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The unicorn, and the golden bridle

In the morning I was awakened by the sound of a key turning in the lock, and I rose up in bed immediately on the alert.

I expected Shelley to turn away and leave, but my door opened a crack, then wider. He brought a tray of tea and breakfast food to me.

“I thought you would be hungry,” he said by way of apology.

I did not know whether to renew my anger that he had locked me in again, or be delighted that he was trying to make it up to me. My hunger seized me, and I took the tray with alacrity.

“I’m starved. Stay and eat with me.” I tossed my wild hair from my shoulders as Shelley brought my bed jacket around me.

“I can’t. I’m in the middle of my work—“

As he moved close to me, I turned abruptly and kissed him. He was shocked—too shocked to respond to me.

“You must spend the morning with me.”

“I told you that I cannot.”

I pulled the yellow ribbon from my waist and wound it about his neck. Curiously, it immobilized him. “You are bound to me. I won’t let you go.”

Shelley made no attempt to remove the ribbon or to flee from me as I poured tea and served him a cup, then offered him a muffin. He lay down next to me, propped up on one elbow, and watched me. He did look absurd with my yellow sash around his neck, but I was pleased to have made an impact on him.

After we ate, he lay on my bed, looking somewhat disgruntled, and gazed out of the window. I sat above him, stroking his hair. “You may go now if you like. You’re no longer my prisoner.”

“The ribbon,” he growled. “Remove it.”

“But it was only a joke.”

“Take it off me.”

At the furious look in his eyes, I untied the length of satin and pulled it back around my waist. “You have no sense of humor.”

As soon as it was no longer on him, he moved to the door. “You’re turning out to be quite a challenge,” he said rather acidly.

“What did you expect?” I retorted. “For me to be docile and do whatever you say, allow you to control me? Once I had no choice but for you to do as you liked—but things are different now. My will is not yours. Perhaps one day I will master you.”

He moved through my door without another word, and I knew that was the last I would see of him for that day. Still I was not sorry.

I was leisurely about dressing for the day, since Shelley had already brought me enough food to sustain me through the afternoon. I finished my tea and took my time about selecting a dress, then I sat at my vanity table, where I continued the unbound journal I had been keeping for the past few days.

I haven't been able to decide whether or not I want to keep this part. I don't know if I want Shelley to be a unicorn, as I originally planned, or simplify things. I think I will probably simplify things. It does not make sense for the ki-lin to come to earth for a thousand years only to tamper with humans and bring them grief. I think I will preserve the ki-lin identity in A Garden of Virtues, where things are nonlinear.

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