They're not where we think they are.

My name is Harlan, I am a unicorn, and I am real. What's more, there are millions of us. We are a thriving species.

"But Harlan," you say, "if this is true, then how come no one has ever seen one of you?"

Perhaps, you imagine, we unicorns populate some remote island. Perhaps we carry out our lives in a distant land of jagged rock formations that humans never thought to enter because it seemed so uninhabitable. Maybe you'd even believe we live in the clouds. And though this last possibility might seem ridiculous, it's actually closest to the truth.

You see, we don't populate any concrete place. There is no unicorn country on Earth. You're looking in the wrong direction. We're not here or there. We're then and now.

Unicorns reside in time. We are constantly moving back and forth along the axis of history. The millions of us there are live billions of years apart, so to see one of us requires you not only be in the right place, but more importantly, in the right time. And even then, if we are found, we can simply go back and erase all traces of us, thus causing ourselves to be "unfound," so to speak.

You have to understand: we can't risk our discovery. Too much is at stake. Unicorn civilization is so complex that even if I could explain our systems and values to you in your own language--which I cannot--you wouldn't possibly be able to comprehend them. Our triumphs and our struggles exist on an entirely different plane than those of mankind.

So now you're probably wondering what it takes for a unicorn to make himself unfound. Well, you found me, didn't you? It looks like you're about to find out. Just a word to the wise: don't close your eyes. It won't help. Nothing will help.

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