Someday

He was an outcast from birth. Simply because he was not a unicorn like his mother’s firstborn, he was brought into this world scorned and cursed by the other unicorns. Yet he wasn’t accepted by the moose either. He was a freak of nature, unnatural and wrong: a hybrid of both species. Unicorns were the upper class and as such, they were shunned if they so much as became friends with the lower-class moose of Sorceria. And despite this, his mother Claudia had fallen in love with a traveler moose. When the hybrid was young, he used to ask about his father, whom he had never met. 

“What was he like?” Unimoose would ask, vibrant green eyes sparkling in the late summer sunlight. His mother would always chuckle and shake her head before responding.

“Oh, he was the nicest creature one could ever dream of meeting.” She would smile, eyes distant as if seeing into the distant past. “He did not care about status like any of the unicorns here do. He cared about something much more important.” She would then bring her hoof up to her chest to emphasize what she was going to say next. “He cared about what was here: what the heart of every creature was full of.” The young hybrid's eyes would widen in wonder, his moose-like muzzle open in awe. “Your father...was incredible. I will probably never meet someone quite like him ever again.”

“Can I meet him?” the hybrid would ask, but he was always greeted by the same response, one that made his heart fall every single time it was uttered.

“Maybe someday, little one.” 

-----

When he was ten years old, Claudia decided to send him to magic school. He did not look like the other unicorns in the slightest: the only clue that he was half-unicorn was the simple fact that he only had one antler in the middle of his head. Nevertheless, he could cast spells like a unicorn; he was a magic-gifted--a spellcaster--rather than an element-gifted like the moose were.

“But, Mom!” he would protest every day, his mom seemingly oblivious to his obvious horror at going back to the cursed place. “I don’t want to go! Every creature there hates me!” His mother would laugh him off and ruffle his fur.

“Aw, now. You are going to be fine! You need to learn how to be a functioning part of society after all! Goodbye, Unimoose! See you later!” And every day he was forced back, again in again, facing off against the bullies in an endless cycle. 

“Ha! Freak! Element-gifted! Non-magic! Hybrid!” the bullies would shriek at him every day, and if Unimoose would so much as fight back, he would receive discipline from the prejudiced teachers of the school. Every night, he asked his mother, still,

“When can I go and meet Daddy?”

“Someday, little one. Someday.”

-----

When he was fifteen years old, he had finally had enough of the bullies. He fought back using his magic and his brute strength, injuring nearly ten unicorns in the process. He was later expelled from the magic school. That was the first time that his mother had yelled at him.

“Your father would have been very. disappointed in you!” she shouted at him, anger seemingly clouding her good judgment. 

“Oh, yeah?” The hybrid sneered back, the mere mention of his father--the one who had never once been there--make him shake with fury. “Well, he’s not here, is he!” His mother stopped in her tracks and turned to look at her son, the words seeming to make her blood run cold. 

“He will be back,” she hissed, eyes narrowed to slits. “Someday,” Unimoose growled under his breath and stomped away angrily before slamming his door shut.

-----

When he was twenty years old, his mother had disappeared. It didn’t take a scientist to figure out what had happened to her. She was the infamous Claudia, mother of the hybrid that went against the very ideals that every creature was raised to abide by. Some evidence of foul play was found, not that the government cared though. 

Unimoose was distraught, lost, and had nowhere to go. So he wandered through the forests toward the sea, gathering up moose wherever he went, each one moved by his story and him of theirs. The anger that now flowed through his veins made him yearn for revenge against the unicorns, and so did the other moose, for he was not alone in his wish for pure and real freedom. Inequality was driving them all crazy. They wanted to be free and to live far from the unicorns of Sorceria. One day, his youngest follower asked him a simple question:

“When are we going to gain our freedom?” Unimoosia frowned, thinking of all of the variables and how long the road ahead truly was. He didn't look his follower in the eye when he replied.

“Someday,” Unimoose responded. At that moment, the hybrid realized he had become his mother...whether that was good or bad, he no longer knew.

-----

When he was twenty-four years old, he watched his youngest follower―the one he had promised freedom three years prior―be killed by a blood-thirsty unicorn. He was so tired of ‘someday’.

His mother had died waiting for change, and now his follower, one of his only real friends. He knew he had been avoiding reality for far too long. He knew that there was nothing changing in Sorceria and that all of the unicorns didn’t want anything to change anyways. With this knowledge in mind, the hybrid gathered up his followers and bought a boat: one of the biggest ones they had. They--all thirty of his followers and him--would find a new home. Not someday, but today. 

-----

When he was thirty years old, his followers had been reduced to ten. The ocean was harsh, the conditions unbearable for most. Despite all of the struggles, they had made a settlement on a new, unclaimed island: one that belonged only to the moose. When they had arrived, Unimoose knew that finally one ‘someday’ had become a reality. He thought back to his mother and hoped that, wherever she was, she was happy; as happy as the moose were in their new island nation of Unimoosia.