16 days left

I actually did write this yesterday, just didn't get around to posting it.

Once upon a time there was a young unicorn that lived in the castle in a land not so very far away. He could remember no other life then the one which he led now. The Unicorn's name was Frogfoot, because the frogs is his hooves were unusually large. Well, compared to the horses that lived in the royal stables. Perhaps his feet were entirely normal for a unicorn, but since none of the hostlers had ever met another unicorn, they were basing his care mostly off of horses. Frogfoot himself could not remember meeting another unicorn, though he must have had parents.

The unicorn led a good life. The horses in the royal stable were pleasant enough. He always had enough to eat, and on days when the weather was good, he would be sent out to pasture with some of the other palace animals. The sheep, and the cows. The horses did not go out to pasture. They had work to do. Every single horse in the barn, from the king's mount, to the grocer's pony did work that mattered.

Frogfoot's only complaint was that his life was so boring. He didn't complain about it too much, because the horses the horses always told him he should be thankful for what he had and it was more then most. Frogfoot tried his best not to think about it too much, because the king had been extremely kind, and the unicorn didn't want to be ungrateful.

Frogfoot's greatest joy was the young man who sometimes came to see him.
"I have many names," the young man responded when Frogfoot asked him. "For the present, you can call me Melek."

The young man came about once a week, often in the pasture, but sometimes in the stables. The two talked of everything in the unicorn's world. The food, the hostlers, the other animals. But mostly, of Frogfoot's longings. To live an adventure, to have real friends, to do work that made a difference.

The two would stand in the grass, Melek's hand on Frogfoot's flank, the unicorn's head lowered. Frogfoot never thought to ask about the young man's life, and Melek never pushed information on the unicorn.

Melek never laughed at Frogfoot's longings, but encouraged him to pursue these things. This was a great relief to the unicorn, but he never listened to Melek's suggestions of what to do, because he couldn't imagine a solution.

One day, Frogfoot got fed up with the menotany of it all. That day was a pasture day and Melek day. Generally, these best of times were enough to cheer Frogfoot up, but not today. The pleasure it gave him only set the longings to ache more deeply inside of him.

Frogfoot danced around while talking to Melek. The unicorn could not seem to stand still. "I have decied," he told his only real friend," that I am going to leave. There must be adbenture over yonder." He gestured with his nose towards the woods. "And I can find someone to help there."

The woods. Dark. Very Dark. They were told not to go there, the king had forbidden it in fact.

Melek, usually quiet, was even quieter today.

"I know he feeds me, but I can't go on living like this, trying to please a man I have mever met. What the king thinks doesn't matter." The unicorn sidestepped a bit, and added in a whinney. "The king be damned."

Melek was looking a bit white in the face, and very sad. But he walked over, and opened the gate. The look on Melek's face was the same look that a woman gets when she tells a man she would like to dance with hijm, but offers an easy out. 'Go ahead and break my heart.' But Frogfoot did not see the expression on his friend's face, because he was so focusesed on his own desires, he saw only the open gate.

The unicorn raced out the gate and towards the woods without a backwards glance.

To be continued.