XS: The Dragon and the Unicorn

Jack was a complete flop as a unicorn.

He was supposed to be shining white; valiant, pure, and benevolent.  He was supposed to be the embodiment of grace and piety, of nobility and honor, of charity and strength.

So far, the only part about him that connected to the many traits he as a unicorn should have, was the whiteness of his form – and even that failed to be shining white most of the time.

He was always slipping or stumbling or tripping into some muck puddle or bramble patch, leaving his whiteness marred by dirt or blood.  Instead of blue or gray eyes, his eyes were red; red as a demon’s. Jack was a crabby, selfish little brat that hated to share any toys he acquired.  He never held himself aloof from those around him, instead sticking his runny nose (because, boy, didn’t he have seasonal allergies!) into things that didn’t concern him, such as humans and the antics they got up to.

Technically, the only humans Jack was supposed to approach were virginal maidens, but there was such a fierce competition to get to any virginal maidens that were discovered in the modern human world that Jack decided he was safer off just staying out of it.

That was another thing that was wrong with him: he was a coward.  Or, not a coward, per se, but he definitely had no interest in fighting.  He would rather tag along after humans and watch them play with their gadgets and pay rapt attention to the voices coming out of small little boxes that people carried with them.

“You are a unicorn,” his fellow unicorns would tell him sneeringly.  “At least try to act like one!  Ignore the smelly monkeys and their foolish little inventions.  There’s nothing but trouble in your future if you continue that path.”

Jack – definitely smaller than most of the other unicorns – would paw the ground impatiently, denounce them all as boring old fuddy-duddy horses, and then prance off to continue his human-watching.

His supposedly graceful exit, of course, always ruined by tripping over a twig or getting his horn stuck in a tree or something embarrassingly similar.

His latest round of human-study had led him to a land called China.  He’d been mistaken by a pair of campers as a wild white horse, but when Jack had stumbled across them, he’d been so stunned to see moving things inside of a small box full of light that he’d pretty much ignored them and stared entranced at the thingy the humans had been watching.

One thing had led to another and before he knew it, he was “owned” by the campers; a lovely couple named Spicer.  Jack was feeling whimsical enough to go along with it for a while, and so he decided his name was Jack Spicer.  As a unicorn, he could easily bust free and leave them any time he wanted to, but the Spicers had a lot of the gadgets that interested him scattered all over their estate, so he stayed put.

Then, he and the horses – and, by all that was Light, even those mortal beasts had the nerve to sneer at him! – that belonged to the Spicers found themselves suddenly shipped off to China.

“Where?” Jack had asked, his red eyes wide in blank confusion.

“China,” the horses had sighed, “God; don’t you know anything? You’re a freaking unicorn!”

“Hey! Back off, nags!  I’m barely out of yearlinghood!”

They’d brayed laughter at him and Jack hadn’t learned anything else until he’d been set up in a stable in a town called Hong Kong. He quickly discovered that communication problems existed between horse types, too, as he could never understand a single thing the mortal animals native to the region neighed at him.  He had to rely on an old British Thoroughbred as translator, and even that craggy old thing had had the nerve to curl its lip at him!

“Bloody undignified way for a unicorn to behave, you ask me,” the gray beast called Sir Gerald Prancington had said sniffily.

“I didn’t ask you,” Jack had growled, and that coming from a unicorn should have put the fat-assed nag in its place, but no-o-o-o-o-o-o.

“Whoever heard of a unicorn with scarlet eyes?  I say, you wouldn’t happen to be a cross of two species, would you?”

“Don’t make me come over there, you old geezer!”

“Cheeky!”

And so it had gone until Jack realized he couldn’t study any human gadgetry cooped up in the stable where the Spicers had put him, along with the others, when the human couple had moved to China.

He hatched a plan and waited until he was out on a ride in a park, and then gently tossed Mrs. Spicer into some soft mud and took off running.

He left the humans and their gadgets behind, left the horses he’d known behind, and made his way out of the city and into the countryside.

It was a very different land than where he’d been.  There were a bunch of people with dark hair and strangely tinted skin.  There was still technology, but he couldn’t understand a word the people holding the technology said!  The entire situation was very confusing to him, and so he went further and further inland, not even considering stowing away on a ship that might take him back home.  It wasn’t as if he was wanted there, either, so why not explore a bit?

Then, one day, as he neared the edge of a desert and thought there was no one for miles around, Jack received the shock of his life.

“What’s a unicorn like you doing in a place like this?” said a suave, smooth, and amused voice, its timbre very masculine.

Jack reared in surprise, turned to face the newcomer—

—and fainted dead away at the sight of a large, reptilian creature perched on a nearby rock pile.


*~*~*~*


Chase was not a typical Chinese Dragon.

For one thing, he was red from his head to his tail.  Not a bright, shiny, lucky red, no; he was dark red, the color of a pool of blood.  He was striated in some sections by hints of dark green and black, his hair was black, and his claws were the color of brass.

He was a Fire Dragon, but despite his popularity and desirability, he kept mainly to himself out in the middle of a desert, living inside of a hollowed-out volcano that he had turned into a palace.

He was a long-lived dragon; disdainful of the weak and puny humans, and the technological toys they had come to rely on instead of their own strengths and abilities.  Disgusted with what the world had become, he wreaked havoc not by lashing out at the planet’s inhabitants, but rather hid himself away, instead. He upset the balance of power by withholding his, and waited for the humans to wipe themselves out.

Yet, he’d been aware from the first of a unique and foreign magic appearing in China weeks ago.

The sense of the foreign magic, tasting of Light but not entirely Good, felt like an itch deep inside his skull.  It irritated him, but he hadn’t yet decided if he liked the thing that caused the sense or disliked it.

Then, he felt the magical presence coming closer to him.

Soon, it was near the border of his territory, and Chase felt he just had to go see this creature.  He took himself out to the general area where the presence seemed to be, artfully arranged himself on a rock pile, and waited.

To his utter surprise, he soon saw a dusty little unicorn trudging through the sparse grass and brush that formed the border to the desert region.

He couldn’t help himself.  “What’s a unicorn like you doing in a place like this?”

The little horned horse – a colt, if he wasn’t mistaken – reared with a whinny and turned to face him.

Chase blinked in surprise to see red eyes (on a unicorn!) widen in shock.

Then, the unicorn fainted.  One moment it was standing on all four silvery hooves, and the next it was flopped on the ground.

Chase blinked again.

And then he laughed so hard he coughed up fireballs.

When he finally calmed down, Chase climbed down from his rock pile and went over to the colt.  Carefully, he gathered the limp body up and flew back to his palace, his prize firmly in hand.


*~*~*~*


“Urrrrggghhh… what hit me?”

Those were the first words Jack muttered as he finally returned to consciousness.  

He felt so heavy, but as he began waking up more, that heaviness dissipated until he was once again awake, aware, and energized.

Enough so that he found himself gaping in surprise to be in a room made of rock but lying on a bed of fresh golden straw.  Attached to the rock walls were mangers full of yummy smelling alfalfa hay and apples all mixed together, and water.

Jack clambered up onto his hooves, shook straw from his coat, and ambled over to eat and drink his fill.  When he was done, he indulged in a luxurious stretch and then turned in a circle to look at his “stable.”

“Okay… so how do I get out of here?” he wondered aloud.

He whinnied in fright and skittered to the far side of the stone room, stumbling over the straw bed, when the rock wall he had been standing in front of suddenly split wide open with easy, graceful magic.

“Showoff,” Jack muttered, sensing the powerful magic.  “Whoever you are!”

He waited, but the opening in the wall wasn’t resealed.  Cautiously, he stepped forward, moving so carefully that he didn’t stumble once.

Eventually, he made himself step out into the hallway outside of the room he’d woken in.  The hallway was also made of smooth, gray stone.

“What is with the rock theme?” Jack mumbled to himself, listening to his silver hooves clack delicately against the stone floor.

A rumble behind him made him clatter forward with a sharp whinny. He glanced fearfully over his shoulder and saw that the rock wall had resealed itself, and sighed.

“Nowhere to go but forward, I guess,” he told himself, and did so.

He went to the end of the hallway where light was coming from and gaped as he emerged into a very, very big courtyard.  Up and down, all around him, the background color was highly polished blue, but green trees and bushes filled in amongst architecture that contained lots of columns, ledges, and even an artistic bridge or three.  Flowers of all kinds provided lovely perfume and a few waterfalls here and there provided cool contrast the candles and lanterns lit everywhere, providing warmth and light.

“Is this… paradise?” Jack whispered.

A low, rumbling chuckle made him flinch so hard that his hooves clacked gracelessly against the polished blue marble he was standing on.  How he hadn’t already slipped on the smooth surface was beyond him.

Jack looked around, but didn’t see where the deep-voiced laughter had come from.  He turned, and blinked in surprise when he saw his reflection against one blue marble wall.

He was shining white.

His coat was flawlessly clean, as was his mane and tail.  His hooves – now that he took notice of them – were gleaming silver and his horn was pearly and luminescent with the inherent magic that was his unicorn nature.

“Why… I’m beautiful!” he said, utterly astounded.  “Except for the red eyes; they’re the only flaw, but… I look pretty!”

“You were ‘pretty’ when I met you,” the voice said, startling Jack again, and he pranced in place nervously.  “Dirty and covered in the dust of your travels, young one, you were still ‘pretty’.  Now, you are magnificent.”

“Thanks… I think,” Jack replied hesitantly, looking around.  “Hey! Who are you? Where are you?”

“I’m up here,” the voice said, and Jack realized that the speaker was on a level somewhere above him, hidden from view.  “Come find me.”

Jack hesitated as memory niggled at him.  He thought about it, trying to remember, and then gasped as he did so.

“You’re that lizard thing!” he neighed in fright, and prepared to flee.

“Lizard thing?” the voice echoed. Suddenly, a large head colored with red and black scales, framed by black hair, shot over a ledge five stories up from the one Jack stood on.  Gold eyes glared down at the unicorn.  “Is that any way to address a dragon who is several times your senior?!”

“Dragon?! You’re no dragon that I’ve ever seen!” Jack retorted quickly, his heart hammering in his chest.

The self-proclaimed dragon (because, really, Jack wasn’t buying it) snorted and rolled his eyes expressively.  “Yes, young colt, I’m sure you’ve seen a great many dragons rampaging about the world in this day and age.”

“Hey!” Jack whinnied sharply, his pride stinging from the sarcastic insult.  “I’ve seen the human drawings and I’ve heard the stories from my elders!  Dragons have wings and they don’t look anything like you.”

“European dragons have wings and don’t look anything like me,” the red dragon replied, “thank any and all the gods for that. Like pigs with wings, they are; all round bellies and giraffe necks and stubby fat legs.”

Jack wanted to keep feeling insulted, but the description was too funny, and he began giggling despite himself.

The dragon hummed and said, “I like the sound of your laughter, Unicorn.”

Jack immediately hushed.  He performed the unicorn equivalent of a blush by pawing at the ground and bobbing his head slightly as he averted his gaze.

“Most charming,” said the dragon warmly.

They were both silent for a few moments, and then Jack asked hesitantly, “So… what kind of dragon are you?”

“I am an Oriental dragon,” the red monster declared.  “Specifically, a Fire Dragon. I am a Spirit of Fire, basically.”

“Ohhhhhh,” said Jack intelligently.

The dragon snorted again.  “You haven’t a clue what I just said, do you, twit?”

Jack pouted and turned to begin walking away, not willing to put up with being called names by a perfect stranger.

Suddenly, the tip of a tail darted in front of him, barring his way, and Jack shied back in fright.  The scales on the long, sinewy limb were dark red and glimmered as if burning from the inside.  Black stripes circled the part of the tail leading up to the tuft of black hair.

“No,” the dragon said.  “Do not walk away.”

“Why not?” Jack challenged gratingly.  “I don’t even know your name and here you are, insulting me!  And holding me prisoner, I might add!”

“You are a guest in my palace and you are correct: I should not have insulted you,” the dragon replied.  “As to names, I do not know yours, either.  However, as this is my home and you are my guest, I shall give you mine first. I am Chase Young.”

Jack blinked.  “That’s not a very Chinese-sounding name.”

Another snort, this one sounding somewhat amused, and then the Fire Dragon said, “Yuan Cài s¬i.”

The unicorn mulled it over and then nodded and said, “’Chase’ it is.”

“Thought so.  And you?”

“And me what?”

“Your name, Unicorn!”

The hooved-and-horned creature trembled at the impatience coloring the meat-eater’s tone.  “Uh… Jack!  Jack Spicer.”

“Jack? You’re a unicorn and your name is Jack?”

“Stop picking on my name, damn it!” Jack snapped, and lashed out with a silver hoof.  The sound it made as it connected with dark red scales was like a hammer striking a gong.

Chase laughed, darkly amused.  “Such a fiery temper for a Champion of Piety!”

It was Jack’s turn to snort.  “Not all unicorns are the same, y’know!”

“Unicorns are unicorns.”

“The way dragons are dragons?” Jack inquired sweetly.

Chase paused, and then chuckled.  “Touché, Unicorn Jack. You have me there.  Why ‘Spicer’?”

“That was the name of the human couple that owned me for a little bit. I liked them well enough, so I added their name to mine.”

“Of all the undignified things…! You allowed humans to possess a unicorn?  Do you not have any belief in your status, Jack?”

“I… what?” Jack asked, feeling dumb.

A rough sigh, and then the tail moved to wrap around Jack’s middle in a quick coil.  “Come up here so we may talk face-to-face.”

“Not like I have much choice!” Jack yelled in fright, all four legs flailing as he was lifted off of them by Chase’s powerful tail.

He scrabbled on another slick floor when he was set down again, but Chase politely waited until he had his footing before removing his tail as support.  Once he was steady on his hooves, Jack looked around, and then around; turning in a circle as he realized the large, long dragon lay coiled around him.  The two of them were on a balcony that had been turned into a garden.

“That’s better,” Chase murmured, and lounged back comfortably.  He lay sprawled on his belly, but it seemed a very elegant pose.  His thick hair tumbled around his head and down his long neck.

“If you say so,” Jack muttered.  “I only hope you didn’t bring me here because you’re hungry!”

“If I’d intended to eat you, Unicorn, I’d have done so a long time ago.  Now, tell me how you ended up in the Land of Nowhere.”

“I thought I was in China…?”

“You are, but that’s what this desert in China is called. Tell me your story.”

Feeling that he had no choice – and there was nothing else for him to do anyway – Jack explained how he had always been the odd-one-out among his kind, and the adventure that had led him to China, and then out to Chase’s territory.

“Well, now, that is quite a tale,” Chase murmured when Jack had finished.  He snapped his long, clawed fingers and a trough of water suddenly appeared for the unicorn. Jack gratefully drank his fill.

“So… now what?” the unicorn asked, his lips dribbling with water when he finally lifted his head.

“Now what… what?” the dragon replied, arching a black eyebrow.

“Can you help me get home?” Jack asked, blinking his red eyes up at the dragon as cutely as he could.

“Why would you want to go back? What would you do there?” Chase asked reasonably.

“Uhhhhh…”

“Or I could return you to the Spicers, if you truly wish to be owned again.”

Something in Chase’s tone made that seem like the worst thing Jack could do.  Not wishing to appear quite so stupid, the young colt fidgeted and finally shook his head.

“No, thank you,” Jack muttered. “I don’t think that’s wise.”

“I have a suggestion, if you’re amenable to hearing it.”

Jack looked up at the Fire Dragon.  “Yes?”

“We’re both magical creatures,” Chase said, inspecting the brass claws of one hand nonchalantly.

Jack frowned.  “Uh… yeah. I guess so, yeah.”

“Yet, you do not have a teacher.”

The unicorn’s frown deepened.  “Also true.”

“Stay here with me. I will be your teacher.”

Jack’s eyes widened quickly.  “You… what?!”

Chase leveled a stare at the young unicorn that implied he’d really rather Jack stop acting like a dweeb, sooner rather than later.

Jack meeped and went quiet.

“I will be your teacher,” the Fire Dragon said again, in a tone of stressed patience.  “Magic is magic, after all. I can teach you how to control your power and your abilities.  Any unicorn mannerisms you feel you must learn, you either figure out on your own or you can go back to your people for, but the power… I can teach you about that. I can teach you what to do with that.”

Jack thought about it for a long, long… long, long, long while.  By the time he lifted his head to ask a question, Chase had his head propped up on the knuckles of one hand while the claws of the other hand were drumming dents into the marble floor as he tapped his fingers impatiently.

“What’s in it for me?” Jack asked bluntly.

His query surprised Chase into laughing uproariously.

Jack flattened his ears back against his head and tried not to hate the dragon for making him feel stupid.

“Ohhhhh, you will be easier to teach than I had thought!” Chase chortled.  “No prim and proper unicorn, you!  No bastion of altruism and purity, you!  Oh, Jack… what a delight to me you are!”

Jack’s eyes widened.  “I’m… sorry?”

Chase shook his head, still giggling.  “No, no… do not be sorry.  I’m quite pleased. I haven’t had this much fun in centuries.”

The unicorn glanced warily at the Fire Dragon.  “How old are you?”

“Only a little younger than the Birth of Rome,” Chase said blandly.

Jack looked at him blankly.

Chase sighed.  “Roughly 2,700 years of age.”

The unicorn meeped again.  “Damn, that’s old!”

Chase rolled his eyes.  “That’s quite young for a dragon, actually.”

“Really? Who were your parents?”

“My father is Ao Guang, the Dragon of the Eastern Sea.  He’s a complete tyrant with a love of beans, crows, and making everyone miserable.  He managed to catch my mother, Wuya, a Metal Dragon, when she was in a receptive mood.  The two of them twined tails for a little while and five-hundred-years later, I was hatched.”

“Five-hundred-years for a dragon egg to hatch?!” Jack yelled in surprise.

“Why not? If we propagated at the rate rabbits – or even humans do, for that matter – the world would be overrun with us.  Do you want dragons dominating the planet? I guarantee we wouldn’t be doing it very long, because we’d fight each other for the whole world, which would quickly destroy it.”

“Ehhhh… no,” Jack muttered.  “Rather not, thanks.”

“Thought not,” said Chase smugly.  “Now, then… my offer to be your teacher?”

“Again: What’s in it for me?” the unicorn challenged.

Abruptly, Chase began shrinking.  Not only shrinking, but changing his shape as well.

When the magic and the motion were done, an incomparably beautiful human man stood before Jack.

The unicorn’s jaw sagged open.

Chase Young, human-formed, smirked at Jack.  “I can teach you how to do this, Jack.  I can teach you how to change your shape so you may walk among those silly, smelly mortals if you so desire.”

There was only one thing Jack could think of to say.

“Yes, please!”

Chase’s smile was a wide and wicked thing in response.




The End?