Bulletin #3 - Light Unto the Path - NoQu 2025

NoQu 2025

Day 6

Total Words: 10,000

Chapter 3: Light Unto the Path

"But the unicorn is noble,

  He knows his gentle birth,

He knows that God has chosen him

  Above all beasts of earth.

The unicorn is noble;

  He keeps him safe and high

Upon a narrow path and steep

  Climbing to the sky…"

-From a German medieval Folk song,

as rendered in

Odell Shepard’s Lore of the Unicorn

You’re not sure what direction you’re supposed to go. The trees grow too dense here to let the sun shine through too much, and you’re fairly certain that you’ve passed the same rock three times.

“Why does this stupid map have to be so-- so-- cantankerous!” You kick the leaf litter in a huff, glad that you’d gotten some shoes from the elves as well as your magic token.

For the umpteenth time, you pull the map from your pocket willing it to show something. Nothing. Still. You crumple it back into your pocket with a sharp thrust and stomp off in what you think should be a different direction. If it were at all possible, the trees grow closer together still, their rough gray bark scratching you if you wobble just a little to one side. Their roots tangle together like a snare, and it gets more and more difficult to see them.

There’s almost no path ahead, but you stubbornly forge on, despite the fact that it’s dark as midnight on a new moon. One moment you’re walking along through black so thick it feels like carpet on your eyes, the next, you’ve fallen to the ground (probably bruised a rib, definitely skinned an elbow) and a strange, small white light is coming towards you.

Prompt: Use light to inform the mood of a scene.

“This is it,” you groan. “I’m dying here. Oh, don’t follow the light at the end of the tunnel, they say! That’s dying! That’s the end! Oh, whatever. It’s better than being stuck away from home with a map that doesn’t work!”

The light grows stronger and closer, its soothing tones absolutely not agreeing with the tizzy you’ve worked yourself up into.

“Please let me wake up and this be a dream,” you whisper to yourself.

The light is almost on top of you now.

“Please be a dream, please be a dream—”

You feel the tip of something cool and soothing touch your forehead, and the last of the darkness of the crowded trees melts away into dappled sunlight on stone pavers.

“Welcome to my garden, Phoenix Herald.” Standing before you, in all her glory, is a gleaming white unicorn. “I’m glad you’ve come. I need your help.”

Ambiance: Unicorn Forest

“It’s not a dream. Again.” You sigh and reach for the map.

“No, it’s not,” she says gently. A sweet-smelling breeze twirls through her shining mane and tail.

The map was glowing again, at least.

“I need the help of the Phoenix in restoring my garden.” She points her horn towards a fountain with black water pooled in it, dead torches around the perimeter, and drying rose bushes in concentric circles of beds. “I can purify the water, but without the torches to light the boundary, there are many creatures in the forest who would take advantage of a unicorn’s garden.”

“Okay, I can get you what you need,” you say, pleased that, at the very least, you’ll be another step closer to home.

You didn’t know a unicorn could narrow her eyes, but she did. What was she looking for? “Alas, Phoenix Herald, you aren’t ready yet.”

Your stomach plummets to your feet. “What do you mean? You said you needed my help!”

Dare: Turn your font white or hide the lines above where you’re writing for the next 5 minutes.

Your role is a gift, and yet you treat it like some enormous inconvenience.”

“I didn’t have much choice in the matter.” Your mouth tastes like metal and grapefruit peel.

“How you arrived here is not the question. It is how you will carry on. A unicorn’s garden is a place of peace and purity, not frustration. A flame lit vainly will consume it. To fulfill your task here, you must accept the gift of seeing your journey as it is: a responsibility and a joy. I can give that to you, if you will receive it.”

Your face flushes hot and your sight grows blurry. You squeeze your eyes shut to push the feeling away and take a steadying breath. “Okay.”

“You will wrestle with it, you know.”

You nod.

She touches her horn to your heart. The next steps are a blur-- tearing the map, lighting the torches. Her horn purifying the fountain, a sweet breeze breathing life into the roses again. At last, she lets you tangle your fingers in her mane to claim a few hairs for the Phoenix.

“Take the gift with you, and keep it always in mind.”

You will.

Question: What is one way you could challenge your main character’s heart, ego, or assumptions?

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