Attempts to Capture and Tame a Unicorn: (13) Mud, Glourious Mud, Part One

I didn’t want any of the effort I had made the week before to go to waste.  My thinking cap was therefore donned to come up with a solution.  There may have been various possibilities but the moment I came up with mud I knew it was the one for me.  I would create a great big quagmire as the perfect trap.

It was an overladen van I drove out there in that week - pipes, a pump and a tank of water pressing down on the axles, threatening to snap them all the way.  The plucky cuboid of metal and motor made it, though, bless it‘s oily heart, and I got to work laying the pipes from my parking spot to the pitted floor of the clearing, trekking back to fire up the pump. 

By the time I returned to the clearing it was well on the way to what I wanted.  The exposed ground was boggy and on the way to saturation of the level I required: a stinking quagmire of hope, a B&B for hippos would be perfect for my purpose.

I waited, low down in the bushes, as the last of the water came through, waterlogging further and creating depth – I don’t know how much because, I lost my depth stick altogether as it slid neatly all the way into the mud under the surface puddle.  Leash prepared for the unicorn's arrival, I was convinced the mud would tarnish that white gleam enough to stop any funny business from occurring. 

Her reaction to my mud puddle seemed to confirm this as she paused at its edge, wary, a little scared, trembling.  She looked about for me, unsure whether to stay or go, waiting for something bad to happen.

Which it did.  Full of some sort of zealous glee, I rushed from my bush and collided with her with all my strength and sent her flying into the gloop below.  It was only later that I realised tears were rolling down her cheeks as I made contact.

She hit the shit head first with something between a splash and a smack, becoming visibly distressed in an instant as the shimmer that normally seemed to surround her disappeared under a cover of mud.  She moved her limbs about in a vain attempt to gain control and climb out, only managing to dig herself deeper. 

To begin with I was glad in a sadistic way, gaining my revenge for all the stress she'd caused me and glad because a plan was finally really working; I was happy to wait a little before fishing her out and taking her home.  But then the worms surfaced.