The Porcelain Unicorn

„Now just dump it, man!"

„Why do you keep that ugly figurine? It is old and broken. It's trash!"

How often he had heard those words before, how often he asked himself why he still kept that thing. Usually when he was, just like right now, standing in front of the shelf, with the feather duster in his hand. As usual Berny reached out and took it from the very top of the shelf for dusting it carefully. He looked it over with a mixture of tenderness, nostalgia and sorrow.

He was a teenager when he found it in an old fashioned store where they sold porcelain figurines of all kind. It was as if that unicorn had spoken to him: Take me with you, I belong to you.

It was about thirty years ago, it was the time when he discovered himself to be different from all the other boys of his age.

While other boys of his age were interested into pornomagazines, he had bought books about Fabulous Beasts in Medieval Art. While others were interested into tits and cants of girls, he was attracted by horses, by stallions to be exactly. And many years later he had discovered that he was also attracted by men...

This unicorn helped him through his adolescence, it was at his side when he became finally a man and found his own way of life, which usually wasn't accepted by society.

Many years had passed and the china embrittled and cracks soon were to be seen everywhere. It even was broken and glued over and over again. Indeed, it was very battered and people were right if they told him that the best place for that unicorn would be the trash can...

Berny took a closer look at it, should he really get rid of it? In an onlinestore he had found another unicorn figurine he planned to buy. It could replace that old fellow...

The unicorn seemed to return the look, its eyes were so deep, full of wisdom, but also full of pain and entreaty: Please, my friend, let me stay with you.

No way! He _never_would be able to trash it. he never would replace it by any other unicorn-figurine.

With a sigh, he carefully dusted the figurine, taking great care of the muzzletip and the long, spiraled horn. Eventually he put it back onto its place on the top of the shelf. He always has been convinced that this unicorn would guard over the room and him considering both as its own property.

Was it just a trick of the light or did that figurine wink at him right now?

Anyhow, he came to the conclusion that he never would give away his Aarion, how he named the unicorn, obviously a stallion, lovingly.

He hastened to finish his housework since he planned to spend the evening at the Pulse, a quite famous discotheque in Orlando. It was a place where especially gay people met and he hoped to meet any furries who live nearby. Apart from that this evening was the so called Latin Night, with latin music and drinks. He expected more guests than usual there so he wanted to be there as soon as possible.

It seemed to be his lucky day: Even it was Saturday evening, there wasn't any traffic jam on the way to the Pulse, he has found the perfect parking-lot where his car would be close but safe and protected and when he entered the club, he received a voucher for a free Pina Colada. But, best of all, he had met another fur, a sergal as he had introduced himself and new to Florida. He moved there from Oklahoma. They talked to each other and soon they found out that they both were lonely and that they had many things in common for example their love for equines, unicorns in particular.

The man sighed happily as he sipped at his drink. Talking and flirting the time passed by quickly. The Latino-show on the stage didn't matter much to both of them, they had found each other as it seemed.

"I wonder, if I should order another dri... oh, wait a second", the other man started and looked at his cellphone. "Strange, I just have received a message from my grandpa. He lives not far away from here, just one block. I just wonder what he wants from me, now at nearly 2 a.m. in the morning. By the way, since I was a boy I considered him to be a unicorn, I don't know, why. Anyhow, here, have a look at his avatar."

Berny took the phone and had a look and gasped. Not only that there was a china-unicorn to be seen. That figurine sat on a shelf which looked too familiar. As impossible as it was, but there was no doubt about it: It was actually Aarion. All the cracks and glued parts were clearly visible. But how for heaven's sake did a picture of his unicorn find its way onto a smartphone of someone who he hasn't met before? And now this unicorn-avatar even moved its head and stomped with the forehoof...

Berny kept staring at the phone until the sergal took it from his hand: "May I? Oh... As much as I hate it, I have to leave at once. My grandpa needs my help with something important. Sigh. As if it couldn't wait until tomorrow."

„Well, actually it is tomorrow", stated Berny. "I haven't drunk too much, I could take you with my car."

"That would be nice. But now let's exchange our numbers, I certainly would like you to meet again."

It was only a short drive and after his new friend got off the car, Berny decided to go home as well. Just as he was about to drive off, a policecar dashed along the street. It was followed by two others. And an ambulance. And another. The sirens shrieked through the night.

Something must have happened,_he thought. _Probably a serious accident.

And then he saw people running, screaming and the news were spread. Something really horrible was happening at the Pulse now. A shootout as someone said.

Berny wasn't able to remember how he got home.

The first thing he had to do was to inform his family and his friends that he was alright. As he picked up the phone, he noticed all the broken pieces of porcelain spread on the floor, shimmering white in the light of his room.

Aarion! it flashed through his mind and he tilted his head, looking onto the shelf, to the very top of it where the unicorn usually has guarded the room. There lay only a part of the torso.

Apparently this night Aarion hadn't watched only over the room...

END.