By Vilina Sanburn-Bill

Once in a far away land called Finano there was a boy who had just witnessed a great tragedy. His name was Ben. His mother hade just died of a sudden heart attack. In three minutes he was alone, all alone. The others, like his aunts, uncles and his father, had died when he was only one. His mother had been very poor so he had not much money, no sturdy house, no food or any friends.

About a week later he went for a walk in the forest. That was where he and his mother used to go when they wanted to talk. He went and sat by the pool of water. He was crying. A large tear rolled down his face and dropped into the water. He looked down at his reflection and saw something that he had never seen before. A cave behind the waterfall! He saw out of the corner of his eye a log going across the pool. He got up slowly and headed to the log and tiptoed across. When he got to the other side he went into the cave. At the back of the cave was a tunnel. The tunnel led to Utopia.

Once he saw light he did not know were he was. Then he saw something that made his heart stop beating. It was a unicorn. The unicorn walked slowly up to him and then to his surprise (not that this wasn’t all a surprise) the unicorn spoke to him. ‘I am Starlight,’ said the unicorn. ‘Starlight the unicorn.’
“Where am I?,’ Ben asked.
“Where are you?’ Starlight said, aghast. ‘You are in Utopia of course, or as we call it -the land of the unicorns’.
‘We’ said Ben. ‘Who are we?’
‘Me and the others’ replied Starlight. Then he raised his mighty head and his horn let out a flash of light and then he said “They are coming to meet you.”

In no time at all he saw about twenty unicorns coming right towards him. They all saw him and started to run. But Starlight told them that it was ok. Starlight said; ‘This child will not kill you. He is the one we have waited for over one million years. He is not like the others that have come.’ (These unicorns never die unless they are killed by a human). ‘He can fulfill the prophecy for us’ Starlight said ‘And he will.’
‘What prophecy?’ murmured Ben.

‘The ancient one,’ Starlight answered. ‘On the next full moon we will all die unless you get a scale from the silver dragon, a feather from a phoenix, the eye of a sea serpent and the tooth of a Kansa. You must stab the cave wall outside with the tooth, then pull it out to make a hole in the wall, next you must put the eye of the sea serpent in this hole and then place the feather in the middle and place the scale over the eye. This is a risky task because you do have to get the things from living creatures.’
‘How do I do that?’ asked Ben.

‘Well first you go and get the scale from the silver dragon” Starlight said as she nudged him towards the forest. ‘He lives in the heart of the forest and tell him the Starlight sent you.’ ‘Go quickly. The full moon is two nights away.’

Ben was walking through a beautiful forest with many grandfather trees and nurse logs. He was going very fast so soon he was out of breath. He sat down on a log and rested for about five minutes then he heard a noise.

It sounded like a roar from far off. He stood up and took off running in that direction. In about forty minutes he hit something. It was cold strong and scaly. It was the dragon. Then he fell down on his knees and apologized for hitting the dragon so rudely. The dragon looked at him and said, ‘Who are you?’ ‘ I am Ben from the land of humans,’ Ben replied.

‘I got in through the cave behind the waterfall. The Unicorns say that I am the one you have been waiting for as you can only die if a human kills you. But I will do nothing of the sort.’
‘Then are you going to fulfill the prophecy?’
‘I most certainly am.’ Said Ben.
‘The by all means, take my scale and go back and finish and remember go with great speed because the full moon is two nights away.’

Ben started running, flat out. He felt a sharp pain in his toe, stopped running, and there on his big toe was a Kansa. The Kansa’s little teeth sung deep into his big toe. The Kansa was the size of a small hamster, and was light as a feather. The Kansas will eat anything up to ten million times their size and that is a lot. Ben asked the Kansa, ‘Sweet little Kansa, may I have one of your little teeth? I will use it to fulfill the ancient prophecy and then you will live in joy, safety and light for the rest of your life, which will be forever, unless you don’t give me your tooth.’

‘All right,’ said the Kansa, ‘I’ll give you the tooth on one condition, YOU GIVE ME SOMETHING TO EAT.’
‘What do you like to eat?’ asked Ben.
‘I like meat, lots and lots of meat.’
‘Then by all means let’s go kill a deer, but first you must get me a bow and arrow.’ The Kansa, using his magical powers, created a bow and quiver of arrows right in front of Ben’s eyes.
‘How are those?’ asked the Kansa.
‘Excellent.’ said Ben.

In a matter of minutes Ben spotted a deer which he killed with the first arrow; the Kansa devoured it and gave Ben his tooth.
Walking back to the Unicorns, Ben heard the sound of crackling fire. Ben set off in case somebody was in trouble. He was a brave boy and he didn’t care for his own life, now that it was torn to pieces.

When he got to the base of the sound, he saw a brilliant red bird, feathers of fire. A Phoenix!! He asked the Phoenix, ‘May I have one of your feathers? I will use it fulfill the ancient prophecy.’ The bird consented. Now he had three of the things he needed. He asked the bird ‘Which way is the seashore?’
She pointed her wing to the east, and said; ‘Go east for ten minutes and you will be there.’ Ben took off running.

The sea serpents head was lying on the beach. He walked up to her, and asked her, ‘May I have one of your eyes, as you can grow them back whenever you need to?’
‘Why do you need my eye?’ asked the sea serpent. ‘To fulfill the ancient prophecy.’ said Ben.
‘You may have my left eye, as it is my right that I favor.’
With the eye tucked safely in his pouch, Ben took off again towards the Unicorns.

When he saw them, he yelled, ‘I have them, I have everything.’
Starlight yelled, ‘Go do what you were told. Then run inside as fast as you can.’
Ben did what he was instructed, got back in safely, and lived with Starlight and the other Unicorns for a great many years.

©2005 by Vilina Sanburn-Bill