The Qilin's Quiet Steps

Aunt Bramble
Wyrdlore Society

Long ago, in the old stories of China, people told of a creature unlike any other. It had the soft body of a deer, the tail of an ox, and scales that shimmered like a dragon's. On top of its head sat a single horn, but the horn was wrapped in gentle flesh, so it could never hurt anyone or anything, even by accident. This creature was called the qilin.

The qilin did not live in every forest, or wander every road. It came only rarely, and only for good reason. People said it walked so lightly that it never once crushed a blade of grass beneath its feet. It stepped around insects. It never bruised a single flower. Some said it could walk across water without so much as a ripple.

Because the qilin was so careful and so calm, people believed its arrival meant something wonderful was about to happen. Perhaps a wise ruler was about to be born. Perhaps a time of peace was coming to a troubled land. Long ago, it was said that a qilin appeared to a mother before her son was born, and that son grew up to become one of the wisest teachers China has ever known.

Nobody could call the qilin, or trap it, or keep it. It came when it wished, and it went the same way, quietly, without fuss. Some storytellers say it travelled on clouds, appearing for a moment above a rooftop or a rice field before drifting on.

Even now, when people speak of the qilin, they speak softly, as if it might be listening. They say that somewhere, on a quiet night, it is still walking, careful of every small and living thing beneath its feet, waiting for the right moment to be seen.

Aunt Bramble keeps the Society's stories for its smallest members. She has never been anywhere in a hurry, owns a very old coat with very deep pockets, and holds that a story does not have to be tidy to be true.