Fairy Dandelia was a flower fairy. But while other flower fairies had beautiful butterfly wings shining with all sorts of colors, Dandelia the fairy had none. This bothered her very much because the other fairies often made fun of her for it. That was very nasty of them.
The day was approaching when the little fairies’ school would end. All those who had successfully completed the first fairy class would get their own unicorn. Dandelia was so looking forward to it! Finally, something to confirm that she was indeed a fairy. Even without wings.
“Dear fairies,” said the teacher, “today is a very important day. Each of you will receive your own little unicorn foal. You may name it whatever you like. During the holidays, you must take good care of it so that it grows up. In the second class we will be training it and you will learn to ride it. Now I will ask each of you to go in a different direction into the forest. Your unicorn will find you. Then come back with your unicorns.”
The fairies ran off in different directions. Dandelia ran to the edge of the forest where a small stream flowed. She sat down on a rock and looked around impatiently. Nothing happened for a long time. But then something rustled in the thicket. A beautiful little white foal appeared among the branches and ran happily towards Dandelia.
“Yay! Hello, Horn,” Dandelia cried, hugging the foal. It rubbed against her lovingly.
When Dandelia returned with her foal among the other fairies, her excitement was gone. The other foals had a small horn between their eyes. Hers didn’t. Dandelia was in tears.
“Maybe his horn will grow back,” the teacher tried to reassure Dandelia. “Unicorns are very mysterious creatures and they can surprise you.”
And so Dandelia took good care of her unicorn all through the holidays. She loved him very much. She didn’t call him Horn anymore, she called him Hornless. Every day, she looked at his head to see if he was growing a horn. But still nothing.
The holidays passed and the first day of school was here. All the fairies had unicorns with horns that had grown even bigger in the two months.
“You’re just not a fairy, Dandelia,” said her classmate Lila. “And this isn’t a unicorn, it’s just a regular, ordinary horse.”
“Not ordinary,” Dandelia defended him.
“But it is. See, you white hornless monster,” Lila said to Hornless. But she shouldn’t have done that at all.
Hornless got mad, and he ran headlong at Lila as if to poke her with a horn he didn’t have. Lila was so frightened that she froze. She barely managed to jump out of the way, otherwise the Hornless would have rolled over her. So the Hornless missed and didn’t have time to halt. He hit a tree with his head. There was a crash. Instead of a horn, the Hornless had a bump on his head. Dandelia put a morning glory leaf on it and stroked it.
“Don’t worry about it, my Bump. I love you anyway.”
“That stupid horse of yours tried to hurt me. I’ll tell it to the teacher and she’ll have him chased out of our forest!” Lila echoed.
“No way. Don’t you dare.”
“Yeah? You’d have to catch me first to stop me,” said Lila, running away across the meadow.
Dandelia raced after her. She wasn’t going to let that stupid girl take her horse. The two fairies ran as fast as their legs could carry them. They tore through the grass and flowers. They didn’t even notice that they had reached the edge of the high cliffs, where a deep abyss opened its throat. Lila ran onto the rock, wobbled in surprise, but then bounced off, her wings lifted into the air. Now she was flying.
Dandelia didn’t notice the steep end of the rock until it was too late. She stopped at the very edge, but her foot slipped on the dirt and the wingless fairy plunged down into the abyss. Suddenly, there was a clatter of horses’ hooves. Hornless had ran after them all the way, up to the edge of the cliff, bounced off, and raced after the falling Dandelia. And then something amazing happened. The Hornless spread its wings like a bird, caught Dandelia on its back and swooped down to the ground with her.
“You’re not a unicorn! You’re a pegasus!” marveled a surprised Dandelia, hugging her horse, whose massive white wings were now sprouting from his hips.
Lila came down to the ground to join them.
“I’m sorry, Dandelia, I wronged you. It would have turned out badly. If it wasn’t for your brave horse, of course. Will you forgive me?”
“Yes, Lila. We’ll be friends from now on.”
Then Dandelia turned to her pegasus.
“And what will I call you now? I’m going to change your name from Rose, Hornless, and Bump to Angel.”
“That’s a lovely name,” Lila agreed. “I’m calling my unicorn Froggy. When I sit on her, she seems to bounce around a lot. Just like a frog.”
The two fairies laughed and went back to their fairy meadow by the forest. There they learn together and guard the flowers and the peace in nature, they don’t compete with each other and they don’t mock anyone anymore.
