I started with the introductions, getting the unicorn
settled into her stable and starting a routine for porridge cooking. Very soon I knew I needed to kick the second
part of the domestication plan into practice.
I didn't want it to be solely about reliance because I
didn’t think it could be. The unicorn
was clearly a resourceful and independent being who didn't need me. I could probably only convert her to stables
and oats to a certain degree - maybe only create a fad. I also needed to build up a new rapport with
her. To become friends based on each
other. More best friends than that weird
flirtation and oneupmanship nonsense.
I had done the groundwork with the introductions to the
scheme, now I needed to work further toward the pay out. I wanted to make her want to come with
me. Therefore we had to do stuff
together. I thought about trying the
Sudoku again but doing it with her. I
figured the trust would have gone a little too much, though. Instead I brainstormed a number of games and
activities we might be able to play and do together.
I started with the slightly patronising ball. Although, because I thought that, I never
actually tried to make her fetch it.
Instead I would roll it to her, either across the grass or a stretch of
the stable clear of hay. And she would
nudge it back with her nose if she was lying down or kick it if she was
standing. Or, if I was lucky, she would
whack it with her horn. And, boy, she
could really smack it with that - it would come at me real quick. That was quite fun.
While getting started with this simple game I was busy in
the interim converting the Sudoku board.
Despite earlier thinking this a poor plan, I hadn't been able to get it
out of my head. I had decided to convert
it to noughts and crosses. Or rather,
make it double sided by flipping it over and carving then painting the 3x3
open-sided grid and making larger pieces with an '0' or a 'x' carved onto
them.
The unicorn flinched when she first saw the board and
started to grow agitated, unsure of what to do.
Until she noticed the larger pieces and different grid (which I had
cunningly painted with thick white lines to make it stand out and be noticed).
We played that game quite a lot until she got tired of its
short time span and repetitive nature.
So I had a rethink and created an Othello board instead - reducing the
Sudoku grid and making 64 reversible pieces.
And that she did not tire of.
More and more it became the game that we would play while eating
porridge and letting the fire burn down each evening.
Another activity involved decorating the stable. I took different colour paints and borders
and wallpapers as well as sponges and rollers and brushes. After choosing a silver and purple colour
scheme, and opting only for paints and glow in the dark stars to stick on the
ceiling, which we painted very dark blue, I attached a roller to her horn and
we were away, painting it inside and out.
She then shook the roller off, dipped the tip of her horn in the silver
paint and drew a pattern on the walls.
There were some activities that were more for me than
her. Especially once I moved out
there. I took a battery operated record
player out there, for instance, and played tunes during our Othello
matches. I also took a film projector
and a screen out there. It was one we
had about the house as kids and I hadn't watched any of the reels for
years. It was all old cartoons - Goofy,
Roadrunner, Mickey, Tom and Jerry, Marvin the Martian and so on. She would sit with me and do nothing but stare. I guess it was just a bit too weird.
There was a bit of a theme of re-hashing old plans as
friends. The epitomy of this was when I
set up a train set - just a simple circle of trust. She seemed to really enjoy watching it go
round and round. With this one, though,
I was the one that got bored of it. So I
set up something more complicated with points and sidings and bits that made
the train stop at stations. I even laid
down a track that ran cars on it. She
had even more fun with this one, pointing to where she wanted the train to go,
making me scrabble about doing her bidding.
There were all sorts of things we did together. A lot of the time we would just sit together
in the hay or the grass - basking in the sun or cowering from the rain. Otherwise we would be dancing manically,
attempting to hula hoop and falling about laughing, trying to chip golf balls
into mugs and smashing them to pieces, painting the trees, we cooked together
once or twice, the unicorn doing all the stirring, arranging flowers from the
clearing, her giving me instructions or suggestions as we built them up. It was kind of cool the way we had to do most
things together to make it work. That
really helped a lot.
And it all seemed to go better and better as we went along,
both of us spending more and more time in the clearing as I started to get up
earlier and go to bed later.
Until one night, after Othello, porridge and cocoa, the
unicorn didn't want me to go. She pulled
at my sleeve and started to follow me once I had freed myself. That was when I pitched camp in the
clearing. I even found a water source
close by to keep myself there for longer.
That was when I found out for sure that she was sleeping in
the clearing. I had suspected that was
the case, but had never seen her fall asleep before leaving or found her so in
the morning. Now she was certainly
sleeping (and even shitting, keeping me on my toes) in the stable.
Plus she was spending virtually all her time there, only
wandering out of the clearing for a few minutes at a time. Initially, as I have said, she only came to
the clearing when I was there before.
Then she slowly started to get there before me. But even so, she would either wander off
before I left or disppear for an afternoon stroll.
It was all proving such a success that I felt it was time to
try the second to last step in my glorious plan and fence her in.
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