Coming Home
By Julia E. Moser
One night, near the base of a tall, tall mountain, a girl
and a unicorn lay snuggled together, fast asleep. The girl’s name was Rebecca. She and the unicorn, Goldenmane, had just
succeeded in retrieving a golden apple from a maybe-not-so-fearsome-after-all
dragon and were resting before another tiring day tomorrow. Finally the sun rose, and Rebecca yawned and
sat up. She reached sleepily for her
bag, intending to get herself breakfast--then stopped, remembering that she’d
left all the pancakes with the dragon back in the clearing. Rebecca sighed, beginning to regret that she
hadn’t at least saved one or two, and got up to look for berries or nuts.
When she got back, Goldenmane was awake and ready to
start climbing the mountain. Rebecca had
started noticing that he was a little thinner than usual, but the only apple
she had was the golden one in her bag, and she couldn’t give him that. Besides, she reassured herself, his energy
level didn’t seem to have been affected; the unicorns she really needed to
worry about were the ones back at the school.
Rebecca started to walk up the trail that ran down the side of the
mountain. Goldenmane followed, but
reluctantly, causing Rebecca to look down.
“Oh, no! I forgot the apple!” she
gasped, rushing back down. After all
this time, she couldn’t afford to leave it behind. Finally, they started climbing again and
Rebecca struggled to hold up the bag containing the golden apple, which had
been so light before. The journey was
much rougher than their trip to the clearing, and Rebecca wished she could make
the bag lighter. Finally, after hours of
climbing what had taken mere minutes before, Rebecca and Goldenmane sat down to
rest. She decided it couldn’t hurt to
get some sleep for a few hours, and propped her head up on the bag. It was uncomfortable, but it kept the apple
safe from hungry animals. Who knew what
creatures lived up on top of a mountain?
The only thing that worried her was that if she rolled too much in her
sleep, she could topple straight off the mountain. However, Rebecca decided that Goldenmane
would keep that from happening, and soon fell fast asleep.
When Rebecca woke up, she was surprised to find her head
resting on the ground and Goldenmane’s nose in the bag. “Oh, no!
You can’t eat the apple!” Rebecca cried.
Goldenmane, looking ashamed, backed up from the bag. “You poor thing.” Rebecca murmured. “We need to get you home.” They began to descend the mountain,
Goldenmane stumbling along and barely making it to the bottom. Rebecca desperately hoped that they would be
able to make it back to the school, because Goldenmane didn’t seem very
energetic anymore.
Finally, after hours of Rebecca being terrified that
Goldenmane would trip and fall, they made it to the ground. Rebecca set down her bag, yawned, and
muttered, “Let’s go a tiny bit farther, and then we can rest for a moment. Not
for long, though, because I really want to make it to the school.” They walked about half up mile forward, then
lay down to rest. Rebecca thought she
could just about see the woods surrounding the school in the distance. She wondered what Miss Meretell, her teacher
was doing right now. She wondered if she
missed her. She wondered... and then
Rebecca fell fast asleep. So exhausted
was she, that she had failed to notice one very important thing. Over to her left, looking extremely
unpleasant, was a swamp. In that swamp
were pixies. And those pixies were set
on mischief. As Rebecca and Goldenmane
slept, two tiny, delicate pixies were slipping out of the swamp and flitting
silently across the grass to the two sleeping adventurers, and landing lightly
on their bag. One pixie strained to open
the bag, and then they both dived in.
Squeaky exclamations of “Ooh, sparkly,” and “Pretty gold,” could be
heard coming from the bag, and the two mischief-makers began fluttering away,
giggling. It was these giggles that woke
Rebecca up. She opened her eyes, saw the
pixies already three fourths of the way to the swamp, and, without thinking,
began to run. She ran as fast as she
could after those pixies, she had almost caught up, she was reaching out a hand
to grab the apple, but the pixies vanished into the swamp, leaving Rebecca
standing there alone. Rebecca thought of
the unicorns. She thought of their long,
exhausting trip. She thought of the
school. And then she thought of
Goldenmane. Rebecca’s eyes felt wet, and
she sat down. Goldenmane, awake by
now, trotted over and lay down next to
Rebecca. He nuzzled up close to her and
Rebecca, who had been holding back tears, felt his soft, white fur, and began
to cry. All this work, and they were
robbed by a couple of troublemaking pixies. Rebecca’s cheeks felt hot. She buried her face in Goldenmane’s warm,
silky fur- and then there was a loud rumbling sound, coming from the Gem
Mountains. Rebecca looked up. A huge,
scaly, majestic dragon was rising over the mountains and soaring towards
them. “Oh, no,” Rebecca breathed. “He finished the pancakes and wants his apple
back.” The dragon rose higher and
higher; then dove straight for the swamp.
There were high-pitched shrieks as he plunged into the pixies’ lair, and
after a few terrifying moments, he emerged victorious from the swamp. He was clutching the golden apple in his
long, curled, ivory talons, and gracefully landed in front of Goldenmane and
Rebecca. Rebecca started backing off,
but the dragon let the apple gently fall off his talons into her hands. Rebecca looked unbelieving for a moment; then
the dragon picked the two of them up, placed them on his back, and flew them
home with the most amazing ride ever.
Rebecca spent the first part of the trip in shock, but she and
Goldenmane acclimated quickly, just in time to see the gorgeous sunrise from up
high.
When the dragon dropped them off, Miss Meretell, who
seemed to have been waiting there, rushed over to her. “Oh, Rebecca-“ “Wait.”
Goldenmane quickly dug a hole with his hoof, and Rebecca dropped the
apple in and covered it up. The three of
them stared at the spot for a few minutes, and for one awful moment, it seemed
like nothing was going to happen. Then
there was a low rumbling sound, and all over the ground tiny green shoots were
popping, up, growing bark and leaves, and finally a thick tangle of golden
apples. Goldenmane happily leaped up and
grabbed an apple, and all the other starving looking unicorns joined in. Rebecca sighed with happiness. Now this
was a happy ending.
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