DJORN - The Passage of Einhorn

When the first of the unicorns ascended they lost their voices. This ability to speak was lost to the winds and their voices became only hearable through thought. After the loss of their voice unicorns became seen as a race, devolving and unworthy of conversing with the fae and men of the world. It was through this belief of their ignorance that the unicorns became the hunted. Their horns were coveted, their hooves were thought to be good luck charms and their manes were said to string enchanted bows. There were some, however, who sought to protect them.

Djorn stood with his back turned to the unicorn as an ogre, a troll and an orc, clad in red leather garments, stood with bats and clubs, prepared to pounce on the unsuspecting animal. Djorn held out his sword, prepared to die for the sacred animal, and with a forward motion lunged at the largest of the three marauders, that being the troll in the middle.

As the orc came in with a kilij from the side, Djorn halted the blade by catching it in the gauntlet on his left hand. With his right, Djorn summoned up a ball of fire before the yellow troll who's face turned to stone before the light of the flame. By the time the orc knew what had happened, the ogre swung his club from behind Djorn to hit him in the back.

Djorn ducked as the ogre's club swept over him, smashing the petrified troll's head all over the forest ground. The unicorn looked on in indifference, appearing innocent and pure in mind, despite what it was witnessing. Djorn maneuvered the kilij of the orc, which was still caught in his gauntlet, took the sword by its blade and shoved it into the stomach of the ogre who's force was pushed forward due to his club swing.

With the ogre bleeding out, Djorn stumbled away from the close-quarters combat, having his leg sliced by the orc's frantic swinging after it was pulled out from the ogre's stomach. Djorn, assessing the wound on his leg, was too slow to realize the frenzied orc's vicious assault. In a moment Djorn was knocked to the ground, the orc standing over him.

As the orc wound back for a killing blow, Djorn raising his hand in a futile attempt to stop the kilij again in his gauntlet's palm, the unicorn stepped forward, exhaled and made its presence know. Both Djorn and the orc looked over at the animal as the horn upon the unicorn's head began to glow. The glow was blue and white, spouting forth a starry aura that surrounded the orc. 

In a moment the nature of the marauder seemed calm, and then he evaporated into stardust. With one expelling of its power, the unicorn had vanquished the orc to save Djorn. Djorn, who had grown up hearing faint tales of the unicorns, did not know what to say. As the unicorn walked up to Djorn there came a voice, telepathically speaking through his mind.

This was so, as unicorns could only be heard by those with the strongest will. He knew at once what it was. In the legends of the unicorn it was said that their voice was divine and could only be heard through the soul. And hearing it for the first time, the fighter knew it had to be the voice of the animal.

The unicorn, thanking Djorn, turned his back and requested that the fighter follow him, as the animal desire to give him a present for his protection. As Djorn and the unicorn walked past a brook, the fighter inquired about the animal's name. The unicorn said that their kind did not have names, rather the name of their species was enough to establish them all as children of the stars and of the universe.

Djorn and the unicorn continued walking, eventually coming to a waterfall behind a small pool of water which the brook connected to. The unicorn instructed Djorn to look into the falling waters, telling the fighter to free his mind as he stared. Seeing past the water, the shine of the sun in the fall's reflection summoned up the image of a white utopia, suspended and held in clouds.

This paradise, which seemed almost real through the shimmering falls, was an illusion summoned up by the unicorn. As Djorn turned his eyes away, he could see the unicorn's horn glowing as it had before. Slowly, Djorn ask about what he was looking at. The unicorn, wise to all things, told Djorn that she knew his final destination would be fulfilled and celebrated in the kingdom of Valhalla, and that the fighter had pledged his loyalties to the Aesir gods of Asgard.

Despite this the unicorn, for the saving deed Djorn had preformed, offered the fighter a place in the afterlife of the unicorns. This being the Kingdom of Einhorn. Djorn was speechless as the mythical creature told him he would be celebrated as a king. But Djorn declined, thanking the nameless animal for its offer, but deciding to stick to his loyalties in the Kingdom of Odin.

The unicorn understood, telling the fighter that the offer would forever remain open. And with that the fighter bid the sacred animal farewell, content in the fact that his afterlife held blessed eternal security.