The Secrets of Alien Unicorns

Unicorns may be extinct* on Earth, but on planet Allopo, they are a familiar sight… Join me as we take a closer look at the characters of Alien Abduction for Unicorns, starting with An’tia, a rare venom-tipped stabhorn.

She is not only magical, gorgeous and intelligent, but also extremely arrogant. She knows just how attractive her shimmering mane, her glistening silver fur and her delicate (yet poisonous) horn are. Yet there’s more to her than just her looks – as two people will soon discover.

Unicorn tamer Bruin’s first encounter with An’tia lands him in hospital, stabbed and poisoned. Yet it turns out that An’tia didn’t attack him without cause… she has a secret plan, even if her measures are a little extreme. Like all stabhorns, An’tia has a special connection to the universe’s mysteries and she knows that Bruin’s mate is out there, waiting for him on a distant planet called Earth. By stabbing him, she sets events in motion that will change all their lives forever.

When Bruin takes An’tia to Earth, she leads him to Stirling Castle in Scotland, where tour guide Tara work – my favourite castle! It is situated on a volcanic outcrop and has the most fabulous views across the river Forth and towards the Scottish Highlands. I went to university in Stirling and thought it was high time that I set a story there, even if it’s just for a chapter or two. Sadly, I never got abducted by aliens during the five years I lived in one of Scotland’s most beautiful cities (and former capital), nor did I ever meet a real unicorn. Even when I worked for Historic Scotland, the organisation who looks after the castle (and many other historic sites) and got to peek behind the scenes, there were neither unicorns nor aliens. And that’s why I became an author… Still, I highly recommend you visit if you’re ever in the area.

One of the other reasons why I chose Stirling Castle as Tara’s workplace is because it is home to the famous Stirling Tapestries, hand-woven works of art depicting the Hunt of the Unicorn. It took fourteen years for the seven tapestries to be completed and visitors got to watch the weavers work in their workshop at the castle. I went there many times, fascinated by how they were bringing this ancient story to life. But the tapestries aren’t the only place where you can find unicorns at Stirling Castle. Because the unicorn is Scotland’s national animal (and until 1603, the Royal Coat of Arms of Scotland featured two unicorns, before it got changed to a lion and a unicorn), they’re everywhere – painted on walls, immortalised in stone statues, carved into wooden decorations.

Unicorn tamer Bruin would feel very much at home in a place like that – but he never got to look around the castle properly. Instead, he abducts Tara in true alien fashion and takes her to his spaceship – the start of a rocky relationship that starts with a lot of anger and mistrust.

For Bruin, it’s love at first sight, but Tara thinks otherwise. Abducted and trapped on a spaceship, she finds solace in caring for the stabhorn.

With a snort, An’tia picked up one of the brushes with her perfectly white teeth and held it out to me.

“You want me to brush you?”

She snorted again, as if to say, ‘obviously’. 

Will An’tia bring them together or will everything fall apart once she reveals her final secret? Read Alien Abduction for Unicorns!

* Yes, they most definitely existed at some point in Earth’s history. Why else would Scotland’s national animal be a unicorn?