#lyacorn

The Unicorn

The Crow

The Centaurian

The Lyacorn

So I have a story about a unicorn who is gifted a girl cild by a mother of The Crow before her family is killed. The child, she is a White Crow, an albino. The unicorn is black, but with a purple sheen--the little girl of six calls the unicorn Knight. She grows up with the unicorn who never returns her to her living people, the surviving crow. 

The Crow are of the animal people, the last. The animal people were one with nature and each clan shared the soul of one animal to which they could become. The Bear could become the grizzly. The Wolf could become a wolf. The Badger could become a badger. The Raccoon could become a ‘coon. The Falcon a falcon. The Eagle an eagle. The Field Mouse a mouse. 

The Crow, a crow. Even an albino. 

The Centauri wiped out the animal people, they feared them, they did not understand ‘humans’ that could become animals. They saw them as trespassers to their realm. The animal peoples had fled their own realm to escape prosecution only to face further prosecution and then extinction (belie The Crow), by the Centauri. 

Unicorns share an intelligence that no one understands. They wear a glamour that makes them look like a true, yet beautiful horse. Unicorns are predatory beneath their glamour and use their glamour to trick their prey. Never have they killed the Centauri until the Centauri killed the animal peoples. Unicorns are friends of the animal peoples and defended them to their own death. Many unicorns died during the war of the Centauri against the animal peoples. 

Unicorns are still around, but there are few. And those few are hunted, but not by the Centauri, by humans. Unicorn poachers. 

Humans fear unicorns, even Centauri do, but if they are left to themselves, the unicorns do not bother human or centaur. 

Thousands of years pass since the Centauri committed genocide against a people that were no threat to them. 

Humans later invaded the realm of Taur as well, but humans knew ways of organized war that the Centauri did not. Humans knew the art of war, most Centauri by this time were no longer warlike. The Centauri could not defeat the humans, so humans now have cities throughout the realm. 

Back to the black unicorn--named Knight by the girl child--he is one of the most feared and revered of unicorns, it reared the girl child. As the girl grew and came into her womanhood, she became her crow, a white crow. An albino with pink eyes. 

The Crow themselves, the only known surviving clan or tribe of the animal peoples paired up with the wild Centaurian herds that live in a sun beat canyon. Tribal Centauri are viewed as ‘uncivilized’ and ‘un-proper’ by the ‘civilized’ Centauri. The wild tribal herds have no care for what the other ‘cultured’ Centauri think of them. They run, they fight, they live free. But there is one herd that does not, the Sun Herd. 

The Sun Herd did the taboo, the prohibited by most, if not ALL Centauri, they let themself be ridden like a human rides a horse. They partnered with the surviving Crow as Centauri warrior and rider. Warrior pairs are celebrated and feared by the other herds of the canyon. Partnered with The Crow as warrior and rider, they are the most deadly of the other tribal herds, they keep the peace. 

This warrior relationship is symbiotic, it allows The Crow to survive protected by their shared bonding with the Sun Herd, and makes the Sun Herd deadly to all other herds. It has been this way for thousands of years. This is how The Crow survived. Though... The Crow believe their is another clan of crow that have remained hidden in the clouded snowy Black Mountains protected by the unicorns and the mysterious lyacorns (huge spotted lions with grand antlers--little is known of them), and where no one returns from if visited, human or Centauri. But... Crow warriors who travel there each year to look for their kin, always return, sometimes finding maybe a unicorn, like Knight and the girl child.

Knight and the White Crow are known about, sometimes seen, even by the Centauri. Knight is hunted by unicorn (human) poachers, and has been for hundreds of years. He’s never been caught--who’d kill a little girl’s horse. Even if big, black, having a piercing horn, milk white eyes, and with the teeth of a wolf, jaws that can crush an animals’ scull. 

The girl child, Kate, learns over time to become a smithy of weaponry, a weapons master. She rides a glorious black horse seen as a war horse, not known as a unicorn. And while Knight hides behind his glamour, Kate hides behind her human form, hiding her white crow. 

She later relocates to a human city not far from the canyon of the Sun Herd and The Crow, her people. She will not go to them. 

Kate will meet The Crow and join a Centauri of the Sun Herd as warrior and rider. But she doesn’t know this, only the insight of a unicorn does. 

As stated, it all started with a unicorn. 

——

Rumor has it that Coyote the Trickster—The Coyote—might still around. And The Bear too. There is no proof of this, just as the rumored crow living in the black mountains—only ravens fly there, and The Raven got wiped out. 

*The animal peoples are kind of inspired by Native American lore, like skinwalkers.

**if you read through this, please leave a note, I’m curious if anyone does, if so hope you like my ideas**

(story, world development, and characters belong to me -- JML)

Up in the cloudy/snowy Black Mountains of the world I’m developing exists the Lyacorn—large lion type beast with antlers and a curled tail. They are friends to a people who little is known about. They are only known by locals who trade with them as the Lyon People. Male Lyacorns prowl their territory with their riders—members of the Lyon People who live with the Lyacorn—to watch for trespassers. Locals know to stay out of the mountains, non-locals do not, and when non-locals decide to impede upon the mountains, they never come back. The Lyacorn and the ghosts of dead unicorns are often blamed, as unicorns had once been slaughtered in the mountains. Female Lyacorn do the hunting—with their riders. Females are VERY fierce. Female Lyacorn prides rule the roost among the Lyacorn, but they are seldom seen. Above are only male Lyacorn out on patrol with their riders.

The Lyacorn, literally a lion with antlers. Male and female represented. They are part of Lyon People’s culture, they live among them and the Lyon People ride them, hence the name the Lyon People. Sorry just Lycorns for now. 

Male Lyacorns patrolling their territory with the Lyon People who live with them. Males protect, females hunt, but all Lyacorn (including males) help with the rearing of cubs. Mom duties are not just mommies. 

Males form coalitions like real male lions do, where there is more than one male protecting a territory with a pride of lioness they interact (mate with), but there is one dominant male among coalitions. You can guess what lyon here is dominant—who leads the patrol.  

Lyacorn can have more than forty individuals living in a pride alongside the Lyon People who usually out number them by 20 or 30%. The clan (Lyacorn & Lyon People) is a family. 

Lyacorn are omnivorous, they supplement their diet with more than just meat, this usually provided by the Lyon People who farm parts of their territory. Lyacorn in a way are like bears. 

Woman of the Lyon People riding her lyacorn companion. They patrol their territory. Male lyacorn patrol, females hunt.