Half a unicorn

shadows and owls

“Son, I’m a bit concerned about that horse, it seems to me that she must have an uneven temper.”
“Just because I can ride her? That isn’t that bad, I’m probably going to be the only one riding her anyway.”
“But what if someone needs to take care of her while you’re gone?”
“Where would I go that I wouldn’t be able to take her?”
“Son, please listen to my judgment…”
“I’ll ask her about it tomorrow, though I really don’t think there is anything to be worried about.”

Ali lightly jumped out of the enclosure. She would be back by morning, she just couldn’t sleep in the enclosure. Movement to her left drew her attention. A white shadow passed at the corner of her eye, the figment of a fantasy.
The light call of an owl called her attention from the other side. “You are fast for what you appear to be.”
Ali smiled at him, “But slow for what I could be.”
The owl gave the bird version of a smile, “You know the lay of unicorns well, but you also know what that means.”
“Chase your shadows and follow your past,”
The owl shock itself, “I get the feeling I’m going to see you again.”
“Perhaps, fly sure, lord Owl.”
“And you princess horse.”
The owl flew off. Alianna watched its shadow recede into the night. “Princess, huh?” She looked at the coral then back at the woods.
She shook her mane lightly, she had been called less pleasant names in the past. A less noticeable movement was made to her left, she took one step toward it before jumping back to avoid the strike of the serpent.
His eerily deep chuckle vibrated her bones, "My sympathy, you haven't deceived the owl. What a pity, you could do so much more to confuse him then you are."
Ali continued to watch him in slience. Snakes, or at least the more sophisticated of the group, do not speak with a lisp as popular fiction often speculates they do but rather with a cold grace that can lower and put up a gaurd with it's tone and no mention of the subject being spoken of.
"Nothing to say? Well, I simply can not have a single sided converation. You seem to be rather well setled here with these being. Pray, how long will that last?"
"Meerly till the boy gets another horse."
"Really, my dear, I'm not sure it will last that long."
Alianna took a step backward as the serpent slithered forward.
"What's the matter, my sweet? Do you not trust me?"
"We are what we are, and you are a snake."
He coiled himself just out of striking distance, the light of the stars breifly shimmering on his scales, "Touch'e, and yet you do not recoil fully from me, are you sure you know what I am?"
"I do not wish to interupt your coil of thought," Ali said rather coldly.
He chuckled, "True to your roots, I hear only whispers of the human world but I do believe there is good reason to be assured that the inhabitants of this country are not gaurenteed much more existance here."
"I'm sure you can't think why but do tell where you find such interesting whispers." Alianna reared up on her hind legs to avoid another strike.
He smiled as he turned to go back to the woods, "There is a rather large house some distance over that hill to the east, the night before last they were heard speaking of something rather...interesting."
Ali turned and walked the other way, not taking the bait to follow him for a larger explanation. One downside of her unicorn nature was her unbridled curiosity.