The Orchid and the Unicorn

Such a creature it was; this white stallion. It sickened me to see it, and yet, I was drawn to it as a moth to a flame. I watched it from the place just outside the clearing and thought on how I would seduce this purest of beasts.1

I wondered why I should fear it; I who had seduced the very angels into Hell, I who had clipped the wings from an arch-angel and claimed them as my trophy.  Why should I feel that this beast could defeat me?  Perhaps it was the shine of it's coat, the glitter of it's horn in the light which shown on it through the break in the trees. Perhaps it was that my Queen herself had compared me to the beast; calling me pure...2

I cringed at the thought.3

Purity had no place among demons.4

And yet, which of us was the truer representative of our species? If it is seen to be the spirit of my enemy, then is he not as evil to me as I would seem to it?  And what matter is it to me if it does not look like a horse at all, my mares being far more comely to me and mine.  Was not blackness purity?  Is not the absence of all the most pure and perfect?  Untouched and unfettered by the likes of anything?  Are we not the natural state of things?  For when removing something as simple as kindness, do not men become demons in and of themselves?  I laughed, ah yes...we are the truer species, we demons.  This creature is the monster, not I...not my kindred...not my Queen.  This abomination of all that is dark and beautiful.  I should dispatch it as a service to my kind. I should have done so for my Lord, instead of waiting for my Lady's instruction.5

It was at the thought of my Lord that the beast raised it's head from it's grazing and looked at me.  It felt my presence here in it's woodland home and fixed it's ethereal blue eyes upon me.  Was the emotion that I felt for him so strong still after all these centuries that the mere mention of his name raised such as this beast would sense it?  Apparently so.6

I willed the Strand that wrapped around me to be silent and lay still against my skin.  It obeyed, as always and tied itself into my hair.  I dared to step forward, filling my mind with thoughts of my Lord, and those things I had longed for in my younger days; days when I was young and stupid, and wanted nothing more than to please him.  Days when I had allowed that stupidity to cause his very death.7

My poor misunderstood Lord.  It was I who became his ear after my mother in her own jaded ignorance had questioned his longing to return to that which had rejected him.  It was their tainted truths that had pained him so...their lies, and their horror that had driven him ultimately to his madness.  I heard him.  I listened to him.  And I alone knew his pain in those days so long ago...I had only wanted to allow him peace and solemnity...to bring his brethren to him in the understanding that I had shown him.  And yet, those creatures with brains that emulated those of the winged fowl they so represented, that came en mass and slew my darling Prince.  And yet we are the evil?  We who were cast out, we who so loved our Lord that we did no more than follow his instruction.  We who were more loyal and more faithful and more truthful in our existence. 8

I looked on this creature and thought.  "Were you so misled as my Lord?"9

It came toward me, and though it's cloven hooves touched the earth where piles of leaves had fallen, there was no sound.  Did it understand the purity of my emotions?  That I, though demon as I was, could be capable of such things as trust and faith...and love?10

I reached a hand out to touch it, and it allowed me.  I expected such purity to burn me, and yet, I felt what my Lord must have felt in the presence of his own.  I felt that which I was given by the winged creatures I had so tempted into falling.  I felt pity.11

I rested my chin upon it's muzzle and looked into the eyes then, gazing into the depths of what seemed to be a clear blue sky.  I raised my hand up under it's neck to pet stroke it's soft pelt.  Even as I did, the Strand was making it's own way to touch the creature.  The golden cord that had so become a part of me in those years when I was listening at the feet of my Prince, made its way onto the creatures back, and so wrapped itself slowly around it's neck, once, twice, a dozen times or more. 12

I raised my hand to touch the horn which protruded so majestically from it's forehead.  It shown like an opal in the sun with every color flickering from it in random patterns.  It was a lovely chaos that I saw...an amazing array of dancing lights that played like those of the very fires in which I played.13

"Poor beast"  I said aloud, as the Strand worked it's deed and tightened around the neck of the creature.  "You would be so beautiful if you were but your opposite.  My Lord would have loved you so, and yet, would have desired nothing more than to free you of the burdens placed upon you by liars. And so, fair beast, I release you from those lies, and will make of you something far more beautiful."14

It's eyes stayed locked on me as I continued to hug its face.  "It was he who named me.  It was he who called me the Flower of the Underworld. I have learned from those mistakes, and misgivings."15

It snorted, scuffling it's hooves beneath it, and yet the Strand did hold so tight that the beast could hardly move much else, tightening it's golden grasp like a constrictor suffocating it's prey in anticipation of devouring it.  So would I be that snake.16

When the light was gone from it's eyes, its legs buckled beneath it and it fell to the earth. I looked on it for a long while, as the Strand recoiled around me.  The sky grew dark.  The lush green carpet of the thicket in which we stood began to die.  Leaves fell from the trees in a hissing shower.  The wind began to whip through those now barren trees, howling a mournful song.  17

And I smiled at the beauty in it.  18