Time seemed to slow down, for which Melitta was deeply grateful. She ducked out of the way, hearing her tunic tear as the unicorn's horn raked its way through it. Her skin burned, and she knew she been grazed by the beast, too. She ran to the only structure she could see – the well. Putting the stone circle between her and the beast, she dared to turn around to see how close it was. Only to discover that the unicorn still stood beside the tree where she had been standing, only moments earlier. Melitta crept around the well, in order to get a better view of the beast. Her mouth dropped open in surprise.
In trying to impale her, the unicorn had in fact pinned itself to the tree with its own horn. Try as it might to yank itself free, the beast was stuck. Fearing that it might free itself once again, Melitta ran down the hill for the bag of belongings they'd brought with them. The length of rope they hadn't needed to get George out of the cellar was what she wanted now.
Melitta threw a coil of rope over the beast's neck, securing it with some difficulty as the beast struggled with the tree. Next, she tied the makeshift halter to the tree, looping the rope several times around the trunk before tying it with the strongest knot she knew. There. Let the beast try and break free from that.
Behind her, the horrible unicorn scream sounded again. Melitta whirled, but there was no other beast. Just the one before her. The unicorn tied to the tree let out a frustrated snort. An answering snort came from further down the hill.
There couldn't be two beasts. There couldn't be. And yet…
Melitta check to make sure the unicorn was securely tied to the tree, then made her way down to the edge of the cellar. To her amazement, there was also a unicorn in the cellar. Looking from one beast to the other, Melitta marvelled. Two unicorns, not one. She would never forget this day.
The beast in the cellar let out another scream, then flopped over on its side, panting. Melitta might not be an expert on horses or unicorns, but she knew this wasn't a good sign. When the beast screamed again, the second one answered it.
For the first time, Melitta dared to slip inside a unicorn's mind. But all she met was a blaze of unbearable pain. Pain in her… arm? No, the pain was not hers. It belonged to the unicorn. It had broken its foreleg when it landed in the cellar, and it could neither walk nor escape.
The second beast had come to its rescue, she assumed. But what use was another unicorn to one trapped in the cellar with a broken leg?
"Melitta? Melitta!" George's shouts became increasingly urgent.
Melitta rose from a crouch and waved. He had the priest with him, she noted. Wonderful. The priest could put the poor animal out of its misery. Or perhaps he knew something about healing horses. She certainly didn't know enough to do anything for the animal.
"How did it get out?" George burst out, catching sight of the second unicorn.
Melitta wanted to sink back down to the ground, she suddenly felt so exhausted. But she didn't want to look weak in front of the priest, who was still the client, after all. "It didn't," she said, pointing. "The first beast is in the cellar. The second beast came to save it, I think." She peered into the cellar again. "Come here. I think it's broken its leg. We have to help it somehow."
"Two unicorns!" the priest breathed, so eager to see inside the cellar that he almost knocked Melitta over the edge.
"Are you going to put out of its misery, Father?" she asked. "Or miraculously heal its leg?"
The priest's eyes shone, but he didn't seem to see her anymore. "Miracles. Miracles on such a holy site," he muttered. "That's what we must have. A miracle." Like a man possessed, he headed for the well.
"No, Father!" George shouted, running after the priest to hold him back.
But the priest would not be stopped. He drew a pail of water from the well, but he didn't stop to drink it this time. No third unicorn appeared to attack him, either.
With the bucket dangling from one arm, the priest climbed down the ladder Melitta hadn't seen before into the cellar with the injured unicorn.
"He will be killed," George said. "We must stop him."
Melitta shook her head. "Wait. He said the water can work miracles. The unicorn is the guardian of the well. Surely the well would want to help him."
Down in the cellar, the priest blessed the bucket of water, before pouring it in a thin trickle over the beast's leg. When the bucket was empty, he tossed it up to the grass at Melitta's feet. "Fetch me more water," the priest commanded.
George hurried to obey.
The priest pulled the beast's leg straight, then poured the second bucket over it in the same manner. Five times he sent George back for more water, until the cellar floor was awash, but neither man or beast seem to care. When George brought up the empty bucket, Melitta filled it with grass instead and send him back to the priest with it. "Perhaps he is hungry," she said softly. "When a witch used powerful healing magic on me, I remember I woke absolutely starving."
The priest grabbed a handful of grass, which the unicorn happily lipped from his hand. "Remarkable," he said.
"Are you going to kill him?" Melitta demanded. From where she was standing, there was absolutely no doubt that the priest was tending to a male unicorn.
"Never," the priest replied, reaching out to stroke the unicorn's flank. He looked up at George and Melitta, standing on the edge above him, as if seeing them for the first time. "We must build steps to get him out of the cellar immediately."
"You do what you must," George said firmly. "We only came to catch a unicorn for you, and we caught two. It seems to me we have done our job, and it only remains for you to pay the sum that was promised, and we shall be on our way. Building is best left to those who know how to do it."
"An abbey with a holy well that works miracles, and two unicorn guardians. This will be the holiest place for miles around." The priest nodded. "You shall be richly rewarded."
And that, Melitta reflected, might be the first time a hero was ever paid for not slaughtering the beast he was contracted to kill. And the world would be a better place for it.