Why We Don't Deserve Unicorns

A Flash Fiction

Aug 18, 2025

"Momma, where did all the unicorns go?" Lola asked her mother at the breakfast table, pointing to an illustration in her textbook. 'It says here there used to be thousands of them, hundreds of thousands even, but I've never seen one in person."

"We've talked about this before, Lola."Lola's mother responded, not bothering to lift her head from the dragon egg she was frying. "The last unicorn died over a hundred years ago. There are no unicorns anymore."

"But why, Momma?" Lola asked, "What happened to them?"

"People used to hunt them for their horns. They believed they had medicinal properties back then, that they could cure all manner of diseases." Lola's father chimed in from his armchair. "So they hunted them until there were no more left"

Lola's older sister, Mazie, stomped downstairs with her cherry red combat boots and her patchwork jacket. She scowled down at the sunny side up dragon egg on the plate her mom set down in front of her.

"I told you I'm not eating dragon eggs anymore. Mom." She said, "The way they harvest the eggs from the dragons is cruel, and I will have no part in it."

"How do they harvest the dragon eggs, Mazie?' Lola asked her sister.

Lola's mother shot Mazie a warning glare, which she ignored.

"They keep their female dragons in tiny cages in factory farms, so small they can barely move. They rip out their teeth and their claws so they can fight back as they artificially inseminate them over and over again so they can lay the eggs you're eating," Mazie said. "They have use for the male dragon chicks, so they crush them alive with machines as soon as they hatch."

"Mazie, that's enough!" Lola's mother snapped. "Your sister is far too young to know about any of that."

Lola could hear her father let out a string of curses as he turned on the TV and switched on the news.

"Those damn pixies are protesting in the streets again." He called out from his armchair.

"Dad, how many times do I have to tell you?" Mazie shot back at her father "Pixie is a slur. You really need to stop using that word and start calling them the fae like everyone else."

Lola's father scoffed."This woke culture is getting out of hand. First they wanted to take away the right for humans to refuse them service, even if it's for religious reasons, they wanted to be paid for the work they've been happily doing for free for centuries, they want us all to recognize some bullshit made up atrocious that we humans have inflicted on them, brainwashing our children in schools, and now they want to strip away our freedom of speech by telling us what words we can and can't use? This has gone way too far. What's next? The same entitled demands will be coming from the gnomes?"

Mazie took in a deep breath before speaking, gearing up for another round of the same old tried argument. "First of all, Dad. The fae aren't making anything up. What they say is true: throughout history, we have enslaved them, systematically murdered them, segregated them from the rest of society ,banned them from practicing their own culture and forced them to live in poverty in the slums. They have every reason to be angry."

Lola's father scoffed once again. "You've been spending too much time on TikTok, girl. It's rotting your brain."

"Gnomes deserve rights too, Dad, by the way ." Mazie cut in one last time. "They're the ones who grow and harvest the vegetables and grain you eat. We would all starve without them. I never understood your hatred for them."

Lola and her mother exchanged worried glances as Lola's father's face turned bright red. They knew exactly where this was going.

"Gnomes are evil, uncivilized monsters, nothing but worthless stains on the face of the earth!" Lola's father ranted. "If our president were going to properly take care of the homeless gnome problem like he promised he would do, he would round them all up and shoot them all. The only good gnome is a dead gnome."

Lola's mother went over to her husband and rubbed his shoulders in an attempt to calm him down.

"Okay, no more political talk for today." She said sternly. "It brings down everyone's mood when you bring up such dark topics, and you're upsetting your father. All I want is to have peace in this house, that's all I ask of you."

And with that, Lola and her family went about their normal day. The news footage of fae protesters being beaten by police still played on the TV.

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