Chapter 7
Resda
I'd been flying for over an hour. I was soaring over the town of Campton....looking for someone. I swooped down on top of a tall building and looked down. I let my eyes scan the sidewalks, but I didn't see who I was looking for. I knelt down on the rooftop and let my eyes close. The wind tossed my mane around and cooled my hot back. Being black, it was hard to keep cool on a sunny day. I was grateful for the slight breeze as I stood and flew, once more, into the sky. I flew up to a small cloud, for there were few that day, and rested atop it. Suddenly, I felt it. Sensing it, I jumped off the cloud and dove straight down, I stopped twenty feet from the nearest restaurant roof and flew to the right. I felt it again, only a little more to the right. I flapped my wings hard, excited that I had finally found who I was looking for. I swooped down on a rooftop and walked to the edge. Peeking over it, I saw a girl about eleven years old walking down the sidewalk, holding a stuffed unicorn in her arms. She was crying, and I felt her sorrow. I stepped away from the edge and turned human. Before I could even think about what I was doing, I jumped off the building and fell twenty feet. I landed safely on my feet and ran to the girl. She cried into the unicorn. I walked toward the wall of the building and tried to see into the crowd. I saw a sparkle somewhere to my left. I walked in that direction, hoping to find the girl. She was there, being swept along with the crowd of people. No one payed her any mind as they all pushed forward to make it home on time. A break appeared in the crowd, so I gathered up my strength and shot into the crowd and back. I was so fast, that neither I nor the girl was trampled. She looked up into my face. I smiled down at her. She had wet bruised cheeks. I looked down at the unicorn in her arms and noticed that it's plastic horn was wet. Between the wet horn and the sun, the horn had sparkled. That's how I had been able to find her in the crowd. The people were walking within a foot of us, no one wanting to be stuck against the wall. I grabbed the girl's hand and jumped up to the roof of the building I'd fallen from. People began to point, so I made the girl duck down with me. There was cement about a foot high around the edge of the roof, which made it easy for us to hide ourselves. Especially since there weren't any shingles. I'd stepped on a few roofs with shingles and had discovered they weren't meant to be walked on. The girl turned on her side to face me and, I guess she realized that we needed to stay hidden, whispered a question to me.
"Who are you?" The girl asked.
I smiled cheerfully and said,"Your ticket out of here."
She looked confused, but I didn't care. I grabbed her by the arm and yanked her up off the ground.
"No questions asked," I told her.
She tilted her head to the side and looked as if she were about to speak. I covered her mouth and picked her up in my arms. I quickly changed to centaur so I could carry the girl. Her eyes were wide as I tucked her under my arm and jumped from roof to roof. Unfortunately, I landed on one with shingles. I screamed and fell toward the empty sidewalk. A few people walking towards the building had to jump out of the way to keep from being crushed. I brought shingles down with me as I collapsed on the ground. I'd had no time to get my feet under me. They had slipped on the shingles and wouldn't go back into place. I landed hard and felt my head hit the concrete.
My head hurt, my legs hurt, my neck hurt. Where was I? Had I been seen? I opened my eyes but found it much to bright, so I shut them again. I took a few deep breaths, then opened my eyes again. The room was white. I saw a person in the same room as me. She was a nurse and held a shot in her hand. My eyes grew wide as I tried to tell her no. She smiled and brought the needle to my arm. I screamed and felt someone kick my side.
"What's going on! Let me go! I don't want a shot!" I yelled.
Two hands held my shoulders down. I caught my breath and smelled.....hay? I looked around and, sure enough, it was hay. I was lying in a barn now. Hay beneath me, hands on my shoulders. Who was holding me down?
I took a deep breath to calm myself and said,"I'm ok."
The hands lifted from my shoulders and I rose to see two eleven year old kids standing over me. I shook the hay from my body and studied them. One was the girl, she was still holding her stuffed animal. The other was a boy, he looked worried. I studied both of the kids. The boy had dark brown hair, and a haircut that was just above his eyes all the way around his head. He had big brown eyes and looked adventurous. The girl had golden hair to her shoulders and beautiful blue eyes. She seemed shy, but I knew she would open up once she got to know me.
I swallowed hard and asked in a whisper,"Did anyone see me?"
The girl solemnly nodded her head and buried her face in the stuffed unicorn.
The boy smiled and asked,"So, if centaurs are real, unicorns are real?"
I laughed and nodded my head.
"Can you show me?" Asked the boy.
I nodded and happily changed to unicorn. They stared at me in amazement.
I shook my mane and said,"Well, now you both know the secret. Girl, why are you so sad?"
"Wow! I heard you in my head!" said the girl.
"Me too!" said the boy.
The sparkle in the girl's eyes left when she sat down in the hay and leaned against the barn wall. Lowering her unicorn, she spoke.
"I'm an orphan. My parents died a long, long time ago. I got sent to this orphanage where the girls have to work all day, and if they do something wrong they get smacked." She pointed to a few bruises on her cheek, then to her arms. A few bruises were on her arms, and she didn't look at all happy.
The boy turned to me and said,"Yeah, they're real mean. I'm one of the boys. Every night, Lucy comes to my room. We hide in the closet and talk about stuff. Sometimes we talk about our hurts, sometimes we talk about our families, and every once in a while we talk about fairytales our moms used to read us. They're mostly stories of dragons and unicorns. I'm scared that we'll be thrown out on the street someday. I don't want that to happen."
I looked carefully down at the boy and asked,"Do you believe in unicorns?"
The boy happily nodded his head and said,"I sure do!"
Lucy nodded her head to show that she did too.
I looked around the barn and asked,"Where are we?"
Lucy smiled and said,"This is a barn out in the middle of a field. A man comes once a month and puts tons of hay in it. Sometimes, Mark and I come out here. It's really close to the orphanage, so no one even notices that we're gone. Most of the time, anyway."
I nodded and turned to Mark. "I didn't scare you guys when I woke up, did I?"
They shook their heads.
I sighed gratefully and explained,"I had a dream that I'd been taken to a laboratory and was going to be given a shot. It was really scary, because I haven't had a shot in a long time and they really hurt."
The kids smiled and nodded in agreement.
I looked from Mark to Lucy and back as I said,"I'm going back to my home. You're welcome to come with me. You won't have to worry about being slapped around or working all day every day anymore. What do you say?"
Lucy jumped up from her spot against the wall and cried,"Do we get to be unicorns too?!"
I smiled and nodded excitedly. Her whole face brightened as she danced in the hay.
"Me too?!" Asked Mark.
"Of course!" I told him.
He danced along with Lucy until they were both out of breath.
Finally, I said,"We'd better get going. Hop on my back and hold on tight. Lucy, get on and hold onto my mane. Mark, get on after Lucy and hold onto her waist. You should be safe like that."
Their smiles grew bigger as I knelt down and they climbed on my back. Suddenly, it hit me, where would we go? Brayan wasn't at all happy with me, and he certainly wouldn't approve of me coming back. Where could I take these two and be safe? I thought about it for a few moments before deciding to train them in the forest. There, they could learn to change, fight, and become great warriors. I warned them before I stood up and opened my wings. I trotted out of the barn and galloped across the field. The kids squeezed their legs against my sides and laughed as I jumped into the air. I jumped much higher than I used to, so it was easier to gain altitude. Lucy's hair whipped in the wind. Mark laughed as his shirt clung to his chest. I smiled and turned my attention to getting to the forest. After a few minutes of flying, I noticed a small patch in the forest. I swooped closer to it and found it to be a small meadow. I told the kids we would go down there, so they prepared to land. I dove for the ground, then...just as I was seven feet from the ground, I flared my wings and floated to the grass. They laughed and told me they had really enjoyed the ride. I smiled as they slid off my back and their feet hit the ground. After a minute or so of stretching, I told Lucy how to change to a unicorn. She didn't understand the first time I explained it, so I explained it to her a second time.
"Alright, Lucy, lets try this again. Look right over there, to your right. That's it, now imagine a unicorn standing there. It can be any color or size. What do you think would be the most beautiful unicorn? Don't tell me, just imagine the unicorn as the most beautiful unicorn you can imagine. Now, what color is it?"
Lucy was staring hard at the grass twenty feet from her. Suddenly, her eyes grew big and a smile spread across her face.
"It's an Appaloosa! You know, the kind of horses with all kinds of spots on their rumps? It's white with silver spots and patches on its rump! Oh, it's beautiful!"
I smiled down at her as she gazed at her imaginary unicorn. "Is it strong? Does it look strong? What about movement. Is it graceful?"
Lucy concentrated on the unicorn and after a minute or so told me what I wanted to know. "It's very graceful and strong. It's pawing the ground with its hoof right now. She's so pretty. Oh, and a beautiful silver mane. I can see her rearing! She's flying into the air! She has white wings with some silver feathers mixed in!"
I chuckled quietly as I watched Lucy's eyes fill with tears from watching the unicorn. Slowly, she began to believe that the unicorn she was seeing was real. And the more she believed, the whiter she became. Her hair turned silver and her shoes grew into hooves. Without knowing it, she was turning into a unicorn. After a few moments, I was standing beside a small unicorn. Being only eleven, she had quite a bit of growing to do. I did too, but I was much older than Lucy. She frowned and looked over at me.
"Whe....!?!"
I laughed quietly to myself and said,"It's alright, Lucy. By watching that unicorn, you imagined her doing normal unicorn things. The more you watched, the more you began to believe that she was real. When you started to truly believe in the unicorn, you turned into it. And now, you are a beautiful spotted unicorn with silver wings and mane!"
Lucy's mouth dropped open. She spread her wings out and smiled. "I am! I really am a unicorn!"
"Good, now go practice walking, neighing, and lifting your horn to the sun so that it sparkles," I firmly ordered.
She nodded and trotted off across the meadow, tilting her clear horn toward the sun. I turned to Mark and instructed him to do as Lucy had. He saw a handsome, strong, clumsy unicorn. It pawed at the ground and snorted. It was a beautiful grayish silver with a white blaze down it's nose. A beautiful clear horn was on its forehead, and it played in the meadow. He slowly began to believe, and as he did, he slowly changed. His dark brown hair turned a silvery gray. His shoes changed to hooves. I watched as he changed. He frowned and looked over at me.
"Whe...?!!"
I smiled and shook my head. "You're a unicorn now."
He smiled and said,"I did it! I really did it! I'm a unicorn! But, where did the unicorn I was imagining go?"
Lucy trotted up to Mark and I and asked,"Yeah, where'd mine go?"
"As soon as you were fully unicorn, they disappeared. Because you believed in them, you became them. They became you, that's why they aren't there for you to see," I explained.
They smiled at me and thanked me for the explanation. Mark trotted across the meadow with Lucy. She showed him how to position his legs so he could canter and gallop. After a half hour of that, I called them to come sit down in some long, tall grass with me. They trotted to me and sat down, waiting for me to tell them something. I had them turn to humans and told them the story of the unicorns and dragons. How the unicorns were the good guys and the dragons were the bad guys. I told them that the dragons always tried tricking their prisoners into thinking that they were the good guys and that they should never believe a story told by a dragon. After that story, I decided to give them new names. I stood and had Lucy kneel in front of me. Before I named Lucy, I explained to Mark that I shouldn't name two unicorns in one day. It would take too much time. I told him that I would name him tomorrow. Then, I looked down at Lucy and had her lift her horn to the setting sun. The sun hit it at an angle so that it had the sun's reflection. "By order of Sariah, The Dragon Slayer, I now name you Resda." Lucy lifted her eyes to me and said,"Resda." By saying that, her name became Resda. Her horn sparkled and I could feel happiness well up deep inside her. We had some sort of special bond. I had known this since I'd first sensed her from the cloud. She laughed and smiled at me. "Resda, I really like the name. Resda." I smiled down at her and had her sit in the grass again. I told them a few of my adventures until they fell asleep. By then, I was tired too. We all slept, until I sensed something in the sky.
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