_A Chapter on Unicorn-Hunting_
None in Erl was so busy but that he came that morning to see the magic
that was newly come out of Elfland, and to compare the trolls with all
that the neighbours said of them. And the folk of Erl gazed much at the
trolls and the trolls at the folk of Erl, and there was great merriment;
for, as often happens with minds of unequal weight, each laughed at the
other. And the villagers found the impudent ways of the bare brown
nimble trolls no funnier, no more meet for derision, than the trolls
found the grave high hats, the curious clothes, and the solemn air of
the villagers.
And Orion soon came too, and the folk of the village doffed their long
thin hats; and, though the trolls would have laughed at him also, Lurulu
had found his whip, and by means of it made the mob of his impudent
brethren give that salutation that is given in Elfland to those of its
royal line.
When noonday came, which was the hour of dinner, and the folk turned
from the kennels, they went back to their houses all praising the magic
that was come at last to Erl.
During the days that followed Orion's hounds learned that it was vain to
chase a troll and unwise to snarl at one; for, apart from their elvish
speed, the trolls were able to leap into the air far over the heads of
the hounds, and when each had been given a whip they could repay
snarling with an aim that none on Earth was able to equal, except those
whose sires had carried a whip with hounds for generations.
And one morning Orion came to the pigeon-loft and called to Lurulu
early, and he brought out the trolls and they went to the kennels and
Orion opened the doors, and he led them all away eastwards over the
downs. The hounds moved all together and the trolls with their whips ran
beside them, like a flock of sheep surrounded by numbers of collies.
They were away to the border of Elfland to wait for the unicorns where
they come through the twilight to eat the earthly grasses at evening.
And as our evening began to mellow the fields we know, they were come to
the opal border that shut those fields from Elfland. And there they
lurked as Earth's darkness grew, and waited for the great unicorns. Each
hound had its troll beside it with the troll's right hand along its
shoulder or neck, soothing it, calming it, and holding it still, while
the left hand held the whip: the strange group lingered there
motionless, and darkened there with the evening. And when Earth was as
dim and quiet as the unicorns desired the great creatures came softly
through, and were far into Earth before any troll would allow his hound
to move. Thus when Orion gave the signal they easily cut one off from
its elfin home and hunted it snorting over those fields that are the
portion of men. And night came down on the proud beast's magical gallop,
and the hounds intoxicate with that marvellous scent, and the leaping
soaring trolls.
And, when jackdaws on the highest towers of Erl saw the rim of the sun
all red above frosted fields, Orion came back from the downs with his
hounds and his trolls, carrying as fine a head as a unicorn-hunter could
wish. The hounds weary but glad were soon curled up in their kennels,
and Orion in his bed; while the trolls in their pigeon-loft began to
feel, as none but Lurulu had felt ever before, the weight and the
weariness of the passing of time.
All day Orion slept and all his hounds, none of them caring how it slept
or why; while the trolls slept anxiously, falling asleep as fast as ever
they could, in the hope of escaping some of the fury of time, which they
feared had begun to attack them. And that evening while still they
slept, hounds, trolls and Orion, there met again in the forge of Narl
the parliament of Erl.
From the forge to the inner room came the twelve old men, rubbing their
hands and smiling, ruddy with health and the keen North wind and the
cheerfulness of their forebodings; for they were well content at last
that their lord was surely magic, and foresaw great doings in Erl.
"Folklings," said Narl to them all, naming them thus after an ancient
wont, "is it not well with us and our valley at last? See how it is as
we planned so long ago. For our lord is a magic lord as we all desired,
and magical things have sought him from over there, and they all obey
his hests."
"It is so," said all but Gazic, a vendor of beeves.
Little and old and out-of-the-way was Erl, secluded in its deep valley,
unnoticed in history; and the twelve men loved the place and would have
it famous. And now they rejoiced as they heard the words of Narl, "What
other village," he said, "has traffic with over there?"
And Gazic, though he rejoiced with the rest, rose up in a pause of their
gladness. "Many strange things," he said, "have entered our village,
coming from over there. And it may be that human folk are best, and the
ways of the fields we know."
Oth scorned him, and Threl. "Magic is best," said all.
And Gazic was silent again, and raised his voice no more against the
many; and the mead went round, and all spoke of the fame of Erl; and
Gazic forgot his mood and the fear that was in it.
Far into the night they rejoiced, quaffing the mead, and by its homely
aid gazing into the years of the future, so far as that may be done by
the eyes of men. Yet all their rejoicing was hushed and their voices
low, lest the ears of the Freer should hear them; for their gladness
came to them from lands that lay beyond thought of salvation, and they
had set their trust in magic, against which, as well they knew, boomed
every note that rang from the bell of the Freer whenever it tolled at
evening. And they parted late, praising magic in no loud tones, and went
secretly back to their houses, for they feared the curse that the Freer
had called down upon unicorns, and knew not if their own names might
become involved in one of the curses called upon magical things.
All the next day Orion rested his hounds, and the trolls and the people
of Erl gazed at each other. But on the day that followed Orion took his
sword and gathered his band of trolls and his pack of hounds, and all
were away once more far over the downs, to come again to the border of
nebulous opal and to lurk for the unicorns coming through in the
evening.
They came to a part of the border far from the spot which they had
disturbed only three evenings before; and Orion was guided by the
chattering trolls, for well they knew the haunts of the lonely unicorns.
And Earth's evening came huge and hushed, till all was dim as the
twilight; and never a footfall did they hear of the unicorns, never a
glimpse of their whiteness. And yet the trolls had guided Orion well,
for just as he would have despaired of a hunt that night, just when the
evening seemed wholly and utterly empty, a unicorn stood on the
earthward edge of the twilight where nothing had stood only a moment
before: soon he moved slowly across the terrestrial grasses a few yards
forward into the fields of men.
Another followed, moving a few yards also; and then they stood for
fifteen of our earthly minutes moving nothing at all except their ears.
And all that while the trolls hushed every hound, motionless under a
hedge of the fields we know. Darkness had all but hidden them when at
last the unicorns moved. And, as soon as the largest was far enough from
the frontier, the trolls let loose every hound, and ran with them after
the unicorn with shrill yells of derision, all sure of his haughty head.
But the quick small minds of the trolls, though they had learned much of
Earth, had not yet understood the irregularity of the moon. Darkness was
new to them, and they soon lost hounds. Orion in his eagerness to hunt
had made no choice of a suitable night: there was no moon at all, and
would be none till near morning. Soon he also fell behind.
Orion easily collected the trolls, the night was full of their
frivolous noises, and the trolls came to his horn, but not a hound would
leave that pungent magical scent for any horn of man. They straggled
back next day, tired, having lost their unicorn.
And while each troll cleaned and fed his hound on the evening after the
hunt, and laid a little bunch of straw for it on which to lie down, and
smoothed its hair and looked for thorns in its feet, and unravelled
burrs from its ears, Lurulu sat alone fastening his small sharp
intelligence, like the little white light of a burning glass, for hours
upon one question. The question that Lurulu pondered far into the night
was how to hunt unicorns with dogs in the darkness. And by midnight a
plan was clear in his elvish mind.