Among some of the houses of the elven people, it is customary for a young male, upon entering adulthood, to choose a life-path for himself, a guiding principle to direct his energies. Sometimes it is a matter of family or personal honour, but often enough it is the hand of the gods which shows the proper path.
And so it was with Kiriel An Selessar, whose family established the elven preserve in Solari over a millenium agone. Often did his elders thrust likely opportunities his way, but Kiriel held firm until the day that his path crossed that of the human maid Cristobel. She was a witch-woman of strong magic who wished more for herself than was her portion, and to her this chance meeting with the elf-lord was the awakening of a long-dampened ambition.
Cristobel sat with the elf-lord Kiriel and bemused him with her beauty and quick mind, telling him the story of the silver unicorn stallion which ruled a stretch of foothills in nearby Lessia. It was not her plan to catch the unicorn, she being all-unsuited for the undertaking. But Kiriel was able to confirm for her that the unicorn blood breeds true, even through equine blood. Why then not 'gift' the stallion with a herd of breeding mares, and catch them back gravid?
Kiriel smiled softly at the human maid he had given his heart to, and said that it must be as she said. He declared that it would be his life- path to increase the number of unicorns in the Twelve Nations, and so to bring back a sense of magic and mystery to the people. Cristobel laughed at his noble ideas and gave no hint of her darker purposes.
Born to the gravid mares were a dozen silvery-white equine creatures, beautiful to behold but hornless as their dams. Cristobel turned on Kiriel in anger, cursing him for the lost chance to make use of their magical horns. She pronounced the venture a failure. Kiriel smiled softly at the human maid he had given his heart to, and said that it must be as she said. He spread his hands and parried her words and in the end drove the small serenity out of the witch-woman's baleful sight, back to join the unicorn stallion in the foothills.
Some time later, Kiriel stood on a hillock and watched the serenity as they cavorted, the yearlings just beginning to show nubbins of spiraled horn through their forelocks. He stood watch over them for many solitary years, until at long last his true love, Cristobel, was gathered unto Jovun for reckoning and could threaten them no longer. In his turn, so stood Kiriel's son, and until the serenity disappeared a son of the house of Selessar kept their ancestor's life-path sacred.
The unicorns are still said to roam in Lessia, safe in the mountains where no man can hunt them. Perhaps it was this sacred charge which pulled the dwarven people out of this world?Copyright Jennifer Doran, 1999. All rights reserved.
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