Information

[lilacwood]

Character Information
Character Name: The Unicorn and/or Lady Amalthea
Fandom: The Last Unicorn

Character History: Plot!

❥ The Unicorn overhears men in her forest talking about how her people (fellow Unicorns) have disappeared from the world.

❥ She leaves her forest to determine if their words are true.

❥ She encounters a butterfly who seems to recognize her and speaks of the Red Bull.

❥ She meets a man who mistakes her for an "old, white mare" because men - for the most part - no longer see the truth.

❥ After traveling for awhile, she becomes wearied and lays down in a meadow. Mommy Fortuna and her minion(s) (of which Schmendrick the Wizard is one) trap her in a sleep spell and put her in a cage.

❥ The Unicorn recognizes that one other in this traveling troupe of "horrors" (which consists mostly of poor animals who have been enchanted) is like her. They are not a mere enchantment. She warns Mommy Fortuna and Schmendrick of the Harpy and her wrath.

❥ Schmendrick manages to free her - not with magic, but with a key. The Harpy and the rest of the animals are then freed by the Unicorn's horn.

❥ Just as she predicted, the Harpy falls upon Mommy Fortuna and kills her - along with her dimmest of minions (Rukh) who tries to run. (You never run from a magical creature. Always walk calmly and hope they do not take notice.)

❥ When Schmendrick and the Unicorn enter the next town, the Wizard is captured by bandits and the Unicorn must free him.

❥ Amongst the bandits, there is a woman named Molly Grue, who chooses to follow them and the Unicorn has no objections.

❥ Once they reach Hagsgate - the town in the shadow of King Haggard's castle (the so-called ruler/controller of the Red Bull), they are taken in by the town's people because of Schmendrick's magic. They think he can break the curse on their town and the castle.

❥ Drinn - one of the residents of Hagsgate - tells them then of a prophecy concerning a child and he believes said child has been adopted by King Haggard.

❥ When the Unicorn, Schmendrick and Molly Grue leave the town to head to the castle, they are attacked by the Red Bull. The Unicorn tries to run, but she is not fast enough. Schmendrick transforms her via magic into a human woman and the Bull loses interest in pursuing her.

❥ The Unicorn suffers an awful shock, but eventually she is encouraged into continuing her quest.

❥ When the Unicorn is presented, at last, to King Haggard, Schmendrick calls her "Lady Amalthea".

Character Personality: The Unicorn is old; so old in fact that even she does not know her age. She was a creature that lived outside of time. Centuries could pass without her notice. (Curiously she felt no need to use her voice for a long, long while either until she learned that her people (fellow Unicorns) had disappeared from the world.) The Unicorn was a spectator of life, feeling joy and wonder in watching other creatures - humans included - be given life, grow, mate and die. She never wished to be included in such activities and thus she has never given birth to her own foal or even sought out the company of a fellow of her kind. She was content in her forest until the truth found her and nagged at her to act.

Thus, perhaps inevitably, during her travels, she felt herself irrevocably changed. She was not an innocent creature who could simply watch the world pass her by any longer. She began to feel things that no other Unicorn had ever experienced, yet she was tentative about giving them a name. (For example, a Unicorn has no need of relying on anyone's company, but she found herself remaining loyally at Schmendrick's and then Molly Grue's side. She even felt the stirrings of an emotion that frightened her and set her apart from her people: regret.)

However the changes would have been bearable if Schmendrick had not done something awful to her in order to save her from the Red Bull*. When he transformed her into a maiden, all of the stirrings she had felt became overwhelming. She understands mortality; she understands what it is like to feel a body dying all around you and she wants none of it. Unicorns are immortal creatures and as she is now, with every day, she feels death dragging away her beauty and her strength.

To make matters more confusing, she is forgetting her true nature the more she lives in time. A mortal cannot understand an immortal's true nature or vice versa. Amalthea has been both and now the wisdom of her past is leaving her, trickling away from her until she is more and more like a human born woman. As a human, she is graceful, but detached. She often likes to peer out windows and remember something that is constantly evading her. The life she had before is like a dream and while she longs to return to her forest, she cannot quite recall why or what waits for her there.

Thus, as she is now, she is a lost young woman who is experiencing a mild amnesia. She recalls being a Unicorn, of course, but the more intense sensations of being in that form are leaving her, bit by bit. She has always been connected to nature, for example - from simply sensing even the tiniest of changes (especially in her forest) to being able to converse openly with the animals she encounters - but those abilities are beginning to fade. However, more importantly, she is losing her wild independence. As a human, she must rely more on others - something a Unicorn simply will not abide. With that reliance comes distracting, troublesome emotions. She is confused by what she is and what she feels. Eventually, she will be confused about how she came to be in the first place.

Only magic can undo what has been done to her or she will become merely a mysterious lady who, more likely than not, does have an odd taste for flowers.

(Note: *The reason why Schmendrick transforming her into a mortal woman was so disturbing to her was because she knew of another Unicorn who had endured such a spell. He was never returned to his Unicorn form and he perished from eating too many flowers (something a human is not built to handle, obviously).

Secondly, it is my hope that someone in Genessia would/will eventually be able to reverse Schmendrick's spell. With the spell reversed, she will remember being a Unicorn and how the grass and soil feels under her cloven hooves. Furthermore, she will remember her goals: to defeat the Red Bull and free her people and return to her forest once and for all.)

Powers and Abilities:

❥ She can converse, currently, with animals. (As time passes, I will show this fading.)

❥ While some of her wild nature has been dampened, it is still with her. She can run very swiftly for a woman if she is fleeing danger.

❥ Lastly, she does seem to possess a healing effect on others. I do not know if she could close a wound as she would be able to do as a Unicorn, but she can bring peace and calm to another's mind.