by Bruce Lansky
Carefully, the unicorn got up on its feet and slowly circled the pen, allowing Lian to get used to its gait. It circled faster and faster. Suddenly, they were galloping at full speed toward the wall. Lian held on tight and closed her eyes. Then they were off the ground flying over the wall. After what seemed an impossibly long time, they hit the ground, still running, and gradually slowed down. They were on the other side.
Lian thought they’d head for the forest. But the unicorn circled around to the back of the palace instead, to the smaller pens and cages where the prince kept the animals he’d captured while his zoo was being built.
“Of course,” Lian thought. “They need to be rescued, too.” As the unicorn walked up to the nearest cage, Lian leaned over and unhooked the latch. The cages were not locked because the prince wasn’t worried about anyone stealing common animals. The unicorn walked her around the courtyard as she leaned over to unfasten the latches and open every cage. She released a panda, a tree shrew, a tiger, a fox, a goat, and three different kinds of monkeys. Instead of running away, the animals waited for her to finish opening the rest of the cages.
Once Lian set free all the animals, the unicorn led them to the edge of the forest. Even the birds didn’t stray far ahead, but kept circling back to keep pace with the easily distracted rabbit. Only when they were under cover of the forest did the animals finally scatter silently.
Lian slid off the unicorn and gave it a hug. The unicorn rested its head against her shoulder. “It was a wonderful ride,” she said. “But you need to go. As everyone knows, unicorns are meant to be free.”
The unicorn looked at her one final time with those beautiful jade-colored eyes, turned, and disappeared into the darkness between the trees.
No one ever suspected Lian, the teahouse owner’s daughter, of helping the imperial zoo animals to escape. After all, the gate to the unicorn’s pen was still locked, and only unicorn tracks were visible among the opened zoo cages. Obviously, unicorn magic was involved. Everyone blamed the prince for having kept the unicorn out all day and away from Lian. They figured her taming effect had worn off.
The prince, who—like the rabbit—was easily distracted, never did resume work on his zoo.
And no one ever seemed to notice that in the early morning dew, unicorn tracks were sometimes visible on the grass between the new teahouse and the forest. Some tracks were light, the way unicorn tracks usually are, but some were deeper, heavier, almost as though the unicorn carried a rider.
But as everyone knows, no one can ride a unicorn ....
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES
Linda Cave is a former elementary-school teacher. She has worked as an editor for several educational publishers and is currently a freelance writer and editor. She has contributed poems and stories to a number of educational programs.
Craig Hansen holds an M.A. in Creative Writing from Mankato State University and runs Rose Creek Publishing, an electronic publishing company in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In 1989, he received a first place award for college investigative journalism from the Minnesota Newspaper Association. Hansen’s novel, She Gives at the Office, is currently being serialized in Whispering Pines Quarterly.
Bruce Lansky enjoys writing stories and funny poems for children (his most popular poetry books are Kids Pick the Funniest Poems, A Bad Case of the Giggles, and The New Adventures of Mother Goose), and he loves to perform in school assemblies and workshops. Before he started to write children’s books, Lansky wrote humorous books for parents and baby name books. He has two grown children and currently lives with his computer near a beautiful lake in Minnesota.
Sheryl Nelms graduated from South Dakota State University and has published over 3,500 articles, poems, and short stories. She was born in Marysville, Kansas, and researched the history of that area while writing her story for Girls to the Rescue. Nelms is currently working as an insurance adjuster in Fort Worth, Texas.
Peninnah Schram is a storyteller, teacher, recording artist, author, and an associate professor of speech and drama at Stern College of Yeshiva University. She is also the founding director of the Jewish Storytelling Center in New York City, the author of numerous books of Jewish stories, and the editor of Chosen Tales: Stories Told by Jewish Storytellers.
Robert Scotellaro has published his poetry and fiction in over one hundred anthologies, literary magazines, chap books, and children’s magazines, including Highlights. He is also the author of Daddy, Fix the Vacuum Cleaner, published by Willow Wisp Press. Scotellaro was born in Manhattan, New York, and now lives in San Francisco, California, with his wife, Diana, and five-year-old daughter, Katie.
Vivian Vande Velde is the author of seven books for children and a number of short stories published in magazines such as Cricket and Highlights. She is currently living in Rochester, New York, with her husband, daughter, cat, rabbit, and hamster.