A Unicorn's Legacy

Chapter 1

     It all started about a month ago. It was subtle at first. A feeling of comfort if I was upset. A cool breeze as if someone had run by really quick when I was feeling lonely. Then came the eyes. Not physically, but a sense of being watched. One would think I would be freaked out by the sensation, but I somehow found it comforting. Like the watcher was making sure I’m ok. 

     I have always been different, even as an infant. Up until the age of 5, I threw up everything I tried to eat. The doctors couldn’t explain how I wasn’t skin and bones from a lack of nutrition. The only explanation they could come up with, is I got enough from my food the half hour it took for me to go from eating to barfing. The day I turned 5, it all stopped. I was able to eat anything and everything with no issues. My parents still say it was a miracle from God. 

     I assume that my body didn’t get as much as it needed though, because it stunted my growth. At least that is what I blame it on. Being only 4’11”, I am way shorter than most people my age. My baby face adds to the misconception that I am way younger than I actually am.

     The week of my 18th birthday, I could feel something in the air. An excitement of sorts. Knowing my parents and my best friend Tilly, they are probably planning on a big birthday celebration. I try to pry information out of everyone, including my boyfriend Carl. I almost tricked him into revealing that there was at least a party being planned, but he caught on at the last millisecond. Poops. Now he’s even more cautious when I get all lovey and asking random questions. 

     Carl and I have been courting for 2 years. He is always a perfect gentleman when we are together. He never makes a move to touch me inappropriately, and when we part, he gives me a chaste peck on the cheek. I can’t wait for my first real kiss. I am positive that when he finally kisses me, I’ll feel the passion I see in my parents’ eyes when they kiss. I almost wish he would try something, at least a hand on my hip or waist as we walk together. But nope, perfect gentleman.

     The day of my birth, I wake up to sunlight trying to seep into the room around my thick curtains. I stretch and yawn loudly. I’m not quiet in anything I do, except sneaking around. Which I am almost an expert at. I wonder what time it is when my bedroom door bursts open and Tilly comes barging in.

     “Oh good, you’re awake”, she states as she heads for the curtains to open them. “Happy birthday!” she exclaims as she whips the curtains aside. “Good morning to you too”, I said laughing at her antics. “Morning?” she says incredulously, “it’s well past noon!” As if on queue, my belly makes a horrifically loud sound. Tilly raises an eyebrow at me. “I am surprised you even found a man, with all the noises that come out of you,” she says while shaking her head. “It’s not my fault,” I say while pouting at her. 

     She waves her hand, dismissing my protest. “Just get dressed quickly. After you eat breakfast, we are going shopping! Your parents left you some money to buy something special.” She winks at me as she leaves the room as quickly as she came in. I jump out of bed as I fling the covers off. I run to the bathroom and do my business as fast as my poor bladder will empty. I splash cold water on my face to tighten up the skin. Ladies are not supposed to sag. I slap my cheeks a few times to get some color in them. 

     My parents have never allowed me to wear makeup, saying only w****s and old spinsters wear that stuff. I can’t say I think they are wholly wrong, but I see how Tilly wears it very subtly. She steals it from her great grandmother, who is losing her mind and therefore lives with them. She uses just enough to enhance her already good looks. All the boys try to court her. All except Carl. I swear he is the only teenage boy who didn’t try to court her when she turned 13. I thought he might be a little light in the loafers, whereas he showed no interest in courting girls. 

     I never in a million years thought any boy would want to court me. I am not prone for ladies activities. I love to cook, but I refuse to slave over a hot stove all day for a man who probably won’t like my cooking anyway. I have strange tastes. Like bacon in my oatmeal. MMMM. I also love to eat. My parents have had a hard time keeping food in the house I eat so much. I’m always eating. If I don’t feed the beast that resides in me, at least every 2 hours, it rumbles loudly as if it’s angry. My parents tried a couple of times to get me to eat like a lady. My beasts’ protests convinced them to stop trying. They don’t really mind though, they are just happy I can eat.

     I learned how to sew, but I get blood everywhere when I do. Those needles and pins are dangerous! I don’t care much for gossip. Probably because more often than not, I was the subject of said gossip. I don’t mind getting dirty, so most of the time, when I am at home, I wear pants. Gasp. I know, then I wonder why I get gossiped about. I don’t mind dresses, they just aren’t comfortable for climbing trees and other nefarious activities. Like sneaking around. My father taught me how to shoot a rifle and a revolver, he didn’t want to but I was relentless. Now I’m a pretty good shot. My mom’s brother taught me how to fish and forage for edibles in the forest. We visited him one summer. He lives by himself in the middle of the woods. He kept telling my parents, “it’s just in case she is ever in a position to need to.” 

     All of this, plus more, is why I never thought I’d be courted. Boys looked at me as if I were weird. I was 15 when a bunch of boys surrounded me after school. They all started picking on me for liking boy stuff. Even my color choice in clothes was more boyish then some of the boys that surrounded me. They taunted me by telling me I should try to court girls. That I’d have a more likely chance of getting a girl to like me than a boy to court me. One of them even leaned down to get right in my face. I punched him square in the nose. I ran after that. I was so upset with myself for lashing out that I didn’t see the boy standing on the sidewalk until I bounced off of him. It was Carl. 

     He saw how upset I was and offered to walk me home. After a little bit of silence, he asks if I want to talk about what got me so upset. I am not sure why, but I found myself spilling everything. He just nodded politely occasionally to let me know he was listening. By the time I was done, I found that we were in front of my house. I thanked him for listening and escaped into my only sanctuary. Home. The next day, Carl was waiting for me after school to walk me home. After a couple of months of walking me home, Carl asked my parents if he could court me. They, of course, were ecstatic. We have never discussed where our relationship is going, but I’m sure he’s going to ask me to marry him someday. I don’t know how I feel about this eventuality.

     I get dressed as quick as I can, opting for a simple dress for shopping. I know that I’ll be trying on a variety of dresses with Tilly as my companion. She is the perfect vision of being a woman. She cooks, sews, loves to clean everything, has perfect poise, wants babies, and is more than happy to be a servant to a man. Plus she is beautiful. Hell, if I was male, I’d try to court her. She is that perfect. As I run down the stairs to the kitchen, I get distracted by a loud growl, and almost fall on my face for the last 3 steps. Stupid tummy. 

     As I round the corner to the kitchen, I see Tilly delicately nibbling on a piece of bacon. How can girls eat like that! I see a plate piled with food next to her, so I plop myself onto the seat. She gives me the eyebrow again as I giggle at her. I don’t even try to be ladylike in front of her as I start to shovel my food into my mouth. She just stares at me, eyes a little widened. “What?” I ask, not really stopping putting the food where it needs to go. “Do you even chew when you do that?” She questions me. I nod my head a little, not wanting to stop eating long enough to answer her. Within minutes, the whole plate of food is gone. Tilly shakes her head, “I still have no idea where you put all that food,” she says in amazement. I just shrug, not knowing the answer.

     A few hours later, I think I have tried on a thousand dresses. Tilly is being relentless. We are in our fourth shop, dresses and accessories everywhere. She is insisting we have to find the perfect dress for my birthday. I kinda like the one I am currently trying on. Just like in the last 3 shops. Tilly of course has found something not quite right about it. This one apparently doesn’t outline my round bottom enough. As if I want to show off how big my butt is. Queue eye roll. But she is the queen of what is fashionable so I just let her have her say. I know by the end, I’ll have the perfect dress. I change out of this one, the last dress in this shop. 

     The poor shopkeeper looks like he is having a panic attack with all of Tilly’s demands. But she buys a necklace and kisses him on the cheek as thanks for dealing with us. The shopkeeper blushes and mumbles something about it being his pleasure. I don’t know how she doesn’t feel guilty using her feminine wiles as freely as she does. Tilly gets what Tilly wants.

     Carl is waiting outside for us. Loaded down with everything Tilly has bought so far. He came across us as we were exiting the third shop. Being the gentleman that he is, he asked if he could accompany us. Tilly agreed right away and immediately handed him several parcels. He almost looks like a stack of packages with legs. 

     As we head to the next shop, I get that feeling of being watched again. It’s so comforting, I can’t help but smile a little. Tilly is running the conversation, not minding that neither Carl or I answer. When we enter the shop, there isn’t anyone around. “Hello,” Tilly calls out. No answer. She just shrugs and walks over to the hanging dresses. 

     I wander over to another section of dresses while Tilly flips through them, dismissing each one with mumbles of discontent. I see a small bit of midnight blue fabric peeking out from the sea of colors. There are so many dresses over here that I have to wrestle with them just to get a better look at the dress that has caught my eye. I’m getting frustrated that I can’t see the dress properly and I can’t reach the hanger to pull it out. 

     Tilly laughs as she sees me almost get swallowed by the fabric surrounding me and comes to my rescue. As she pulls the dress out, she gasps. “Izzy, you found it!” she squeals. “Go try it on,” she demands as she shoves the dress in my face and pushes me to the dressing screen in the corner. Tilly and my parents are the only people to call me Izzy. To everyone else, I am Isabelle. Even Carl calls me Isabelle, although Tilly has tried to get him to call me Izzy.

     The dress fits so well, I swear it was made just for me. I love the ruffled sleeves. The top dips down in a v but is snug on the sides with a piece of black lace in the v. It pushes my bosom up and actually gives me a surprising amount of cleavage that the lace covers, giving the viewer a hint of the skin behind it. Not that I’m complaining about the size of my chest, it’s just being small, I can hide my breasts in almost any clothes. 

     The waist is drawn in with built in ribs, so I don’t need a corset. Which is a good thing because I rarely ever wear one. I hate how I can’t breathe in them. The skirt flares out in a way that is super flattering for the view from the rear. Black lace peeps out from the pleats of the blue fabric as I twirl the skirt back and forth. It stops just above my ankles. It will go perfect with the black velvet ankle boots Tilly made me buy earlier. 

     I step out from behind the screen. Tilly hears me and turns around from the dresses she was almost growling at. Her eyes go round as saucers and her jaw almost made a sound it fell open so fast. She is opening and closing her mouth like a fish out of water, she looks like she wants to say something but can’t. I run over to her concerned, is she having a fit? I don’t know what the fits looks like, so I don’t know if that’s what’s going on with her. 

     “Tilly!” I exclaim, “are you alright?” She seems to focus on my face, then whispers, “you look like a goddess.” I immediately blush and look away. I smack her arm as I say, “cut it out. You’re embarrassing me.” She seems to snap out of the trance like state she was in with a shake of her head, and grins like the cheshire cat. “Carl won’t be able to resist you in this,” she tells me, looking at me suggestively. “I bet you’ll finally get your first kiss!” I turn even redder, if that is even possible.

     After I got changed back into my regular clothes and came out from behind the screen with the perfect dress in my arms, I finally look at the price tag. I get a little weak in the knees at the numbers I see on it. With sadness in my eyes I tell Tilly that I can’t afford it. She looks at the tag and shrugs. Then says, “no worries,” as she grabs the dress from me, “I’ll buy it for you.” Tilly’s family is one of the richest around. She never worries about the price of anything. 

     I still don’t understand why she ever became my friend. She started talking to me one day and I have not been able to get rid of her since. I try to protest as she rings the service bell. She holds up her hand in my face to interrupt me, mid protest. “I didn’t get you anything for your birthday,” she says. “I knew you’d like the shopping trip with me more than me buying you some random gift.” She knows me so well. 

     With the pout she’s giving me I relent with a sigh. “Fine, if it will stop you from pouting.” I say, rolling my eyes at her, a little annoyed she manipulates me so easy. Although she does make up for it by actually accepting no as an answer from me occasionally. I’m the only person she does that with, so I feel quite privileged. Her pout magically turns into a dazzling smile as we turn to the woman just coming out of a back room. She is exotic looking, dark skin, straight black hair pulled back in a braid that ends at her waist. Colorful cloth drapes over her body in a way that is both modest and alluring. 

     “May I help you?” she asks in an accent I don’t recognize. Tilly speaks up before I can open my mouth. “I’d like to purchase this dress.” She says this as more of a command. The woman smiles and looks down at the dress. As her eyes focus on it, her smile disappears and her eyes glaze over. 

     Her head snaps up looking directly at me. Her voice is no longer melodic as she says to me hoarsely, “the woman of this dress will experience great things.” Impossibly fast, she grabs a hold of my wrist so hard it hurts. “Ow,” I cry out. She continues as if I never said anything. “Do not be afraid of your destiny child, embrace it.” As she lets go of me, her eyes seem to clear up. 

     She now looks confused as she looks back and forth between me and Tilly. Then fear slowly replaces the confusion. She suddenly bolts for the room she originally came out of. Tilly and I both look at each other with a raised eyebrow. “O.K.” she says to no one in particular. She puts the money on the counter and we wrap the dress in parcel paper as best we can. We step out of the shop into the late afternoon sunshine. 

     Carl is there, waiting for us with all our purchases. Except the dress for me. I am holding onto it like it’s my lifeline. We make our way back to my house. Carl puts all of our things in the parlor, then gives us a slight bow and says, “ladies”. He then gives me a peck on the cheek and disappears out the door. Always the gentleman. As soon as he is out the door, Tilly squeals. “Let’s go try everything on!” She exclaims while yanking on my free arm. We grab a few of the parcels and run up the stairs to my room. 

     Tilly gets me all dolled up. She runs me a bath filled with vanilla scented salts. I soak for a half hour. Any longer and I’ll look like a raisin. After I dry off, she helps me into the dress. I still can’t believe it’s mine. It has to be a sin for something to look this good on someone. She brought some of her great grandmother’s makeup. She puts a little pink on my cheeks, a little eyelash stuff to make my impossibly long eyelashes really stand out, and a peach colored lip cream. 

     She pulls my long tresses up onto my head, pins it all into place, leaving a few curls to hang down from the pile on top. After about an hour, she looks at me with one eye squinting and states “perfect.” She finally lets me have the hand mirror so I can see the results. No matter how much I begged and pleaded, she wouldn’t let me peek while she was working her magic. Did I say magic? What I meant was miracle. As I look into the mirror, I gasp. I bring a hand up to my face just to check if it's actually me looking back. She gives me a coy look and says exactly what I’m thinking. “Let’s see Carl try to resist kissing you now.”

     After putting on my new boots that match my dress perfectly, I still don’t know how Tilly convinced me to buy them without knowing what the dress would look like, we go downstairs. As we enter the parlor, my father looks up from the papers he was shuffling through. He looks stunned for a second, then smiles broadly. “There’s my beautiful birthday girl. Are you ready to head out?” He says as he holds out an arm for each of us to place a hand on. “Where are we going?” I ask innocently. He just laughs and says, “you’ll see.” 

     We head for the center of town. As we are walking, people stop and stare. Usually it’s Tilly they are gawking at, but this time I can feel their eyes on me. It’s a little unnerving, I’m not used to getting any type of attention. The stares continue until we reach the hall. I can hear the music and the rumble of voices from inside. We open the door and step into the foyer of the hall. Tilly separates from us, kissing me on the cheek and disappears through a door. My father leads me up a staircase off to the side. Oh no. I feel apprehension as I know what going up these stairs mean. I’m going to be ‘presented’. Poop.

     “Are you ready Izzy?” My father asks as we stand in front of the double doors that lead to the balcony above everyone’s head. “No.” I squeak. He just laughs at me as he pats my hand that is still on his arm. “Just remember to breath pumpkin,” he says as he opens the doors. We step out to the balcony. Everyone turns to us. The silence that comes over everyone starts to suffocate me. Even the band stopped playing. 

     The gasps and subsequent whispers are turning my legs to soft noodles. I’m not sure I’ll make it down the stairs without falling on my face. My father clears his throat and announces. “Thank you all for coming out this evening to celebrate my beautiful daughters 18th birthday. I’m sure you all will fully enjoy the refreshments and music.” With that he turns to me and asks, “shall we?” I nod my head as we head down the stairs. 

     Thankfully the band starts up again and conversations resume. Carl is waiting at the bottom of the stairs for me, looking a little starstruck. I have never before seen this gleam in his eyes as he looks at me. As we reach the bottom of the stairs, Carl takes my hand and kisses it, stating,”you look stunning tonight.” His voice has turned husky, like he has to clear out his throat. I blush and look down shyly. “Thank you,” I manage to whisper. 

     My father bows a little to us and excuses himself to go find my mother. “Shall we dance?” He asks me. I nod my head, not trusting my voice. We dance until my inside beast makes itself heard. Carl chuckles as he leads me to the refreshments table. There he piles up a plate for me, putting lots of little bite sized sandwiches on it, plus quite a few raw vegetables and fruits. He grabs another plate and puts on crackers, chunks of cheeses and piles of shaved meats. 

     We take the plates over to a few tables set up with chairs for everyone to enjoy the food. I try to eat ladylike where we are in public, and I don’t need any more gossiping about me. My belly lets out such a loud protest that I swear everyone heard it over the music. Carl just smiles at me as he stands to block me from view. He turns his back as he says, “You have less than 5 min.” 

     I don’t think I have ever eaten this much food in such a short amount of time. When he turns around, I am just chewing the last mouthful. He looks at the empty plates and shakes his head with a grin. “Feel better?” I nod my head to answer. He holds out his hand to me. I take it as I get up. We walk around the room arm in arm while doing the necessary socializing. 

     Eventually I get bored with the incessant gossip. Carl sees that I’m phasing out of the conversations more often and leads me over to a quiet corner. I stand there with my hands clasped in front of me and looking at the floor, not really sure why he wants to get me alone. Suddenly I’m very nervous. 

     He turns to me and lifts my chin with his finger. “You are so beautiful,” he whispers as he leans in and closes his eyes. My breath catches in my throat. Is he? My eyes feel like they are popping out of my head as I see his face slowly descend to mine. So many thoughts are zooming through my head I can’t keep up with them. So I lean forward to close the distance quicker. I close my eyes as our lips meet. He puts his hands on my upper arms as we kiss. Where’s the spark? Where’s the passion? Is there something wrong with me? Maybe it’s something I have to learn? Was my parents first kiss like this? Why am I thinking of my parents?

     The kiss only lasts a few seconds, but as the thoughts race through my head, only one stands out. Is there something wrong with me? As we separate, I realize I’m holding my breath. Carl blushes and looks down, taking a step back. Breath Izzy. He puts his fist to his mouth as he clears his throat. “I am sorry if that was too forward of me.” he says nervously. I don’t know what to say so I just grab his hands and smile shyly. 

     Thankfully he takes that to mean things are ok between us. He smiles and nods to the party, still going on in full swing. “Let’s go mingle with a few more guests.” I follow him out of our private corner, still holding his hand. Always the gentleman. We walk around talking with various groups of people for a few more minutes, when I find us at the bottom of the stairs. Carl seems intent on walking up them so I go to, only because our arms are linked at the elbows. 

     I’m a little curious about why we are climbing the stairs, but my mind is still on the kiss. I keep seeing the scene play out, over and over. I watch and analyse, trying to see if I did anything wrong. Before I realize it, we have reached the balcony at the top of the stairs. Carl is getting on one knee. Everyone has quieted down and is staring at us. Carl reaches into the pocket of his trousers and pulls out a small box. No no no! Not now! Oh poop! My mind starts to panic. I feel like my lungs are taking in air but not getting any of it. He takes my hand in his and starts his speech. I don’t hear any of it. I see his lips moving, a nervous smile on his face. I feel his hand touching mine. Then, like a punch to the gut, I hear the words. 

     “Will you marry me?”