Book Review: 'The Last Unicorn' - "Chapter 4"

Schmendrick and the unicorn from the film. Source

 "Chapter 4"

After Schmendrick and the unicorn leave what's left of Mommy Fortuna's Midnight Carnival, the magician weeps for a while in the rain near the road. Afterward, he looks up at the unicorn who states that she can never regret. She can feel sorrow, however.

Schmendrick asks her where she was going when Mommy Fortuna took her. The unicorn says she was looking for her own kind. She asks if he's seen any unicorns, and he answers that he has never seen one, although he knew a man who had. The unicorn recalls that the butterfly had told her of the Red Bull, and the witch told her about King Haggard. She wants to know where King Haggard is. The magician answers with a poem:

Where all the hills are lean as knives, / And nothing grows, not leaves nor lives; / Where hearts are sour as boiled beer-- / Haggard is the ruler here.

The unicorn asks if he knows any poems about the Red Bull, and he states there are none. He says King Haggard is an old man who is ruler of a land near the sea. He babbles on about Haggard before the unicorn stamps her hoof, signaling she wants to hear of the Red Bull instead. He says the Red Bull is essentially a ghost and also Haggard when the sun goes down. Haggard and the Red Bull apparently own each other.

The unicorn remembers what the butterfly had told her before: "They [the unicorns] passed down all the roads long ago, and the Red Bull ran close behind them and covered their footprints." She states she will go to King Haggard's land to find the other unicorns. Schmendrick says he wants to go as well.

A blue jay flies by and sees the magician and unicorn on their journey. He goes back to his nest to tell his wife that he's seen a unicorn.

One night, while Schmendrick sleeps, the unicorn waits in the darkness, expecting the Red Bull to appear. Instead, a buck with a few of his friends approach her and says she is very beautiful. Deer are envious of unicorns. The buck raises his head and states he knows someone prettier than her, then leaves with his deer friends. She goes to sleep soon after.

One evening, they enter a town where everyone is fat. Schmendrick goes to dinner with the Mayor and some of the Councilmen. The unicorn is turned loose in a pasture since yet again she is mistaken for a horse. The magician tells stories of his endeavors during dinner. At one point, one of the Councilmen invites the rest to look outside. The animals of the pasture congregate in one side of the field, staring at the unicorn. Schmendrick is about to tell the onlookers that the "horse" is actually a unicorn when he is interrupted by the sound of hooves. Twelve horsemen "dressed in autumn rags" arrive at the town square, wrecking havoc. The leader rides in and snaps his fingers, and the others become silent as the animals were to the unicorn.

The Mayor refers to the leader as Jack Jingly. Jack steps in front of the Mayor and addresses him as "Yer Honor." He gives the pudgy ruler a bag of coins. The Mayor scoffs at Jack and says the amount isn't as much as the last month and suspects that the horsemen are keeping some of the money for themselves. He dismisses them, and they prepare to leave. Schmendrick asks Jack to give him back his hat which was stolen earlier by one of the horsemen. Jack will give it back only if he does a magic trick. He agrees, and saying a few rhyming words, he manages to pluck the hat out of the horseman's grasp, have it scoop up some water, and then place it on top of the Mayor's head, dousing him with water.

The others laugh, and Jack decides to kidnap the magician. He places him face-down on his saddle, and he and the other horseman gallop away. The Mayor glances back at the "horse" in the pasture and instructs some of his men to place the creature in a stable. They go to capture her, but the unicorn soon jumps over the fence and follows the path of the horsemen to save Schmendrick.