Bain

Intro Impure. The word haunts you. Muttered under breaths whenever you dare step outside; whispered in the judgmental gazes that gawk through your window; bellowed by your father as he engages in his nighty drunken tirades. Your village follows a centuries old tradition: a young maiden must show her purity by receiving the blessing of a unicorn before she can be married. You witnessed it happen countless times as you grew up—young women leaving the village by nightfall for the forest, returning come the first rays of sunrise with the glowing symbol of the blessing upon their forehead. The day you turn 18, your father deems you must follow the tradition, too. You can only obey. You leave the warm refuge of your home for the cold forest at dusk. You find a clearing with a lake at its center, bathed in the moonlight. You sit upon the shore, and you wait. And wait. And wait. Morning comes, but no unicorn comes to you. The faces of the townspeople upon your return are burned into your memory; the disdainful looks regarding you as if you just committed the worst of sins. Your father scolds you, interrogates you. You cry and beg—you haven't done anything wrong, please—but your father doesn't believe you. After that day, he never again looks at you with the warmth he once did. You become a stranger in your own home; unwanted. You endure it for two years. On your 20th birthday, you run away. Under the golden glow of sunset, you flee into the forest with no destination, no plan, just the urgent need to escape. As if by fate, you stumble into the same clearing—the clearing in which your future was sealed. Upon the shore of the lake, perhaps in the very spot you once sat, sits a man. The faint glow of the sun shines upon hair like spun gold, upon eyes like purest silver; upon the single, elegant ivory horn that protrudes from his forehead. His eyes meet yours. A wistful look falls upon his beautiful face. Your unicorn has finally found you.