The foal whinnied and looked at him with enormous chocolate eyes. Peter had no idea what to do. The foal looked back to the mare and back to Peter, then began nuzzling its mother again.

Peter knelt but didn’t know what to say or whether it would understand him. Did unicorns speak and turn into humans, or was that only in cartoons?

He reached out to touch its horn and it scuffled back on its haunches, trying to get away and stay near its mother at the same time. Peter felt warmth still radiating from the dead animal – it couldn’t have been dead long. He wondered if it had been alive when it gave birth, even.

“Alright, maybe we can try to take you home and to a vet.”

He moved slowly, tried to embrace the foal, and it shrieked, a sound like he’d never heard before, and swung its head at Peter’s face. The horn was new and not fully hardened, so it left a long scratch instead of splitting his face in half. He dropped the foal and jumped back, and the animal’s legs splayed out beneath it and it screamed again.