Anastasiya and the Unicorn

Anastasiya lived in a place where the hills rolled and were, from time to time, covered in flowers. Royal purple, pale mauve, and vibrant pink, Anastasiya would wade through them as she roamed the hills looking for a thing her grandmother told her lived amidst the shrubs and stunted trees: a unicorn. 

    Long ago, her grandmother had told her once, unicorns lived in great herds among the rolling hills because it held the purest water. The creatures could travel over even the soggiest, most sunken ground because of their magic, which made them light of hoof and drawn to pure hearts. But it had been a long time since anyone had seen a unicorn, let alone a herd, her grandmother had said, for it wasn't often that people had the disposition.

    Anastasiya didn't know what her grandmother meant by 'disposition,' but she was determined that she would find a unicorn. And so, she searched, high and low, as often as she could.  But try as she might, she could never find one. Not even a hint.

    As time went on, the world around Anastasiya grew darker. Her mother hung her head more. People in the shops looked bleaker. Anastasiya noticed these things, and they troubled her greatly. She even thought that the sky's normal silvery sheen faded more often to a dull gray tinged with blue-black lines of storm. The more she noticed, the sadder she grew, until weeks had passed and she had not gone searching for unicorns once.

    When the weeks had turned to a year, Anastasiya felt a pain in her chest. Everything around her seemed so very sad, and the heart within her ached badly. It was as though she could feel all the pain in the world. Suddenly, she burst out of her home and out into the rolling hills until she found the lowest valley and sat down. She rested her chin on her chest and closed her eyes against all the confusing pain.

    That was when Anastasiya felt a nuzzle against her shoulder.

    She opened her eyes, and smiled.

    The pain was still there, right in her chest, and the knowledge of the sad world remained in her mind. But there was an incredible joy mixed in, filled with enough wonder to last a life time. For she was looking into the eyes of a unicorn.

Popular posts from this blog

The Library at the Edge of the Universe

 There was, of course, a library at the edge of the universe. It was built to fit the space. That space, for the moment, was infinite. But it was the kind of infinite that was smaller than other kinds of infinite — both space and libraries are funny that way.     This library had an agenda. Most do. But this one's was more specific than most. It wanted to hold all the books in the universe, whether they liked it or not. And it got the books by poking and prodding the universe in all kinds of different ways, until it gave up the literary ghost. Well, all the literary ghosts.     So. There sat a library at the edge of space that housed all the books in the universe. It mostly sat, anyway. Sometimes it stood. Occasionally it stretched a bit. And on two occasions, yawns were recorded as galaxies doing a funny little seismic shift.     It might yawn again. In an eon or two.     Because it is waiting.     It's been waiting for an infinite amount of time. One of the smaller infinites
Read more

The Shadows

The light shown on Anya’s fingers. It curled around her palm and danced. This, she thought, was the sheer pleasure of having magic.       But in the midst of her play, a shadow grew.   It was not unexpected; it was the cost of doing magic, for it always begot shadows.   But it never ceased to offer discomfort.   If she could find a way to practice her craft and leave behind the adjacent darkness, she would.          Anya was not fond of the dark, or shadows, or of the sense of unease that grew whenever she let the flickering brightness dance.   But, too, there was a feeling of wholeness in her work.   How could that be, such fulfillment when darkness lay about her?   A constant wonder—the weight of it only born by extinguishing the light for a time until she could bear it again.       Today was such a time.          Anya took the light, and threw it at the darkness.   The next breath, and it was gone.   Elimination brought palpable relief, while at the same time she felt the loss of
Read more

As Usual

 Once upon a time, when the air was colder and the nights more dark, a fire gleamed in the distance.      It moved and crept and finally it swept, the whole world engulfed in it's flames.     When the flames died, all that remained was char. For a time.     Until the first shoot rose. The thought of fire died a death made only by forgetting.     And, as usual, the world went on.
Read more