Chapter 1
My Daughter
I grabbed my little girl out of the bathtub and buried her in a towel. She wiggled and giggled until I released her. I laughed with her and smiled as I dried my precious child. She hugged the towel around her body, up to her neck, and held it at her chest. She was much too small for such a huge towel, but this was her special towel. She loved it because it was her own.
I gathered the bundle in my arms and lifted her high into the air. She giggled and struggled to be put down. I lowered her to my waist and draped her over my arm. She hung off my arm like a fish. I supported her stomach while her legs and chest hung low on either side of my arm. In this fashion, I carried her out of the room and into the kitchen.
You see, the kitchen is where everyone does their bathing. The cooks are well trained enough to know not to peek in, and they're especially good at keeping other people from peeking in as well.
I continued on through the kitchen and out into the Throne Room. Brayan was sitting on his throne looking bored until he spotted Topaz and me crossing the room.
"Sariah! Topaz! How are you doing, my dear girls?"
Topaz giggled and called to her father,"Mommy's got me!"
Brayan couldn't resist the sweet three year old and laughed right out loud. "Well then, shall I come and get you, Topaz?" he asked.
Topaz shook her head vigorously and commented,"You don't know how to hold me."
"Is that so?" he asked his daughter.
Brayan looked over at me and smiled the sweetest smile I'd ever had pleasure to lay eyes on. He chuckled quietly to himself and looked to his left. Running towards him was a young soldier that we both highly respected. His name was Kiol. (He'd been with us during the Good and Evil War, which in short is called the GEW. Maybe I'll get into that another time, though.)
Brayan went into a very serious discussion with Kiol as I crossed the room with Topaz.
The room we were in was very big. You could literally fit about six hundred horses, with five feet in front and on either side of each horse, in that room. It was all white stone and had a beautiful red carpet with gold lining draped up to the throne. There were four large white pillars that stood near the four corners of the room, and there were about five doors.
We eventually came to the door that led into my daughter's room.
Her room had to have been the most colorful room in the castle. She had light pink stone walls with a light purple stripe that went all the way around the room in the very center of all the walls. The floor was originally white stone, but we covered it with rugs our friends had made special for Topaz. The rugs had wolves, dragons, and unicorns woven into them in such a way, that each rug told a part of the GEW. (I thanked all of my friends for keeping in mind that the rugs were made for a child and for making sure the pictures had no blood or killing.)
I yawned and opened the door. It was eight o'clock, and my daughter's bedtime. I was beginning to feel a little sleepy.
The pink covers that matched her bedroom were rolled back. The bed's clean white sheets were showing, and the bed begged to have my three year old's warm body tucked underneath its covers.
I gently set my child on the bed face down. Turning her face to the side, I moved the wet hair from her eyes.
Yawning again, I dressed the sleeping girl and tucked her in bed. With a sweet kiss and a smile, I blew out the candle on her night stand and left the room.
Once I was out of Topaz's room, I began to feel lonely. Lucky for me, I had a great husband. He walked over to me and gave me a hug and a kiss.
"You're a great mom," he said.
I frowned and walked toward the kitchen. Brayan caught up to me and grabbed my arm.
I turned to face him and said,"No, I'm not. I never find time to be with my baby. She's always got a nurse or someone else playing with her. When can I just spend time with my little girl? I'm always to busy with kingdom business to be a real mom. The only time I get with my daughter is the hour before her bedtime."
Brayan looked straight at me and commented,"You're doing a great job of being a Queen and a mother at the same time."
I looked down at the floor and tried to keep from crying. Brayan pulled me close and kissed the top of my head. I lay my head against Brayan's chest and let my tears fall.
"Honey, I can't be a Dragon Slayer, and a Queen, and a mother all at the same time," I told him.
That happened many more times. I often became frustrated and wanted to give up, but my husband and daughter were always encouraging me in some way, whether they knew it or not.
Eleven years passed quickly. The one year I will never forget was Topaz's fourteenth birthday. I guess that's pretty much where this story begins. My daughter Topaz was born on January 1st.
I felt like I needed to spend some time with Topaz. I decided I'd take her to Merry Meadow.
We took our baths, dressed in our grubby dresses (which weren't bad at all), and prepared to have fun that snowy morning.
You see, it does snow in Marana. (That's the name of the dimension we live.) Blizzards come once every two years and even then they aren't very severe. Not too much snow falls, but there's usually enough for the kids to make snowballs and build snow forts.
So, with a foot of snow on the ground, my daughter and I set off for an adventure. There weren't many hills to climb or cobblestone roads to cross before we were there.
Topaz sat down on the ground and waited expectantly for me to say something. Licking my lips and taking a deep breath, I explained the process to become, in this case, a unicorn.
"Here's how we can become unicorns. Look out over the meadow and imagine the most beautiful unicorn you can think of. Then watch the unicorn and notice all of its features. Like if its strong, graceful, fast or anything else. Finally, watch and believe."
Topaz sat in the snow with big eyes and a wide mouth.
Let me give you a little background here. Whenever Brayan and I would come into my daughter's view, we would make sure to stay human. You see, we decided the day she was born that we would wait until she was older to let her know the secret to becoming other creatures. So up until now, Topaz had never seen her father or me, her mother, change into a unicorn.
Topaz jumped to her feet and stared up at me. "Can we really change, Mother?" she questioned me.
I smiled widely and exclaimed,"Of course we can! Come on, try it. Then I'll show you what I look like."
Topaz was still recovering from the shock of finding this out, but she concentrated on the meadow before. Her eyes went from normal to wide as I realized that she was imagining her unicorn. Slowly, she lifted her head up as if her unicorn were flying.
"What does it look like, Topaz?"
She laughed and continued concentrating on the unicorn as she said,"It'll be a surprise."
I smiled and couldn't wait for her to change. I soon became impatient with Topaz, for I was so excited about her changing that I wanted her to do it immediately. Though I didn't say anything, it seemed to take forever for her to begin changing. In reality, it was only ten minutes. I guess Topaz was concentrating on giving herself all of the nicest and best things. The changes began and I stood a little farther to the right of Topaz. Her hair, which was shoulder high, lengthened about six inches and turned a beautiful bright yellow. It was almost golden after a minute of changing. Her body changed so quickly that she was a human one minute and a unicorn the next. She was a beautiful white unicorn. Her eyes were a soft brown. I watched as her shiny black hooves formed. She was sleek and slender. Her curves were wonderful, and she looked as if with the first step her leg would break. I watched as her tail grew and grew. It was about three inches above her hooves. She was a beautiful horse until her horn grew. It came out about six or seven inches from her forehead and swirled around like every other unicorn's horn. Starting from the base, gold found its way up to the tip of the horn. The sun shone into the meadow and made Topaz's horn sparkle.
Topaz turned to face me and smiled a unicorn smile just before asking,"How do you like the new me, Mom?"
I laughed and said,"It's wonderful! You're beautiful, dear."
I watched her smile and begin prancing around the meadow. I quickly changed to unicorn so I could join her.
Topaz looked over at me and her mouth dropped open. "Mom! Is that you?"
"Yes, Topaz, it's me."
Topaz shook her mane and said,"But you look so powerful! How can this be? You're not a guy!"
I laughed and said,"I'll tell you about it later. My abilities will always exceed your's, dear Topaz. Let's prance around the meadow. I'll show you how to fly. Afterward, we can sit down and have a rest while I tell you about the GEW and myself."
Topaz nodded excitedly and ran to the other end of the meadow. "Sure thing!"
I reared and ran at her as she ran at me. We stopped at just the right moment and turned opposite directions, I showed her how to lift her legs up high, and she showed m how to make hardly a sound in the grass. We played and rolled and pranced. It was wonderful! I felt the gap between my daughter and myself closing. She tried to beat me in a few different races, but I always won. This brought my daughter's level of respect for me up greatly. I laughed as she tripped and fell. Luckily, she wasn't hurt. She ran up to me and rammed into my shoulder, knocking me to the ground. She lifted her head and let out a beautiful whinny. I copied her whinny and ran at her. She laughed. We played a nice game of tag for a while until we were both tired out. Then, we began flying lessons.
I opened my wings and showed her how she could do it. It took her a few tries, but she was able to lift herself into the air. We soared over the scattered Ferar trees for a while. Since we were both so tired from our earlier games, we didn't stay in the air very long.
We soared to the ground, and I showed her how to make a soft and graceful landing. Topaz tried, but ended up coming down a little fast. She was alright, though, and we changed back to our normal selves.
After finding a stream and some berries, we sat down in the dry grass. (The snow had melted, so we didn't get our pants wet.) I told Topaz all about the GEW and how I'd killed the leader of the dragons, Clyte. She was extremely interested in all this and let me know it. Topaz asked so many questions that my head began to spin. I was happy that she was so interested in the unicorn and dragon history. I even got to tell Topaz what her name meant. She was delighted when I let her know that her name mean ‘any kind of yellow gem'. She came to the conclusion that I had named her that because she had golden hair. I laughed and told her that the real reason was because it was such a pretty name and that I would always think of her as my gem.
After all this was said and done, we turned unicorn and lay down together in the grass. Topaz snuggled up to my side and fit perfectly. I smiled down at her. She was about the size of a foal, because she was new to being a unicorn.
Also, the younger you are when you become a unicorn, the younger your unicorn is at first. I knew that she would grow into a strong, graceful unicorn like myself.
We settled down and after a couple more stories of my adventures, she drifted off to sleep. I lay my head in the grass and slept beside my daughter. I slept beside my Topaz.
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