(c) Can Stock Photo / Catmando

Floral perfume drifts on the breeze, an elixir of joy and peace. Peony neighs softly, enjoying the evening calm in Gemstone Glade. The fountain sparkles in the setting sun. Fairies fly through the trees, laughing. The world is alive with happiness.

Peony drops her horn to the fountain, shaking her head in glee. She loves Gemstone Glade. The healing properties of the fountain water fill her soul. She neighs again. In the distance, another unicorn returns her neigh. Then the glade is silent, with only the occasional punctuation of fairy laughter.

Peony is a child unicorn with a difference. She can breathe in flower pollen, and then breathe out tiny flowers. No one knows how she does it. This makes her feel weird at times. Why her? Why does she have this strange gift? But at other times, she is glad. It is great fun after all, seeing the flowers float far and away, to where she does not know.

She has heard that there are other unicorn children who had special gifts, which they lost as they grew older. Will this happen to her? She does not know.

She can feel pollen building in her nose like clouds overtaking a still summer sky. A few minutes pass, then tiny pink flowers erupt from her mouth, and fly high above. Where will they end up? She wishes she could see. But for now, she enjoys the vision of pink stars in the sky. She neighs softly. Perhaps her gift is not that bad.

*

Janet slowly walks through the wood, clutching her walking stick, bones aching as she moves. She recalls childhood days playing hide and seek here. A smile loiters on her lips. Happy memories. She is looking for the small glade where she made a doll’s house, so many fun hours there with her best friend Lucy.

Finally she finds it. Her own hidey-hole, still there. Her eyes open wide, delight shining within. There are flowers! The glade is speckled with tiny pink buds, a message of hope and a sign of enduring life. Janet laughs. Slowly, she sits down among the flowers, and cries. So many childhood memories, like flowers they are special but you have to keep them close, or they may simply float away.

Tears of joy fall and bathe the flowers.

Far away, in a larger forest glade, a child unicorn dreams of her flowers, and wonders where they are. We do not need to know the difference we make in the world, we just need to do it anyway. Like flowers, our actions fly far away and have outcomes we can never know or imagine. But believe, believe in your good deeds and one day, you too will be full of happy memories. Memories are forever, hidden treasures like a secret woodland glade at the centre of your heart.