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31_days2008-02-29 07:16 pm
bane-6.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2008-02-29 07:16 pm
[Feb 29] [The Last Unicorn] Lost Soul
Title: Lost Soul
Day/Theme: Feb. 29 - "Come give me my soul again."
Series: The Last Unicorn
Character/Pairing: Lir
Rating: PG
Lir did his best to bring life back to the kingdom at the ends of the earth. He ordered a holiday to celebrate his taking the throne, and the peasants who had never ventured into sight of Haggard’s skeletal palace in the old days, came in droves to set up a carnival by the sea. They were optimistic of better times.
The unicorns’ passage had been good for the land. Field that hadn’t produced anything but dust-devils in years were left green and dewy by the thousand cloven hoof prints left across them. Wells that had long been dry or tainted were now brimming with crystal-pure water. Hopes and dreams that had been crushed or forgotten were revived from half glimpses of something pure and shining, racing by.
Lir commissioned artisans to revive the palace too. Artwork was restored, tapestries repaired, and gardens were planted. He brought in some minstrels and magicians, cooks, and scullery maids, and various courtiers to fill the empty halls with songs and voices. It made him miss Molly and Schemendrick badly the first week or so.
Nothing compared to the pang in his heart from losing Amalthea, though. Sometimes, he imagined that he would’ve been able to bear it if she had stayed in his kingdom, that the knowledge that a unicorn (his unicorn) was somewhere in the woods and fields on his own lands would’ve eased the pain. At his more honest, he knew even that would’ve have been enough.
As a human, she might’ve felt human things for him. As a unicorn, even one that remembered that she had loved him, she was still out of his reach.
One night, in his Hall, he listened to a Storyteller tell of a mermaid that loved a mortal and was told she couldn’t join him unless she gained a soul. The trials that the poor creature went through to do just that were terrible, but no more so than being rejected by the man she loved when he learned she wasn’t human. The courtiers all gasped and sighed in sympathy, but Lir just stared into the fire.
He didn’t doubt that Amalthea had possessed a soul. Even if she hadn’t been born with one of her own, she had owned his the moment she had set foot on the bridge.
Day/Theme: Feb. 29 - "Come give me my soul again."
Series: The Last Unicorn
Character/Pairing: Lir
Rating: PG
Lir did his best to bring life back to the kingdom at the ends of the earth. He ordered a holiday to celebrate his taking the throne, and the peasants who had never ventured into sight of Haggard’s skeletal palace in the old days, came in droves to set up a carnival by the sea. They were optimistic of better times.
The unicorns’ passage had been good for the land. Field that hadn’t produced anything but dust-devils in years were left green and dewy by the thousand cloven hoof prints left across them. Wells that had long been dry or tainted were now brimming with crystal-pure water. Hopes and dreams that had been crushed or forgotten were revived from half glimpses of something pure and shining, racing by.
Lir commissioned artisans to revive the palace too. Artwork was restored, tapestries repaired, and gardens were planted. He brought in some minstrels and magicians, cooks, and scullery maids, and various courtiers to fill the empty halls with songs and voices. It made him miss Molly and Schemendrick badly the first week or so.
Nothing compared to the pang in his heart from losing Amalthea, though. Sometimes, he imagined that he would’ve been able to bear it if she had stayed in his kingdom, that the knowledge that a unicorn (his unicorn) was somewhere in the woods and fields on his own lands would’ve eased the pain. At his more honest, he knew even that would’ve have been enough.
As a human, she might’ve felt human things for him. As a unicorn, even one that remembered that she had loved him, she was still out of his reach.
One night, in his Hall, he listened to a Storyteller tell of a mermaid that loved a mortal and was told she couldn’t join him unless she gained a soul. The trials that the poor creature went through to do just that were terrible, but no more so than being rejected by the man she loved when he learned she wasn’t human. The courtiers all gasped and sighed in sympathy, but Lir just stared into the fire.
He didn’t doubt that Amalthea had possessed a soul. Even if she hadn’t been born with one of her own, she had owned his the moment she had set foot on the bridge.