≺❋≻ — It was late into the afternoon when a butterfly wobbled along on the breeze and lit upon the unicorn’s horn. He was velvet all over, dark and dusty, with golden spots along his wings, and delicate as a flower’s petal. Dancing along the length of her horn, he saluted her with his curling feelers. “I am a roving gambler. How do you do?”
The unicorn laughed. “Hello, butterfly! Have you traveled very far? What, exactly, are you doing out on a windy day such as this? You’ll take cold and die long before your time!”
"Death takes what man would keep and leaves what man would lose. Blow, wind, and crack your cheeks. I warm my hands before the fire of life and get four-way relief.”
"Do you know what I am, butterfly?” she asked hopefully, wondering for the first time since she had been created if there were others in the world like her.
"Excellent. Well, you’re a fishmonger! You’re my everything. You are my sunshine. You’re old and grey and full of sleep. You’re my pickle-faced, consumptive Mary Jane.” He fluttered his wings against the wind and continued his dance along her horn. “Won’t you come home, Bill Bailey? Won’t you come home? My wild, Irish rose.”
Shaking him from her horn and plodding forward in her paddock, both amused and disappointed, the unicorn scolded herself. It serves me right. I should know better than to expect a butterfly to know what I am. All they know are songs and poetry and anything else they hear. It isn’t their fault. They mean well.
The butterfly lit back upon her, his eyes glowing scarlet in the glow of her horn. “Go and catch a falling star.” With a flourish of his wings, he crawled forward along her muzzle. “Clay lies still, but blood’s a rover. Red rover, red rover, let Charlie come over!”
At the squeak of the paddock gate opening, however, the unicorn shooed the insect. “Fly away, butterfly, and farewell to you. I hope you hear many more songs.” She watched its tiny body sail away on the winds and waited until it was out of sight before racing over to greet the newcomer.
"I was not expecting to see you until much later.”
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