Once upon a time there was a bright young boy, whom we shall call Billy. Billy was a smart child, of perhaps six years of age. Like most children of his age, he firmly believed in magic. He also believed that the world was a simple place, but after all, he was six. The fact that Billy believed in magic made him much liked among the magical creatures of the forest, as of course this meant that he believed in them as well. Which was fortunate for them, because, in the manner of these things, without his belief they could not have existed. This is a rather simple fact, yet continues to confuse adults, for various reasons, not the least of which being that they, by and large, do not believe in such creatures themselves.

Little Billy was a largely happy child, with an overactive imagination. At least, that's what adults thought. Adults, however, as we all know, do not believe in magic. Thus, what grown people might perceive as merely an overactive imagination was in fact the manifestation of magic. All manner of magical beings and occurrences followed little Billy wherever he went, from spritely sprites to three-legged dogs. (Three-legged dogs, despite seeming perfectly normal and nondescript to adults, are in fact some of the most magical creatures in existence. This has to do with sundrops and candy canes, and other things like that.)

One day, on a picnic in the forest with his mother and father, Billy decided to walk down to the stream to skip some rocks. This was a favorite pastime of his, and he liked to watch the faeries flitter along beside the stones as they flew through the warm spring air. This time, however, something different would happen. Just as little Billy was about to toss the first stone, dark clouds suddenly rolled in overhead, and rain began to pour down on poor Billy's uncovered head. Luckily, the faeries knew just what to do. Banding together, they each found a large leaf to hold, and all flew into a group over Billy's head to serve as an umbrella so their friend would not get wet.

Before long, the rain had passed, and the sun came back out, as bright as ever. When the small cloud of faeries fluttered away from over his head, Billy saw something spectacular! It was a rainbow, stretching across the sky like a brilliant multicolored ribbon! And one end was just within arms reach of Billy! He reached out one awestruck hand, and ran his fingers through the sparkly fluff that made up the rainbow, then brought a handful to his mouth to taste. It was cotton candy! The rainbow was made of all different flavors of cotton candy. Just as he was about to dive in, Billy heard something behind him. What could it be?

Billy turned around to see... A great white unicorn! And it was waiting just for him. He quickly ran to it, climbed atop its back with the help of the little faeries, and they were off. The unicorn reared, whinnying, and galloped up the side of the rainbow, magically using the bridge of light and cotton candy as a road to speed over the forest as if on the wings of an eagle. Little Billy was awed and amazed, and wondered why he'd never seen a unicorn before today. They were such wonderful creatures. He reached down and patted the unicorn on the shoulder, and started to say as much to the magical creature when, suddenly...


He woke up, to the angry voices of his drunken father and the junkie that had bore him eight months raised in the next room. No words could be made out that weren't curses, and furniture crashed against the wall occasionally. This went on for some time, longer than normal, and then there was a sudden, much louder noise. Then there was silence, in which the faint sound of something heavy collapsing to the filthy carpeting could be heard. Then a faint sob, and the loud noise was repeated. Silence once again grasped the small apartment. Little Billy slowly fell back asleep, returning peacefully to the back of the white unicorn galloping across the candy rainbow, with Skittles flying up beneath its silver hooves.

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