The Lion and the Unicorn
Were fighting for the Crown;
The Lion beat the Unicorn all around the town.
Some gave them white bread, and some gave them brown;
Some gave them plum cake
And drummed them out of town...
Or so it was told...
Chapter 1
"Freak! Outcast!..."
Lydia ran across the highway. Car horns honked, a bus barreled down on her. The names echoed in her head. She thought they had been her friends but they had only invited her to make fun of her. She took a quick glance back as her feet safely touched grass on the other side of the highway. Tears streaked her face. Only onne of her "so-called" friends followed, and traffic momentarily blocked him from continuing. She would be long gone before he could ever cross the street. She turned towards the forest and sprinted into the woods. Dashing a labyrinth's maze through the trees she finally tumbled to her knees, exhausted from running and sure no one would find her until it wasa too late. Her black cotume wings quivered with the last of her sobs. The wind bit at the few areas of her exposed skin:face, neck, and her left arm up to the elbow. but even the bite of the wind wasn't as cold as the empty spot in her heart and mind. She closed her eyes trying to clear them of the tears. Mascara bled halfway down her cheek;spiders painting half desecrated webs as they writhed in the agony Lydia felt. She took a steadying breath and slid the box cutter blade free from its sheath poising it above her left wrist. The wind had turned the metal colder than an icicle and her eyes opened in shock as the blade touched her skin. She started at the razor with its sunny yellow plastic sheath. She jerked her right arm down and flicked her wrist sending the box cutter ten feet in front of her.
"What care I for human hearts?" She yelled her favorite quote from the movie Legend.
She froze.
The box cutter she had thrown still hovered in mid-air. She watched now as it seemingly eroded away into no more than sparkiling dust which blew away on the wind. Her eyes followed the glittering remains of the razor and sheath then hesitated as the tree limbs and shrubs rippled. She continued to stare, as the ghostly shape of a bus sped towards her. She blocked her face with her arms as the bus bore down on her. The horn honked as if she were standing in its way, but then she simply passed through it, as if she were the apprition. She lowered her hands and watched as the seated passengers brushed by her with barley a breeze. A man dressed in a black wol jacket caughter he eyes momentarily, his jaw line was strong, with a hint of stubble and he wore his knitted cap over his ears and low on his eyes, but she could just make them out. They were dark like obsidan but there was a twinkle in them; and he winked at her before the bus ant its passengers completely vanished.
All that remained now was a massive lion and unicorn thrashing amongst the foliage in the throes of battle. It was odd to her that the seemingly appeared from no where, but then she realized what was even odder was that they were fighting as if in a slow motion silent film. The liion opened his maw into what should be a growl while the unicorn reared back on his hind legs, but Lydia didn't hear any noise. It was like being in a bubble and now that she really thought about it, she no longer felt the bite of the wind against her skin. She hesitantly reached towards the beasts expecting her hand to meet some sort of resistance but there was none. Then as if the walls of here crystalline sphere had imploded the wind rushed around her tangling her hair and freezing the blood in her veins to that of a penguin. The lion's roar was deafening as if someone had suddenly turned a surround system on full blast. Lydia watche horrified as the lion racked his claws across the unicorns hind. Scarlett welled at the cuts then overflowed trickling down his leg. He limped back assessing the damage then nodded towards the lion, as if to say touche. He pawed the ground and the lion circled him, stalking. The lion crouched, wiggling now, readying himself to pounce just like Lydia had seen her kitten Diablo do when he chased frogs near the pond. The unicorn seemed to be calculating as he pranced back and forth, then the lion leapt, the unicorn dove and thrust towards the lions belly with his horn...
"STOP!"
More of this story can be found at http://www.authonomy.com/books/18403/beyond-the-veil/. Any thoughts or creative critiques are more than welcome.
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