Attempts to Capture and Tame a Unicorn: (15) All Apologies

The next Monday night I woke with a start, realising what I had done.  To the unicorn and the clearing.  No matter how much I wanted to capture and tame this creature, putting her life in danger was unforgivable.  I had discovered her weakness and found I was just as scared of it as she was.  And the damage I had done to a place of such astonishing beauty was as big a crime.  I remembered how I had felt when first I entered the clearing.  Somehow that hope had been destroyed and I was left with festering gloom.

I slept no more that night and called in sick the next morning, spending an hour or two in a Garden Centre, picking up grass and flower seeds and bulbs and plants hoping the quagmire had dried up sufficiently for me to work.

It was a tense, nervous drive out that day.  Fraught with guilt, I felt physically sick, slowing down several times just in case I threw up.  Once at the edge of the forest, in my usual parking spot, I loaded up my big cart with my morning's purchases before dragging it slowly to the clearing.  As I got close, I slowed down, not wanting to see the wreckage I had created.

On entrance, though, I was pleased and astounded to find it was all as I had first found it - long grass and dandelions and daisies and buttercups and butterflies.  Relieved and pleased, I lay in the grass at he centre of this miracle, cart at my side, letting the night catch up with me and fell into a blissful and relaxing sleep. 

I was woken some hours later by a wet sensation on my face.  I opened my sleepy eyes to find the unicorn licking my face awake in delight, clearly excited about something.  I nudged her head away with my hand and sat up, still a little delirious.  She stood staring at me for a second before nudging my cart a little and smiling, I think, and finally turning to trot away. 

Forgiven, I felt better but not complete.  At least I knew normal service could resume. 

However, until I met the elves, it was just cartoonish fun.  Knowing, or believing, I could not win, I simply went to the forest and tried different ideas because I enjoyed it and needed something to do.  And it was the same for her, I guess; she enjoyed playing me for a fool, foxing me and what have you, and she needed something to do too.  So, in short, we became friends who flirt a lot.