Through Another's Eyes

Through Another’s Eyes

           Every time I met a human it was always the same. They always stared and then their little mouths would drop open and some incoherent neighing would come out for a moment before they remembered that at a young age they had been taught language.

They would ask, “Am I dreaming or is there a unicorn standing in front of me right now.” then they would usually turn to the human standing next to them to confirm that yes in fact they were seeing a fully grown unicorn.

I was always tempted to be snarky and say, “What gave it away? Was the horn in the middle of my face or the fact that I was a pure black stallion?” that last part may have confused them simply because humans were more familiar with a pure white unicorn.

My wife was more taken with humans than me. She would sometimes gallop through moonlit fields and allow some humans to glimpse her just for the adrenaline rush. I did love that about her.

This human was different though. He was male by his close cropped hair and that slightly musky smell. His eyes were wide as he stood frozen in front of me. In his hand was an ax, held loosely at his side. I glanced to the tree that he had been about to cut down. One of my good friends was a dryad. That was her tree and there was no way I was going to allow some foolish mortal to kill her for firewood.

I reared on my back legs kicking my front hooves in the air as I shouted, “Be gone from this place.”

The human looked suitable afraid. The ax fell to the ground with a soft thump and he scrambled backwards, promptly tripped on a tree root and fell on his hindquarters. He threw his arms over his head as I came back down to four legs.

“I could smash your skull, but I am not that cruel.” I told the human and his arms lowered slowly.

“You speak…English?” He finally said without the correct amount of fear or reverence.

I danced my back legs back and forth as I reconsidered my stance on skull smashing. My wife would have been angry if I did. She hated trying to groom blood out of my coat.

“Of course I can speak human.” I tossed my head in annoyance and the human licked his small lips.

“I guess I never thought about it. Horses can’t talk.”

I snorted angrily, stomping the ground and skittering closer to his downed form, “Do not mention the traitors to me!”

The human threw up his hands again as if this gesture would placate me, “Okay I’m sorry I didn’t know that horses were traitors or whatever.”

My lips twitched over my teeth as I gnashed them together. “Of course they are traitors. They sold their horns long ago for a promise of an easy life. Dried grasses and pellets, as if that is really food.” I stomped my hooves again swishing my tail in agitation, “They live in cages, with iron bars and allow humans to sit upon their backs for amusement.”

“If you say so.” The human continued in a small voice. I tossed my head again and snorted at him.

“I bid you to leave this place and never return.” I boomed in my best scary unicorn voice.

“You did mention that already.” The human mocked me as he got slowly to his feet, eyed the ax that was now between my feet, decided it wasn’t worth it and turned his attention back to me.

“You are still here. I had expected you to have run in fear already.” I told him pawing the ground with my left hoof as I waited.

“Yeah.” The human twitched his lips in what I’ve been told is a smirk. Maybe just this once my wife wouldn’t mind a bit of blood if I told her how insolent this human had been.

I widened my eyes and jerked my head towards the human settlement at the edge of the woods. If the human understood the nonverbal communication he didn’t let on.

“So I heard that unicorns were magic and that if someone were to find one then he would be granted a wish.”

My eyes narrowed and nostrils flared, “Now where did you hear something like that human?”

The human shrugged, his eyes straying to my back as if he was contemplating jumping upon it. “Just an old wife’s tale.”

“You have to catch a unicorn.” I corrected, “A human may be granted a single wish in exchange for freedom. Unicorns are free creatures only do the most heinous of beasts try to capture one.”

That seemed to give the human pause, “Is the magic cursed?”

I snorted, blowing out my lips as I swished my tail, “Cursed is the soul of those so selfish.”

The human’s eyes skittered to his ax again for a moment, “But not the wish.”

I tossed my head, “No, but there is no use in this. I am free and you will be gone soon.”

The human closed his eyes for a moment and his small lips moved in silent speech. When he reopened them something had changed.

I danced a step backwards, and stamped my front hooves in the dirt.

“The old wives told me that, but they also told me that force was not the way to capture you.” The human pulled something from his pocket.

I shouldn’t have looked.

It was a sugar cube.

Oh man, I had not had a sugar cube in years. Not since the last human I befriended betrayed me and I swore to never again to trust the backstabbing two legged creatures, but I remembered the taste of sugar on my tounge. How it had dissolved into something as sweet as fruit, but purer somehow, like someone had distilled the very nature of pleasure and compressed it into a cube.

I snorted and tossed my head. I whinnied and danced between my hooves, reluctant to run away, but knowing if I didn’t that the human would catch me and demand a wish. I swore I’d never do that again. She had betrayed me, she had used me and still it cut me to know what had become of her.

There was no solace in knowing that it was her own wish that had cursed her, not when I had granted it.

“You don’t want to do this.” My nostrils flared, but my eyes never left the sugar cube.

“I have too.” The human said and I forced my gaze to his small eyes. His face was set in determination. I felt a shiver ripple across my coat and I tossed my head. I could see the rope in his other hand now, he had retrieved it from a hook about his waist.

My mouth salivated as he held out the cube of bliss. His palm was open, inviting me. It would only take a moment to eat it. I could still get away.

That was a lie. We both knew it.

I took an involuntary step forward.

“That’s right, you want the sugar don’t you.”

I wanted it…I wanted it badly.

Another step. All I had to do was crane my neck now. Every muscle in my body was wired. My flanks burned in the effort it took to remain still. My lips flapped as I stretched out.

The rope slipped over my neck as the sugar exploded over my tounge.

I reared in panic, screaming a wordless cry. The human was shocked for a moment, but he held fast to the other end of the rope. It bit into my flesh and I felt the hopelessness sink into me. I fell forward and tossed my head to get my forelock out of my eyes.

“I will now offer you a wish in exchange for my freedom.” I said sadly and the human slacked his grip just for a moment.

“Did you just lose your gleam? Like your coat just all of a sudden went dull.” The human sounded concerned, but I chose to ignore him.

“You have captured me. As a beast of the wild I do not exist if I am not free. Should you keep me, I will become nothing more than a horse. Humans steal magic, they suck it away from this world and from everything they possess.”

The human turned slightly green, “I don’t…I don’t want to hurt you.”

I shook my head again, “I must grant you a wish now, or else I shall forever remain indebted to you.”

The human drew a breath into his small lungs, his chest barely moving. “Okay…okay…” he breathed the words his eyes unfocused for a moment as he composed himself.

I could feel the aching to be free deep in my bones. It felt like someone had poured lead into my skeleton and frozen my blood to ice. The colors around me seemed dim and smells muddled.

“There is something I need to show you.” The human continued and I only offered a small neigh in response. He gave my chain a tug and I followed yielding to the pressure around my neck. He left his ax where it lay as he led me back towards the human herd.

We broke through the trees and people turned to stare with hollow eyes. My skin twitched and I swished my tail back and forth. Some humans called out in alarm, others looked too shocked to speak. As we crossed into the town square my hooves clopped on stone pavers and a few older female humans dropped buckets of water they had drawn from the well. The water was cold as it soaked into my soles. We kept walking.

The human led me to a hovel on the far edge of town. The curtains were drawn in the middle of the day. My nostrils flared and I offered my first bit of resistance.

“Death…I smell death.” I cried as I pulled in vain against the rope. The human jerked down and the rope bit into my neck. I just quivered, tossing my head in displeasure.

“Yes.” The human confirmed, his voice strained as he gritted his tiny teeth. “My parents are very ill. This whole town is suffering, a sickness has…”

He did not continue. We stood in front of the hovel for a moment longer before the human turned his attention to the barren field beside it. I stomped my front hoof impatiently.

“No one has been able to plant this year. Summer is waning.”

I knew what this meant, humans were terrible at foraging for food. They had thought in all their wisdom that it was better to bring food to you rather than to go where the food was. They would starve.

I was not without pity, but why was he showing me this? What did he think I could do? I was a creature of the wild, I was not a beast of burden. The human’s eyes were hopeless as he looked at me.

“I wish for bounty, and for an end to this illness.”

I felt the tip of my horn growing warm, “That is a large wish. The ramifications will be severe.”

The rope fell slack in his hands and I ducked my head. The loop fell from my neck and I felt the colors sharpen around me. The wild returned to my blood.

The magic was straining to be free now, all I had to do was release it.

I reared up. The human stumbled back in alarm once again as light radiated from my whole body until he had to shield his eyes and look away. My light washed over the village and plants sprang to life in the barren fields, full grown and sagging under their mature weight. Warmth surged through my body, steam lifted off my flanks and filled the air around me as it squirmed into every house in the village.

The other humans started to emerge and to stare in wonder as my magic worked. When it was done I came to stand on four legs again and the human looked to me fearfully.

“What shall my consequences be?” He asked without meeting my eyes.

I just shook my head as I leaned down to nudge his small face with my nose. “I cannot say child, but trust that no gift from the wild is ever truly free no matter the intent in your heart.”

The human reached up hesitantly and placed a hand to my face. I allowed the touch for a moment before I pulled away.

“Do not try to chop down any more of my friends alright?”

The human wiped a quick tear from his eye as he nodded. “Alright.”

I turned and galloped back into the forest. I ran far past the tree where the human’s ax still lay and to the edge of the world far beyond. There I stood, the wind cutting through my mane as I screamed wordlessly into the void of endless undrinkable water.

It was always the same with humans. They always broke my heart.