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31_days2008-12-17 10:56 am
bane-6.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2008-12-17 10:56 am
[Dec 17] [The Last Unicorn] Don’t Remind Me
Title: Don’t Remind Me
Day/Theme: 17) but if I try to find you there are only the shadows
Series:The Last Unicorn
Character/Pairing: Lir
Rating: G
The king would have to take a wife. There would have to be an heir. Lir’s court murmured with the rumors of the latest noblewoman who had come to the castle at the ends of the earth. She had been beautiful, all agreed, sweet-mannered and the youngest of four sisters who had already produced heirs for their own husbands in distant kingdoms. She had come a long way to be presented to King Lir, and been kindly received, but not warmly.
She wasn’t the first, of course, and the King always seemed to be looking for something intangible in the women brought to him. He studied them while they stayed, but whatever it was he searched for, he wasn’t finding it. The ladies had all been welcomed, and cared for as lavishly as they could want, but eventually they all realized that they were wasting their time and gone home.
Lir felt badly for them. It wasn’t their fault, and he always felt a pang at their tears and disappointment. It couldn’t be helped. He had loved a unicorn. Everything that was beautiful in the potentials queens was only the palest of imitations of what he had seen in Amalthea. Even the most beautiful of them was just a shadow of her loveliness, just enough to remind him of what he had lost.
It wasn’t fair. To them or him. How could he bear being husband to anyone but Amalthea, and how could any woman bear being wife to a man who was comparing her to someone she couldn’t compare to? As crushed as they were as they made their way home, it would spare them that pain, and give them a chance to be treasured for themselves by someone else instead of for who they might have reminded him of for a moment.
Day/Theme: 17) but if I try to find you there are only the shadows
Series:The Last Unicorn
Character/Pairing: Lir
Rating: G
The king would have to take a wife. There would have to be an heir. Lir’s court murmured with the rumors of the latest noblewoman who had come to the castle at the ends of the earth. She had been beautiful, all agreed, sweet-mannered and the youngest of four sisters who had already produced heirs for their own husbands in distant kingdoms. She had come a long way to be presented to King Lir, and been kindly received, but not warmly.
She wasn’t the first, of course, and the King always seemed to be looking for something intangible in the women brought to him. He studied them while they stayed, but whatever it was he searched for, he wasn’t finding it. The ladies had all been welcomed, and cared for as lavishly as they could want, but eventually they all realized that they were wasting their time and gone home.
Lir felt badly for them. It wasn’t their fault, and he always felt a pang at their tears and disappointment. It couldn’t be helped. He had loved a unicorn. Everything that was beautiful in the potentials queens was only the palest of imitations of what he had seen in Amalthea. Even the most beautiful of them was just a shadow of her loveliness, just enough to remind him of what he had lost.
It wasn’t fair. To them or him. How could he bear being husband to anyone but Amalthea, and how could any woman bear being wife to a man who was comparing her to someone she couldn’t compare to? As crushed as they were as they made their way home, it would spare them that pain, and give them a chance to be treasured for themselves by someone else instead of for who they might have reminded him of for a moment.