Bluebell's Problem
by Cordelia Carrier-Sydor
First Place - Roslyn and Max Margles Contest Grades 3/4
There was once a kind unicorn named Bluebell. She was as soft and white as a cloud with a blue and pink mane which glowed and looked like cotton candy. She lived in a cozy cottage near the Lily Flower Pond next to the Sunsetia Waterfall and the Star Peak Cliff. Her cottage was made out of light grey rocks, each as heavy as ten pounds of gold, and wood as hard as steel. She worked very hard day and night for three months straight to build her cottage.
One sunny day she decided to go to the Iceberg Forest where most frost flowers, spike flowers, masia flowers and glowberries are found because she had run out of food. She followed the path to the Iceberg Forest when she found a nearby tree with lots of glowberries, and tons of masia, frost and spike flowers on the ground. She stared at some beautiful ripe berries in front of her.
She started to pick them one by one when she heard a crackled voice say, “What is that?" The crackled voice became a growl, then a black cat with white fur patches walked slowly towards her. The black and white cat stopped. He took a second and looked at the unicorn, then said in disgust, "What is that pointy bump you have on top of your head?" Shocked and embarrassed, Bluebell replied, "It's my horn!" She heard five voices giggle, then a bear, a pig, a goose, a chicken, and a sheep came from a frost flower bush. They all began laughing and pointing at her.
When the laughter finally stopped, the pig looked at the unicorn's horn and said, "Gross!" The unicorn asked, "What's gross?" Then they all shouted, "You're gross!"
Bluebell tried to hold back her tears. Her voice cracked when she asked, Why are you being so mean to me? Why can't we be friends? " The cat angrily answered, "Because you look weird! You are different from us, so we could never be friends!" Bluebell turned around and began galloping back to her cottage with tears streaming down her face the whole way.
Once she was back home, she went straight into her bedroom and curled up on her bed under the warm blankets. She was exhausted after crying so much that she started to drift off to sleep. She was startled awake when she felt the ground starting to shake and heard a loud thumping and crashing sound coming from outside. Scared and nervous, Bluebell jumped out of bed to go and see what was going on.
Once the shaking and loud noises had stopped, she could hear six voices screaming, "Somebody! Please help us!" She went outside and saw that there had been a rockslide from Star Peak Cliff and there at the top, hanging from the edge of the cliff, were the bear, the pig, the goose, the chicken, the sheep and the cat. She panicked and froze when she saw the six animals who had not been nice to her hanging from the edge of the cliff. She could tell that they wouldn't be able to hold on for much longer.
Without any more hesitation, she focused all of her kindness and love through her horn. When she did that, a bright beam of light travelled to the top of the cliff and guided the six terrified animals gently to the ground.
They were all relieved and happy to be safe. The animals cheered and said thank you to Bluebell for saving them, but all that Bluebell could do was look down at her feet, remembering all of the mean things they had said to her.
The cat walked up to Bluebell and said, "I am very sorry for how I treated you earlier. I tried to make you feel embarrassed because of your horn, but I am the one who should feel embarrassed for how I acted. " The pig stepped forward and said, "I understand now that our differences are what make us special, and that is beautiful." Then the bear, the goose, the chicken and the sheep said that they were sorry one by one. Then the cat asked, "Can you ever forgive us?" Bluebell slowly looked up at the cat and with a warm smile and said, "Yes, of course I can forgive you." After giving Bluebell a big group hug, the animals returned to their homes.
Later that evening, Bluebell heard a knock at the door. It was her new friends holding a glowberry cake with the words, "Thank you, Bluebell!" on it. They all sat down together and feasted on the delicious glowberry cake and frost flower smoothies. They had all learned the importance of being kind and the power of forgiveness. And they all lived happily ever after.
ABOUT THE CREATOR
First Place, Grades 3/4 - Cordelia Carrier-Sydor
The jury found “Bluebell’s Problem” to be a very creative fantasy story with good flow and a well-developed story arc. They were impressed by the bold imagination of the author, the good character development, and the great descriptions.
The word Nankoweap is Paiute and the phrase carries differing meanings, such as “place where people were killed” and “place that echoes.”