Skandar and the Unicorn Thief

Wild unicorns are the unicorns from the Hatchery whose destined rider never comes to claim them for one reason or another—in some cases because their destined rider is a spirit wielder that society’s leadership refuses to allow the opportunity to take the Hatchery exam. When Skandar first meets a wild unicorn, he sees that the creature’s aggression is accompanied by sadness. These unicorns are lonely, which makes them angry because they want to be united with people; they take their anger out on the people who successfully accomplished what they wished they were able to do themselves.

Wild unicorns therefore become representations of the complex nature of animals. Just like people, animals have their own unique personalities and cannot be judged easily based on the most common personality traits of the whole. However, this is what the citizens of the Island do for unicorns—create a divide that marks one as “good” and the other as “bad.” They consider unicorns with rider bonds to be “good” simply because there is a human overseeing the behavior of the animal in question. Wild unicorns are free spirits who do not have the same restrictions on them. This causes fear because people fear what they don’t understand.