Layla And The Mysterious Horse

• Lexi Chan, Grade 2
• Short Story
• 2022

Once upon a time there was a girl named Layla and she was 14 years old. Her favourite thing to do was to ride her horse Sparkle but one day this happened. When she was walking home from school with her friends, she saw that Sparkle was gone! The next day it was a weekend so it gave her time to investigate. She called her friends but when they went to the stables her horse was surprisingly there!
“It’s right there!” said Linda. “That’s strange,” said Layla. “What do you mean?” asked Lily. But they had to go to horse riding class so they planned to investigate after riding class. When Layla and her friends got there, they told Mr Edward, their riding teacher, about what happened to the mysterious horse. “Interesting,” said Mr Edward, as he remembered what he read in The Book of Horses.
“I want to show you something,” said Mr Edward. Layla, Sparkle and her friends followed him. He showed them to a magical cave that would lead them to the truth. There were lots of crystals and glitter everywhere. “Woah!” said Linda. “Where is Layla?” asked Lily. “Actually, where is Layla?” said Mr Edward. Layla thought they were joking but they actually weren’t. They couldn’t see her or Sparkle, even though they could hear Sparkle neigh. They had become invisible in the cave.
When she looked at Sparkle she saw that there was a pointy thing growing on her head. It got bigger and her mane changed. It’s now more colourful and longer. Then she saw big wings coming out of Sparkle’s body. “You’re a unicorn!” Layla spoke in excitement. It seemed every time she touched the mane she would become invisible along with Sparkle!
Layla let go of Sparkle’s mane and reappeared in front of her friends. They were shocked to see that Sparkle was a unicorn! Mr Edward explained, “In my book it said that when a unicorn is born it gets assigned to a person but it might not be their owner, however if that person is their owner, over time they start to evolve into a unicorn. You’re a very lucky girl, Layla!” And she lived happily ever after with Sparkle.