Until the prophesized hero-to-be has returned, the last remaining unicorns have adopted a war-like culture in order to survive against enemies that abound in their world: gryphons, pards (saber-toothed cats), pans (fauns) and, of course, the wyverns.

When the wyverns entered into the unicorn’s realm they sought to feed and re-gain their vast numbers, as well as to guard a secret that could very well be their downfall. The wyverns were cast-out from their former home world by the red dragons, due to their too fertile nature and voracious appetite for their dragonlings. This Pilgrimage is vital to the sustenance of the unicorn’s survival due to the war they’ve been waging for four-hundred years against the wyverns. Each year some of us must return: quiet, careful, on dangerous Pilgrimage, to drink that drink which makes us what we are, unicorns, warriors, children-of-the-moon.” “One day we shall regain the Hallow Hills. This homeland is Hallow Hills, which contains a sacred well called the Mirror of the Moon that a unicorn ceremoniously drinks from to join the Circle of Warriors. It centers on a prophecy of the coming of the Dreamer/Firebringer who will lead the unicorns to reclaim their lost homeland. Meredith Ann Pierce’s first installment of the Firebringer trilogy is predominantly a Bildungsroman of a young unicorn named Aljan (or simple Jan), who wishes to embark on a pilgrimage in order to become a warrior. It wasn’t till I have read Pierce’s Birth of the Firebringer that I finally found that stirring. Deep down I felt a stirring need for the fluid, raw action of James’ or Farley’s prose and the magical wonder of Beagle’s storytelling.

Beagle’s classic The Last Unicorn led me into the mystical realm of the fantastical, and Mary Stanton’s Unicorns of Balinor allowed me to get more of my “horsey obsession.” However, Stanton’s children series were too innocent and simplistic, where else Beagle’s tale only momentarily satisfied that itch of the mystical. I grew-up with a hearty, diverse digestion of equestrian nonfiction: Anna Sewell’s Victorian Black Beauty, Walter Farley’s The Black Stallion series and Will James’ Western Smoky the Cowhorse.

The firebringer trilogy