A Pegasus in the Forest
On a cool autumn morning Emily ventured into the forest with nothing but a basket of carrots and a camera. A few weeks ago when Emily was out camping, she thought she saw something hiding behind the tall pine trees. She could not remember the exact shape of what it was, but the only color she saw was yellow, and what she believed was wings. To Emily, it could have been some kind of mythical beast. When her curiosity intensified, she decided to find out what it was once and for all.
As Emily came deeper into the center of the forest, she found a lone stump. She laid the basket of carrots on top of it, and made herself comfortable behind a log. Emily kept her keen eyes on the stump, her camera ready in her hands.
While waiting for whatever it was that was hiding in the trees, Emily’s mind drifted to the times during her childhood when her grandfather used to tell stories about the strange and weird creatures that used to lurk in the town. In one of his stories, a giant mothman would stalk the neighborhood at the dead of night, and ate nothing but garbage and day-old food scraps. Another story involved a bird and lizard hybrid that walked two legs and had wings that resembled a bat’s. Her favorite story from her grandfather was that of talking animals he used to meet when he was a boy. Whenever he went out to explore the forest, just as she was doing now, the animals would slowly emerge from the bushes and only say a few words to him, sometimes in broken English and other times in perfect English, then leave without a trace. Each of them came in a different color. The most interesting aspect of those beings was that they may looked the same on the outside, but if you looked closely, they had something that made them different from the rest. Those stories always fascinated Emily, and she dedicated the rest of her childhood going into the forest to meet these odd creatures of myth, all without her parents permission.
Emily held the camera over her face, her index finger hovering over the button that would capture the magnificent creature. She knelt on the ground, her arms leaning on the long, and waited for the exact moment. The 14-year-old mumbled in excitement about what she would do if the creature came out.
As morning turned into noon, the basket of carrots remained on the stump untouched. Emily caught herself falling asleep a few times before dozing completely and waking up again. She carried her head with her hand with a bored expression on her face. When she checked her watch it read 11:30 A.M. She wiped the autumn leaves from her brown hair and kept herself alerted.
She could not remember when it happened, but as soon as Emily woke up, the time on her watch was currently 12:20 P.M. She quickly sat up from the ground and aimed her camera at the stump. The basket of carrots was still there. Emily slumped her shoulders and decided to call it day. She climbed over the log to retrieve the carrot basket, and returned to her home. However, she was going to try again tomorrow. Maybe next time she’ll get that yellow creature.
The next morning Emily returned to the exact spot she waited yesterday. This time, instead of only carrots, she added apples into the basket. She placed it on top of the same stump and hid behind the same log. Emily looked at her watch and the current time was 9:00 A.M. She pulled her camera from her backpack and held it over face, and the will to find the mysterious creature grew ever stronger.
After fifteen minutes of waiting, Emily decided to rest herself and occupy her mind on something else. She took out a sketchbook from her backpack and began to draw. Her hand guided the pencil as she drew big circles, little circles, and other details into the cartoon. On the sketchbook she drew what she might think the creature looked like. Emily imagined a winged lion with the head of an eagle, a griffon some would call it. When she finished her sketch, Emily added color to the drawing. The griffon posed gloriously in full color on her sketchbook.
Emily put the sketchbook down to check on the tree stump. She held the camera over her face and kept aim. It was not until ten seconds later that her mind registered the fact that the basket of carrots and apples disappeared. In a state of shock, the camera fell out of Emily’s hands. She backed away slowly, her head turning in every direction, thinking the creature might be near her. Her ears picked up a sudden whooshing sound that was coming from above. As she crawled backward she felt something round and solid on her hands. Emily turned around and saw that the basket was returned to her, along a bright yellow feather.
Later that night, Emily could not sleep. No matter how hard she tried, she could not get her eyes to close. What happened earlier that morning had been troubling her. She gazed at the ceiling, wondering why the creature had not taken her offer. Emily turned her head and saw the yellow feather on her nightstand. She reached for the feather and held it to her face. Many questions crossed her mind. Why did the creature return my basket? Why hadn’t it attacked me when it got the chance? Has it seen me before?
Emily placed the yellow feather back on the nightstand. She turned to the side facing the window, and thoughts of her grandfather’s old stories flooded her mind. She dwelled on the mysterious animals that spoke to him the most. She imagined that one day, those same animals will come out of the bushes and speak to her the same way they did her grandfather.
It was not until later that she felt her eyelids growing heavy. Emily opened her mouth a released a low, but audible yawn. With her eyes still facing the window, she slowly drifted off to slumberland. The area around her was consumed in blackness, and she finally shut her eyes, sleeping peacefully.
A whooshing noise coming from outside disrupted Emily from her sleep. She thought it was only the wind, and made nothing of it. The whooshing noise grew louder and closer, making it hard for Emily to return to sleep. It sounded like the flapping of eagle wings. She sat up from her bed to investigated the strange noise.
Emily looked out her window from the comfort of her bed to see if the wind was blowing on the trees. Surprisingly, when she gazed at the streetlamps, the trees were still, save for a light shake from the breeze. Although the flapping sound was infrequent this time, she figured it was just birds misbehaving on her roof. Emily figured she will take care of it in the morning.
She climbed back to bed to get a good night’s rest, only to swiftly turn around once more when she noticed a minor detail. From the bottom right corner of her window, Emily spotted something that appeared to be pink hair and a pair of blue eyes peeking at her. She rubbed her eyes to make sure she was not seeing things. The pink hair was still visible, along with the blue eyes.
Emily hastily climbed out of her bed and advanced to the window. When she opened it, and stuck her head out, whatever it was that stalking her had vanished. She looked to her left and her right, but there was no sign of it anywhere. However, the last sound she heard that night was the rapid flapping of wings.
Morning arrived, and once again Emily journeyed into the the same spot in the forest with her jeans and jacket, carrying the same basket of fresh carrots and apples from last time. It was mostly cloudy this time, with slightly less sunlight from the previous days, but not so much that it might rain anytime soon. When she finally arrived at the spot where the stump was, Emily excitedly placed the basket on top of it, jumping over to the same log as before. With her hands holding the camera, she was ready for anything.
Emily had no idea what she will do if the moment came that she actually took a photo of the amazing creature. Could she show it someone? Will anybody believe her? Will they think it is a fabrication? The more she thought about it, she realized that most of her family thought her grandfather was crazy. Even her own father thought grandfather’s old stories were nothing but that… just stories. Emily’s grip on her camera loosened. Will she been seen the same way her family sees grandfather?
She contemplated going home, until she heard a noise coming from the bushes. Emily aimed her camera at the direction the noise emerged. The rustling of the bushes increased, and she tightened the grip on her camera for dear life. Emily had her index finger ready to press the button when she was something pink poke out from the bushes. Her palms were sweaty, and she feared she may drop the camera before anything exciting happens, but she held on to it.
The pink that was sticking itself out from the bushes revealed to be hair. Emily watched it closely, and she finally saw that the pink hair was actually a pink mane… that belonged to a horse. Not a horse, but a pony. As the pony emerged slowly from the bushes, Emily also saw that it was yellow, with a pair of two beautiful eyes, with part of its face covered by its pink mane. She could not believe it, but it was right there in front of her. It was the strangest pony she had ever seen in her entire life. The more she gazed at it, she could not help but noticed that the pony looked nervous. It had an almost human expression.
The yellow pony finally came out from the bushes, and slowly approached the basket on the stump. Emily was frozen with shock. This was actually happening. This was reality. She could not do anything but watch the weird pony. As the yellow pony stood in front of the stump, it looked like it was examining the basket. It tilt its head sideways, as if it had seen the basket before. Emily was so mesmerized by what was happening, she forgot she had the camera in her hands, and it fell to the ground by accident.
On impact the camera flashed. The yellow pony was suddenly startled by the flash from the camera. It stretched its wings and floated off the ground away from the site. Emily returned to reality, and immediately grabbed the camera and chased what was now revealed to be a pegasus. The yellow pegasus flew higher and faster, so much so that Emily could not keep up with it. With one last force of will, Emily aimed her camera at the sky and took another picture. Afterward, the yellow pegasus became a small dot on the horizon.
Emily stopped to catch up with her breath. She looked at the photo she took of the pegasus on her camera. She frowned when she saw that the photograph was blurry. All she could see was a yellow blur with pink on the top. This was not what she wanted at all. Emily wanted to delete the photo. Her finger hovered over the button, but at the last minute she decided not to. With the pegasus gone, she grabbed her belongings and headed straight home.
Emily never returned to the forest after that day. She figured she had scared the pegasus off, so there was no point in trying to find it again. She was stuck in her bedroom, thinking about all of those days trying to get a good picture of that yellow pegasus, only to fail in the process. Emily was sitting by her desk, drawing a picture of it. After having seen it only once, she remembered exactly how it looked like, from its beautiful pink mane to the color of its eyes and skin to the marks on its hindquarters that look suspiciously like butterflies.
Emily put down her art supplies and examined her latest work. As she admired it, she thought about her grandfather once more, and the mysterious animals he said he once met. What if that pegasus was one of them? She picked up the yellow feather that was sitting next to her lamp, and ran her fingers through it. She felt something strange inside her when she touched it, like some kind of force entering her body. As much as she did not want to, she felt the strong need to go back to the forest and find the pegasus again.
For the final time, Emily returned to the forest. However, she was traveling lightly, with only her backpack. She did not take the camera with her this time. Instead, she was holding a fresh red apple. As she walked the trail that led to the forest, the autumn leaves blew circles around her feet. The air around her was cool and breezy.
She reached the same spot where she spent those days searching for the pegasus. The stump was still there, and so was the log. Emily removed her backpack and sat on the log, and waited patiently for the yellow pegasus. For the first time, she knew what she will do when it came back.
After fifteen minutes of waiting, she heard flapping sounds from the sky. Emily looked up and saw a yellow figure descending from above like an angel. The yellow pegasus had returned. Once it landed on the ground, the pegasus stood and stare at the human girl sitting on the log. It hid its face behind its long pink mane and took a few steps back. Emily held out her hand slowly so she would not frighten it. She held the apple with the other.
The yellow pegasus’ face was visible again, but instead of nervousness, its face caught the expression of curiosity. Emily gently smile at it, and held the apple in place. The yellow pegasus carefully approached the human until its mouth was close to the apple. Emily kept it in place, keeping herself as motionless as a rock. The winged pony grabbed the apple from the human’s hand with its mouth and took a bite. Emily watched with silent joy as the pegasus consumed the apple.
She knelt down to the pegasus’ level and whispered, “My grandfather told me about you.” The pegasus looked up in confusion, pieces of the apple on its mouth. “He told me there are other beings like you. That you talked to him once. What’s your name?” The pegasus’ childlike eyes were locked with the human child’s. She was not sure, but Emily felt as though some connection was being built. “My name is Emily,” she said again. “What’s your’s?”
The pegasus looked down on its hooves, not sure of what to say to the human. It twiddle its forearms on the ground, like how human children would do with their legs when they are trying to find an answer to something. Emily kept her warm smile on her face, and waited for an answer.
“... My name’s Fluttershy,” the pegasus quietly said. Emily smile grew into a grin, then she reached for her backpack. She pulled out two items, one was a friendship bracelet she made while she was in first grade, and the other was the portrait of Fluttershy she created in the morning.
“I want you to have these,” she said. “They’re gifts.”
Fluttershy took the friendship bracelet and inserted it on her right hoof. Then she grabbed the portrait gently with her mouth. After the gifts were received, Fluttershy lips curled into a lovely smile. The yellow pegasus stretched her wings and lifted herself off the ground. Emily took a few steps back and watch her ascend to the clouds above.