Unicorn

Zebulun crept through the brush, bow in hand. He’d seen some quail, but he wanted a deer.

He saw something in a clearing ahead. He peered through the trees. The creature was head down, munching on grass. He drew an arrow, nocked, and slunk forward with the deliberate slowness of a stalking cat.

He slowly drew his bow as he reached the treeline. He looked out at the animal he stalked and froze. It was no deer.

It resembled a great black horse, with a mane and tail of striking silver, and one long, sharp silver horn protruding from its head. Zebulun took a breath and lowered his weapon. He stared in awe.

The unicorn calmly raised its head and looked him in the eye.

Ten thousand years passed in the space of a heartbeat.

He saw trees sprout, grow old, and wither. He saw rivers change course over ages. He marveled at the size of forest fires that ravaged the landscape, but led to renewed life. He watched cyclopes build a great city, then watched it destroyed by human rebellion hundreds of years later.

Zebulun took a deep breath. The unicorn vanished. In it’s place, lying wounded on the ground, lay a red wolf.

Zebulun approached the lupine. It growled at him, at first, then seemed to give up and go back to its labored breathing. The wound looked as if he’d tangled with a wild boar and got the tusks.

Zebulun knelt next to the creature. He felt something he didn’t understand. He could feel the creature’s pain and fear at a distance. He sensed how close it was to death.

He held his hands over the wolf, closed his eyes, and focused his mind. He felt a sudden jolt as energy flowed from the spiritual plane, through him, and into the wolf. He stared in wonder as the creature’s wounds began to close up and scar over. Its breathing became softer. It went into peaceful sleep.

Zebulun sat with the wolf for two hours before it woke, looking fresh and bright as new. It licked all over his face, wagging its tail, then loped off. It paused at the treeline to look back at him, its eyes filled with gratitude, for a brief moment.

Zebulun returned to camp. Sarah was cooking.

"No luck hunting?" asked Quinn. "That’s not like you."

Zebulun looked at Quinn, then at Davion, and then at Sarah. He looked up into the afternoon sky and said, "I saw a unicorn."