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IT SIDLED, DID MY RESCUE IT APPEARED UNDER the hoofprintits knees My rescue approached hesitantly—it sniffed the air, stuck out its tongue once or twice to taste it It took a few steps, then stopped to watch h by the tih for our eyes to connect like copper key and copper lock My frozen tears shattered as I smiled

It was a unicorn

I have heard that unicorns are pale and perfect, all white and silver like a bride’s veil—those are silly tales, told by sillier uncles and grandfathers They are dark, dark as race-horses, brown and jet, with the tails of lions, and a boar’s cloven hooves They have little black beards that hang frorass, and their horns are not pearl and gold, but twisted bone, the stuff of antlers, twisted round in yellow and red and black Those horns are thick as my own arm, and sharp as shears—but the horn of this unicorn was severed a little above the base, and the stuain It was a leah

The h she drew back,that the hand that holds the apple has a mate which conceals a bridle, she nuzzled my cheek with her nose, soft as a mule’s

“I smelled you,” she said A unicorn’s voice is a low, liquid thing, like poranate wine

“I wonder you could shed A unicorn is fearful to see, but it is not a hedgehog, and hter for that

“I s bread It called me over the wood and the field”

“I am wicked, not innocent”

“Do not tell me my business Innocence is a tec

hnical thing—I do not care what ed purity once, so you ought to believe I ah these days”

“Can nothing be done?” I asked shyly, trying not to look at her ruined forehead

“Like innocence, a horn once squandered cannot be regained”

I tried to shift s were stiff and heavy Often in those days I wondered if I would grow in this hunched position and becoht to have one The unicorn moved her dark eyes over me

“You are in pain,” she said distractedly