by Angelica, age 14

No. I shouldn’t. I really shouldn’t. Why am I doing this? All these thoughts were running through my head as I did what possibly was the stupidest thing I had ever done. Why had I let those kids dare me? On second thought, why had I taken the dare? I thought I was so brave then. Ha. Now I felt stupid. Veeeerrrry stupid.

You see, a few hours ago when I was in recess at my school, Ivy High, a few of the kids had dared me to climb over old Mister Hodge’s fence, drop into the yard, and go see if the horse he had was really a unicorn. Old Mister Hodges always told everyone he had a real unicorn, and of course nobody believed him. But the real trick to this dare was that Old Mister Hodges was half crazy. Really. He would sit on his porch rocking away in a rocking chair that looked like it would fall apart any minute, with a double barreled shot gun on his lap, ready to shoot anyone who came near his unicorn. He never had shot anyone (yet, I thought grimly to myself), but then again no one had ever tried to climb the fence. I’m not even sure he has a horse.

So there I was, standing at the bottom of the fence lining his field, on a dare. I slid my backpack off and handed it to Lisa, my best friend who was standing next to me. “You sure you don’t want me to come with you?” she asked. I pressed my lips together in a thin line and shook my head. “No, but if you hear a bang and a scream, then you can come over. Okay?” Lisa shoved me gently, laughing but looking worried. I stuck one toe of my sneaker into a hole in the fence.

In an effort to cheer me up, Lisa said jokingly, “Come on, it can’t be that hard to climb over chicken coop wiring!” It was lame, but I smiled anyway. I started my climb up the ten-foot fence. The kids who had dared me — Bernadette, Chelsea, Brian, Holly, and Ken — were standing at the bottom along with a dozen or so other kids who had tagged along to ‘see the fun.’ Some fun.

Finally, I was about seven-tenths up the ten-foot fence. Eight tenths. Nine. Then I was there. I hiked my leg over it and jumped down. My ankles got so jarred I thought I would topple over, but thankfully I didn’t.

Oh, in case you’re wondering about me, the stupidest girl anywhere, my name is Leila Grace Masterson. I am fourteen (almost fifteen, actually) and have long, silky blond hair and bangs. I think my hair is too thin, Lisa thinks it’s perfect. I’ve got gray eyes, which I got from my mom (how come my dad and brother got the blue ones?). I am five foot seven (not a bad height at my age) and horrible at math and science, though I love English and composition. I read and write all the time at home. I actually have a box full of my stories, and another for my pictures. I love fantasy books; I have The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, all of the Chronicles of Narnia series, the Wilderking trilogy, the Archives of Anthropos, and about six different King Arthur books. I have lots of horse ones, like the Phantom Stallion, Heartland, Chestnut Hill, Thoroughbred, not to mention ones like Little Women, Eight Cousins, Rose in Bloom ( I like Louisa May Alcott.) and lots of others.

Anyway, to get back to my situation. I looked around. The house looked like a toy model it was so far away, so what did I have to worry about? I took a deep breath and started walking. I tried to be quiet, but no matter how quiet I stepped a grasshopper sprang out every time. It is summer, and while most places look great here this time of year, old Mister Hodge’s field was yellow with weeds and dead grass. Yuck. It made my bare legs sting, and I wished I hadn’t worn my cut-offs.

When I was about ten yards in, I took another look around. I couldn’t see a horse anywhere, let alone a unicorn. I sighed. The horse would probably turn out to be either nonexistent, or some big heavy draft horse like a Clydesdale or a Percheron. I walked on, determined to show the other kids I wasn’t going to back down. Suddenly the rustling of the dead plants beneath my feet stopped, and looking down I saw I was walking on moss. It wasn’t little patches of crumbly green; it was thick and springy. I grinned and bounced once or twice just for fun, then my mind returned to my present mission. Mission stupidity. Mission dare. The unicorn dare. Dumb. Dumb, dumb. But maybe it was worth it just to walk on this weird moss stuff.

It was funny, the rest of the field was ugly and dry, but here in this place it was all moss, glorious, bouncy, emerald green moss. And the trees! There was a tree for every step I took, almost. Their leaves were the same color as the moss, and their trunks were deep dark brown, with moss, ivy, and flowers growing tangled up their trunks. They were laden with a strange looking fruit. The fruits were white, about the size of a tennis ball, and looked like they were made out of flower petals.

I glanced back behind my shoulder, and could just barely make out Lisa waving. She had binoculars. Suddenly I felt my feet getting wet. I looked down and saw I had stepped into a small stream that was rushing and frothing, flowing around my foot. I splashed across it and started walking alongside it. My feet were ready to turn back, but I wasn’t about to stop. This place was so secret, so beautiful, so amazing! I walked on. How long had I been walking? I checked my watch. Thirty-two minutes. I sighed and looked around again. “No, I have to see the horse. Or unicorn, if Mister Hodges insists.” I said to myself.

Suddenly something made me stop and stare; a small, delicate hoof print. The size of a pony’s, but cloven. “Either that’s one big deer, or there’s a pony with cracked hooves here,” I said out loud to no one in particular. A small wren eyed me curiously from its perch on a branch, and then flew off. I started following the strange tracks, and they led me to a small grove of trees, then vanished. I looked up, startled. I looked at the clump of trees, and then cautiously stepped in. I stared. Right in front of me was not a unicorn, but just a horse. And a pretty small one at that. It had cloven hooves, and looked at me through dull blue eyes. It was a pitiful sight.

There was a small waterfall in there, rushing down over a rock. The stream twisted all the way up the mountain I knew, but that’s not what I was thinking at. This horse looked awful. Its ribs jutted out from its sides so far I could count them. Its coat was white, pure white, but it was dull and matted. His mane and tail were the same. He was chained, for some reason, to the waterfall. His head was just next to the water, and for some reason I saw it splash away before it hit his head. After the water splashed off the invisible thing by the horse’s head, it turned silver. I was puzzled. A hungry summer fly bit the creature, but it made no effort to swish it off with its tail. It just stood there, still staring at me.

My heart went out to this poor animal. I had brought a pair of wire cutters, just in case I needed them to cut the fence (Chelsea made me bring them; I wouldn’t actually have vandalized Mister Hodge’s property.) The chains were thin, and I began to squeeze the cutters with all my might. After ten minutes, I had the one holding his head down off. It raised it slightly; looking at me like it knew what I was doing. Half an hour passed and finally I had the last one off. I stood up, knees aching, and walked over to it. I stroked its sides gently, wondering how Mister Hodges could do this to a creature. Why would he? I didn’t understand. The water wasn’t silver any more, just blue, and I wondered if this animal was changing the color.

I don’t know why I did it, but I opened my mouth and said “Hello.” Actually, it sounded more like “H-heeeelllllo?” but I didn’t care because it nodded its head at me and smiled. I’m not kidding, this horse with the cracked hooves smiled at me. Then it walked slowly over to a branch hanging low and kept pointing to a piece of the white fruit that hung off it. “You want me to eat it?” I asked, confused. It nodded again. I shook my head and thought “I don’t believe this. A horse is trying to get me to eat fruit.” But I said, “You understand me?“ It nodded again, thin mane flying. Lisa would never believe this.

I reached over and plucked the fruit. It looked like the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden from one of my old Sunday school picture bibles, but I took a bite anyway. Then I dropped it. “Ugh! That’s so–good!” I was surprised. It was bitter and awful for a moment, and then it was the most wonderful thing I’d ever eaten. I looked at the horse, and was just going to open my mouth to say something, but I didn’t have to. It fell open. The horse was really a unicorn! It had a spiraling white horn about the length of it’s head, growing right out of the whorl on it’s forehead. I felt slightly dizzy. I was scared. Was I going crazy? It had never occurred to me that I would, I’d never thought about it. “It’s not impossible,” I thought.

Then the scariest, most wonderful thing that had ever happened to me happened. The unicorn looked at me and said, “Thank you!” I nearly fainted. Mind you, I’m not the fainting type, but I honestly think I would have if it hadn’t continued. “I suppose you’re wondering what a unicorn is doing here. You think you’re crazy, don’t you?” I nodded, speechless. “I thought you would be. You’re Leila, aren’t you?” I nodded again. “Well, don’t just stand there, sit down. This will take a little while.”

I blindly obeyed, feeling that this wasn’t me, that someone else was in my body and doing what I was doing. The unicorn lay down and made itself quite comfortable, and began; “I come from a different world. So does Mister Hodges, believe it or not.” I wasn’t sure what I believed, but I didn‘t say so. “You see, we were brought here by Lady Justice. It is her job to ensure that peace and justice reign in our kingdom, but all was not going as she liked. I had hunters hunting me day and night. I was never safe. They wanted me for my horn. You see, unicorn horns have the power to nullify poison and purify water, but that is not what they wanted it for. The greatest power it has is that when made into a weapon, no matter what type, it will always be victorious. This is why they wanted my horn – they all wanted the best weapons. There was one hunter in particular that bothered me, and his name was Dosos.”

I finally found my tongue (I was beginning to think it had taken a permanent vacation) and croaked “Dosos?”

The unicorn nodded. “Also known here as Mister Hodges.”

Okay, now my lower jaw was on the ground. No lie. Well, okay, maybe it was a little lie. But still! “Old Mister Hodges?” I squeaked.

It nodded again. “He was particularly persistent. I couldn’t even sleep without one eye open!” I gave a sympathetic cluck with my tongue. “Finally one day he had caught me, and we were battling with each other. Me with my horn, and he with a knife, when suddenly Lady Justice appeared. She said It has been told to me by one of my subjects that you,” here he paused and took a sip of water and added, “She was looking at Dosos when she said that,” he clarified. “Have been harassing my unicorn without stopping, and therefore will be punished. I will now banish you to the world of Reality, where you will learn to accept others, or die. Go! And so she waved her hand, but just then Dosos grabbed onto me and we both came here. Dosos was so bitter towards me, because he thought it was my fault, plus the fact that he couldn’t kill me thanks to Lady Justice, that he chained me here so my horn would permanently hang underneath the fall, purifying the water. He had gotten this crazy idea that the water would also make him young again (he wasn’t happy that his age here was seventy). Even after he discovered that it didn’t work he kept me here, hoping to punish me and make me sorry. But Lady Justice had told me a few days before she banished us that he would grab onto me, and that a young girl named Leila would eat of the Flower Fruit and see me for what I really was and free me.”

I was astonished. That’s how he had known my name! Freaky. But in a cool way. “So, can you go back to your world now?” I asked curiously.

“Yes, thanks to you. Mister Hodges will stay here and die a miserable old man because of his actions, but I will go back and live until Lady Justice decides it’s my time to go.”

“Oh.” I wasn’t sure what to say. I wasn’t sure what to think! I just plain wasn’t sure. “Well, I have to say this has been the strangest, most wonderful day of my life!” I said, hoping that was the right thing to say.

It stood up, and there was a great change in it. Its body was now lean and sleek, it’s rib cage filled out nicely, it’s mane and tail long and silky. “I am leaving now, but I won’t forget you. I will tell Lady Justice about you, and maybe she will let you come to my world some day.”

“That would be great!” I answered inelegantly.

“Don’t tell the others what you saw. Tell them there wasn’t anything.”

“Can’t I tell anybody?” I cried indignantly. I don’t see a unicorn every day.

It studied me for a moment, then said, “Use discretion.”

I nodded. “I will.”

It smiled. “Goodbye, Leila. And thank you again.” It slowly faded from view, leaving me standing there, astonished. I was rooted to the spot for who knows how long, but finally I walked away, confused and elated at the same time. After another half an hour and I was back at the fence. I climbed over it again, and answered the kid’s questions with “Nothing! There wasn’t even a horse.” Only Lisa looked at me strangely, as if she knew I was hiding something. I hugged her, took my backpack, and motioned for her to follow me. “Actually, Lisa, there was something. You won’t believe–.”

An hour later I was sitting on a river rock with Lisa staring at me with her mouth open nearly as wide as mine had been. “You don’t mean it! You do mean it! Are you sure? That’s amazing! You’re not joking? No, I guess you’re not.” She was answering her own questions.

I grinned. “Yes. But don’t tell anyone. Not anyone!”

She nodded without protesting. “I understand.”

And right then and there, we knew that we shared a special bond which we had from that day on.

THE END