Status Updates From [The Last Unicorn] (By: Pet...

"It's hard to give up being a hero, once you get used to it."

"She felt relieved that the prince was giving up his courtship, and amused as well, and somewhat sad. 'Girls like poems better than dead dragons and magic swords,' she offered. 'I always did, anyway, when I was a girl. The reason I ran off with Cully--'
But Prince Lír interrupted her, saying firmly, 'No, do not give me hope. I must learn to live without hope.'"

so dramatic emoboy

"He had made up his mind nevermore to trouble the Lady Amalthea with his attentions, but to live quietly in the thought of her, serving her ardently until his lonely death, but seeking neither her company, her admiration, nor her love. 'I will be as anonymous as the air she breathed,' he said, 'as invisible as the force that holds her on the earth.'"

"Molly's breath came like rope, fretting against her harsh throat. 'Damn you, why won't you help me?' she cried. 'Why must you always speak in riddles?'
One eye opened slowly, green and gold as sunlight in the woods. The cat said, 'I am what I am. I would tell you what you want to know if I could, for you have been kind to me. But I am a cat, and no cat anywhere ever gave anyone a straight answer.'"

"'What became of the unicorns? Where are they?'
The cat yawned again. 'Near and far, far and near,' he murmured. 'They are within sight of your lady's eyes, but almost out of reach of her memory. They are coming closer, and they are going away.' He closed his eyes."

"'If she had touched me,' he said very softly, 'I would have been hers and not my own, not ever again. I wanted her to touch me, but I could not let her. No cat will. We let human beings caress us because it is pleasant enough and calms them--but not her. The price is more than a cat can pay.'"

"No cat out of its first fur can ever be deceived by appearances. Unlike human beings, who enjoy them."

"'Could you always talk?' she asked the cat. 'Or was it the sight of Lady Amalthea that gave you speech?'
The cat licked a front paw reflectively. "It was the sight of her that made me feel like talking."

"Then, as though in answer, she heard the Bull. His bellow shattered the stones under her feet, she clutched desperately at the table to keep herself and the cat from plunging down to him. She cried out.
The cat said, 'He is going out. He goes out every sundown to hunt for the strange white beast that escaped him. You know that perfectly well. Don't be stupid.'"

"Small, swift creatures scuttled across the room, making a sound like King Haggard's voice; and the rain rumbled against the castle walls, sounding like the Red Bull."

"But Molly asked, not loudly, but in a way that made them all still, 'Do you know what a unicorn is? Have you ever seen one?'
Of everything alive in the little room, only the cat and the silence seemed to look back at her with any understanding. The four men blinked and belched and rubbed their eyes. Deep, restless, the sleeping Bull stirred again."

"The Bull has always been here. It serves Haggard as his army and his bulwark; it is his strength and the source of his strength; and it must be his one companion as well, for I am sure he descends to its lair betimes, down some secret stair. But whether it obeys Haggard from choice or compulsion, and whether the Bull or the king is the master--that we have never known."

"'The prince certainly bears no family resemblance to the king. But what of it? Better a stolen stranger ruled the land than a true son of King Haggard.'
'But if the prince was stolen from Hagsgate, then he is the man who will make the curse on this castle come true!
Yet none but one of Hagsgate town
May bring the castle swirling down.'"

"It is our age. When you are old, anything that does not disturb you is a comfort. Cold and darkness and boredom long ago lost their sharp edges for us, but warmth, singing, spring--no, they would all be disturbances. There are worse things than living like Haggard."

"'Haggard hates good food. He says that no meal is good enough to justify all the money and effort wasted in preparing it.'
'To live like Haggard,' said another man-at-arms as Molly spooned the steaming soup into his bowl. 'That will be my fate in the next world, if I don't behave myself in this one.'"