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For centuries, scholars who would deny the existence of the
unicorn pointed out that if the animal had actually lived, it would have been
listed as one that boarded Noah's ark before the great Flood. Therefore,
they concluded, because the unicorn was not so named, there was obviously no
such animal. This modern fantasy by Edward D. Hoch finds a way around that
scholarly conclusion.
The rain was still falling by the time he
reached the little wooden shack that stood in the center of the green, fertile
valley. He opened his cloak for an instant to knock at the door, not
really expecting a reply.
But it opened, pulled over the
roughness of the rock floor by great hairy hand. "Come in," a
voice commanded him. "Hurry! Before this rain floods me out."
"Thank you," the traveler said,
removing the soggy garment that had covered him and squeezing out some of the
water, "It's good to find a dry place. I've come a long way."
"Not many people are about in this
weather," the man told him, pulling at his beard with a quick, nervous
gesture.
"I came looking for you."
"For me? What is your name?"
"You can call me Shem. I come from
beyond the mountains."
The bearded man grunted. "I don't know
the name. What do you seek?"
Shem sat down to rest himself on a pale stone
seat. "I hear talk that you have two fine unicorns here, recently
brought from Africa."
The man smiled proudly. "that is
correct. The only such creatures in this part of the world. I intend
to breed them and sell them to the farmers as beasts of burden."
"Oh?"
"They can do the work of strong horses
and at the same time use their horn to defend themselves against attack."
"True," Shem agreed. "Very
true. I...I don't suppose you'd want to part with them...?"
"Part with them! Are you mad,
man? It cost me money to bring them all the way from Africa!"
""How much would you take for
them?"
The bearded man rose from his seat.
"No amount, ever! Come back in two years when I've bred some. Until
then, be gone with you!"
"I must have them, sir."
"You must have nothing! Be gone
from here now before I take a club to you!" And with those words he
took a menacing step forward.
Shem retreated out the door, back into the
rain, skipping lightly over a rushing stream of water from the higher
ground. The door closed on him, and he was alone. But he looked out
into the fields, where a small, barn like structure stood glistening in the
downpour.
They would be in there, he knew.
He made his way across the field, sometimes
sinking to his ankles in puddles of muddy water. But finally he reached
the outbuilding and went in through a worn, rotten door.
Yes, they were there...Two tall and handsome
beasts, very much like horses, but with longer tails and with that gleaming,
twisted horn shooting straight up from the center of their foreheads.
Unicorns--one of the rarest of God's creatures.
He moved a bit closer, trying now to lure
them out of the building without startling them. But there was a noise, and he
turned suddenly to see a bearded man standing there, a long staff upraised in
his hands.
"You try to steal them," he
shouted, lunging forward.
The staff thudded against the wall, inches
from Shem's head. "Listen, old man..."
"Die! Die, you robber!"
But Shem leaped to one side; around the
bearded figure of wrath, and through the open doorway. Behind him, the
unicorns gave a fearful snort and trampled the earthen floor with their hoofs.
Shem kept running, away from the shack,
away from the man with the staff, away from the fertile valley.
After several hours of plodding over the
rain-swept hills, he came at last upon his father's village, and he went down
among the houses to the place where the handful of people had gathered.
And he saw his father standing near the base
of the great wooden vessel, and he went up to him sadly.
"Yes, my son?" the old man
questioned, unrolling a long damp scroll of parchment.
"No unicorns, Father."
"No unicorns," Noah repeated sadly,
scratching out the name on is list. "it is too bad. they were
handsome beasts..."
From "The Last Unicorns" by
Edward D. Hoch. From 100 Great Fantasy Short Stories, 1984.
Copyright 1958 by Columbia Publications, Inc.
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