The Fae's Pets

Unicorn

Yuto sighed as he walked through the woods outside the orphanage toward the wellspring to collect some water. One of the other orphans was with him to help, but of course she was making him do all the work. She was always picking on him, making him do all her chores and threatening to make up some story to get him into trouble if he refused. And of course she was the caretakers' favorite orphan, so she never got into trouble.

Honestly, Yuto wasn't too sure why the caretakers made the orphans go collect water in the woods. Everybody knew that the woods were full of fae just waiting to kidnap unsuspecting mortals. If Yuto was being honest, he would very much rather be kidnapped by the fae than stay one more moment in the orphanage. He was the oldest orphan, all the others got adopted by families or taken in for apprenticeships by the time they were eleven and Yuto was fourteen. Nobody seemed to want an edgy orphan teen that was living proof that punk was not dead.

Yuto was trying to ignore his companion's insults, tuning her out, when suddenly she grabbed his arm and pulled him down. Yuto looked at her, offended that she did that, but noticed she was staring at something ahead of them. Looking back, Yuto saw a beautiful unicorn eating some grass. The wellspring they were heading for was just behind it.

"That," the girl said, "is the most obvious fae trap in the history of fae traps."

Yuto looked at the unicorn, considering his options. After a moment, he pulled his arm out of the girl's grasp and stood up. He started walking toward the unicorn, as the girl exclaimed, "Yuto you idiot! Do you want to be kidnapped by the fae?!"

"Yes," Yuto replied immediately. The girl fell into stunned silence at his response, and he continued, "I'm sick of being bullied by everyone back home. I'd rather take my chances with the fae than go back to the orphanage!"

Yuto approached the unicorn, and it looked at him for a moment before kneeling down, as if to give him a chance to climb onto its back. So Yuto did. The moment he was seated on the unicorn's back, the majestic creature stood up and bolted.

"Yuto! Come back!" his companion cried out. But even if the eggplant-haired orphan wanted to, he wouldn't be able to get off the unicorn's back without hurting himself.

Deep in the forest, a fae was watching the unicorn approaching with his prize. That was one pet secured! And he came so willingly too! The fae wondered if it would be this easy to acquire all of his desired pets. Well, as soon as this pet arrived safe and sound, the fae could work to capture the second pet!