It's Junicorn and I've been thinking about King again. I mean, she is very much a human woman now, but she USED to be a unicorn so that surely counts...
You see, where she's from, unicorns are sapient but simple in their way - they have the minds of ungulates made just clever enough that they understand speech, and can think independently and with forethought. Even so, they are long-lived (indefinitely so if they can avoid lethal injury or illness), magical, and think little of 'yesterday' and 'today' and of feelings more complex than anger and joy. That is, unless they become a unicorn king. A unicorn king is bigger, brighter, and more stalwart and steadfast than their kin. They are able to have troubled thoughts and intricate dreams.
A unicorn king arises when a unicorn (of any gender) reaches a substantial age and disposition and their herd does not currently have one at its head. Their horn will begin to branch, and their body will grow large and heavy, with this, they will be able to better protect and guide others, and they serve as de-facto leader to their herd. This happened to King, and she was a steady and sensible caretaker for many years.
Here she is as unicorn (front) and unicorn king (behind).
This change, however, is taxing and brings with it mortality. Unicorn kings can only live for so long after their transformation, a few centuries to a millennium at most. When King felt her time was ending, she refused to go out in a blaze of magic, and instead wanted to cling to life longer. She, after much thought, broke her horn and became human. Presumably, that is all she is now, but she's lived a long time, is wickedly clever, and sometimes there are sightings in her city of a huge horse where a horse absolutely should not be.
She likes the Sunday crossword and soduku, playing the stock market (which she is extremely good at), eating her weight in scallion pancakes, and is not particularly keen on clothes, when she can get away with it.
