The *Nicorns

Who said that the life of children is so mesmerizing and enthralling? That they don’t go through highs and lows? That they don’t feel the need to vent out and wish for the better? These things are usually overlooked, and because of this something outlandish happened in the coming months. 

As for now, everything was all perfect, except for the run-of-the-mill conditions of the schools, and their lethargic ways of teaching. Each day, the children would have to put up with monotonous classes and schedules. From morning till evening, they would be forced to react to the jerks of these violent strings and be the puppet with no whatsoever will and freedom. The teachers would come, write everything down and expect the children to memorize each letter and word by heart. Such was the outdated methods of these schools; of these teachers; of this system. No matter how much the technology advanced, the schools loved to live under the rock, and due to this, the children had to suffer. 

Then after school, they would tread back to their homes only to be assailed by the never-ending lectures of a home tutor. It was a dull cycle with no room for enjoyment. Every hour was a learning time, and every time was a learning hour. Even the parents didn’t pay enough heed to their children for they were so much indulged in their loads of work. The shunned children of this world were missing on so much, and there was no available help at their disposal. Their lives simply spiraled down to timetables and schedules. Where was the freedom? Where was the love? Where was the happiness? Where hither had gone the sparks from their eyes?

However, one day, something strange happened. Something quirky and perverse that spun the entire destiny of humanity into a complex web of strings that looped atop one another until the unwinding process was beyond redemption. That day the world broke into hysteresis not because of some zombie apocalypse or alien invasion but because of that one willow tree that had been centered for eons on the very planet Earth. 

That tree was known for granting wishes but in a kind of anomalous, clandestine way. However, not everyone was able to procure wishes for the tree required abstinence from every evil of the universe. Then how come the faith in the world changed so abruptly? What happened that day? 

An innocent child, hardly 7 years old turned out to be meandering near the tree. Just moving hither and thither in search of nothing. He was gazing at the sky, broodingly, thinking about the possibilities that could have happened. That kid had all the time in the world, but he chose to spend it near the tree for his parents were doing groceries from the nearby stalls. For some reason, he felt lonely. His parents weren’t giving him attention. He craved their acknowledgment. He yearned for some little happy time together in the park. Just he and them laughing and smiling and dancing around while the genial rays of the sun poured down from the sky in absolute bright patches, lighting up their whole bodies in its beautiful manifestation. 

While his eyes were fixed on the willow tree, he made a wish for he felt that just like his parents, every adult had nearly forsaken happiness for nothing but worldly affairs. This also included ignoring their children, sending them off to mundane schools for little to no gain, and then coming back just to be tucked away in their rooms for tutoring and learning. He made an impromptu wish for everyone to be together, in harmony, spending loads and loads of time adjacent to each other, holding hands and hopping from one place to another till the kingdom comes. 

Such were his delights. Such were his wishes. And they were granted for his heart was pure and cleansed from every kind of contemporary evil. He was a child with an angel’s heart. And so were the other children, no doubt. The tree in front of the child shuddered, twirled around, and released a blinding light that cut through the very air and thundered into the ether and beyond. The child dropped back in awe, half timid, and half astonished. The ole senile tree kept pulsating, leaking pounds of light into the atmosphere. Everyone in the vicinity was completely bemused in silence as if catatonia had grounded its root, deep inside their soul. 

The next moment, the tree grunted, a sound so clear that the child gasped and so did everyone.

“Beloved, now enjoy to your heart’s content. Things shall not be the same anymore,” The tree telepathically conversed with the child and the others at the same time.

Suddenly, the seeping light dispersed into nothingness, and a loud blaring bang of a bell chimed somewhere in the distance. 

With each chime, something would change. First the sky. It changed into shades of violet and purple, so smooth and candy to the eyes. Then it was the turn of the sun. It blushed endlessly and was now so radiantly and profusely shining that for some people it wasn’t the sun it had been once, but rather had gone through an increment to both its power and countenance. 

The second chime transformed the edifices, facades, and towering buildings into houses that were Sympatico in nature to the houses found in fairy tales. They had the same aura to them: a medley of colors complementing each other, shiny lustrous windows glistening in the sun, canopied roofs blessing with the element of repose, hanging loosely the old-fashioned ringing bells, and a dedicated posh area for self-sustaining farming. It wasn’t as if the world was receding back in time, going to stone ages, but was just having a flavor of those times rather ostentatiously. The empty lands morphed into beautiful, exuberant moors. The surface of the river reflected lights in fashion for the accumulated sheen on it was no less than a silver mirror. 

From a dull city to an absolutely vibrant land. From hustle and bustle to pleasant silence. From chaos to tranquility. Everything was just not the same anymore.

The last chime heralded that it was the people’s turn. No one expected this for it was something out of ordinary: people leaving their skins to live, perhaps, forever into another one. One by one, from children to adults, from teenagers to senile ole people, each one of them was impeccably carved into the lush, endearing skins of Unicorns. The same creature that had been a myth for eons was, now, simply a living, breathing example. However, the only difference was that the people weren’t experiencing the exhilarating sight of a unicorn from a third-person perspective, but from a first-person. These once-called humans were now this very mythical creature. 

Initially, there was a commotion, a severe hubbub of chaos for they didn’t know what had happened to them. What was the reason? Even including the child who wished for it. It was beyond his mind to fathom such a coincidence. 

Not to mention, not everyone had transfigured into the same type of unicorn. There was a stark contrast to a majority of them as if there was something, clandestine, specifically special to each unicorn out there. It wasn’t until later that night the unicorns came to terms with their differences. 

The first group consisted of “Me-icorns” which were rather hefty in size and had astronomical hooves, and horns. They had a countenance that of a boulder, large and heavy, but at the same time carried with themselves the same aura of that of a beautiful, strong stallion, always ready to protect its rider. Their neighs were so potent that even the ground would be sent into vehement throes, shrieking in agony and pain. 

As for the second group, it housed actual “Unicorns” as that in the fairy tales. They were kind of washed into a potpourri of colors and had slender, on-fleek figures. They walked with an air of pride for every fiber of their being screamed of flamboyancy. Their eyes were magnificent: large and diluted. Their neighs were as sweet as a nightingale singing in the wee hours. 

It was true that the Unicorns were not as powerful as the Me-icorns, but it didn’t mean that they had nothing to offer or available at their disposal. Actually, the Unicorns were the energy transmitters. In short, they excelled in creating surges of energy that could be channeled into the Me-icorns. Then the Me-icorns could use the same energy to protect this newly emerged realm of theirs, and at the same time, shelter their beloved Unicorns. Also, this energy could be used for creating shields; elemental powers like Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind; and to instantiate time-lapse events. 

But the real question arises, why the Unicorns and Me-icorns had to use the powers? What was the real reason? Why were they bestowed with such a thing in the first place?

For the first few days, everything was tranquil and calm, and serene. People were getting accustomed to their new life of living as a completely different mythical specie. Some of the Unicorns would tease their fellow Me-icorns on appearances and cuteness for they, Me-icorns, had none. It was a rather gentle banter for the sake of lightening the mood and establishing perfect camaraderie for the years to come. Not to mention, the Unicorns and Me-icorns also had this rivalry that was rather based on positivity. They would compete against each other on the grounds of Marina projecting their true powers. Lo and behold, it was kind of dumb, perhaps, to discern the unicorns exerting physical power over the Me-icorns. It was like an ant throwing a fit in front of an elephant. Nonetheless, the Unicorns would don glittering and glistening armor and would walk with an air of pride, ensuring that their hoofs were polished and their manes were tended to. While on the other hand, the Me-icorns would simply wake up, neigh, and come rushing forth without wasting a single second, ever poised to save the very essence of time. At the end of the day, friendly rivalry was kind of needed for polishing their new skills and projecting the real essence of being in different classes. 

However, as time passed, and days went by, things started erupting in a place known as “Times between.” That particular place was known for harboring a lush, marvelous, and ever-gushing river of “Tiana”. The river was enchanting and hexing to the -Nicorns. Everyone would venture out toward Tiana every couple of hours to drink its bountiful water. In the vicinity of the river, there were astronomical mountains and a ravine that was conjoined with the river Tiana and a number of bushes and trees atop the mountains. Within this group of Fiona, there was a plant that was leaking something clandestinely: a red, rancid liquid. None of the -Nicorns paid attention to the pitter-pattering of this particular leakage from a plant for it was hidden from their sight. On top of that, the plant was somehow creating a thick miasma shield across the “Times between” area to hide the foul smell of the leakage, which meant that the -Nicorns were completely imperceptible to such a phenomenon happening in the background, or for say its odor. Not to mention, this plant also looked quite strange for it had protruding branches that spiraled into a cage-like structure. 

It was said that the leakage was the manifestation of the people who never loved peace. Like the marauders, cut-throats, criminals, and politicians of the old times. They were the ones who weren’t able to transfigure into either Me-icorns or Unicorns and got stuck in a limbo of nothingness.  For some reason, this limbo was connected with this plant. The red, pungent liquid contained the very essence of evilness; the essence of retaliation; the essence of lies; the essence of domination; the essence of blood; and the essence of envy. 

The leakage entered the ravine which, in turn, contaminated the river of Tiana. 

What entailed later in the coming weeks was no less than a calamity. The -Nicorns who drank from the river of Tiana got infected. Soon enough, the symptoms surfaced which caused an uproar throughout the realm. Some of the -Nicorns were shedding their skin and colors. Their hoofs went absolutely blunt. The same happened to their horns. Following these symptoms, a strange time period of stagnation followed in which the -Nicorns went rogue, and bonkers. The same -Nicorns who were peace lovers were now causing havoc and disheveling the lands and moors and abodes of their fellow individuals just because they contracted a rare kind of disease from a leaking plant.

This was when the birth of the Terri-corns happened. The ones who drank the contaminated water were the individuals who had the potential to be evil; thus, the contamination exploited that possibility and transformed the -Nicorns (some of the Unicorns and Me-icorns) into Terri-corns. Since now the possibility turned into a 100% guaranteed event, the Terri-corns were born. 

These unholy creatures were poles apart to innocent, faithful, perfect, sin-condemners Me-icorns and Unicorns, and had the aura that of the Ifrit, a devil to all the devils. 

Soon, this new realm was plunged into darkness. The sky bled red. The lands jarred with such a ferocity that they broke into thousand smithereens. The Fiona lost their vibrancy. The fauna left the moors and forests. The sun was inherently draped with an eclipse. The whole projection was that of a doomsday. It was all because of the Terri-corns, the creatures who were looking forward to reversing the effect of that willow tree so they could go back to their ole times when lying and killing were all fun and games. They wanted to get rid of this new fairy tale world for it had that element of everlasting peace, which, now was permanently compromised.

For what it’s worth, these Terri-corns had the dark powers of the void. With a single neigh, they could asunder the grounds and tear apart the skies. With a single thud of a hoof, they could send a phalanx of sound waves with insane frequencies that carried the prowess to assail the ears of those standing nearby. Now, the remaining Me-icorns and Unicorns had to combine their zealous efforts to overthrow this dark regime of the Terri-corns and save their beautiful world from their leering eyes. Joining under a single banner was necessary, and so the Unicorns and Me-icorns marched forth to dethrone the Terri-corns for once and for all for this world was the epitome of perfection and it deserved one last chance!