The Snow Unicorn

by Bridget McGowan

  All of a sudden, everything was silent. A hurricane couldn’t stop that quickly. The silence woke Caitlyn up from the light sleep she’d been in.

  She opened her eyes and her heart sank. No longer was she safe in a warm bed, but sitting in the snow in her own back yard. Her mother stood in front of her, a concerned look on her face.

  “Caitlyn, why are you sitting there? I’ve been calling you for half an hour.”

  Caitlyn looked up at her with tears in her eyes.

  “I’m sorry, Mom,” she said and stood up.

  “What is it, Sweetheart?” her mother asked.

  “Nothing.”

  “It must be something,” her mother replied.

  “You wouldn’t believe me. I’m cold. Let’s go in.”

  Caitlyn was sure something would happen to Storm. She couldn’t do anything about it because he was in the other world.

  She hadn’t wanted to come back. Perhaps Ambrose or Peter would have taken an interest in her, but even if they didn’t, she would be with Storm

  No one would ever believe all of the things she had seen, all of the people she had met. There were so many stories to tell, yet she could tell no one. What had been the point of the weeks she’d been there if she had to keep all of it a secret?

  As she started to change her clothes to put on warmer ones, she felt the pin she had bought. It looked like the Opala, an animal that didn’t exist in the real world. She set it on her dresser, and once she had dry clothes on, she pinned it to her sweater.

  When she came downstairs, her mother noticed the pin.

  “Caitlyn, where did you get that pin?”

  “I bought it.”

  “You bought it? Where?”

  “In the other world you say doesn’t exist. I bought it at the market square.”

  Her mother looked seriously at her.

  “Caitlyn, if you’ve stolen that –”

  “Stolen? Why would I do that? How could you even think that? I bet you don’t even know what kind of animal this is.”

  Her mother studied the pin.

  “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “It’s an Opala. They live in the forest. I’ve even petted one.”

  “Caitlyn, that looks like a wild animal. You could never pet a thing like that.”

  “I did. You’d know if you just came to the magical world.”

  “You are going to stop talking about this make-believe world or I’ll be forced to take you to a doctor. And I will find out where you got that pin.”

  Caitlyn did stop talking about the magical realm, but that did not stop her thinking about it. And no one could tell her mother where the pin came from.

  Her mother didn’t make much effort to find out about the pin. In fact, after the first time she saw it, she never showed any sign that she noticed it.

  Caitlyn remained silent about visiting Aldanus. She kept her wishes to herself, and people soon forgot that she had ever mentioned a magical kingdom. As far as anyone knew, Caitlyn Monroe was just like the other girls in her class. They enjoyed her sense of humor and her ability to make up interesting stories.

  For three years it didn’t snow at all. The first year was the hardest for Caitlyn to bear. She was sure Storm needed her. She was desperate to get back to him.

  By the second year, the teacher’s own words came back to her that sometimes people don’t get the chance to return. Caitlyn decided she would never be too busy to return. She hoped, prayed and bargained with God to send snow, but the answer to her prayers was a solid no.

  When a third year passed with no snow, Caitlyn stopped wearing her Opala pin. No point in seeing a constant reminder of a place she couldn’t go. It caused her too much pain.

  Caitlyn’s mother noticed a change in her by the time she was thirteen. A part of her was gone, but her mother couldn’t say, exactly, what it was. Perhaps she was simply maturing out of childish ways.

  Two more years passed with only a small amount of snow in each. There was not enough snow to make anything. There wasn’t enough to need the snow plow.

  Storm must think I don’t want to come back, she thought. What if some other girl went instead?

  Caitlyn turned fifteen. Her friends talked about boys. Caitlyn through about Michael, lost to her, and his brother, Peter. Peter and Michael were probably old men by now, and Storm might be dead.

  The thought of her beloved unicorn dying, especially at the jaws of wolves, gave her physical pain. How could she ever bear to return to Aldanus without him? Would another unicorn ever come to her?

  She stopped thinking of Aldanus. She was probably too old to go now, and as Elsie told her, not everyone can marry a prince.

  She began behaving like her friends, worrying about boys, going to parties and studying for school. Her mother was glad to see she had finally finished with her pretend world.

  Caitlyn wasn’t satisfied, really. She threw herself into school work, more because the boys and the parties didn’t really interest her. The boys she met wanted someone who would agree with them, not someone who wanted serious conversation. The parties were either mainly groups of girls talking about the boys, for good or ill, or groups of people doing things that bored Caitlyn.

  “Don’t worry,” her mother said. “When you’re older you’ll meet young men who will value you for your knowledge and your kindness, not for how many parties you attend. Anyone who can’t have a conversation with you isn’t worth your time.”

  While Caitlyn agreed that her mother was probably right, it wasn’t what she wanted to hear. She hated the fact that her friends pitied her because she didn’t have a boyfriend and that she wasn’t very good at social gatherings.

  Violet and Sasha appreciated Caitlyn’s intelligence more, she suspected, because she could help them with their homework. But she could be herself around them. They didn’t make fun or her for having a good imagination, or for thinking up ideas that other girls wouldn’t.

  Caitlyn loved to write. At least with stories, she could relive the places no one believed she’d visited. Her teachers thought she was very creative, and even her friends wanted to read her stories. So she wrote about Michael, Ambrose and Peter. She told stories Elsie had related to her. She gave Storm powers far beyond any he actually had because her friends were delighted by him.

  Not all of her stories involved princes and castles. Sometimes she wrote about the wolf king or about the lady who lived in a gingerbread house in the woods. She created all sorts of adventures for the gingerbread lady. In one story, she confronted the wolf king, who, of course, could speak.

  Her friends suggested ideas for her to write, and she obliged by making up stories with characters like her friends. These stories were passed around among the members of her class, and she was referred to as “our author” by many people who only knew her slightly.

  “Can’t you write about something that would interest the guys?” asked a boy named Jordan after he’d heard a group of girls chatting about her latest story.

  “What would interest you?” she asked.

  “How about an adventure – one that didn’t have princes. How about dragons instead of unicorns. Why not write about orcs, trolls and dwarves?”

  “I’ll try,” she said.

  The story was difficult. She wasn’t interested in orcs, trolls and dwarves. Dragons might be interesting, but not the cutesy pink ones the girls liked.

  It took a few weeks for Caitlyn to finish the dragon story. She printed out a copy and brought it to school. When she saw Jordan, she held out the story.

  “I wrote that story about dragons and orcs,” she said. “I hope you like it.”

  She looked very serious, holding out the pages in a folder. He looked at the folder and saw “The Dragon Slayer of Maundia” printed in fancy script on the front.

  “You wrote this?” he asked.

  “Yes. It’s what you wanted.”

  “I didn’t expect you to actually write a story.”

 
; “Do you want to read it?” she asked.

  “Yeah. Let me see whether or not you can write something the guys would be interested in.”

  He took the story.

  She didn’t hear anything from Jordan, but a few days later a couple of seniors she didn’t know stopped her.

  “Are you Caitlyn Monroe?”

  “Yes.”

  “Great story. You’re really talented.”

  “You read it?”

  “All the guys are reading it.”

  “Thank you,” she replied, blushing.

  She was thrilled that people she didn’t know were learning who she was. This story wasn’t about any of her adventures. Maybe now her mother would stop worrying about her.

  When she had another assignment due for English class, she turned in “Dragon Slayer of Maundia.” Fortunately, her English teacher liked fantasy stories and told Caitlyn it was a remarkable story.

  Caitlyn enjoyed being known as the writer in her class. She had a binder containing copies of all of her stories. Once she had written the dragon slayer story, she earned the respect of the boys in her class. They wanted her to write more stories, and she started a series of stories about Goroweth, the heroic dragon slayer. She began to feel like his world was somewhere she had been. That made her wonder if she had, perhaps, imagined Storm’s world.

  As the writer of stories, she felt powerful. She created the worlds in which she wandered. She didn’t need a prince to save her; the prince needed her just to exist.

  She thought about Storm. If she really did make up everything, then she had made up Storm as well. He would always exist in her memory, and she wouldn’t have to worry about the wolves getting him. The prince hadn’t been able to keep him safe, but she could.

  But what about the pin she’d bought at the open-air market? That was real. She hadn’t made up the magical realm! She had that pin as proof.

  When school ended that day, Caitlyn raced home and searched her jewelry box for the pin. She couldn’t find it anywhere. She looked in drawers and on various items of clothing, but it wasn’t in any of those places, either.

  I know that was real, she thought.

  She knew her mother had never believed her when she talked about the magical realm. But her mother had asked about that pin when she first saw it.

  “Mom, do you remember that pin I had?”

  “What pin, dear?”

  “You know, the one I told you I bought in my magical world.”

  “Oh, you’re not starting that again, are you?”

  “No. I just want to know about the pin.”

  “I don’t know what pin you’re talking about, Caitlyn.”

  “I had this pin. It looked like an animal that doesn’t really exist.”

  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen it.”

  “I can’t find it.”

  “You know, sometimes we remember things in a way that never happened. I think you just pretended so hard you thought you actually had one.”

  Caitlyn was sure her mother was wrong. She was certain she hadn’t imagined the pin. She remembered deciding one day to put the pin away, since she would never have the chance to return to Aldanus again.

  Perhaps it was all in her imagination.

  She sighed and decided to just forget about the pin. It wasn’t real. You could never really bring something back from an imaginary place.

  Chapter 4

  The morning dawned brightly. In fact, the sun appeared brighter than usual, as if reflected off a mirror.

  Caitlyn was excited. Today was her birthday. She was eighteen. In three months she would graduate from high school.

  She stretched and got out of bed. Looking out the window, she saw why the sun looked so bright: it had snowed overnight, and icicles outside her window reflected the sunlight like a magnifying glass.

  It snowed! There must be nearly a foot of snow, she thought. And it was usually dark when she woke up.

  Caitlyn looked at the clock. It was an hour later than she usually left for school. She dashed downstairs.

  “Mom? I’m late for school.”

  “No, you’re not. School is closed today. Happy birthday.”

  She looked shocked for a moment, then went upstairs to get dressed.

  Having a birthday at the beginning of March meant nothing exciting usually happened. All winter it hadn’t snowed, and now they’d had a freak snowstorm on her birthday. How strange.

  She didn’t know quite how she would spend her day, but thought she’d see what Violet and Sasha were doing.

  Once she finished breakfast, she bundled up and went outside. The snow plow hadn’t yet gone by her street. People’s cars were covered in snow, the roofs of them looking like some strange white haircut.

  It was colder than she expected, and sudden wind gusts blew snow across open lawns, covering footprints from earlier.

  Caitlyn arrived at Violet’s house to find Violet still wore her pajamas. Her curly dark hair poked out in all directions.

  “I’m going to work on my science project,” she told Caitlyn.

  “Oh, okay. See ya later.”

  Next she stopped at Sasha’s house. Sasha’s mother answered the door and said her daughter was sick and couldn’t come out.

  “But she said to tell you Happy Birthday.”

  “Thank you.”

  How like Sasha to remember her birthday. She felt bad that Sasha wasn’t feeling well. The petite girl with shoulder length light brown hair could be counted on to remember occasions.

  Caitlyn headed home, pulling her scarf up over her nose and mouth to keep the freezing wind from her face.

  While she was at her friends’ houses, the snow plow had gone down the road. She looked at the various chunks of snow and smiled at the memory of making animals out of the chunks. How silly she had been to think she could go to a magic world. There was no such thing.

  Caitlyn was so lost in her memories of playing in the snow and pretending, she didn’t see the curb. She tripped and went down into the snow. It felt like it took a long time before she hit the ground, as she tried unsuccessfully to break her fall. As she landed, the ground felt harder than she’d expected the deep snow to be.

  She pushed herself up to a sitting position and looked around. There was no snow. She sat in the middle of the grassy woods outside Elsie’s house.

  “No. Nononono. This can’t be! It isn’t real!”

  “More things are real than we can understand,” said a deep voice behind her.

  Caitlyn turned to see Storm, his features looking older.

  “Storm!”

  He nodded. “I have missed you, Lady Caitlyn.”

  “I’ve missed you, too. I was sure none of this was real. No one would believe me, and it’s been so long. I thought I’d made it all up.”

  “It is easy to convince yourself that something isn’t real when you stay away.”

  “I wanted to come back. We just didn’t have any snow.”

  “It is difficult when you can’t control what happens.”

  “How long has it been since I was here?”

  “Twenty-five years. King Michael’s children are grown.”

  “King Michael?”

  “Yes. The former king and queen died fifteen years ago, only a few months apart.”

  “How many children does he have?”

  “Twin boys, Valentin and Toran, and a girl, Anicia. The boys are twenty-three and the girl is twenty-one.”

  “It’s been eight years for me. I’m eighteen today.”

  “A very Happy Birthday to you. But come, you cannot sit in the dirt. Come see Elsie.”

  “She’s still alive?”

  “She is, indeed. And longing to see you.”

  He led her to the door, and she went in.

  Caitlyn was now as tall as Elsie – actually, a little taller. Elsie had grown a little stout. Her hair had faded to grey, and she wore little half-moon glasses perched on her stubby nose.

  Elsie
had been stirring the big pot when Caitlyn entered. Seeing the girl, Elsie dropped her wooden spoon and dashed over to the younger woman.

  “Well, bless my soul, you’re a sight for sore eyes!” Elsie said. “You’re all grown up.”

  “Yes. I’m eighteen today. I haven’t seen you since I was ten.”

  “Come, sit down. I’ll make you something to eat.”

  “Oh, I don’t think I’m staying.”

  Elsie nodded. “So, this world isn’t for you?”

  “I don’t know. I love so many things back in the real world.”

  “A boyfriend?”

  “No, actually. I don’t really need to have a boyfriend.”

  “No, you certainly don’t. But you always wanted to marry Prince Michael.”

  “I realized that I didn’t need to have a prince to be someone of worth.”

  Elsie smiled. “I’m glad you realized that. Will you go to see King Michael?”

  “Yes, of course. It would be rude not to.”

  She gave Elsie a kiss on the cheek, and left the house.

  Storm took her to the castle. Not much had changed on the way. She did notice that there were no wolves howling. She hoped that meant they were gone.

  Storm moved more slowly, and she wondered if it hurt him to carry her.

  “I must be a heavy burden,” she said.

  “No, My Lady. I barely notice. It is an honor to serve you.”

  “Thank you. Are the wolves gone?”

  “Yes. They tried to attack a few times, but the king’s foresters finally succeeded in killing most of them.”

  “I worried about you.”

  “You are kind, Milady.”

  They rode on in silence until they were within sight of the castle.

  “I don’t think I can stay.”

  “That is your choice, Milady. But if you go back to your world this time, you will never again be able to return here. Think well on what you want.”

  They arrived at the castle, and everyone was pleased to see Caitlyn. The guard led her to the room where the king and queen were seeing their subjects.

  King Michael was pleased to see Caitlyn. He took both of her hands in his as she curtsied