and looked up to see a unicorn stallion standing, head held high, waiting to greet her. She was excited to see her friend once again and eager to speak with him and share her day. There were four stallions in total that she had met over the years but Gaddion was the one she liked the best. At first their ability to look into her mind was frightening, but they had never tried to hurt her and they had been her only friends growing up.

As she drew nearer she realized it was not Gaddion but one of the others. The Unicorn's mental greeting filled her mind.

"Hello, Trevindel. Where is Gaddion today?" she asked hoping she did not seem rude.

"He comes, young one. I am to prepare you. Today is a special day." Trevindel 'pathed to her.

She sat in the tall soft grass as he told her the story of the Unicorn. About how centuries before a village of men had taken advantage of the women of another village and made promises to them. Promises that were never kept even as the women each became pregnant with their children. The women craved on the men and sought the help of a nearby witch. The witch laid a curse upon the men turning them into Unicorns, each with the phallic horn in the center of their foreheads so the world might know them at sight. She also cursed all of their male descendants to the same fate upon puberty calling that the curse could only be broken under very specific conditions.

Trevindel stopped the story, as he turned his head to the tree line behind them.

"What conditions?" Elizabetta asked.