This is a short work of erotic fiction containing furry, or anthropomorphic, characters, which are animals that either demonstrate human intelligence or walk on two legs, for the purposes of these tales. It is a thriving and growing fandom in which creators are prevalent in art and writing especially.
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Loving a Unicorn
Heartbeat Passage
Chapter Two
Christian had not thought that walking along a street with a unicorn was the subtlest of moves, yet here they were. Hoof in hand? Not quite. The stares he'd expected - for who wouldn't look twice at a creature like her? - never came, though he had chosen his route well. He tugged his collar away from his neck. People had to be staring. It was all going to go wrong, oh so wrong. He ground his teeth together. No! They only had to get through a small part of the town, sticking to the back streets, and all would be fine - they'd be at the place he'd planned for their date, with what little information he knew about Celeste.
He bit his lip, gnawing a dent into the soft flesh. Oh god, how he hoped it would go off without a hitch! Garbed in turquoise jewellery and a headpiece that hooked over her ears to drape the semi-precious stones down the sides of her face, she appeared goddess-like in her grace, even if shying away from humans with the edge of a wary equine in her step. Yet he could not understand why people did not allow their gazes to linger as he had done on their first meeting. Even her silver hoof jewellery, bangles of the finest metal clinking against each other, should have drawn the eye. It drew his and he exhaled slowly, counting each blue stone set into the metal. He was yet to see her without an elaborate ensemble.
"Please try not to pay any attention to them." He cast her a reassuring, if shaky, smile. "You are a unicorn, after all. They won't do anything to you, I promise."
Celeste lifted her head, ears pricked and alert as a car tootled past, slowing to almost a crawl as its occupants gawked. One girl with pigtails crouched by Celeste's hooves and held up a mobile phone to take a picture of a ladybird on the pavement, blonde plaits dropping into her face. Celeste snorted and lifted a back hoof, tail swishing.
"Do not worry for that, Christian. Their eyes are not on me today."
He rolled his shoulders, trying to shake the tension from them. Maybe she wasn't so bothered by the passing attention, after all. Maybe he'd been rude to stare in the first place.
Reaching out to brush her muzzle over his shoulder, the unicorn nickered.
"They cannot see me, Christian." She bobbed her muzzle at the little girl, dancing back to her mother on tottering legs. "Look. Do you think she would have walked away from me if she could see me?"
Christian looked closer, misunderstanding.
"Celeste, you hardly look like a horse, come on now."
She giggled, eyes dancing.
"Not at all. This horn of mine is useful for more than simple appearances. Step closer."
Following her lead, Christian shuffled nearer, cautious about getting too close. She was so much larger than him that he had to tilt his head back to look up at her when she pulled her head back to observe something that had caught her attention. The air shimmered and he gasped, looking out at the familiar street as if through a sheet of melting glass. He saw, from Celeste's perspective, how the world moved around them, unknowing of their presence. No one noticed Christian disappear and his eyes strained wide, looking from left to right and left again. Celeste eyed a passing man and his dog, the canine's nose twitching. Clearly the 'mask' that hid them from the outside world did not include dogs.
"This is how I move through the city unseen. Although it does not feel comfortable to cloak myself for too long." She scraped a hoof across the pavement. "It...itches."
Gaping like a goldfish, Christian closed his mouth and swallowed, struggling to comprehend how matter bent around him as easily as a hot knife cut through butter. It made sense for a unicorn to use magic though and he grasped at that straw of fragile sanity. The reality gave him back his tongue.
"You are full of surprises." He couldn't think of anything else to say and touched her shoulder as they continued on, muscle moving beneath a taut, smooth coat. She felt so solid when her magic was of another world. "I have somewhere quieter for us to go. You will not need to hide yourself there."
Heart beat fluttering, Christian led the way through the streets, heading closer to the heart of the city. As cautious as he had been to move closer to the unicorn, he feared breaking the illusion by moving too far away and kept his steps as close to her hooves as physically possible without touching. He did not like that she could not move as freely as she wished, however, for people would stare and treat her like a circus curiosity. He couldn't imagine what that little girl would have done if she had been able to see the unicorn a hair's breadth away. Probably the girl would have clung to one of Celeste's legs.
No, she should not have to hide herself. He had a plan. A good plan. Christian smiled. It was so simple, he really should have thought of it sooner. Whereas the library was easily accessible, few people used it these days and much fewer the archive library.
And his unicorn had a love of literature.
Leading her down a side street, he rapped on the back entrance of the library with his knuckles. In the dimmer light of the side street with tall town houses and offices reaching towards the sky, Celeste exhaled softly, peering over Christian's shoulder with great curiosity. Her cloaking illusion shimmered, rippling with silver veins of magic, and dissolved into silver rain around them, droplets spattering lightly to the stone underfoot.
"What are you doing? Why are we here?"
"You'll see." He laughed as her warm breath washed over his cheek. "Patience, patience!"
"I have plenty of patience," she snorted, tapping the side of his head with her horn - gentle enough to be playful. "The difference is that impatience is ruling right now. Let's go inside!"
"We have to wait to be let in, Celeste - ah, here he is!"
