In the prologue to Immortal Unicorn: Volume One, Beagle draws inspiration from a passage penned by the intrepid Renaissance voyager Marco Polo, which likely sparked the tale of "Professor Gottesman and the Indian Rhinoceros":

. . . and there are countless unicorns, nearly the size of elephants. Their coats resemble the rugged fur of a buffalo, and their feet bear a striking similarity to those of an elephant. A prominent black horn juts from the middle of their foreheads. Their heads bear a likeness to that of a wild boar, perpetually lowered towards the earth. These creatures revel in the muck and mire. Visually, they are grotesque, bearing no resemblance to the gentle creatures of our legends, those said to rest in the lap of a virgin. I assure you, they are vastly different from our fanciful imaginings.

Recognizing the Beast

It becomes apparent to the contemporary observer, who frequents zoos or indulges in nature documentaries, that Polo's "unicorn" bears the likeness of a rhinoceros. One can easily envision Polo, his imagination fueled by tales of unicorns, believing he had truly discovered these mythical beasts in the Indian subcontinent. Beagle, ever averse to redundancy in his storytelling, seizes Polo's peculiar narrative as an opportunity to delve into a fresh exploration of unicorn lore: what if these creatures could perform all the miraculous acts attributed to them in legends, yet their appearance starkly defied those very descriptions?

Comedic Exploration

From this intriguing premise, Beagle constructs a humorous narrative focused on a scholarly man, steadfast in his dedication to logic, who finds himself open to the improbable existence of a talking Indian rhinoceros. Yet, he remains stubbornly skeptical of the notion that the rhinoceros could indeed be a unicorn. This comedic exploration challenges the boundaries between reason and the fantastical possibilities that legends invite us to ponder.