Maíra stared at the creature in front of her in growing confusion and disbelief. There was no possible way that what she was seeing was real. It couldn't be what she thought it was. She was taking a different anti-anxiety med now, so maybe she was allergic to them. Or she'd hit her head. Whatever the cause, she was definitely seeing things.
She took a hesitant step forward and reached out her hand.
The unicorn waited patiently for her to make contact, not moving away or drawing closer. Large blue eyes surrounded by ridiculously long silver lashes blinked at her, watching Maíra's hand waver in front of her.
Maíra couldn't bring herself to actually poke the unicorn, but it finally said, "I'm real."
Maíra squeaked loudly and threw herself backwards onto the bed behind her. The bed bounced wildly, throwing small, decorative, lacy pillows in every direction. Maíra grabbed one and held it up in front of her like a shield, peeking out from behind it at the unicorn, which hadn't moved, but was giving her what appeared to be an amused look.
"How did you get in my room?" Maíra asked, looking around. "My door is closed, my window is closed and the front door is closed and locked."
"I'm magic," the unicorn said, as if it were obvious.
Well, if it really was a unicorn, it obviously must be magic. Not that it should have occurred to Maíra, because unicorns weren't real.
"Why are you here?" Maíra demanded, still hiding behind the pillow.
"You called."
"I didn't!" protested Maíra, looking over the pillow to glare.
"Yes, you did. You've wanted a unicorn since forever," the unicorn argued. "I shouldn't even need to say this, since the room we currently occupy speaks for itself."
It was true. The whole room was painted a whimsical lilac and periwinkle, and had a decidedly fantastical motif. Sure, there were also fairies and mermaids, but the decorations around them mainly reflected unicorns. There were unicorn posters, unicorn figurines and unicorn-embroidered pillows. The shelf behind Maíra held the entire Unicorns of Balinor series and several other books featuring unicorns.
"So I like unicorns, but I haven't seriously thought that I could have one since I was five," Maíra replied. "What makes you think I need you now?"
"Because you have finally fallen in love," the unicorn said magnificently, closing its cornflower eyes with a pleased look.
Maíra threw her pillow at its face and the unicorn danced back and snorted. To Maíra's surprise and shock, the impact of the pillow threw up a glowing cloud of sparkles that drifted down to the ground and settled in a pile of rainbow glitter.
The unicorn sneezed, and it sounded like a dozen chiming silver bells.
"I'm not in love!" Maíra said, crossing her arms.
"Of course you're in love," the unicorn said, matter-of-factly. "We would know. Unicorns are made of love. We are drawn to love in all its forms and expressions."
"I'm not in love," Maíra insisted.
"We'll just see about that!" the unicorn said. "What was her name? Karen?"
"Carol," Maíra said automatically. "Shit."
Before she could say anything, the unicorn turned around, the door to her room opened, and in a silvery flash of light, the unicorn was out the door, down the stairs and rushing out into the street. Maíra jumped up and looked out her window. The unicorn reared up when it saw her, then made its way down the quiet suburban street in the direction of the mall.
"No, wait!" Maíra said, but the unicorn did not stop.
Maíra shoved a pair of her gym sneakers on her feet, threw a hoodie on over her pyjamas and ran to follow. Could anyone see it? The unicorn was magic, so it was only logical that the unicorn could make itself visible to only those that it wanted. No one else was out on the street, as it had just finished raining, so hopefully it would remain unseen.
The unicorn had stopped at the first stop sign where the crescent Maíra's place was on joined one of the bigger roads. It waited for her to catch up, and she jogged up to its side, puffing out breaths as her out-of-shape body made its displeasure known.
"This would go a lot faster if you climbed on my back," the unicorn remarked.
"I'm in my pyjamas!" Maíra protested. "Where are you going?"
"To see Carol, of course," the unicorn explained. "Now that you know you love her, you have to go to her and proclaim your love!"
"No," Maíra snapped. "Do you think people here see unicorns every day?"
"Probably not," the unicorn said brightly. "What a lucky day for them!"
"I'll go with you," Maíra blurted out desperately. "But on one condition. You take me back to the house so that I can get dressed properly."
If she could just get the unicorn back inside without anyone noticing its presence, then everything would be fine. She'd think of a way to keep it there in a moment, but getting it there was the main priority. Her uptight neighbour was going to come by at any moment and see it, and probably manage to blame it on her, somehow.
"Okay," the unicorn said, and lowered itself to the ground. Maíra stifled the urge to giggle, because the movement reminded her of a camel sitting down, and was not graceful at all. "I didn't realize that humans had clothes specifically for declaring their love in."
"We don't really," Maíra said, climbing on its back awkwardly. "Well, unless you count a wedding dress, but you have to be engaged before you can get married. I just don't want to be outside in my pyjamas."
"Do you have a wedding dress?" asked the unicorn, turning its head to look at her as it stood up again.
"No, why would I?"
"So, how are you going to declare your love without one?" the unicorn asked. "It is of utmost importance that you have whatever you need to declare your love perfectly. We must get one!"
And with this declaration, the unicorn took off down the street in the exact opposite direction that Maíra had hoped.
"No, wait!" Maíra cried. "Stop!"
The unicorn didn't even break stride. With growing horror, Maíra threw her arms around the unicorn's long, white neck and held on. From the other direction, there was a car coming, and with a sinking feeling in her stomach, Maíra recognized her neighbour's Volvo.
"Unicorn, get off the street!" Maíra yelled, because the unicorn didn't seem to think the car was a threat to its well-being.
The unicorn kept galloping down the street, and picked up speed. Even from here, Mr. Wilson's expression changing from confused to terrified was visible through the windshield. His hands grasped at the steering wheel, and the vehicle swerved from side to side as its driver panicked.
"You're going to get us killed," Maíra said.
Maíra was certain that they were both doomed to be crushed by the oncoming car when the unicorn jumped, touching down on the roof of the car momentarily before launching itself off the top. Maíra screamed and shut her eyes; they were high enough in the air that she could see over the tops of houses.
When she opened her eyes again, the unicorn was running in the direction of Lonsdale Quay, galloping fast enough that they were passing cars. Maíra stared in fascination as they rocketed by a minivan, and the children inside all pressed their faces against the window and pointed as they went by. Maíra waved and smiled weakly.
"Where do we find a wedding dress?" the unicorn asked her suddenly.
"Not here!" Maíra said. "Anyway, I don't need a wedding dress. Wedding dresses are for getting married in."
"Do your people marry people they love?" asked the unicorn.
"Sometimes, I guess, but it's not as if everyone does."
"But it is an important ceremony of love, would you say that?" The unicorn turned its head to the side to look at her with one, large, shimmering eye.
"Yes, but––"
"Then it is settled. We must find you a wedding dress!"
The unicorn put on a burst of speed as they rounded a corner and started down the long hill towards the harbour. The ocean came into view, dotted with sailing boats, large transport ships and one cruise ship departing from Canada Place on the other side of the harbour. Within a few moments, they descended the hill and the sea was lost from sight once more.
"Okay," Maíra said, rearranging herself on the unicorn's back. "A nice dress wouldn't go amiss, sure, but a wedding only takes place after you've been dating for a while! Months, years even! I haven't even asked her out yet!"
"Is the order of these events important?" the unicorn asked.
"Yes," Maíra said, nodding frantically. "It definitely is."
The unicorn rushed across a busy street, barely avoided being hit by a bus and vaulted over the heads of several confused pedestrians.
"Sorry!" Maíra yelled at them as the unicorn dashed by.
"I like the idea of a wedding dress," the unicorn said wistfully. "It speaks of love in visual form, and gives a special significance to your vows."
"You don't even know what one looks like," Maíra argued. "If you'd just stop and let me explain..."
The unicorn barrelled past all the little shops on the quay and headed down past the docks. Maíra clutched its curling, white mane in both hands as it approached the railing. Maíra closed her eyes and chanted in her head that it was magic: the unicorn was magic and wouldn't let them drown.
Maíra didn't even like taking the seabus across the harbour, never mind jumping into the impenetrably dark depths of the water on what amounted to horseback. However, the unicorn hadn't halted its progress in spite of all her words, so telling it she was afraid of water probably wouldn't stop it either.
They cleared the rail, and the unicorn kept running without breaking stride. Maíra opened her eyes to find that the unicorn was running on top of the water, sending up tiny sprays of salt water, as if the ocean were inches deep.
"You're really magic," Maíra said in awe. "Either that, or I'm delusional."
The unicorn tossed its head and said, "I am most certainly magic, but it is still quite possible that you are delusional. I do assure you that I am entirely real and in no way imaginary."
The unicorn wove its way around little speed boats and large sailing crafts. The ocean breeze whipped Maíra's hair up around her head, and seagulls flew up in a flurry as the unicorn disturbed their flocks where they were sitting peacefully on the water. Maíra forgot to be afraid; forgot that if she fell off the unicorn's back, she would sink like a stone.
As the unicorn approached the other side of the harbour, Maíra heard the sound of a propeller drawing close and the wind pick up. She looked up and screamed as a seaplane swooped in over their heads and landed in a whoosh and a spray of water.
"Okay, unicorn, even if I wanted a wedding dress, I definitely can't afford one," Maíra said, wiping the salt-water spray from her arms. "Besides, I'm saving for something else."
"What do you mean by that?" the unicorn asked, finally reaching dry land and entering the bustling downtown city center.
"I mean that I don't have any money to spare! I'm not spending it on something like a wedding dress when I don't know if Carol will agree to even one date with me."
"Why would she not agree?" the unicorn asked blithely. "You love her!"
Maíra groaned and rolled her eyes. "You do understand that not everyone gets a fairytale ending to their search for love, right?"
"Why would she not love you?" People were staring as the two of them went past, and somehow, the unicorn was able to miraculously get through the crowd without being jostled or accidentally stepping on anyone. "You're wonderful!"
Maíra looked down at her hands, wondering how she could explain something as complex as societal gender dynamics to a creature that didn't understand that she didn't need a wedding dress to ask for a date.
"I might be a bit... differently shaped than she's used to," Maíra said, trying to explain.
"You're human. She is also human. I do not see the problem," the unicorn said. "I know a dragon that fell in love with a mermaid. Why should shape have any bearing on the matter?"
"Humans are a bit more complicated than that," Maíra said, sighing and shaking her head.
"That's just silly," the unicorn proclaimed, shaking out its mane. "Now, where would one find a place for wedding dresses? Ah! I'll ask them."
Just across the intersection from them were two people on horseback.
"You can't ask them, those are police officers," Maíra hissed.
"They look like they might know the way to a place with wedding dresses," the unicorn said confidently and approached them.
The closer that they got to the police officers, the more Maíra noticed just how large their horses were. She wasn't an expert on horses, obsession with unicorns notwithstanding, but even she could see that they were powerfully built. If she had to imagine the kind of horses that medieval knights rode into battle, these would be those horses.
"We need to find a wedding dress," the unicorn said, addressing the officers with a swish of its mane.
The officers stared, and one stood up in her stirrups and leaned over to look at Maíra where she was perched on the unicorn's back. Maíra shrank back away from their gaze. She'd never had anything happen to her personally to make her fear police officers, and in their eyes she probably looked like an ordinary young lady, but she couldn't help being afraid. It wasn't the type of fear that made someone run screaming in terror; it was the kind where one stayed as still as possible and hoped they remained unnoticed.
"Did you just talk?" the officer asked. "Why are you wearing pyjamas?"
Maíra had forgotten she was wearing pyjamas. She was also riding a talking creature that no one in their right mind believed exists. What if they thought she was mad?
"Wedding dress!" she said, clutching her hoodie closer around her.
The officers looked at one another briefly in confusion before turning to look at Maíra again. Maíra was trying desperately to think of a way to explain the situation, but everything circled back to the fact she'd been kidnapped by a magical creature.
"Do you not know where a wedding dress may be found?" the unicorn continued. "We need one."
"We really don't need one," Maíra said, dread curling in her stomach. She hoped the officers didn't think she was talking to herself.
"Horses aren't allowed here," the female police officer said.
"You have a horse," the unicorn pointed out.
"We're police officers," the other police officer pointed out. "It's hard to be 'mounted police' without mounts."
"Well, I'm not a horse," the unicorn said smugly.
"Are we not going to discuss that it's a talking horse?" Maíra asked pointedly, before shaking her head in disbelief. "I really am going mad. Am I the only one who thinks it's weird?"
"Horse-shaped creature," the female police officer added. "I'm going to have to ask you to come with us."
"We must find a wedding dress!" the unicorn argued.
"Why do they not care they're talking to a unicorn?" asked Maíra, gesturing to them.
"Please come with us," the officers said, both raising one hand towards her.
"That's a bit creepy. We should go," Maíra tapped at the unicorn's sides with her ankles, even though she knew that the unicorn wouldn't know horse riding commands.
"They haven't told us where to get a wedding dress," the unicorn protested.
"They're going to arrest us!" Maíra said, digging her heels in harder. "Go!"
The unicorn went. Unfortunately, it wasn't going very fast, trotting along the sidewalk, hooves chiming on the ground like bells. Maíra poked at its side again, but this time it ignored her.
"Go faster, or they'll catch us," she said, tugging its mane to get its attention.
"Why would they chase us?"
She glanced over her shoulder, and the sight behind her was so alarming that she screamed. The unicorn looked back as well and leapt forward.
The two mounted police were charging down the block at them, their horses' hides gleaming and rippling over their powerful muscles. Yes, Maíra could definitely see why she'd thought of knights on horseback, because these horses were war machines.
"Yes, I see your point," the unicorn said, taking off in a flash of glitter and silver light.
They quickly outpaced the enormous steeds and their riders, but Maíra's heart was still pounding and she couldn't help but keep looking back over her shoulder in case they caught up.
"What was wrong with them?" Maíra asked, rubbing her arms. "Police aren't normally like that."
"You mean extremely unhelpful when it comes to finding appropriate clothing for love declarations?" the unicorn asked with a snort.
"No, that is not what I meant," Maíra said. "Didn't you see them? They started getting all weird and talking like robots."
"What's a robot?"
"Never mind." Maíra rolled her eyes. "I must have been imagining it."
"I hope you're happy," the unicorn said. "Now we'll never find a wedding dress for you! Dealing with the human world is so tedious."
"If you think that after only an hour, imagine how humans must feel," Maíra grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest defensively.
"I am going to find you a wedding dress! If you are to declare your love, you must do it right!" The unicorn seemed adamant on its course of action.
Maíra sighed and waited for the silly thing to just give up. Dress or no dress, she wasn't going to go and confess her love. After the whole shock of meeting an actual unicorn, she finally considered what the unicorn actually wanted her to do. There was no way she could tell Carol anything at all. In fact, she often forgot how to talk when in Carol's presence.
"Oh! Oh! Is that a wedding dress?" The unicorn danced on the spot in excitement.
Maíra looked through the storefront window, and by some sort of miracle, they were actually in front of a store for wedding dresses. Before she could answer, the unicorn decided she was taking too long and just went through the propped-open door.
"We need a wedding dress!" the unicorn said. "Right away!"
The shop assistant, who had been hanging up a dress to put it away, dropped it in shock. A moment later, she scrambled after it, hurriedly replacing it and turning to glare at them.
"Just look at what you nearly made me do! That wedding dress is expensive." The assistant's mouth went thin and her dark eyes narrowed.
"Expensive! What's all this talk of 'expensive this' and 'expensive that?'" The unicorn almost reared up before it remembered the ceiling.
"Do you know who designed this dress?" the assistant put her hands on her hips and leaned forward, ready for an argument. "Just look at all the material! Of course it's expensive!"
"It's beautiful," the unicorn replied, its voice thoughtful. "But expensive?"
"She means it costs a lot of money," Maíra said. "Don't you know what money is?"
"No," the unicorn said. "Unicorns don't have money. Why do humans have money? It seems completely unnecessary to me!"
"If neither of you have any money, then I suggest you take yourselves out of my shop," the assistant said darkly, moving to stand in between them and the dresses on display.
The unicorn backed out of the store, ears flattening back in dismay. As they left without another word, however, and walked dejectedly out of the store, Maíra thought its hooves jangled less on the pavement than before.
"I wasn't going to confess anyway," Maíra said.
"But you must! We mustn't let this get in the way of our quest! To the Other Side!" the unicorn declared, this time rearing up as it had wanted to earlier.
"The other side of what?" Maíra asked.
The unicorn ignored her question again, and Maíra could hear strange music and discordant sounds rising up all around her. It was as if large out-of-tune bells were ringing, and Maíra's teeth jarred together as she clenched them against the unpleasant noise.
The world around her began to blur together, as if she was seeing it in watercolour, and in front of them, a group of bright points began to coalesce into one ball of light. It slowly widened, and a hole opened up in the middle. At first she thought that the hole was black, but as it opened further, she could see a flurry of green in front of her.
"Wait!" Maíra cried out.
And the unicorn charged into the middle of the green world, bursting into it in a cloud of silver light and exploding stars.
For a few minutes, Maíra couldn't see a thing. It was so bright that she closed her eyes, then because she could still see the light through her eyelids, she covered them with her hands.
"I know just the people to make you a real dress for love declarations."
Maíra opened her eyes and nearly closed them again against the vivid greenness of the world she found them in. Every single living organism around them was brilliantly coloured, and quite a lot of what she saw was some variety of green. The forest around her was simply lush with life.
"What is this place," she asked, looking around nervously. "Where's Vancouver?"
"The Other Side, opposite the Mortal Realm," the unicorn replied. "Ah, I can change here, but I'd better leave that until we find what we're looking for."
"Change?" Maíra shook her head and leaned against the unicorn's neck heavily. "I don't understand."
"The magic here makes it easy, whereas in your realm, devoid of magic, makes it hard to do much of anything."
Maíra just knew she was going to regret asking. "Where are we going now?"
"Oh, to see the elves," the unicorn replied. "They're the best with clothing."
"Elves," Maíra said, but supposed that elves were really nothing to be worried about in comparison to the unicorn. At least they probably wouldn't try and kidnap her.
Eventually, they wandered into a part of the wood where the trunks of the trees were large enough around, Maíra could imagine her house fitting inside of it. They were covered in moss and ivy, almost decorative in their patterns. Maíra thought it was a coincidence until she noticed the little doorway in the bark of one of the trees. She'd only noticed it because it was at her eye-level, but now that she was looking, she could see them all over the place.
"Ah, here we are. The Land of the Woodland Elves," the unicorn said. "Off you get."
By this point, Maíra's legs were beginning to cramp from sitting on horseback for so long, and she slid off gratefully. Her legs were a little wobbly, and she walked around to try and get the feeling back into them. She was grateful for her voluptuous backside that was less sore than she imagined it would be. Certainly less sore than her legs, anyway.
Then, the unicorn shimmered abruptly and changed forms. Maíra blinked in surprise at the unicorn's new appearance. It was still all glowing and white, but it was more human-shaped than it had been. It had long limbs, and seemed to be covered in fine, silvery fur. Its eyes were quite large, and it had a long, equine nose and a flowing white mane. Also, it was naked.
Maíra almost averted her gaze until she realized something: it had no external genitalia.
It was a bit like a doll in that it didn't have any distinctive sex characteristics. It had no breasts, or even nipples to suggest that it nursed its young, nor did it have excess hair besides the thin layer of fur. Maíra realized she was staring, but couldn't bring herself to look away. It was an entirely sexless creature, and although it had noticed she was staring, didn't seem to be concerned with modesty.
"You don't have..." Maíra wasn't sure how to put her statement. She didn't know if unicorns had a basis for gender, or if they would become offended if asked. And certainly, Maíra knew very well how it felt to have her own genitalia discussed as if people had a right to know all about them because she was a bit different.
"Unicorns are genderless," the unicorn said, shrugging. "Oh, that's an interesting movement. You humans have some interesting ideas after all." It shrugged again. "We don't need to reproduce. We are created every single time someone falls in love."
"You're actually created by love?" Maíra asked, eyes wide.
"Oh, yes. There's a lot of us, you know. Lots of people fall in love," the unicorn closed its eyes with a pleased look. "We're genderless, because that is no barrier to the ways that people love one another."
So that's why the unicorn didn't understand why Carol might not love her.
"That's not really how it works with humans," Maíra said. "Without even getting into the mess that is human reproduction, we also have these important things called sexual and gender orientation, and if those things don't match up in some way––"
The unicorn looked at her blankly and then said, "Regardless, you need a dress. How is your Carol to know how you feel if you don't tell her?"
"She wasn't meant to know," Maíra said, sighing and shaking her head. "I wasn't going to tell her. I was going to watch from afar and hope that eventually my feelings for her would fade."
The unicorn looked at her with wide, horrified eyes. "There's nothing that terrifies a unicorn more than being wished out of existence."
"You're not saying that you think I should cultivate my unrequited feelings for her?" Maíra said.
"You don't know if they're unrequited yet!" the unicorn snorted and then stamped its foot in frustration, sending up a tinkling noise and a spray of tiny silver stars.
"But I can't just tell her!" Maíra argued, hands on her hips. "She doesn't even know anything about me! There are some pretty important things that might not be immediately obvious, but would cause a big rift in our communications if I didn't tell her. I'm not sure if I'm really ready to tell her about it."
The unicorn was silent for several, long moments.
"But you love her," it finally said.
"Yes."
Maíra watched the unicorn as it looked miserably at the ground, shuffling its hooves. She wondered why it had come to her in the first place if it met with such disappointment upon meeting her.
"Will a unicorn die if I don't tell Carol I love her?" Maíra watched as the unicorn avoided her eyes.
"We are not meant to be coercive beings," the unicorn said uncomfortably. "But we cannot lie because love is a truth so pure, a lie would cause us unimaginable pain. Yes, a unicorn will sicken the longer you leave your love undeclared and will cease to exist once your feelings pass."
"But that happens all the time!" Maíra exclaimed. "People are always too scared to admit their feelings."
"Fear is one of our greatest enemies," the unicorn said, but didn't offer anything further.
"So," Maíra looked around. "How am I meant to get a dress here in the forest?"
The unicorn perked right up, depression forgotten. "Oh, the elves have their ways."
"Where are they, then?" Maíra eyed one of the little doors with trepidation.
The door opened at her words, and a little, nut-brown face popped its head around the door. It was the sort of creature she imagined from fairy tales rather than the Tolkien-esque elves she'd been expecting. Soon, they had a small crowd gathered around her feet, and they were all chattering excitedly in small voices.
"They can make a wedding dress?" Maíra asked skeptically.
"Elves are the very best clothing-makers in all the realms," the unicorn said. "They can make you a dress fit for a princess."
Now that she looked at them, she could see that their clothing did look well-made. But it did have a more sturdy-looking appearance than beautiful––practical rather than aesthetic.
Not that Maíra really needed a princess dress or even wanted one. She didn't need a dress. Maíra was perfectly capable of making a fool of herself in ordinary denim. Or––she looked down––her plaid pyjamas.
Okay, so there was a very small part of her that wanted to have a princess dress. That was a dream too extravagant for words, however, not when she had things to save up for.
"How much would a dress be?" she asked the unicorn.
The unicorn frowned, making the expression look far more complicated than it needed to be. "The elves do not need compensation."
"But if they're going to make something for me, I would like to give them something in return." Maíra didn't have a lot of money to spare, but surely there was something else that she could give the elves in exchange.
"Elves are made from goodwill to one's fellow creatures," the unicorn explained. "And goodwill is completely free. I think they live off the feeling of contentment that someone gets whenever they do a good deed."
"So no one owes them anything?" Maíra knelt down to look closer at them.
"A true good deed does not expect to be repaid," the unicorn said with another awkward-looking shrug.
"Are all the creatures in this place created by emotion?" Maíra asked, frowning. "You're made of love, and these elves are made of goodwill? Are there other creatures that are made of different emotions?"
"Oh, yes, lots," the unicorn said, nodding. "Dragons are made every time there's a large gathering of people and their emotional state is the same."
"Crowd mentality. Dragons are crowd mentality?" Maíra considered this. "There are a lot of angry, violent riots out there, in the world."
"There are a lot of angry, violent dragons, too."
Maíra turned her attention back to the elves. "Hello?"
The elves' voices raised in excitement, and she could make out words if she listened closely enough.
"She's like us! She looks like us! Just big."
Maíra looked down at herself and saw that yes, she and the little elves did share some physical characteristics in skin tone and hair colour.
"Olá," she said, wondering if they would understand.
"Olá!" they all repeated enthusiastically, although Maíra didn't know if they were just repeating what she'd said or if they could understand Portuguese.
They swarmed around her feet, chattering too quickly for her to catch their words. Maíra watched them curiously and waited for them to do something.
"They want you to take your clothes off," the unicorn commented from where it had settled down on a moss-covered rock to watch.
Maíra froze.
"I can't," she said.
The unicorn tilted its head to the side. "Why not?"
Maíra glared and crossed her arms. "You wouldn't understand. You don't have any genitalia at all!"
"Why would that concern you?" the unicorn asked. "Your kind have genitals. So what?"
"They're taboo in our culture!" Maíra hugged her body even tighter. "We don't like looking at them, because they're sexual."
"Sexual?" The unicorn stared at her harder. "I have no concern for sex. Neither do these elves, no matter how similar in appearance they are to you. We don't have sex. It's nothing to worry about. You humans and your sexual distress."
Maíra looked down at the little faces watching her and wondered if they had a concept of what it meant to have a gender and sex disparity. Did they know enough to hate someone for it? It didn't really matter, because Maíra wasn't going to take anything off anyway. It made her really uncomfortably aware of her body when other people watched her change.
"It's not that," Maíra said, starting to feel a bit sick with so many people looking at her.
The unicorn watched her for a few seconds and then shrugged again. "It's obviously causing you discomfort. We'll have to find a different way."
Maíra was dizzy with relief. She hadn't taken off her clothes in front of someone since she'd figured out she was trans and come out to her family. They'd even let her change in a different room at school.
The elves were all over the place, taking pieces of woven fabric to measure her height and other dimensions by stringing it between trees. By the time they were done, Maíra was standing in the middle of a maze of strings. It obviously meant something to the elves, because they climbed over the strings to point at marks on the fabric and wrote it all down on a little piece of what looked like some sort parchment.
"It's made of pond reeds," the unicorn said when she asked about the paper.
"It's... papyrus?" Maíra asked, making her way out of the tangle of strings to sit next to the unicorn.
"I suppose." The unicorn hummed, and its voice sounded like a flute. "Look, they're starting on your dress now."
The dress was starting to take shape, and it was a wispy, sort of feathery material. At first, Maíra thought it looked pure white, but the more she looked at it, the more it changed. Now it looked silver, but if she turned her head it was celadon, a colour that reminded her of the glaze on Chinese vases. Sometimes the edges of it caught the light, as if it were covered in little drops of dew.
She was so absorbed in watching the dress taking shape in front of her, she didn't notice that some of the elves had come over to see her.
"They want to braid your hair," the unicorn said, bringing them to her attention.
Maíra was rather proud of her hair. Once, a friend had described the colour as "dark, like a winter ale," and that had sounded so whimsical to her that she'd secretly begun to think of it that way in her head. It was long, thick and wavy, and Maíra would sometimes throw it over her shoulder just for the delight she got from watching it spin and settle. The sun made it shine and turned it a burnished gold, just a shade darker than her skin.
"Okay," she said.
Her hair was hers, and always had been, regardless of gender.
Immediately, there were a hundred tiny pricks as little hands went to work. It seemed strange in the beginning, but soon it just became soothing. Maíra was soon lulled into a vague sense of sleepy contentment. This must be how cats felt when people stroked behind their ears.
Maíra lost track of how long this went on for, but eventually she was brought back to reality by the unicorn nudging her arm.
"You're ready," the unicorn said, gesturing for her to stand up.
While she hadn't been paying attention, the elves had not only finished the dress, they'd finished her hair and rigged up a screen for her to change behind. Maíra went behind the screen and looked at the dress in awe. She was a tad frightened that she might somehow damage it if she wasn't gentle with it.
"How do I put it on?" she called out to the unicorn.
"Just step into it. The dress will do the rest."
That didn't make any sense at all, but Maíra shed her pyjamas and stepped into the circle of the dress. It rose up around her and settled onto her frame, clinging to her lightly and swishing along with her every movement. Maíra wished she had a mirror.
"It's as light as air!" Maíra said, poking her head out from behind the screen.
"It's made of dreams and strands of hope and threads of courage."
"It can't be made of that. Those aren't real," Maíra said, emerging slowly and spinning on the spot. "What do you think?"
"Perfect," the unicorn said, and shimmered back into its other form. "Come on! We have a love declaration to make."
The unicorn knelt down like last time, and Maíra carefully climbed back on, sitting side-saddle to try and keep the skirts from getting tangled.
"You know, just because something isn't tangible doesn't make it not real," the unicorn said as it stood.
"You can't make a dress out of dreams and courage," Maíra replied.
"Yes you can."
"How?"
"Magic."
The unicorn took off running through the forest, and soon, the strange tinkling and jangling started up again as the door between their worlds opened. Maíra was worried the wind would ruin her hair, but the unicorn touched down lightly on the quay, and they somehow remained untouched by the sea breeze.
Finally, Maíra was able to see herself, reflected in a storefront window.
The fabric of the dress curled up over one shoulder and then wrapped around the rest of her torso down to her waist. After that, it flowed out from behind her in wisps and curls, as if it were made of clouds. Her hair was piled up on top of her head, and it was left loose in some places and braided up in others. Somehow, the elves had layered her hair so intricately that she had no idea how they'd managed. It looked as if they'd made her a netted cap made of her own hair, but even under that there were little braids and spun curls.
"See? You're a princess," the unicorn sounded so pleased with itself that Maíra had to hold back a giggle.
"That I am," Maíra said. "But now that I'm here, how am I supposed to know where Carol is?"
"Oh, that's easy," the unicorn said with assurance. "You have to think of her with love. You'll lead us to her yourself."
"With love?" Maíra said skeptically. "That sounds very cliché to me."
"Cliché is just a word that the doubtful made up to reassure themselves." The unicorn tossed its head. "They didn't want to have to show their feelings freely. Disparaging romance is just a way to hide their emotional selves away. It's a very sad way to live, don't you think?"
"Unicorn, did you say that this dress has courage woven into it?" Maíra asked.
"Yes," the unicorn said. "Why?"
"I'm going to need it."
And Maíra loved.