A riddle of scents wafted up from the glowing brazier, teasing her nose with diverse aromas. Whispering evenly the last syllables of the ritual, Aduviel opened her eyes, tendrils of smoke trailing upwards, the remains of the sacred sacrifice.

A burnt tuft of ox hair, signifying strength of the body and fortification of the spirit. The feather of a falcon, symbolizing unrivalled perception, the release from restraints. A clove of wild garlic, the pungent smell warding off the supernatural evils which might harass her. The petals of the rare lotus flower, the essence of spiritual enlightenment. The esoteric herb known as mandrake, the root collected under the gallows in the dead of night, shaped curiously like a man, expressing the powers of secret magicks.

Taking a deep, cleansing breath, Aduviel read the instructions carved into the clay tablet she had been given. Her task, bequeathed by the cowled council of druids, was about to commence.

Aduviel had been told of the unicorn. Once seen everywhere within sylvan glades, now a rare and blessed thing to catch a glimpse of one running through those woods.

Too many had been hunted down for the ivory of their horns. The druids of the land believed they were dying out. And that led to Aduviel’s orders, given from the Archdruid himself: to bring back the last unicorn, with the enchanted bridle she had been entrusted with.

She rested uneasily on the night before she left, plagued by disturbing nightdreams she could barely remember, yet haunted by their echoes. Not a good omen for such a daunting venture.

But she walked into the deep forest, dawn’s light streaming from her back.

Aduviel’s skill at woodcraft was well trained, she at last found spoor of her quarry, a meandering track wandering through the trees. It was obvious that the unicorn was not making things easy for her. Through streams and hard rocky places, she jumped over small fissures in the earth.

Even for an elf born to the woods as Aduviel, it was taxing and confusing, taking all day, exhausting her beyond belief. Having to slow to a walk, she thought she was close. But so tired, so very tired.

She heard something rustle within the trees ahead of her. Success? She crept slowly forwards, not making a sound to disturb the silent solitude of the forest. Slow steps, closer and closer, a flash of white in the blackness, like a forest ghost flitting through the shadows.

Aduviel almost laughed. The small white rabbit was almost comical in its nervousness. She picked it up easily, stroking it tenderly to assuage its fright. “O! I was not expecting you, little one. It is all right, I will not harm you." Aduviel whispered to the calming rabbit, as she calmed herself, stroking the soft fur.

She felt pressure on her back. Stiffening, she turned slowly around to see …

The unicorn. A mare, her horn pointing at Aduviel’s heart. The hunter had become the hunted, totally at the quarry’s mercy. Woman looked at mare, mare looked at woman. Aduviel could see how the unicorn had not matched her perceptions. The mane was tattered and tangled, the muscles rippling under the white hide were more like some great cat than any beast of burden. Nothing could chase this creature, for she would not run, but fight. That shining horn was no ornament of decoration, but a truly deadly weapon. Which was resting between Aduviel’s breasts.

But the eyes! As Aduviel met those deep blue eyes, she knew this was no mere horse, even no equine predator. True intelligence shone through those cerulean orbs, and she knew how she had been neatly outfoxed. And within those magnificent eyes, she saw distrust and suspicion reverberating. But no fear. Why should the mare know fear? It was Aduviel that was afraid.

“I came to find you." Aduviel spoke slowly, caressing the little rabbit once again, almost in a trance, over and over, a physical litany chanted by fingertips against the encroaching terror.

The rabbit was quiescent in her arms, it was now the woman who quaked.

“I want to help you, lead you to a place of safety. Where you will not be hunted again."

The mare snorted, and Aduviel felt the wildness of the beast. As serene as the rabbit, the unicorn was as savage, pawing at the earth, eager to move, to act, to be. Not to be worried with this insignificant mortal in front of her.

“PLEASE! I came here to help, please believe me. I want to help you, that’s all, I swear. PLEASE!"

The unicorn’s eyes shifted in shade slightly, storm clouds darkening the limpid pools. Distrust and suspicion fading to contemplation.

It is said in lore that the eyes of the unicorn can discern the hidden heart. Was Aduviel’s heart so upon display to the mare? And could the mare see that she truly meant what she spoke?

The mare backed off a step, raising her head high. Waiting for Aduviel, no longer having the woman at her mercy. From her pack, the elven woman drew forth the enchanted bridle, gleaming in the dying sunlight.

With only the slightest hesitation, the unicorn lowered her neck, awaiting the bridle. Slowly putting the rabbit down upon the forest floor, Aduviel carefully placed the bridle over that massive bowed head.

A creeping sparkle along the bridle, spreading to encapsulate the mare. A shivering, a shuddering, and something was different.

Aduviel pulled the unicorn along. It was placid and docile, easily led by the bridle. But there was something wrong, she could feel it within her bones.

The small rabbit was watching her. Some would say it is not within a rabbit’s nature to be accusative, but somehow Aduviel cringed under its gaze. The rabbit looked towards the unicorn, then back to Aduviel.

And then she saw what the rabbit could see.

The mare hung her head without pride, the blue of her eyes faded and dull. Her white flanks lacklustre as she stood slumped, pathetically waiting to be led onwards to an uncertain future. While the bridle gleamed, entrancing the once mighty head.

All the qualities she had admired, even while in fear of the mare, had faded in the light of the day. In the night, shackled with the enchanted bridle, it was merely a horse with a horn.

Something within her sobbed bitterly for that loss to the world. At first, it was a tiny cry, lost within the endless infinity of her soul. Yet in the cold emptiness that filled her at that moment, it echoed like thunder upon thunder. Growing, ascending, that cry became a roar of rage, that such a wonderful wildness had been quelled to nothingness.

The unicorn might as well already be dead. Everything unique about it had gone.

Aduviel could brook it no longer. Ripping open the latches and catches, she tore off the bridle, holding it as if it was some piece of diseased meat; unclean.

The change upon the unicorn was immediate. Shaking herself as if drying her coat from the rain, she regained her former splendour. And within those shining blue eyes there boiled wrath. The shock and pain of betrayal, to be enslaved by someone she trusted.

But Aduviel simmered with that same anger. “I know what I did was wrong. I am sorry, but I did not know." She wept, but she did not weaken. “You were controlled against your will, and I know that no creature deserves that. I reject the orders I have been given. I will not control you. No one should. And I will not be controlled."

The woman had started almost shouting her ire, and had faded quiet. No less fury, but controlled, focussed, and sure.

“I will not be controlled." Aduviel said quietly. Bringing the bridle down upon a rock with a smash, the metal inserts tinkling and tumbling to the ground. The gleam dying as she dropped the torn leather wreckage to the ground.

Again, the woman looked to mare, and the mare looked to woman. And both of them realized they did not look upon an enemy.

The unicorn looked at Aduviel yet again, turning her head to one side and raising it skyward with a nicker. Aduviel slowly mounted with no protest from the mare, once on, the unicorn charged forward, taking off like some storm’s bolt to the forest’s edge.

The rabbit watched them for a few moments, then slowly sauntered to its burrow.

Aduviel dismounted just as the moon began to rise upon the horizon, at the edge of the deep forest where she had started her journey. The mare dipped her head towards the woman, an equine bow of respect – not subservience, and the woman responded in kind.

And then the unicorn was gone, merely a flash of white in the blackness, like a forest ghost flitting through the shadows.

Aduviel steadily approached the standing stones, certain of her spirit yet uncertain of her future.

So be it. What must be, will be.

The Archdruid accosted her. “What are you doing back here? You have not brought back the unicorn. Have you come to admit your defeat?"

“You cannot be defeated if you did not attempt." Aduviel said coolly, a layer of ice over the inferno heart of fury that beat within her chest.

“Very well." The Archdruid spoke to her as if addressing a simpleton or a failed acolyte. “Give back the bridle and I will find someone more worthy for the task."

She was no fool, no failed student. Aduviel had succeeded, not been found wanting. Her awe of the man evaporated, that he had not accepted the simple truth.

“I destroyed it. The remains are somewhere there", Aduviel gestured to the deep forest aimlessly.

“Foolish child, you BROKE it? Destroyed a priceless magical artefact such as that? You have doomed the unicorn to death. Now the last unicorn will die to hunters, butchered, its horn sold to some greedy merchant thinking only of coin." The man almost spat his disgust at her, reviling her very presence.

“Doomed? I think not. True, one day, a hunter may take her, and she will die. But to chain her, to warp and twist her from what she truly is, into some pale imitation of her nature is a fate worse than death. You were wrong to try to control her, as you were wrong to control me."

“You DARE defy me? Are you challenging my authority of the Circle?" he shouted, attempting to cow her into submission.

“I defy you. I suppose that means that I do challenge you." Aduviel was calm, was not afraid. She would not longer wear the bridle that controlled her.

“So then! It begins! Be on your guard, I come for you!" Sibilant whispered words in the old language and flames raced towards her, the spark that starts the brushfire, many times magnified into a pure ball of flame tumbling towards Aduviel.

She didn’t panic, she summoned the water from the air, and held it in front of her as a shield, feeling it boil away as the flame struck it but leaving her whole.

The Archdruid’s next trick was to raise the earth against her, to crush her under its weight, entombing her. But Aduviel called upon the power of air, a small twister sending out clods of earth as it chewed away the walls of her prison.

“Girl, you have talent for evading me, but you cannot evade me forever. I have learned my craft for over three hundred years, and you are a mere apprentice against my power. This is the end."

They both chanted madly, the ground began to shake, the wind began to howl. Rain torrented down upon all as the breaking ground gave out massive gouts of steam. The ground shattered around Aduviel’s feet as the storm tore at the Archdruid, seemingly unconcerned by the tempest she’d conjured up. The magma splurting through the cracks to almost lick at Aduviel’s feet brought a smug smile to the Archdruid’s face, believing his opponent vanquished.

Changing to fear and shock as the lighting struck down to impale him to the earth. The odour of charred flesh was unmistakeable. The earth quietened its assault on Aduviel, and she walked to her opponent. The Archdruid croaked out “How did you call upon that power? It was impossible with your skill!"

Aduviel replied “Nature was on my side, and not yours. You have not been acting in Nature’s best interest, but your own. It is over."

And it was over.

Aduviel felt no need to take the mantle of leadership. She was content enough to offer her advice to the Circle without control of it. The druids prospered under her quiet direction.

Every year, in the springtime, a white unicorn arrived at the circle, a mare, indeed, the unicorn mare that Aduviel had met in the forest. She mounted the magnificent creature and all the Circle wondered at seeing the last unicorn, wept with joy to see this beautiful example of the wild.

And Aduviel would return days later, newly refreshed and vibrant, even as the years wore on.

The others did not know of what she saw; that Aduviel had witnessed scores upon scores of unicorns, together, in a secret valley unknown to all civilized folk.

And they ran free, and so did she.