The small hedgehog lay down beneath the thick bush, tugging leaves over himself. Time to withdraw from the winter chills. Sleep claimed him like a defending knight, vanquishing the cold and laying a protective sword of warmth next to him. It was time to dream.

Rose Quartz Rebecca, one of the Gemstone Glade crystal fairies, flew around him, spreading rose dust. Then she sat next to the sleeping hog, singing a lullaby, one that her mother – Rosebay Willow – used to softly sing to her each night. Rebecca gently laid a small rose quartz pebble beneath the hog. “Sleep well, little one.”

The rose quartz glowed in the winter night. It was a magical stone, with deep healing properties. As the hog slept, instead of shedding fat he actually grew. His brain rocked within a rose quartz cloud, as the sweetest dreams kept him entertained all winter.

When he awoke in the spring, he found the rose quartz. He knew what to do. Taking it in his mouth, he laid it outside one of the neighbouring houses. The next day, five year old Emily found it. Delight lit her face like a rose quartz lamp. “Mum! Mum! Look!”

That night, as Emily slept, she found herself in Gemstone Glade. Rose Quartz Rebecca flew down to greet her. Unicorn Ryan arrived and they played hide and seek among the trees. She had never been so happy. When Emily awoke, somehow she knew it had been no dream. A memory murmured in her heart, asleep but to awake again one day.

She touched the rose quartz crystal, wondering what secrets it could tell. One day she would find out. For now, she could but dare to dream. And as she succumbed to sweet slumber each night, her rose quartz crystal grew larger. By the summer, it was the size of her palm. By the following autumn, it was the shape of a unicorn. And when winter came, the tiny unicorn crept out of the house, to patrol the gardens looking for hedgehogs, casting his unicorn spell over them to keep them safe all winter. For the magic of rose quartz never dies.