My Enemy, the Unicorn
CHAD, THE LAST Peruvian chullachaqui in captivity, pissed in the middle of the grassy field, in full view of the gathering crowd. They didn't notice. They were all looking at Snowflake prancing around like an asshole.
They'd added Snowflake to the cryptid exhibit at the Jacksonville Zoo a bunch of moon cycles ago—not coincidentally the last time anybody gave a shit about Chad. A man-sized gnome who had one cloven hoof and one five-toed foot rampant with nail fungus apparently wasn't as entertaining as a snow-white unicorn.
When he was feeling petty, which was often, Chad liked to change his appearance to someone's dead kid or a lover that got away, that sort of thing. Chad did this now, manifesting himself as the deceased wife of one of the men in the crowd. Chad had never seen the woman, and didn't need to; people saw what they wanted to see. Chad was good at reading emotions, and he got a general sense of her appearance—hair, skin color, body type—from the hole her absence had left in the man's life. Chad painted in broad strokes and let the man's imagination fill in the rest. So general was Chad's characterization of the late Mrs. Tourist—and so desperate was the average person's sense of longing—that a second man started crying, believing Chad to be his departed sister. Getting a two-for-one was a rare achievement, which he'd celebrate later by defecating in Snowflake's water trough.
"That's Chad, our chullachaqui from Peru. He's a little scamp!" a zookeeper said, as the widower wiped tears from his eyes. "He can make himself look like a person, animal, you name it. You can always tell it's him by his right foot—no matter what he changes into, he always keeps that hoof. He usually tries to hide it—"
The zookeeper stopped talking as Chad hurled a volley of dung at her. It splattered against the iron fence that marked the edge of the enclosure. The zookeeper laughed. "Oh, Chad, you little stinker!"
Chad didn't understand her words, but mockery translates to any language. "Ol uait min in de colobos dai!" he said, in a fair approximation of the zookeeper's voice. Nonsense, but it sounded enough like words that one of the men started crying again. Marks heard what they wanted to hear, too.
Snowflake reared up on his hind legs and whinnied, kicking his forelegs like he was trying to climb an invisible mountain. The people rushed toward his side of the enclosure, setting a new record for the largest number of rubes being so easily impressed. Chad didn't care how many people came to see him. They were stupid, anyway. But every moron that came to see the unicorn meant a little more of Chad's jungle that the zoo would clear away to give Snowflake room to gallop majestically across the emerald plain or whatever. You put horns on a sheep, it's a goat. Put a horn on a dolphin, you've got a narwhal. But stick a horn on a horse, it's a MAGICAL UNICORN! What a scam.
Most of the Jacksonville Zoo's cryptid exhibit was trash, in Chad's opinion. Take the griffins: a bird-lion hybrid sounded scary as hell until you saw them spend all day cleaning their feathers, gnawing on goat carcasses, and talking trash about how tough they were. There was a big net over their enclosure, but they'd gotten so fat and lazy, Chad doubted they could fly anymore. The zoo didn't even have good mermaids, they settled for the freshwater kind. What was the draw there? Chad could mimic any creature in the zoo, mostly—a one-hoofed mermaid flopping on dry land was admittedly not his best work—and he sometimes wondered if he'd fare better trying to pass as another creature on a permanent basis before the zookeepers cut down his jungle altogether. He got along well enough with most creatures, but even if he could maintain the façade, he doubted anyone would consider him a full-fledged member of their team. Sure, Chad's hobby was pathologically exploiting the deepest hurts of their souls, but still.
Chad ambled over to Phlegethon River, which snaked through the entire cryptid exhibit, from the Chinese dragon pen to the phoenix aviary. Chad dismissed it as a narrow lake rather than a river; he was from the Amazon, and therefore a snob about such things. He cupped a hand into the cool water and raised it to his lips.
"Hey, sugar!" someone said.
Chad looked up just in time to get splashed in the face. It was Lily, one of the mermaids. She smiled, showing off her big dimples and multiple rows of pointy teeth.
"Hey, Lily." None of the zoo animals had originally spoken the same language, but when you're together long enough, you pick things up. Without another chullachaqui to talk to, he had to interact with the other animals to stay sane.
Lily pushed herself up onto the bank and hand-walked forward to where it was too shallow to swim. "Why the long face, dumpling? That mean old unicorn again?"
Chad slurped another handful of water. "He's not mean, he's just a stuck-up idiot."
"I swear! I keep inviting him in for a swim, but I guess he's got more important things to do."
"Like staying alive?"
Lily feigned outrage. "Mister Chad, I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about!" She splashed some water in Chad's direction. She and her friends were practically locals, rounded up in the Florida Everglades. Boat-propeller scars crisscrossed her tail, and her arms bore marks from several tangles with alligators, or so she said. Gators or not, Chad had heard enough about the swampland to know the food chain was rough down there, especially after dark; if Lily wasn't at the top of it, Chad didn't want to meet the thing that was.
Lily gave Chad a coy look. "I'll bet he'd dip his hoof in if you asked nicely."
Chad laughed out loud. "No, I think he finally figured out who's been pooping in his water trough."
"Maybe if Raindrop asked him."
Snowflake had been the zoo's lone unicorn since his mate, Raindrop, broke her leg. Scuttlebutt was that the zookeepers had used their gun on her, then split the carcass between the griffins, tigers, and bears. This had come from Lily and her friends, though, and they were full of shit half the time, and at least half-full all of the time. They told Chad all sorts of things, like if he'd been taken to any other state, he'd have rights as a person. But like most creatures of arcane genetics and questionable legality, he'd ended up in Florida.
Chad shook his head. "He's annoying, but I don't want him dead." Back in the Amazon, Chad's favorite pastime was to change himself into a person or animal and get hikers to chase him through the jungle until they got themselves hopelessly lost. Not all of them found their way out again, but it was a game. Chad had never actively tried to kill anyone.
"What if I granted you a wish?" Lily said.
"What?"
"You heard me. Everyone knows mermaids grant wishes."
"That's what they say. But I figured if you could, you would've wished yourselves the hell out of here."
"Are you kidding? I love this place! I've got friends, the people want to talk to me, it's great!" Lily claimed she could talk like people. Chad would've assumed it was just another case of Lily taking liberties with the truth if he hadn't seen people blush or get visibly angry over what she said to them.
"Talking to those jerks out there? Big deal."
"Fine, wish yourself somewhere else."
"You can do that?" Chad imagined himself back in the Amazon, running free among his own kind, and never again having to worry about humans clearing away his rainforest.
"Even if I couldn't," Lily said, "you ever tasted unicorn meat?"
"Nope. You?"
"No." She giggled, then whispered, "But I think we're about to!" Lily held her fingers on the water's surface to mimic a pair of legs. "Tonight, when it's dark, just lead him into the water. Get him deep enough where me and the girls can swim. We'll save you a leg so you'll finally have two hooves."
"Oh, you're hilarious."
"I'm hungry enough to eat two unicorns, so don't keep us waiting." Lily winked, blew him a kiss, and dove beneath the surface.
IT ALWAYS FELT weird to walk on four legs instead of two, and Chad worried he might stumble and give himself away. Plus, his white coat practically glowed in the dark. Cicadas chirped from the nearby trees, and if Chad could hear those over his own footsteps, he was moving quietly enough. These things always went better with the element of surprise.
Snowflake slept in the grassy center of the shared enclosure, so Chad had no trees to hide behind. This enclosure had once been an expanse of rubber trees and walking pines. The zookeepers had taken half of Chad's jungle away when they brought in Snowflake and Raindrop, then later, half of that as well. Why they stuck the unicorns with the chullachaqui was anyone's guess, but Chad thought it was because a chullachaqui was the most expendable. He wondered if they would grow new trees once Snowflake was gone.
Transformation-wise, a unicorn was outside Chad's range of mass, which was roughly between a jaguar and a human child. He didn't see this as a problem. The appearance of a unicorn of any size would be enough; Snowflake would see what he wanted to see.
When he was a gallop away, Chad said, in his best approximation of Raindrop's voice, "Wake up, my love." When Snowflake didn't move, Chad trotted over and poked him with his horn.
Snowflake opened his eyes and shook. Chad trotted back to a safe distance. He snorted when he saw Chad. "Raindrop?"
"Follow me, my love. Let's get a drink." He trotted in the direction of the river.
Chad felt the ground rumble, and before he could turn around, Snowflake hit him at full gallop, goring him in his left hip. Chad's shout first came out as a whinny, then a yell in his own voice. He fell to a heap in the grass, reverting to his true form, his thigh oozing blood and hurting like hell.
Snowflake loomed above him. His voice didn't seem to come from his mouth; it surrounded Chad from all sides. "You're the bounder who's been defecating in my water trough."
"That wasn't me!"
"Why were you pretending to be a unicorn?"
"Practical joke."
Chad yelped as Snowflake jabbed the horn into his hip again. Blood dribbled down the spiral of the horn. "You cannot lie to a unicorn. Confess."
Chad didn't think that was true, but thought it a bad time to test it. He tried to catch his breath. "Fine! The mermaids said they'd grant me a wish if I led you to them."
"The mermaids?" Snowflake said. "Bloody hell, I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them, and I haven't got hands, have I? What sort of boon did they promise you that you'd slay the number-three tourist attraction in northeast Florida?"
"To go home."
"Go home? I could have sent you anywhere you liked if you'd just asked me."
"Like you would even if you could."
"Wouldn't I? Everyone deserves to get their heart's desire. And if it's between that and a watery grave, I'd be wise to send you as far away as possible."
"Please. I'm onto you. You couldn't grant me an extra bucket of slop. You're just a horse with a horn."
"The mermaids were planning to eat you, you tosser."
Chad motioned at his body with his hands. "No way! Look at me, I'm too stringy."
"Not if you changed into a unicorn."
"I'd change back as soon as they bit me."
"Do the mermaids know that?"
"Of course they know that!" Chad said, realizing the mermaids totally did not know that. "Why would they eat me when they could have you?"
Snowflake scuffed at the grass. "Describe this nefarious scheme of yours step by step."
"Oh, you know, I was gonna be looking swag, all 'corned up horn to hoof, then I'd head over to the water's edge and wait for you to follow."
"The water is too shallow for the mermaids to attack me."
"I guess I'd wade in a little deeper—fuck me, they were going to eat me, weren't they?"
"Only saltwater mermaids grant wishes, everybody knows that," Snowflake said. "That's why there are no saltwater merfolk in captivity. If freshwater mermaids could grant wishes, they'd wish themselves the hell out of here."
"So why don't you do that?"
"Wish my way out? I'm only a horse with a horn, remember? And truth be told, I like it here."
"It's a prison."
"You might sing a different tune if you had armored hooligans with swords hunting you for your horn. Here I can eat all I want without fear of predators—at least, none worth worrying about."
"Was that a dig?"
The unicorn stamped his hoof twice for yes. "I don't know exactly how your trick works other than you prey on broken hearts. You were doomed from the go—I never cared for Raindrop. Ours was a pairing of convenience."
"Um…"
"If there's any heart that's broken, it's yours, old fellow."
Chad snarled. "How do you know all this? Magic?" It came out more sarcastic than he'd meant it.
"You use everyone's loneliness against them because you know how much it hurts. I don't need magic to see that. You must be lonely indeed to believe a gossip of lying mermaids are happier than a unicorn just because he's one horn short of a fondle."
"Wait, what—is someone fondling you? What are you talking about?"
Snowflake snorted, exasperated. "A fondle of unicorns. You know, like a murder of crows, a shrewdness of apes, a gossip of mermaids, a fondle of unicorns."
"What kind of made-up bullshit is a crow?"
"Do they even have a word for a group of chullachaqui?"
"Yeah, a 'fuck-you' of chullachaqui."
Snowflake yawned. "This is all very entertaining, but I am rather tired, so do you want your wish or not?"
Chad laughed bitterly. "Yeah. Send me into the middle of the jungle while I'm defenseless and bleeding. It's a good thing you're a fraud."
Snowflake nibbled on a patch of grass. "I couldn't send you back anyway."
Chad raised his arms above his head. "Finally, he admits it! You hear that, everybody?"
"I can't send you to the jungle because that's not your wish."
"I think I know what my own wish is."
Through a mouthful of grass, Snowflake said, "Hardly anyone truly knows their heart's desire."
"And you magically know what I want?"
"You want what everyone wants and deserves; love and acceptance."
"Fuck this, I'm going home." Chad tried standing on his leg, then fell on his butt again.
"Do you need a boost?"
"Stop pretending to be nice to me. Look, I'm sorry I tried to kill you, okay? It wasn't personal. Law of the jungle. But you're still a fraud, you know! You're not special!" Chad pushed himself onto his cloven hoof, swatted away Snowflake's attempt to help, then limped the rest of the way back to his nook in the trees.
CHAD AWOKE THE next morning to the sound of clanging metal and cursing. A crane was lowering a large steel box into the enclosure. The cursing came from inside the cage. Well, of course they brought in another unicorn. Got to breed more attractions. Unicorn childbirth must be horrible.
The crane set the cage down. There was a clunking sound, and the door opened. A man stepped out, blinking at the daylight. The guy looked a lot like the guy operating the crane, other than that one of his feet was a hoof. He took one look at Chad and ran for the tree cover.
Chad started to chase after him, almost forgetting the wound he'd received the night before. He braced himself for pain that didn't come. He looked at where Snowflake had gored him. Had it not been as bad as he'd thought? Where was all the blood? When Chad had gone to sleep, it felt like he had an entire ant colony biting his hip. Since then, the wound had closed, and was just slightly tender to the touch. There's no way Chad should've been able to put his weight on his leg without shouting every profanity he knew. He took a few steps to test it, shrugged, then broke into a run.
He found the new chullachaqui hiding under a rubber tree. Chad would've done the same; he hated changing where someone could see him.
"Hey, I'm Chad."
The other chullachaqui sized him up, then stepped into the light. "Chester." He looked at his surroundings. "We seriously have to share, huh? Back in my old zoo, I had my own enclosure."
"You were in a zoo? I thought I was the last one of us in captivity."
Chester shrugged. "Don't know what to tell you, pal." He looked through the trees toward the grassy field and made a stink face. "Aw, is that a fucking unicorn?"
Chad followed his gaze and saw Snowflake eating some grass. After each bite, Chad saw a flower where the grass had been. If he didn't know that Snowflake was just a horse with a horn, he might've thought Snowflake caused it to grow there.
Snowflake drew himself to his full height, then nodded his horn in Chad's direction. Chad's hip tingled ever so slightly.
Chad waved back. To Chester, he said. "You know, he's actually pretty all right."
"That's fantastic. Hey, I had a big breakfast and I need to unload soon. Can I get a little privacy?"
Chad grinned. "C'mon, I'll show you where the mermaids live."
Chester nodded. "I'd like that."
They set off through the trees.
Bill Ferris is a stand-up comedian who writes mysteries, fantasy, science fiction, and horror, and does not do stand-up. He has published several short stories in literary journals, and writes an author advice column at Writer Unboxed designed to help dilettantes and hacks learn nothing whatsoever. When he's not typing words into a thing, Bill develops online courses at a university his lawyer advised him not to name. He has two sons who asked not to be mentioned in this bio, but Elliott and Wyatt forgot to say "please."
Visit him online at www.famousauthorbillferris.com, or follow him on Twitter (@BillFerris).