Sweef | Die eenhoring – Leon de Villiers | English Summary

Sweef en ander Verhale

Die eenhoring – Leon de Villiers

A boy is woken up in the dead of night by inhumane cries. They persist and send chills through his body. He steps out of his hut, afraid, but determined to find the source of these sounds. As he gets closer, he sees a pale-blue animal with an ivory-white horn coming out of its head. A unicorn! He sees that it has been tied to a tree, and close by, the star reading medicine-man watches it with a keen eye. As the boy tries to approach, the medicine man shouts, saying that he shouldn’t become like it. Upon closer inspection, the boy notices that the old man is holding a bow. The boy runs back to his father, excitedly telling him about what he has seen, but his father hammers away at a hot piece of metal before telling his son that they use the unicorns to smith weapons. The cries are meant to draw more unicorns near so that they can have an abundance of materials to use. Shaken by the horrific realisation, the boy tries to go back to sleep. However, in the dead of
night, he quietly sneaks out intending to free the unicorn. This time, he sees other unicorns approaching, and he desperately tries to chase them away, but they are caught in the traps set by the smiths.

Soon after, the boy is held down by strong hands and dragged off to the campsite, where he is set to be executed for attempting to free the unicorns. The old man pulls out a sharp knife and holds it up for everyone to see. He then hands it to the boy and tells him to free the other unicorns. The boy runs to the unicorns, with the entire community in hot pursuit, before the old medicine man tells everyone that the unicorns were a test: only one person passed. He explains that no future medicine man would ever sit tight and let the unicorns be killed. Having heard this, the boy joyfully cuts at the ropes.

SummariesKeroshan PillayComment