U is for Unicorn
A unicorn is legendary mythical animal that looks like a horse with a single horn coming out of its head. As a young girl, I was intrigued by the uniqueness of the unicorn. They seemed very mythical to me because I couldn’t go to the zoo to see them.
Rainbows were also a big thing when I was growing up. I remember having a three-quarter sleeve shirt with red sleeves with a rainbow on it. Where there is a picture of a unicorn, there seems to be rainbow somewhere in the picture too.
Time to get creative again. Story time!
Sally went for another walk in the garden. When she got over by the lilacs, she saw Lila appear.
“Hi Lila.” “Hi Sally. Did you come to see me again?” “I was hoping to see you again. I was looking for someone to play with today.” “Well, let’s go to the Land of the Lilacs and see what’s going on.”
They went back through the gate and to the secret door in the garden wall. Lila waved her hands again and the secret door opened.
“Let’s go for a walk down to the creek,” Lila suggested, “there are pretty flowers there and we can wade in the water. It isn’t very deep and the water runs pretty slow this time of year.” “O.k.” Sally replied.
They started out down a path that ran between two rows of lilac hedges. The sun was shining bright and Sally saw the reflection of some water off of the green grass.
“Look at the rainbow Sally!” Lila exclaimed.
Sally looked up where Lila was pointing and saw the most vibrant colors across the sky.
“You came at the right time,” Lila said, “it just stopped raining about ten minutes ago.” “It’s so beautiful,” Sally replied. “Yes, and the leprechaun will tell you that there’s a pot of gold at the end of them. I tried to go find one once.” “Did you find any gold?” Sally asked. “No, but I did see a unicorn.” “What’s a unicorn?” “It’s an animal a little bigger than a horse. It has a horn that sticks out of his head. They live in the woods by the creek. We may be able to see one when we get there.”
Once they got out of the hedges, the path started to run between prairie grasses and wild flowers. Sally felt the warmth of the prairie and it was very comforting. She saw a bunch of trees up ahead.
“Is that the forest?” Sally asked. “Yes. And the creek isn’t too far into the trees. Come on, let’s run!”
The girls starting running down the path, giggling all of the way. When they arrived at the trees, Sally could hear the water running over the rocks in the creek.
“I thought you said the water wasn’t running very fast,” Sally said, “I can hear it running over the rocks.” “That’s from the waterfall. By the time the water gets down here, it’s moving pretty slow.”
They followed the path as it wound through the trees. They saw a deer with her fawn and some squirrels running around on the ground and finally up a tree. When the girls arrived at the bank of the creek, Sally looked to her left and to her right.
“You were right, Lila, the water is moving slower here. But, I don’t see the waterfall,” she said. “It’s that way,” Lila said and pointed to the left, “it is a ways down there. Do you want to cross the creek and see if we can find the unicorns?” “Sure,” Sally replied.
The girls took their shoes and socks off.
“Oh no, Lila!” Sally exclaimed, “your robe is going to get wet.” “It’s o.k. Sally, it dries quickly.”
They started making their way across the creek. There were a couple of places where the water went up to their knees.
“The water is kind of cold,” Sally said, “but it does feel good.”
They climbed up onto the bank on the other side. They sat down on the grass and put their shoes and socks back on.
“Let’s go this way,” Lila pointed to the left as she got up, “the unicorns are usually closer to the waterfall.”
The girls walked together down a path that ran parallel to the creek. The sound of the waterfall became louder and louder as they got closer to it.
As they rounded the bend, the girls heard some rustling coming from some of the bushes in front of them. All of a sudden, out came a big white horse and two little horses. Sally noticed that all three of them had a single horn coming from their heads.
“Are those the unicorns?” Sally asked. “Be still Sally,” Lila said, “otherwise we’ll scare them.”
They both sat on the grass as still as they could be. The mother unicorn was showing the two babies how to eat the grass.
“Must be very young,” Lila said, “I was just here last month and the mama unicorn was still pretty fat. So the babies weren’t born yet.” “Why was she fat before and not fat now?” Sally asked.
Sally sat up in her bed and shook her head. She didn’t know what Lila was talking about. Her Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Chad just had a baby that was delivered by the stork, her Mom had told her that. And she would know.