Once There Was

Contents Cover Title Page Dedication Chapter One: The Girl Who Saved a Unicorn Chapter Two: The Work Chapter Three: The Shirdal’s Feather Chapter Four: Kipling Chapter Five: Zorro Chapter Six: The Fox with Nine Tails Chapter Seven: Secret Smile Chapter Eight: All of Them, All at Once Chapter Nine: Two Worlds Side by Side Chapter Ten: The Loneliest Man in the World Chapter Eleven: Wolf Work Chapter Twelve: Dead-Face, with the Claws Chapter Thirteen: The Manticore’s Appetite Chapter Fourteen: The Procedure Chapter Fifteen: Disentanglement Chapter Sixteen: A Strange Little Heart Chapter Seventeen: The Merchandise Chapter Eighteen: The Falconer and the Shah Chapter Nineteen: The Shard Chapter Twenty: A Storm over Ithaca Chapter Twenty-One: The Heart of the Wind Chapter Twenty-Two: Whiskey, a Razor, and krazy Glue Chapter Twenty-Three: Lubbock Chapter Twenty-Four: The Tea Shop Chapter Twenty-Five: The Young Man Who Bought a Dragon Chapter Twenty-Six: Fulfillment Chapter Twenty-Seven: Another Animal in the Collection Chapter Twenty-Eight: Anomaly Chapter Twenty-Nine: A Song Chapter Thirty: Freedom Chapter Thirty-One: Reborn as Angels Chapter Thirty-Two: Aftermath Chapter Thirty-Three: Dinner Chapter Thirty-Four: The Nightman’s Lamp Chapter Thirty-Five: Something’s Missing Chapter Thirty-Six: Last Wishes Acknowledgments About the Author Copyright Guide Cover Start of Content Title Page Dedication Acknowledgments About the Author Copyright I II III V VI VII VIII 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 
 
 Once There Was
 Kiyash Monsef
 
 
 
 
 
 To Jane McGonigal
 
 
 | CHAPTER ONE | THE GIRL WHO SAVED A UNICORN
 Once was, once wasn’t.
 A long time ago, in that forest that lies between the Alborz Mountains and the Caspian Sea, a girl went foraging for mushrooms.
 It had rained the day before. The ground was soft and damp, and the air smelled of loam and moss. It was a good day for mushrooms, and the girl had nearly filled her basket with lion’s mane and hen-of-the-woods when she heard a sound away off in the trees. It sounded like an animal crying out in pain.
 There were leopards in the forest, and jackals, and brown bears. But this girl didn’t like to think of any creature suffering. So she set out into the forest in the direction of the sound, to see if she could help. A little ways off the path, in a clearing in the deep woods, she found the source of the cries.
 The unicorn was bleeding and scared, its leg caught in a hunter’s snare. It was a huge beast, and very wild. The girl had never seen such an animal before, and she knew at once that it was special. She also knew that as soon as the hunter returned to check on his snare, the unicorn would be no more. So she swallowed her fear and crept up on it, as gently and as carefully as she could. To calm it down, she offered it some of the mushrooms she’d picked. And when she felt it was safe to approach, the girl bent down and opened up the trap.
 The beast seemed to fill up the entire clearing with its long legs and its sharp, treacherous horn. The girl stood there frozen, too awed and frightened to move. The unicorn looked at its savior for a long time. Then it took a cautious step on its injured leg toward the girl, lowered its massive head, and plunged its horn into her chest, right above her heart.
 The girl fell to the ground, and as she did, a piece of the unicorn’s horn broke off inside her. The unicorn watched her for another moment, then turned and