I poke the tiny puzzle piece into place. My best friend, Marabeth, gave me the puzzle for my tenth birthday. It is a special puzzle. It has a big center piece of a unicorn, and little puzzle pieces that fit around the unicorn that make up the scenery. I have just finished putting together the scenery. I glance around my bedroom. Where is that unicorn piece? “Oh unicorn,” I call softly, “come out of mythology!” I don’t really think that the unicorn will come, but I call for it once again.
The unicorn puzzle piece has been missing for over a month. I still have the unicorn puzzle sitting on the floor of my bedroom. My mother has been after me for weeks to move it. But it remains there still. I am going outside to check the mail. I hope another Christmas card has come. It is a dark and overcast day. It looks like it could start pouring any minute now. I hurry out to the mailbox. It’s just a regular little mailbox, flag and all. I pull the mail out. The newspaper has come. I place the stack of mail on our kitchen table and pull the newspaper out of the pile. A coupon to Annika’s Grumpy Stamper falls to the floor, but I just ignore it. The heading of the Almost-daily Newspaper says something about a wild horse on the loose. Here is what it says:
Several Citizens of Tankerville Claim to Have Seen White “Unicorn” Horse
Just this past week quite a lot of people report to have seen a tall, white horse with a long “wand” sticking out of the middle of its forehead around Village Green Terrace. This mystery horse “has a wild look in its eye”, eyewitness Clark declares. Several children say that it “looks like a really fat unicorn”. This horse is mainly seen at night, and in the daytime it seems to have evaporated into thin air. Heather’s Horse Haven (HHH), a horse rescue, has been contacted, and a search is being made. If anyone sees this creature, please contact HHH. The phone number is on their website, www.heathershorsehaven/.gog . Any help will be most welcome. If you happen to see this horse, please do not try to catch it by yourself. For the moment, this horse is Wanted, preferably alive.
A horse! I don’t know much about horses, especially unicorn-horses. I’ve never met a unicorn-horse in all of my life. I hope I can meet this horse. But if I did see it, what would I do next? Would I call HHH? I decide to go online to look at this website of HHH’s. I log onto my computer and soon find the website. It shows some pictures of horses that the people there have rescued, pictures of what the horses look like when they first arrived, and pictures of them afterward. The horses look terrible in the before pictures! Six horses are up for adoption right now, the website says. Those horses look very healthy and happy. The website has a link to a site that explains how to care for horses. I click on the link, and I find a website with a whole lot of words. I am overwhelmed. They have page of the website for kids. I click on it. Now this is more like it! There are lots of pictures, and not too many words. There’s a place where you can send in horse questions, and some professionals will answer. I like this site very much, but I must log off now. It is time for me to study for tomorrow’s science test.
It is night time. A blanket of dark clouds cover the sky. The wind whistles through the trees. It is cold, even in the heated house. I stare out of my bedroom window, waiting for the rain to come. My bedroom is on the back of the house, and I can see the woods, across the back field. In the darkness, the trees all look like like one giant mass, darker than the darkness of the sky. Suddenly I see a shape moving out from the cover of the trees, into the open field, into plain view. It has to be a deer. But where are the others? The deer must be alone. It lowers its head to graze. Hey! Wait a minute! What’s that coming out of its forehead? It looks like one long antler, just in the wrong place. I look down at the wooden floor of my bedroom, and blink hard. When I look back up, the odd creature is gone.
The next day I log onto the computer first thing in the morning. I go straight to the horse care site I went to yesterday, and submit a question. I type:
I saw an odd sort of creature.
Looked starved, if you ask me.
I looked away once, and it was gone.
It was white, and big, and had a giant lump on its head
That extended for about a mile.
It looked like a horse,
Or a big deer.
I want to help it, but how?
-Clueless
I click send, and wait for a reply.
It has been months since I last saw the horse. I wonder where it has gotten off to. Why hasn’t anyone found it, and said anything about it? I keep my eye on the woods day and night, but I have not seen it.
The people at the horse care place wrote back. This is what they said:
Dear Clueless,
Keep your eye out for that animal! If it is a horse running around loose, call Heather’s Horse Haven. Here is the link: www.heathershorsehaven/.gog . If the creature you saw is a seriously wounded deer, or a different animal, call Animal Control. Thank you for writing.
That was it. There was nothing else. But I wanted to do more than just call people, and let everyone else do the work. I am writing to them again:
There is a horse
That I wanna catch.
It’s roamin’ round loose
No halter on its head.
I have some apples,
They’re juicy and red.
I have a carrot, too.
How can I use these things
And a sturdy rope
To catch this wild thing?
– Confused
I click send, and hope to get a response back soon. In the meantime, while I wait, I bundle up and go outside into the woods. I am hoping to see this odd unicorn-horse. I hope this unicorn-horse, if it’s even still around, does not blend in with the trees and shrubs in the woods. I mean, it’s white, so it couldn’t be too hard to see, right? Most likely wrong. Our wood are so dense and thick that you could walk right by an albino elephant and not see it. But, I promise myself, I will keep my eyes open for this mysterious, wild horse, and I will look behind every bush and shrub I find!
I have been out here in the woods for three hours now, and I have seen no signs of horsey life back here. I wish now that I hadn’t promised myself to look behind every bush and shrub. I’ve passed tons of them! In the hours that I have been out here, I am sure that I cannot have walked more than a quarter of a mile away from my house. And I have seen no traces of any horse, unicorn or not! I must turn back soon. It is already dusk. You may never know what lurks behind the next bush after dark. I have heard that cougars and mountain lions have been spotted back here. I sure do not want to meet any of those such creatures!
Now I am turning back. I hurry toward home, looking forward to the warmth and light that I hope to find there. I must’ve gone farther than I had expected. I have been walking for a long time, and still I am not home. I hope that I have not been walking in circles. But I do not usually do that in the woods. But in the dark, who knows where I’ve been going. I hope that I am not heading away from home! Hmmmm. The sun has set over to my right. The sun rises in the east, and sets in the west. My home is to the south. No wonder I have not gotten home yet! I am heading in the wrong direction!
I turn around and hurry to the south. How far have I gone the wrong way? I think I have walked north for a mile or so. Oh dear! This is not good. I have brought a backpack with me. In it I have a rope, and an apple, both for the unicorn-horse. But no flashlight. No compass, either. I really need to get a compass. Well, there is little chance of me finding the unicorn on my way back, unless I manage to trip over it! I get out the apple and bite into it.
The path home is – well, there’s no path. You can’t go in a somewhat straight line when walking in our woods. Sometimes you have to go around something very big, like an enormous clump of prickly bushes. It seems that I have to go around every single obstacle in the whole forest to get home! This is taking me forever, and still no unicorn-horse. But even if I do find it tonight, I will not be able to catch it, seeing as how I just finished off the apple. My legs are tired. I sit down on a little piece of rock sticking up out of the ground.
Suddenly I can sense something, like an alien presence – only this presence is not that of a strange, cold-blooded alien. I can hear the breathing of a normal creature. Yet this thing is foreign, not from this life – and it’s staring directly at me. I freeze. I sit perfectly still for what seems like an eternity, for I dare not move. The breathing is closer now. It sounds like an animal. A deer? Why would a deer, or any wild creature for that matter, be inspecting me, and not running away? Or are the deer around here that tame? I have to move sometime, and it might as well be now. Ever so slowly and cautiously, I turn my head. The moon is shining around the clouds that attempt to block all its rays of light. I can see a white shape standing directly behind me, literally breathing down my neck. I try not to scream, for there, standing in all of its glory, is a white unicorn. White. Pure white. Not a milky white, or an ivory white, but a pure white horse, without a single gray hair on its entire body. Well, not exactly a horse. Its legs are the legs of a deer almost, and its eyes are fierce, and yet in them shines a sort of gentleness. From his chin hangs a short beard, sort of like what you might find on the chin of a goat. Out of its forehead pops a spiraling, long, white horn. Rays of moonlight reflect off this horn, making it stand out from all the dark trees around us. Such a thing I have never seen before.
It cocks its head, and studies me. Then it comes to my side and lies down, settling its head in my lap. Then it falls asleep. I am amazed. I am also full of questions. The first one that pops into my head is, “How do I get up without disturbing this odd creature?”, and the second is, “Why does this thing trust me so?” But my third thought is much different than all the others, “I’m hungry! How long is this thing gonna lie here?”
It is late when I get home. The unicorn lay on my lap the whole time. When I finally had to get, I nudged it, and it got up. I think it is kind of silly to keep calling this thing an “it”. It is a real creature, roaming out in the woods behind my house. So, from now on, I will the unicorn a “he”, whether he is a “he”, or not.
The next morning I get onto the computer first thing, and check to see if the horse care people wrote back. They have. Again, their answer is short, and not very helpful – to me, anyway. this is what they said:
Dear Clueless,
We have an article on this website that may help you. It is called How to Catch a Horse. I hope it can help you. If not, you may find the answer you are looking for in one of the books that our site sells. Thank you for writing.
I wonder if a robot responds to their questions. I wouldn’t be surprised if one does!
The next thing I do is go to the website for the Rhemands store, and look to see if they have a compass. They don’t. I look on the website for the Wanderin’ in the Woods store, and have more successful results. I order a blue compass from them. I hope it arrives soon. I want to go out into the woods at least twice a week to see the unicorn, but I don’t want to get lost. I have decided to stay in the house until I get the compass.
The compass has arrived! It has been a week since I have seen the unicorn. I hope he is still out in the back woods. I want to ask him a few questions, the first being, “How did you get here?” After school I hurry out into the woods with my compass, three apples, a flashlight, and a book. I hope to find the unicorn soon. I hurry to the place where I last saw the unicorn, and sit down on the rock, just as before. Almost as soon as I sit down, the unicorn gallops toward me, as if we had planned the meeting, and he had been waiting eagerly for me. He lays his head in my lap just like before, as if he did it every day. I stroke his soft coat as he drifts off to sleep. Once again I am awed by this creature’s magnificence. He is a wild, untamed creature, yet he as gentle as a kitten. I pull my book out of my backpack, and start reading.
I have visited the unicorn several times now, but every time I forget the questions that I wanted to ask him. How does that keep happening? But that is not the most important question right now. How did he get here? Is he in danger? What is he doing in the twenty-first century? Shouldn’t he be back in the minds of the creative storytellers who came up with him long ago? There are so many things that I would like to ask the unicorn, but even if he does try to answer, will I understand him? But my biggest concern is his safety. He is Wanted by everyone in all of Tankerville. What would happen should someone find out about my secret pet? I love him, that splended creature. From the moment I first saw him, I loved him. Will he ever be able to come out of hiding?
Lately I have been in the woods most afternoons after school. It’s a fine place to study, read, or just daydream. No matter how cold the weather, I never have to worry about freezing to death out there. The unicorn is a great toe-warmer. I am going out into the woods right now. Every day I pack an apple to take with me. I always keep my compass in my pocket, even though I don’t really need it anymore. I know my way around, now. I have found out that the unicorn really likes carrots, so every time I go out to see him, I bring a carrot with me. I walk quickly out to our regular meeting place, and the unicorn comes galloping up to me as usual. He is a loyal friend to me, and I try to be faithful to him, faithfully bringing him a carrot every day just about. I bet he hopes I never run out of carrots. I hope so, too.
I sit down on the rock, and he lays his head in my lap, as he always does. I scratch him behind the ear, and he nickers. Besides the outward appearance and the immediate trust, he is just like a normal horse. I probably don’t seem like a normal human to him. All the humans he’s ever met have probably tried to chase him. I myself had wanted to catch him, and hand him over to the horse rescue. But I am not sure if they would have accepted him, unicorn horn and all. And I’m sure he’d so wild and fierce that they could not have contained him for very long.
I look up at the treetops, so close, yet I cannot touch them. I scan the horizon for any signs of danger. There! Among the trees is the figure of a man. What is he doing here? Has he seen us yet? I look down at the unicorn, and nudge him urgently. But he is already awake. He probably sensed the danger, rather than saw it. Or he could have sensed my fear. Horses can do that, and he’s a horse on the inside. The unicorn gets to his feet, and looks at me as if to say, “Comin’?” Almost without realizing it, I stand up and go to the unicorn’s side. I grasp his mane in my hands, and pull myself up. As soon as I am on his back, the unicorn bolts. Jumping over all the obstacles in our path, we gallop away from the man to safety. But is this safety going to be only temporary?
I slide down from the unicorn’s back, and look around. Will that man tell others about us, and call that horse rescue, HHH? I look into the unicorn’s eyes. I can see the white all around his eyes. Seeing his fear makes me fear. I thought unicorn’s were supposed to be fearless. If this strong unicorn is afraid, I should be, too. He has been spotted with me? I am no longer carefree. I look around us. Where are we, anyway? There is not a tree in sight. We are not in the woods. I do not think I have ever seen this place. It’s a meadow, filled with daisies. I see a stream. It is a sort of prairie. I turn to look at the unicorn. He looks quite at home here. “Where are we?” I whisper to him, not that I expect him to answer or anything.
He opens his mouth, and words come out. “We are in the Land of Mythology and Beliefs.” His voice is surprisingly high-pitched. It makes me wonder if “he” is really a boy. Could be a girl, or whatever you call a female unicorn, for all I know.
I just gawk at him. Since when have unicorns started talking? Something is definitely wrong here! Something was wrong when I saw him in the woods, something has been wrong ever since then! Something is wrong with me. Why hadn’t I just called the horse rescue and let them handle it? Now I’m in a foreign, more then foreign, alien, land! What if I can never get home, ever?
I hardly feel the unicorn wrap his flexible neck around my chest in a unicorn hug, or feel his warm breath on my face. But when he speaks again, I tune back into the world.
“My dear girl,” he says to me, “I do not know your name.”
I look up at him, look into his eyes. They are filled with kindness. “Nor I yours,” I whisper to him.
“My name is simply The Unicorn.”
It feels odd to be having a conversation with a unicorn, of all things, a unicorn called The Unicorn. But the name does fit him, and very well. I smile at him, and all of a sudden my tongue comes untied, and I speak clearly. “My name is Minny.”
“Well, Miniature Girl, I suppose you would like to know how you got here.” His mouth turns up at the corners in what I suppose is a unicorn smile.
“My name’s not Miniature Girl – ” I hesitate, then change my mind about what I am planning to say. “You can call me that if you like, though. And I would like to know how we got here.”
“You see, Miniature Girl,” he says to me, “there is a bridge between the Land of Mythology and Beliefs and your world. The bridge is invisible to any creature or person inside the Land of Mythology and Beliefs. They cannot get into your world. But, if there is a human from your world, they can see the bridge.”
“Can humans in my world see the bridge?”
“The bridge is everywhere in your world. If you have not seen it, all humans cannot see it from your world.”
“But creatures like you can?”
He bobs his head up and down.
“How did you come into my world if you cannot see the bridge into my world?” I ask, confused.
“Any creature from here can enter into your world if they are directly called.”
“And who called you?”
“I do not know. Somebody did, though. You see, when we are called, we can see the bridge. I think that the bridge can move by itself from its normal resting place, but I am not sure. We find ourselves near the person who called us. When a human from your world crosses over the bridge from this land, they go directly to where they were before.”
I can feel my hopes rising. “So if I can find the bridge, we can get home?”
The Unicorn nods. “I am relying on you to get us back to your world. I have important business to attend to there.”
“Where is the bridge in this land so that we can get back?”
He looks straight into my eyes. “Only you can find it. Not even Zeus knows where it is.”
I am puzzled. “Who is Zeus?”
“He’s top dog around here, as in, like, the top god.”
“Wow,” I breathe. “I can find something that a god can’t?”
The Unicorn nods. “We must hurry back to your world now. We must search for the bridge. Where do you think we should start?”
I think deeply for a moment. “Where everything ends.” I know that people used to think that the world is flat as a cookie sheet, and that you could fall off the edge. Maybe in this world you can really fall off the edge, but perhaps only if you don’t know where to go, where the bridge is. It is worth a try. “Can you take us there?”
The unicorn nods his head. At least he knows where we are, even though I don’t. “Climb on my back,” he orders me. “We will be there in no time.
The journey is short, thanks to The Unicorn’s unfathomable speed. I just experienced his speed, and I still cannot fathom it. I jump down from The Unicorn’s back, and stare out across the horizon. All I can see is water, water, water! It is ten times as vast as the ocean in my world. There is no bridge in sight. I try to imagine how I look to an earthling. A young girl, standing on the edge of a cliff, surrounded mostly by a mass of water, staring out across the horizon, with a unicorn by her side. It makes for a very comical scene, especially with the fact that my hair has been tossed all about by the wind, and must look a total mess, not that it didn’t look like a mess before.
“Well?” The Unicorn nudges me in the side with his nose. “Do you see it?”
I had been so certain that the bridge would be here! “I cannot see it, no matter how how hard I look. Is there anywhere past this point that we can go to?”
The Unicorn sighs, shaking his head. “No, only Pegasus could take you out there.”
“But aren’t there any fishermen that would take me?” I cry , desperate to go beyond this point. If the bridge is not out there, I have no idea where to search next.
“Fishermen go a few miles from shore, but not far,” The Unicorn tells me. “The only kind of ship that goes out farther than that is a Daring Ship.”
“What’s a Daring Ship? Where can we get one?” I ask eagerly.
“No man, or girl, in their right mind would board a Daring Ship. They go, but never return. Hardly any Daring Ships ever set out these days, on account of all the ships and men that have been lost.” The Unicorn shakes his head.
Something suddenly catches my eye. “What’s that down there?” I ask him, gesturing toward the rocky shore beneath us, where a ship is being loaded. It looks like a war ship.
“That is a Daring Ship.”
I can see a glimmer of hope. I jump up onto the back of The Unicorn. “Take me there,” I order him.
Without asking any questions, The Unicorn gallops down the narrow and rocky path that leads to the shore. We arrive within moments. I jump down from The Unicorn’s back. “Hey, you!” I shout to an idle little boy. “When is the Daring Ship leaving?”
“Any minute now,” he calls back. “Why? Are you thinking of going out to sea with them?” He laughs, but not the nice kind of laugh.
“Indeed I am!” I shout back. “With whom may I arrange the trip with?”
“Well,” the boy says, “my father is going out on the ship. You can see him. He’s in the house with my mother.” He nods toward a small hut nearer the rocky shoreline.
“Thank you,” I reply curtly, and sticking my nose inn the air, I hurry toward the hut.
As I come up to the entrance, a big, strong-looking man comes out.
“Are you going on the Daring Ship?” I say to him.
He nods. He looks very grumpy. He glances behind me, and sees the unicorn. His eyebrows shoot up. All of a sudden his mood changes. He smiles sweetly at me, or as sweetly as he can. “And would you like to come along, my dear girl?”
I nod eagerly. I thought it was going to be a lot harder to convince him to let us on board.
“Do you have all you are going to bring along?” he asks me in a gruff voice.
I nod. “Just me and my unicorn.” I turn around to look at the unicorn. He shakes his head from side to side, as if he has a fly on his neck, and can’t get it off. I scowl at him. This man is doing us a great favor!
“You have any money?” the man growls.
“No,” I say, softly at first, then again, louder. “No!” How stupid of me to think this man would let us on board without money!
“That’s all right,” he says to me. “You can come along for free. You’re only a girl.”
“Thank you so much!” I exclaim. “I really, really appreciate it, more than you could ever know.”
The man actually bows to me. “It is an honor to have you and your, uh, unicorn on board my ship. I am the captain, just so you know.”
I nod.
“We must hurry now,” he says to me. “We would not want to miss the ship, now would we?” He raises his left eyebrow without even moving his right eyebrow an inch.
“No, we would not,” I agree with him. It is always good to agree with someone when they have just granted you a favor, even if you don’t totally agree with what the person is saying. I am confused, though. Why would a captain have to worry about his own ship leaving him behind? The crew couldn’t leave their own captain behind. Or was it just a joke?
As we walk up the gangplank to board the ship, I wonder why The Unicorn was acting so strangely. He still is. I turn around. He’s balking. I roll my eyes. “Come on, you,” I tell him. “We don’t want to miss this opportunity to get back to my world, now do we?”
The Unicorn rolls his eyes at me, but complies.
Little do I know it, but we are in for the journey of our lives.
The story continues in part two of The Unicorn Puzzle, The Writing of the Unicorn, and The Unicorn Puzzle, part three, The Unicorn Returns. Will they get back to the world Minny (the main character) knows and loves? When they get there, if they get there, how is she going to protect The Unicorn from the people who want to catch him there? And why did The Unicorn come into Minny’s world in the first place? To be posted soon is the second part of The Unicorn Puzzle.
If you have enjoyed this story, you may also like to read Tilda’s Babyshower Blues, also by Min Sullivan.
