[Fic] The Witch's Alphabet
Jul. 13th, 2009 09:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kittydesadeTitle: The Witch's Alphabet
Fandom: The Last Unicorn (film)
Characters: Molly Grue
Word Count: 3,539
Rating: PG
Summary: The Witch's alphabet. Molly Grue, from A to Zee, my interpretations and understandings of her.
A is for Air - Molly Grue was born to the kitchens, and the hot air thick with smells of food and earth is familiar to her. It's one of the places in King Haggard's castle she can truly feel at ease; he never comes down here and she has the entire area as her domain. Now and then she goes out to the sea for a breath of cooler air but the warmth of the kitchens does her old bones good. And it's better than the air up towards the throne room. Stale, dry, hopeless stuff it is, every scrap of life breathed out of it. She's not a mystical sort, but if she were, that's how she would describe it. Lifeless air. Like a tomb.
B is for Bountiful - Molly Grue has seven grown children, all born within a ten year period to a husband now dead, all left to seek their fortune. All parted ways with her when she was abducted by the self-styled pirate, no doubt lured by her bountiful charms which she refused to bind up like a proper widow. She didn't much care. The bounty of her body was as much to be proud of as the bounty of her gardens or her table or her livestock, such as it had been in the days before Bold Captain Kelly or whatever he was calling himself today. Wealth of any kind was something she was proud of, and the more fool they who couldn't appreciate it for what it was.
C is for Circle - Funny how everything came around in circles. She'd raised her children not far from here to begin with, and now she was back with Schmendrick, who might as well have been a child, and Lir, who might as well have been her son. Which was bad enough to begin with. They had saved the unicorns, they had toppled an evil king. And she was still stirring the cookpot with potatoes and rabbit and whatever else they could scrounge up. She could almost hear the silly old captain, rat soup! Again, rat soup. It might be her lot in life to be doomed to care for man-children. This time, though, thinking of the unicorn, she didn't mind so much. Everything in circles.
D is for Domain - The home is her domain, her little kingdom where she alone rules with an iron fist and a wooden spoon. Whether the home is a cottage with sleeping pallets overhead and the biggest dining table this side of the inn, a camp in the woods with far too many men snoring and passing wind and belching their compliments over dinner, or a windy castle on the edge of nowhere with three fools and a lost lady. Molly Grue makes her home where she lands, where her life takes her, and does it so thoroughly that even those she lives with know without asking to respect her domain.
E is for Earth - There's something about scrabbling in the earth that men miss, she thinks. Or at least, those that don't do it. Schmendrick could do with a good gardening lesson or five, his head always in the clouds, he'd trip over his own feet if she wasn't watching out for him. Lir's a good lad. He tries. But she thinks living in a tower suits Haggard best of all, so far above the earth that he forgets it even exists. When you do that, Molly knows, you forget what's important in life. What's at the heart of life, the warm earth, the things that go into it to pull food out, potatoes and carrots and fruits and things. The earth gives us life, and the earth reclaims us at life's end. Keeps us humble, she says. Keeps us from getting a swelled head. Haggard's head is so full of his own hot air he'll blow away soon, and she'll say good riddance to him.
F is for Fire - Molly's got more than a little bit of fire in her, as has been said many times by the various men in her life. Some said it admiringly, some said it contemptuously, her sons said it as though they didn't understand why it drove her. That's all right, though. There's nothing wrong with any of her boys and girls, bless their hearts. Restlessness and traveling ain't for everyone. Molly, however, has a strong will and a spark to her, and when something catches her alight there's just no stopping her, whatever direction she may choose to take.
G is for Grounded - For all that she has dreams and fantasies of princes and unicorns and magical lands, Molly knows about putting food on the table and clothes on her childrens' backs. She knows about going hungry so that her children can eat, and making a meal stretch. About walking until your feet are sore and then walking further, about what it feels like to be sick and making messes about both ends, about being thirsty, being tired, being cranky because no one washed the bowls and now you have to do it. Molly knows that all great stories are rooted in truth that heroes piss and princesses have their flows like every other woman and that even a unicorn leaves footprints like any other creature on legs.
H is for Hearth - Molly is most comfortable in the home. If her wildest dreams came true and she was suddenly wealthy and comfortable for the rest of her life she wouldn't know what to do with herself; she might find that she was arguing with the cook over whether or not stew was an appropriate meal for high-minded guests. Miss Molly, they called her, a fond fixture by the hearth willing to add a little more water to the soup and pull up an extra chair for those as stopped by. She likes her place in the world, at the fire stone, no matter what she might have shouted at the unicorn in a moment of stunned realization. Truth be told, even unicorns need to eat, and she's just as happy to be the one who makes sure she does.
I is for Imagination - Life's little problems are never predictable, and she learned the hard way that you sometimes have to approach them sideways. She learned that the hard way and she learned that young. Sometimes you have to stretch your imagination to make things work. Molly never had a problem with that, looking sideways at problems and thinking around corners, though when it comes to some of Schmendrick's ideas all she can do is look back and stare. Still. Her imagination and quick thinking probably saved their lives in Haggard's throne room. So there's that, at least.
J is for Joy - Molly Grue finds joy in the simplest things in life, because, she reasons, these are the ones most likely to come her way. The rain stopping just as she needs to hang the clothes to dry. The rain coming down just as she's gotten indoors. Flowers blooming in the morning, a good crop of strawberries or potatoes, these are good things to take joy in. Why not? This is life, the small moments as well as the large, and there can be small joys as much as large ones like weddings or birthings or sudden prosperity, large festivals. To her way of thinking, it's the little joys that will get you through life more often than the large ones, for life is made up of the day to day and if you can find a little joy in each day you're that much better for it.
K is for Knowledge - Molly gets talked down to a lot. By men, who think they know better than a woman because of what dangles between their legs. By rich folk, who think that what they read in books makes them smart. It doesn't bother her anymore. Maybe when she was younger it used to, a little, but it doesn't bother her so much anymore. She's seen enough rich folk not know how to wash a coat, enough men not know what plants will make them sick and what's safe to eat, she's traveled enough to know that when you're out of your element, you're never as smart as you think you are. She knows just enough to know that there's always something she doesn't know, and to pay attention when she runs into such things.
L is for Love - When you live as simply as she tries to, some other things are simple, too. Love is simple. Love is going without that bolt of pretty fabric so that your children can have sweeties after dinner. Love is staying in a drafty castle run by a madman so your friends can achieve their goals. Love, sometimes, is saying no when your near-daughter begs and pleads to do something that you know will be bad for her. Love is as simple as making the right choice and not the easy choice for yourself, for others, moment after moment and day after day.
M is for Mirth - It's an essential skill to laugh at yourself, Molly feels. If you can't laugh at yourself the world is going to laugh at you anyways, and you can either be on the side of mirth or fighting uselessly against it. She'd rather be on the side of mirth. Laughter makes the world brighter, whether it's laughing at you or at someone else or at the world. Makes the world seem a little more bearable, and that's needed a lot of the time; most especially when things are looking down you need to find a chuckle at. Laughter without malice, that is. When someone has a chuckle over a foolish thing, that chuckle better be acknowledging that foolish things happen to everyone, 'cause sure as anything you'll be the one doing a foolish thing next.
N is for Nature - Molly's inclined to believe that some things can be changed, but there isn't anyone born who could go against their nature. The thing is, not everyone knows what their nature is. Schmendrick has no idea, and neither does she. Amalthea, the Unicorn, she was born to do great things even among her own species, Molly knows that from the moment she speaks with her. Lir's a good-natured lad, if not too bright. Smart, he's learned a lot of things out of many books, but he's not too bright. And it's never been in Haggard's nature to look outwards at anything other than what advantages him, which isn't looking outwards at all. Herself, she's minded to take care of things where she can, comfort where she can't. That's what her nature is.
O is for Out - Molly was always looking to go out. When she was little she looked to go out of her house and into the world, and when she was older she looked to go out of her village and into the world but marrying and having little ones took care of that. When they were grown and her husband dead she looked to go out into the world again, and then when she was out in the woods with the would-be robber bandit she thought, well if this is all there is to it, I almost might as well have stayed at home. And then the Unicorn came, and took her out into the world, and showed her all the beautiful things she was minded to see. Molly's liked being out in the world, but she's ready to go home again now that the journey's over and the quest has been fulfilled. That's the best part of being out, she reckons. As long as there's an in to come back to.
P is for Practical - Living with your head in the clouds means you don't have your feet on the ground. Molly is the one who makes sure that the Bold Captain whatever doesn't trip on the roots he's not looking for, even if he might have to eat them later. It's all very well to have high dreams and pretend to be a princess, but it's easier to be a princess when your belly's full. Molly balances the practical with the whimsical; even if she's ready to pick up and follow Schmendrick on one of his madcap rants and travels to find the golden ewe of whoever, she's ready to be the one who has to find them a seat at a table in an inn, put up the tent when it rains, take care of the horses if they can afford horses and keep the clothes on his back from falling off and leaving them both clad only in their dreams.
Q is for Quiet - Molly speaks up for herself often enough to keep people from dismissing her, but overall she's a quiet sort. She doesn't feel a need to be loud about things, she has a perfectly good voice that works when she needs it. No need to abuse it by using it when she doesn't. She lives quietly, moves quietly, saves her energy for the things that matter. There are enough of those that require enough of her energy that it could use saving. And being quiet means people overlook her or underestimate her, which helps when it comes time to explain to them, slowly and in simple words, the way the world really works. The fact that the most important things aren't always the loudest or the flashiest, sometimes they're small and quiet and right under their noses.
R is for Ritual - Molly has her little rituals. They reassure her, superstitious activities some of them, useless but they comfort her with memories of home when she's on the road. Other rituals are simply to make things easier. Cutting the potatoes while the stock is boiling down to save time. Putting the iron in while she hangs the wash, hanging the clothes so that just as the last one's hung the first ones are ready to be pressed. Little things. Everyone has their rituals; Schmendrick has his way of study. Lir courts the unicorn by using the old rituals of a prince with a lady because he knows no other way. It's not a bad thing, to her way of thinking. It's not a very good thing, it simply is the way things are done. The way things have always been done, and when new things come into being it is the way they will do until they have a better way. It is, after all, a place to start.
S is for Seasons - Molly hears that in some places, very north or very far to the south, that it is summer all the time there, or winter. She cannot imagine living in a place without seasons. The seasons melting into each other is how she knows time is passing, and no matter what some of the women she meets might say, time passing is a good thing. It means the learning of wisdom. The taking of new experiences. With each season passing comes a new opportunity, a new set of circumstances. Winter turns to spring and planting time, then to summer, then to harvest time, then to winter again. And in the spring, if you don't like what you've grown, you can plant anew.
T is for Turning - Everything turns. The seasons turn, one into the other, the world turns and the sun and moon turn around it. Or maybe it's the other way around. That's the way things work, though, and Molly knows that if she keeps very still and listens and feels she can hear and feel the world turning around her. The Unicorn turns into a woman, Schmendrick turns into a real magician. Milk turns into butter and cheese, even. She knows how, even if it looks like magic to those who don't. It's one of the little magics of the world with which she is familiar, and which makes magicians like Schmendrick look at her with respect, when they remember. One thing turns into another, the seasons, the world, everything. Schmendrick once said that there were no happy endings, because nothing ends. Molly knows this is true, even if she doesn't always like to admit it.
U is for Underneath - No one would think of what she's been through to look at her. Molly knows she's plain, always has been, never was one to attract eyes either from gentlemen or folks doling out charity. She looks sturdy and plain and blends into the background. And she's content with that. Underneath is where she keeps her trophies and her scars. The scars from grief when her husband died, from disappointment when she found her Unicorn decades too late. The trophies from saving the magic of the world, from showing a prince how to be a prince and woo his princess. The way she thinks of it, she knows what she's done and where she's been and everything that's important, she doesn't need other people to know it too for it to be any more true.
V is for Vast - Sometimes it strikes Molly how small she is in the vastness of the world. They've traveled such a long way, she's traveled a long way, she doesn't know how far Schmedrick has been and doesn't ask. Even Captain Cully has been around the world a time or two, for all that he's a blustering and high-minded fool. Everywhere she goes she finds something new; it feels as though she could walk for the rest of her life and continue to find wonders. Some days, she wants to. Most days, she wants only to walk as far as will satisfy her curiosity, what is in the woods beyond, what is in King Haggard's fortress, where are the unicorns. And at the end of the day, she'll go home, and the vast world can move on without her.
W is for Water - In an argument with the women of her village, once, Molly was described as being cold as a stone, letting insults and commentary flow over her like water in the stream. Molly thinks of herself more as the water that flows through the stream, passing by the small-minded women as though they were the rocks stuck fast in the earth and not moving. She would rather be moving. She would rather be flowing through life and with life guiding her along through its banks and, when necessary, plowing through obstructions to make herself a new path.
X is the crossroads at the far end of the village she was born in. The place where she first stepped out of the boundaries of what she knew. The crossroads at the foot of the path leading up to King Haggard's tower. She's familiar enough with superstitions and divination, more so since she started traveling with Schmendrick, enough to know that crossroads figure highly in the little magics of midwives and herbalists. As many times as she's taken a different turning and found herself on a new adventure, she'll agree that crossroads have their own sort of ordinary magic. A choice to be made; go down the path you've always gone and find what you have found a hundred times before, or go down another path and find something new.
Y is for Yield - Sometimes you can't fight it. Whether it's childbirth, the passing of time, death, falling, there are things you simply can't fight. Molly learned to accept death when her husband fell off the roof, to accept responsibility when her first child was born. She learned to accept time when her last child married and then again when the Unicorn confronted her, years after she had dreamed of the creatures as a young girl. And if not when Schmendrick first turned the Unicorn into a woman but when he turned the woman back into a Unicorn, she learned to yield to the inevitability that sometimes there really are no happy endings, and sometimes you simply have to let things fall out as they will.
Z is for Zodiac - When she was a little girl her mother taught her to plant by the stars, the names of the people and creatures in them and how they guided a person in planting the garden. When this creature is ascendant, this herb should go into the ground. So on and so forth, make cheese when the warrior is abed, harvest your hay when the queen is high on her throne. As she travels she notes that the stars change their places, has to learn these things all over again. When she meets the Captain, even Schmendrick, they look surprised that she knows the shapes of the stars and how they move across the sky. It's knowledge any herbwoman would know, she says. It's just a matter of looking up and seeing what's there.
Fandom: The Last Unicorn (film)
Characters: Molly Grue
Word Count: 3,539
Rating: PG
Summary: The Witch's alphabet. Molly Grue, from A to Zee, my interpretations and understandings of her.
A is for Air - Molly Grue was born to the kitchens, and the hot air thick with smells of food and earth is familiar to her. It's one of the places in King Haggard's castle she can truly feel at ease; he never comes down here and she has the entire area as her domain. Now and then she goes out to the sea for a breath of cooler air but the warmth of the kitchens does her old bones good. And it's better than the air up towards the throne room. Stale, dry, hopeless stuff it is, every scrap of life breathed out of it. She's not a mystical sort, but if she were, that's how she would describe it. Lifeless air. Like a tomb.
B is for Bountiful - Molly Grue has seven grown children, all born within a ten year period to a husband now dead, all left to seek their fortune. All parted ways with her when she was abducted by the self-styled pirate, no doubt lured by her bountiful charms which she refused to bind up like a proper widow. She didn't much care. The bounty of her body was as much to be proud of as the bounty of her gardens or her table or her livestock, such as it had been in the days before Bold Captain Kelly or whatever he was calling himself today. Wealth of any kind was something she was proud of, and the more fool they who couldn't appreciate it for what it was.
C is for Circle - Funny how everything came around in circles. She'd raised her children not far from here to begin with, and now she was back with Schmendrick, who might as well have been a child, and Lir, who might as well have been her son. Which was bad enough to begin with. They had saved the unicorns, they had toppled an evil king. And she was still stirring the cookpot with potatoes and rabbit and whatever else they could scrounge up. She could almost hear the silly old captain, rat soup! Again, rat soup. It might be her lot in life to be doomed to care for man-children. This time, though, thinking of the unicorn, she didn't mind so much. Everything in circles.
D is for Domain - The home is her domain, her little kingdom where she alone rules with an iron fist and a wooden spoon. Whether the home is a cottage with sleeping pallets overhead and the biggest dining table this side of the inn, a camp in the woods with far too many men snoring and passing wind and belching their compliments over dinner, or a windy castle on the edge of nowhere with three fools and a lost lady. Molly Grue makes her home where she lands, where her life takes her, and does it so thoroughly that even those she lives with know without asking to respect her domain.
E is for Earth - There's something about scrabbling in the earth that men miss, she thinks. Or at least, those that don't do it. Schmendrick could do with a good gardening lesson or five, his head always in the clouds, he'd trip over his own feet if she wasn't watching out for him. Lir's a good lad. He tries. But she thinks living in a tower suits Haggard best of all, so far above the earth that he forgets it even exists. When you do that, Molly knows, you forget what's important in life. What's at the heart of life, the warm earth, the things that go into it to pull food out, potatoes and carrots and fruits and things. The earth gives us life, and the earth reclaims us at life's end. Keeps us humble, she says. Keeps us from getting a swelled head. Haggard's head is so full of his own hot air he'll blow away soon, and she'll say good riddance to him.
F is for Fire - Molly's got more than a little bit of fire in her, as has been said many times by the various men in her life. Some said it admiringly, some said it contemptuously, her sons said it as though they didn't understand why it drove her. That's all right, though. There's nothing wrong with any of her boys and girls, bless their hearts. Restlessness and traveling ain't for everyone. Molly, however, has a strong will and a spark to her, and when something catches her alight there's just no stopping her, whatever direction she may choose to take.
G is for Grounded - For all that she has dreams and fantasies of princes and unicorns and magical lands, Molly knows about putting food on the table and clothes on her childrens' backs. She knows about going hungry so that her children can eat, and making a meal stretch. About walking until your feet are sore and then walking further, about what it feels like to be sick and making messes about both ends, about being thirsty, being tired, being cranky because no one washed the bowls and now you have to do it. Molly knows that all great stories are rooted in truth that heroes piss and princesses have their flows like every other woman and that even a unicorn leaves footprints like any other creature on legs.
H is for Hearth - Molly is most comfortable in the home. If her wildest dreams came true and she was suddenly wealthy and comfortable for the rest of her life she wouldn't know what to do with herself; she might find that she was arguing with the cook over whether or not stew was an appropriate meal for high-minded guests. Miss Molly, they called her, a fond fixture by the hearth willing to add a little more water to the soup and pull up an extra chair for those as stopped by. She likes her place in the world, at the fire stone, no matter what she might have shouted at the unicorn in a moment of stunned realization. Truth be told, even unicorns need to eat, and she's just as happy to be the one who makes sure she does.
I is for Imagination - Life's little problems are never predictable, and she learned the hard way that you sometimes have to approach them sideways. She learned that the hard way and she learned that young. Sometimes you have to stretch your imagination to make things work. Molly never had a problem with that, looking sideways at problems and thinking around corners, though when it comes to some of Schmendrick's ideas all she can do is look back and stare. Still. Her imagination and quick thinking probably saved their lives in Haggard's throne room. So there's that, at least.
J is for Joy - Molly Grue finds joy in the simplest things in life, because, she reasons, these are the ones most likely to come her way. The rain stopping just as she needs to hang the clothes to dry. The rain coming down just as she's gotten indoors. Flowers blooming in the morning, a good crop of strawberries or potatoes, these are good things to take joy in. Why not? This is life, the small moments as well as the large, and there can be small joys as much as large ones like weddings or birthings or sudden prosperity, large festivals. To her way of thinking, it's the little joys that will get you through life more often than the large ones, for life is made up of the day to day and if you can find a little joy in each day you're that much better for it.
K is for Knowledge - Molly gets talked down to a lot. By men, who think they know better than a woman because of what dangles between their legs. By rich folk, who think that what they read in books makes them smart. It doesn't bother her anymore. Maybe when she was younger it used to, a little, but it doesn't bother her so much anymore. She's seen enough rich folk not know how to wash a coat, enough men not know what plants will make them sick and what's safe to eat, she's traveled enough to know that when you're out of your element, you're never as smart as you think you are. She knows just enough to know that there's always something she doesn't know, and to pay attention when she runs into such things.
L is for Love - When you live as simply as she tries to, some other things are simple, too. Love is simple. Love is going without that bolt of pretty fabric so that your children can have sweeties after dinner. Love is staying in a drafty castle run by a madman so your friends can achieve their goals. Love, sometimes, is saying no when your near-daughter begs and pleads to do something that you know will be bad for her. Love is as simple as making the right choice and not the easy choice for yourself, for others, moment after moment and day after day.
M is for Mirth - It's an essential skill to laugh at yourself, Molly feels. If you can't laugh at yourself the world is going to laugh at you anyways, and you can either be on the side of mirth or fighting uselessly against it. She'd rather be on the side of mirth. Laughter makes the world brighter, whether it's laughing at you or at someone else or at the world. Makes the world seem a little more bearable, and that's needed a lot of the time; most especially when things are looking down you need to find a chuckle at. Laughter without malice, that is. When someone has a chuckle over a foolish thing, that chuckle better be acknowledging that foolish things happen to everyone, 'cause sure as anything you'll be the one doing a foolish thing next.
N is for Nature - Molly's inclined to believe that some things can be changed, but there isn't anyone born who could go against their nature. The thing is, not everyone knows what their nature is. Schmendrick has no idea, and neither does she. Amalthea, the Unicorn, she was born to do great things even among her own species, Molly knows that from the moment she speaks with her. Lir's a good-natured lad, if not too bright. Smart, he's learned a lot of things out of many books, but he's not too bright. And it's never been in Haggard's nature to look outwards at anything other than what advantages him, which isn't looking outwards at all. Herself, she's minded to take care of things where she can, comfort where she can't. That's what her nature is.
O is for Out - Molly was always looking to go out. When she was little she looked to go out of her house and into the world, and when she was older she looked to go out of her village and into the world but marrying and having little ones took care of that. When they were grown and her husband dead she looked to go out into the world again, and then when she was out in the woods with the would-be robber bandit she thought, well if this is all there is to it, I almost might as well have stayed at home. And then the Unicorn came, and took her out into the world, and showed her all the beautiful things she was minded to see. Molly's liked being out in the world, but she's ready to go home again now that the journey's over and the quest has been fulfilled. That's the best part of being out, she reckons. As long as there's an in to come back to.
P is for Practical - Living with your head in the clouds means you don't have your feet on the ground. Molly is the one who makes sure that the Bold Captain whatever doesn't trip on the roots he's not looking for, even if he might have to eat them later. It's all very well to have high dreams and pretend to be a princess, but it's easier to be a princess when your belly's full. Molly balances the practical with the whimsical; even if she's ready to pick up and follow Schmendrick on one of his madcap rants and travels to find the golden ewe of whoever, she's ready to be the one who has to find them a seat at a table in an inn, put up the tent when it rains, take care of the horses if they can afford horses and keep the clothes on his back from falling off and leaving them both clad only in their dreams.
Q is for Quiet - Molly speaks up for herself often enough to keep people from dismissing her, but overall she's a quiet sort. She doesn't feel a need to be loud about things, she has a perfectly good voice that works when she needs it. No need to abuse it by using it when she doesn't. She lives quietly, moves quietly, saves her energy for the things that matter. There are enough of those that require enough of her energy that it could use saving. And being quiet means people overlook her or underestimate her, which helps when it comes time to explain to them, slowly and in simple words, the way the world really works. The fact that the most important things aren't always the loudest or the flashiest, sometimes they're small and quiet and right under their noses.
R is for Ritual - Molly has her little rituals. They reassure her, superstitious activities some of them, useless but they comfort her with memories of home when she's on the road. Other rituals are simply to make things easier. Cutting the potatoes while the stock is boiling down to save time. Putting the iron in while she hangs the wash, hanging the clothes so that just as the last one's hung the first ones are ready to be pressed. Little things. Everyone has their rituals; Schmendrick has his way of study. Lir courts the unicorn by using the old rituals of a prince with a lady because he knows no other way. It's not a bad thing, to her way of thinking. It's not a very good thing, it simply is the way things are done. The way things have always been done, and when new things come into being it is the way they will do until they have a better way. It is, after all, a place to start.
S is for Seasons - Molly hears that in some places, very north or very far to the south, that it is summer all the time there, or winter. She cannot imagine living in a place without seasons. The seasons melting into each other is how she knows time is passing, and no matter what some of the women she meets might say, time passing is a good thing. It means the learning of wisdom. The taking of new experiences. With each season passing comes a new opportunity, a new set of circumstances. Winter turns to spring and planting time, then to summer, then to harvest time, then to winter again. And in the spring, if you don't like what you've grown, you can plant anew.
T is for Turning - Everything turns. The seasons turn, one into the other, the world turns and the sun and moon turn around it. Or maybe it's the other way around. That's the way things work, though, and Molly knows that if she keeps very still and listens and feels she can hear and feel the world turning around her. The Unicorn turns into a woman, Schmendrick turns into a real magician. Milk turns into butter and cheese, even. She knows how, even if it looks like magic to those who don't. It's one of the little magics of the world with which she is familiar, and which makes magicians like Schmendrick look at her with respect, when they remember. One thing turns into another, the seasons, the world, everything. Schmendrick once said that there were no happy endings, because nothing ends. Molly knows this is true, even if she doesn't always like to admit it.
U is for Underneath - No one would think of what she's been through to look at her. Molly knows she's plain, always has been, never was one to attract eyes either from gentlemen or folks doling out charity. She looks sturdy and plain and blends into the background. And she's content with that. Underneath is where she keeps her trophies and her scars. The scars from grief when her husband died, from disappointment when she found her Unicorn decades too late. The trophies from saving the magic of the world, from showing a prince how to be a prince and woo his princess. The way she thinks of it, she knows what she's done and where she's been and everything that's important, she doesn't need other people to know it too for it to be any more true.
V is for Vast - Sometimes it strikes Molly how small she is in the vastness of the world. They've traveled such a long way, she's traveled a long way, she doesn't know how far Schmedrick has been and doesn't ask. Even Captain Cully has been around the world a time or two, for all that he's a blustering and high-minded fool. Everywhere she goes she finds something new; it feels as though she could walk for the rest of her life and continue to find wonders. Some days, she wants to. Most days, she wants only to walk as far as will satisfy her curiosity, what is in the woods beyond, what is in King Haggard's fortress, where are the unicorns. And at the end of the day, she'll go home, and the vast world can move on without her.
W is for Water - In an argument with the women of her village, once, Molly was described as being cold as a stone, letting insults and commentary flow over her like water in the stream. Molly thinks of herself more as the water that flows through the stream, passing by the small-minded women as though they were the rocks stuck fast in the earth and not moving. She would rather be moving. She would rather be flowing through life and with life guiding her along through its banks and, when necessary, plowing through obstructions to make herself a new path.
X is the crossroads at the far end of the village she was born in. The place where she first stepped out of the boundaries of what she knew. The crossroads at the foot of the path leading up to King Haggard's tower. She's familiar enough with superstitions and divination, more so since she started traveling with Schmendrick, enough to know that crossroads figure highly in the little magics of midwives and herbalists. As many times as she's taken a different turning and found herself on a new adventure, she'll agree that crossroads have their own sort of ordinary magic. A choice to be made; go down the path you've always gone and find what you have found a hundred times before, or go down another path and find something new.
Y is for Yield - Sometimes you can't fight it. Whether it's childbirth, the passing of time, death, falling, there are things you simply can't fight. Molly learned to accept death when her husband fell off the roof, to accept responsibility when her first child was born. She learned to accept time when her last child married and then again when the Unicorn confronted her, years after she had dreamed of the creatures as a young girl. And if not when Schmendrick first turned the Unicorn into a woman but when he turned the woman back into a Unicorn, she learned to yield to the inevitability that sometimes there really are no happy endings, and sometimes you simply have to let things fall out as they will.
Z is for Zodiac - When she was a little girl her mother taught her to plant by the stars, the names of the people and creatures in them and how they guided a person in planting the garden. When this creature is ascendant, this herb should go into the ground. So on and so forth, make cheese when the warrior is abed, harvest your hay when the queen is high on her throne. As she travels she notes that the stars change their places, has to learn these things all over again. When she meets the Captain, even Schmendrick, they look surprised that she knows the shapes of the stars and how they move across the sky. It's knowledge any herbwoman would know, she says. It's just a matter of looking up and seeing what's there.