Chapter 2, Golden Beasts Summary

The second narrator, the Dreamreader, watches the fur color change to gold on a herd of perhaps a thousand animals—unicorns—as autumn approaches. Every day, an audible horn signals the animals to migrate into or out of a Town. The Dreamreader speaks to the Gatekeeper, a man who sounds the horn and opens a huge gate to allow the unicorns to pass. He asks why the Gatekeeper keeps the unicorns corralled during the day but frees them into the countryside at night. The Gatekeeper responds that's how it has always been. When the Gatekeeper isn't manipulating the gate he sharpens various keen-edged instruments—knives or hatches—or sleeps. The Town is surrounded by fields and, further away, apple trees.

Chapter 2, Golden Beasts Analysis

A second narrator, the Dreamreader, is introduced in this chapter; the...