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DENISE PARMA

THE AILEEN CHALANGER

Grandpa cleared his throat and after a couple of minutes he started to say: "A long, long time ago, there was a time when unicorns were common as much as other magical creatures. But now those creatures disappeared from the face of the earth, from the ignorant human eyes and the poor of spirit. In that time a wizard lived in the mountains. He lived alone and spent his time meditating and studying to find the way to the light. He ate food oferred by the forest and drank spring water that came from the mountain. One day when he was looking for herbs to prepare a portion, he tripped on a rock and fell down rolling to the bottom of the mountain and getting seriously wounded.

Two unicorns, a black and a brouw one, were grazing on the bottom of the mountain when they found the wounded wizard. The wizard begged to the unicorns to carry him on their back taking him to the top of the mountain where was his hut. There was a portion that would relieve his pain and cure his wounds.

However, both unicorns ignored the wizard. The unicorns didn't want to get their clean and shinning coat dirty with the blood from the wounds of the wizard. The unicorns continue their journey, indiferent to the wizard's moan. The night was falling and the wizard was almost loosing his hopes when, suddenly, he heard a slow and irregular trot. There was another unicorn passing by the bottom of the mountain. The wizard screamed asking for help. The unicorn stopped for a couple of seconds and then went on again. The wizard screamed asking for help again. The unicorn stopped one more time. After some minutes, the uneven trot of the unicorn was getting more regular and the wizard could hear the unicorn approaching him until they both could see each other, face to face. The wizard begged to the unicorn to take him to his hut the same way as he begged to the other two unicorns. The unicorn seemed to get quite confused with the wizard's request. He looked up studying for a couple of minutes the way to the top of the mountain. Finally, after a lot of thinking, he decided to help the wizard.

The way up was very steep and it was very hard to the unicorn to climb the mountain with the wounded wizard in his back. The unicorn had to stop some times to recover his strength. When they arrived in the hut the wizard got down and immediately searched for the magic portion that would save him. The magic portion was very strong and the wizard fainted when he drank it. When the wizard woke up he went out to thank the unicorn for his help.

The full moon appeared and was illuminating the mountain. The wizard got surprised when he saw, under the moonlight, the unicorn full of pain, lying down a few steps away from the hut. As the wizard had his strength recovered he ran in the unicorn's direction. When the wizard examined the unicorn he got even more suprised: the unicorn was exhausted and could barely breathe. He white coat was dirty with the wizard's blood and with own blood coming from his wounded paw.

The wizard couldn't believe what he saw. The unicorn, although wounded, didn't refuse to help out going all the way up to the top of the mountain with the wizard in his back. To thank the unicorn for saving his life, the wizard not only took care of the unicorn, curing his wounds until he recover his strength, but also transformed his horn in a golden horn. The golden horn had magical power: anyone who touched it would have his wishes granted."


Translated by Kátia Galindo Malaquias Romijn


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