For Marigolds Challenge 47 I got paired up with Dreamflower and she gave me this plot- bunny:

I would like to see a story in which Pippin and Diamond are still newlyweds--perhaps married only a couple of months--and Diamond gets very seriously ill.  Pippin can take care of her and worry and Merry can comfort him.  And I would also like you to include these elements: a gift from Frodo, from before he went away, and a mention of the King.

My Unicorn

Betaread by Pearl Took

The sun slowly rose over a country that painted the earth green under an endless blue sky.  The soft hands of sunbeams woke up the sleeping flowers, which seemed to yawn as they stretched towards the light and the green of the world got decorated with hundreds of dots of bright colours.

Meanwhile, the animals of the night went to bed as the hurly-burly of the day woke to life.  Bees were humming around busily from flower to flower, butterflies danced in a joyful play through the air, and birds sang their happiness to the world.  A small, brown rabbit on his search for fresh clover hopped over the meadow and some sheep walked leisurely over the still dew wet grass.

One of the animals suddenly stopped and looked in astonishment at something lying in the grass.  Cautiously it stepped nearer and nuzzled the red brown curly hair with its mouth.

A giggle answered him.

“Haha..hahaha…oh Diamond that tickles.”

The lass spoken too opened her eyes drowsily and yawned. “What tickles?”

The sheep started now to nuzzle the face of the object of his curiosity with his soft lips.

“This!” the still half sleeping hobbit laughed.

Diamond looked at Pippin and quickly put a hand over her mouth to stifle her laugher.

“This darling?” she asked. “Is it good that way?”

“Very good...” Pippin sighed smiling and opened his green eyes in expectation to look into the face of his beloved wife.

Big black eyes looked back at him and a long, rough tongue licked over a white, woolly muzzle.

Pippin’s joyful impression rapidly changed from astonishment, to shock and finally to pure disgust.

“Ewww...shooo...go away!” he shouted, while jumping to his feet and wiping with his sleeve over his face.

Diamond started to laugh. “Oh Pippin,” she said. “Oh my darling… do I really kiss like a sheep?”

Pippin stared down at his wife and a cheeky sparkling came to his eyes, then he suddenly sprang down at her and tickled her mercilessly.  Finally, still laughing and trying to get their breath, they were lying beside each other on the grass.  Diamond stroked her husband’s lips with her fingertips.

Pippin bent forward and they kissed passionately.

“And?” Diamond asked breathlessly when the kiss ended.

 “And what?”

“Who is the better kisser?”

“Well.... the sheep wasn´t bad.” Pippin grinned and got playfully slapped by Diamond.

Softly he kissed the cheeks of his young wife and whispered into her ear. “But maybe you can change my mind…”

***********************

Smiling, Merry watched out of the kitchen window. His little cousin and Diamond were having their fun, but they would be wet from the dew and cold after a night under the stars.  He was sure they would welcome a hot cup of tea and a tasty breakfast.

Merry put warm bread on the table and started to make the tea. He stretched himself, yawned, then he took another long look though the window.

Pippin and Diamond were now busily chasing each other over the big meadow.

An expression of longing came over Merry´s face and his gaze wandered to a certain picture on the wall; a picture he had painted.  It was of his Estella.  How happy he would be, when she finally came home from visiting her brother Fredegar in Budgefordshire.  He missed her kisses, her warmth and her humour.

Some minutes later Pippin and Diamond came through the door, their laughter ringing out even though they were still catching their breath.

“Good morning!” Merry greeted them. “You have come in right on time! Breakfast awaits!”

“Good Morning!” Diamond greeted Merry in return while Pippin wound his arms around his cousin’s neck and pressed a wet kiss upon his cheek.

“Perfect!” he called out. “I am starving!”

Merry wiped the back of his hand over his cheek and rolled his eyes. A Pippin with his head in the clouds wasn’t always easy to bear.

Diamond grinned at him. “Don’t mind him, Merry, he is kissing all and everything thing today. Even sheep!”

These words led to another chase, this time around the kitchen table. With a scream Diamond hid behind Merry as Pippin ran after her. Merry suddenly found himself in the middle of it all.  He gave a long suffering sigh, but a smile was on his face.  What was more exhausting to have around, he wondered, children or a love-crazed newlywed couple?

He decided it was the later.

*******************

Eight days had passed since that happy morning.  Pippin had thought his and Diamond’s joy would be secure and forever, but now it was fading away. He stared down at Diamond.  She lay as though she was dead upon their bed; her face as pale as the bark of a willow tree on a dreary winter’s day.

Pippin stroked gently a sweaty bit of hair away from her forehead. “Dee?”, he asked.  “Dee?”  But the only answer he received was silence.

A hand laid down on Pippin’s shoulder. “Pip?” he heard Merry saying, although to Pippin his cousin’s voice sounded as it might if he had cotton wool stuffed in his ears. “Come, you need sleep. I will look after Diamond.”

Merry led his cousin out of the room over to his and Estella’s sleeping room. He looked worriedly at Pippin’s tired and pale face. It was full of worry and fear. Deep shadows were under his eyes and his lips were colourless.  Merry turned Pippin around and  gently pressed him down on the bed. Without a will, like a sleepwalker, Pippin let it happen. He was asleep as soon as he lay down and his thoughts got lost in a black night.

Lightning suddenly illuminated the darkness and in the light Pippin could see Merry.  Merry, who was hanging lifeless and limp on the back of a big Uruk Hai, being bounced roughly up and down by huge Orc’s powerful steps.

“Merry” Pippin screamed and reached desperately out with his hand towards his cousin. But he grabbed only emptiness. A deep abyss opened before his eyes. Inside it fire and darkness whirled around in a strong cyclone of evilness.  Screams and far away pieces of words cut deep wounds into his heart.

“You cannot pass!” he heard Gandalf’s voice echoing from the stone walls surrounding them. 

“Gandalf!  No!” Pippin cried into the angry flames, then he saw his friend vanishing into the red maw.

Flames!

Flames were everywhere around him. Death and ruin. Claw like hands crept out from a glimmering ball and reached after him.

Pippin wanted to run away, but he could not move. His feet seemed to melt together with the hot stones under him.  Nearer and nearer the hands drew, until finally they closed around his shoulders.

A trembling ran through his body. Naked fear went through his soul and the fire around him suddenly seemed deadly cold.

The hands drewn him even nearer to the gleaming ball, till it was only a few inches away from his face.

He wanted to close his eyes. He did not want to see what the Palantir wanted to show him, but he could not defend himself.

Suddenly it was silent around him. The air was cold and mist covered the ground.

Pippin walked as though pulled forward by a power greater than himself. His feet lifted from the ground and lowered again all by themselves. Years seem to pass.  In the distance Pippin could see a grey, rectangular stone, on the flat surface of which he could recognize the silhouette of a body.

He stepped nearer.

Motionless the body of his beloved wife was lying there like a lifeless wrapping.  Her naked skin glittered white in the pale moonlight and her long, black hair danced on the breath of a cold wind.

“Diamond!” Pippin called out.  He wanted to touch her, but an invisible barrier was standing between them.

Out of the dark behind Diamond suddenly a shadow creature formed.  Slowly it crept near and bent over the lass.

“Let her alone!” Pippin screamed desperately.

The creature turned around to face him, and even though Pippin could not see any face, he felt a malicious grin burning deeply into him.

“You are too late.” an evil voice whispered.

*******************

“Pippin! Pippin! Wake up!“  Merry called and shook his cousin. “You are dreaming Pippin! Wake up!”

“Merry?”

Pippin stared at his cousin in confusion, then he tried to jump up with a start. “She is dead Merry! She is dead! Diamond!”

“Pippin. Calm down. Diamond is not dead. She is sleeping.”

“No, I have seen it, Merry! He has taken her. She..she…”

Pippin started to sob.

“Pippin,” Merry said as he grabbed his cousin by the shoulder. “Listen to me! Diamond is alive! Come, we will go to her.”

Pippin got up and gently Merry lead him to his wife’s sickbed.

“Look Pippin, she’s breathing. She is alive and soon you two will laugh together again.”

Merry put Pippin’s hands on Diamond’s rising and falling breast.

“She will die Merry. I know it. I have seen it....he....he took her.”

Merry led Pippin over to the small sofa that was in the bedroom near the hearth and made him sit down.  He took Pippin’s chin in his hand and lifted his face up.

“Pip, look at me. Do not give up hope. She will get healthy again. Believe it, Pip….Believe it for her… and believe it for you.”

Pippin broke down crying. “I cannot Merry. I cannot. He took her!”

Merry sat down and rocked Pippin gently in his arms. He felt helpless. He wished Strider could be here….or Frodo…

Pippin cried a long time in the arms of his big cousin before finally the deep sleep of exhaustion overtook him again.

Merry gently dried Pippin’s tear wet face. “I hope, this time you will find healing in your sleep, Pip.” he whispered, before sleep also took him in its firm embrace.

********************

Not much time could have passed when Pippin opened his eyes again, but he could not see a thing.  Dark night was all around him and threatening shadows crept slowly nearer. Panic began to rise in him. Was he back at that place; there where he failed to save Diamond?  He turned around and ran. But where should he run to? Pippin’s heart raced.

Suddenly a silvery light began to brighten up the horizon and with every bang of his heart it came a step nearer.

It was a good light.

The light brought with it calmness and security and drove away the evil shadows behind him.

The clatter of hoofs could be heard.  Then neighing.  Pippin did not trust his eyes when the dainty, white animal stopped in front of him.  On its head was a long, glimmering, silver horn.

Gently smiling eyes met his, then the animal neighed again, turned around and galloped away.

“Wait for me!” Pippin screamed and, as fast as his legs could carry him, he ran after the beautiful creature.

A Smial appeared in front of him.  Out of the windows a warm, bright light spread into the dark night.  Hesitantly Pippin stopped at the front door. Should he ask for entrance?Still while he tried to make a decision, he door opened and Frodo stood there.

A young Frodo.

A happy Frodo with bright, relaxed looking eyes.

“Pippin, little one, what is the matter?” he asked, kneeling down and opening his arms wide.

Pippin, suddenly again a small hobbit lad of 12 years, let himself fall into Frodo embrace and started to sob heart rending sobs.

“Plum,” he cried.

“Plum?“ Frodo repeated question.  “What is the matter with your cat?”

“He is ill!” the child cried. “He is going to die!”

Frodo picked up his cousin, carried him into the warm smial and sat with him by the comfortable, crackling fire. A long time he rocked the little hobbit in his arms.

“Do you want me to tell you a story, Pip?“ Frodo asked, when the lad’s sobbing grew less intense.

The child nodded.

“In a beautiful forest, far away, there once lived a magical creature. It was white like fresh fallen snow and on its head it wore a long horn that in the light of the sun gleamed the same way dew gleams when it is caught on the net of a spider web in the early morning.

This creature, a unicorn, heard one day that it was the last unicorn in the world.

It was astonished. “The last?” it asked. “Why should I be the last? There has never been a time without unicorns. We live forever.”

In that moment a butterfly came happily flying by, singing as it flew.

“Butterfly,” the unicorn called, “On all your travels have you seen another creature like me?”

The butterfly grew silent, then he told the unicorn a story he had heard.  “A terrible, red bull was supposed to have hunted all the unicorns to the edge of the world, where they all vanished.”

With big eyes Pippin listened to Frodo’s every word, as he spoke about wizards and bulls, about monsters and riddles and about love and pain.

“The unicorn was very scared when it fought the bull, but it found strength through the love of its friends and because of the hope it had in its heart. It won over the big bull and set all the imprisoned unicorns free.  Full of joy they all ran into their new found freedom and their good magic returned into the world.”

Frodo stroked his fingers through Pippin’s hair and smiled gently at him. “Do you understand Pippin, it is important that you never lose the hope of a good ending in your heart. Hope and love are the two powers that can give you strength, and that will give others strength when they are  in need of it.”

The scenery changed and a laughing Pippin jumped into Frodo’s arms.

“Frodo, Plum made it!  He is healthy again!”

Frodo kissed Pippin on the forehead, before he sat him back down on the ground.

“That is very good news!”

Then he pulled a folded piece of paper out of his trouser pocket and gave it to the child.

“I have a present for you, Pippin. It should remind you always of the strength that lies inside your heart.”

Pippin opened the paper.  Notes decorated it, as well as words written in Frodo’s nice, graceful handwriting.

When the last eagle flies
Over the last crumbling mountain
And the last lion roars
At the last dusty fountain
In the shadow of the forest
Though she may be old and worn
They will stare unbelieving
At the Last Unicorn

When the first breath of winter
Though the flowers is icing
And you look to the north
And a pale moon is rising
And it seems like all is dying
And would leave the world to mourn
In the distance hear her laughter
Of the Last Unicorn
I'm alive... I'm alive

When the last moon is cast
Over the last star of morning
And the future is past
Without even a last desparate warning
Then look into the sky where through
The clouds a path is formed
Look and see her how she sparkles
It's the Last Unicorn

I'm alive... I'm alive *

With tears brimming in his eyes Pippin looked up to his cousin. “It is beautiful Frodo! Thank you!”

******************

Sleepily Pippin opened his eyes and looked around.  For a short moment he did not know where he was, but then the memories came flying back. “Diamond!”

Pippin jumped up from the sofa in which he had slept cosily wrapped up in a blanket and ran to the bed of his wife.  Relieved he noticed that her breathing was easy and even. He caressed her forehead. Her brow was not as hot.

Suddenly Merry was standing in the doorway, an odd expression on his face.

“Merry?” Pippin asked. “What´s the matter?“

“I had a very strange dream, Pip. I dreamed of Frodo. He told me, that I need to paint something very important.”

“What is it?” Pippin asked with an astonished expression as he walked towards Merry who turned a still wet picture, which he had been holding in his hands, around for him to see.

Pippin froze and stared unbelieving at the creature which was looking at him from the picture.

“A unicorn?”

Merry shook his head.

“No, Pippin, not a unicorn.  Your  unicorn!”

*********************

With the picture in his hand Pippin sat down on the edge of Diamond’s bed. He slowly looked over the form of the animal.

“My unicorn,” he whispered and then bent down to Diamond to give her a kiss on her lips. A silver sparkling tear rolled down his cheek and fell to get lost in the raven hair of his wife.

“I believe for you, Dee!” he said and as those words left his lips, the horn of the magical creature in the picture in his hand, began to gleam.

- The End -

AN:

„The last Unicorn“ sang by  „America“.

I have loved the movie and song already as a child and still do so. Hope and love are the strongest powers, which we carry in our harts and that give us strength.  In the Mythology the unicorn also can heal and wake people from the death.