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I read the Last Unicorn the other day, and
was horrified at the illustration on the cover. It made the unicorn look
fat and frivolous. So I created a version of how I see the unicorn, made
quite strictly to Beagle's specifications:
"The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all
alone. She was very old, though she did not know it, and she was no longer
the careless color of sea foam, but rather the color of snow
falling on a moonlit night. But her eyes were still clear and unwearied,
and she still moved like a shadow on the sea. She did not look anything
like a horned horse, as unicorns are often pictured, being smaller and
cloven-hoofed, and possessing that oldest, wildest grace that
horses have never had, that deer have only in a shy, thin imitation
and goats in a dancing mockery. Her neck was long and slender,
making her head seem smaller than it was, and the mane that fell almost
to the middle of her back was as soft as dandelion fluff and as fine
as cirrus. She had pointed ears and thin legs, with feathers
of white hair at the ankles; and the long horn above her eyes shone
and shivered with its own seashell light even in the deepest
midnight." |