CASTALIA'S TRULY SASSY LASS
and her spirit egg

This is a deeply majikal subject best understood by those with the heart of a child and a mind full of possibilities. Anyone else will find it impossible. When I was twelve I was told that it was scientifically proven that hummingbirds couldn't fly (due to their faulty design). This didn't seem to slow the hummers and I refused to believe anyone ever after that believed science over majik. So I'll tell you the story as it was told to me. Nothing is proven, but it's one of my llamas' favorite stories and my plants love it too. (So do the winged hummers.)

If you've ever read a bible, you'll notice it mentions unicorns. If you're into fantasy, unicorns are oft displayed looking much like a horse and thundering through the woods. What bunk! Unicorns looked NOTHING like horses at all. They were thinner, with long ringlets of silken wool and had eyelashes longer than the cobwebs in my attic. Sound like any horse you know? They had majik imbedded in their soul, but some of the foolish humans of that era thought it was contained in their single spiral horn. Being your basic thieving types, these humans began killing off the magikal creatures for their horns which contained about as much majik as your fingernail clippings.

About this time the rumor began... unicorns would only approach virgins with golden bridles. Well, more bunk! This was started by those same thieving, murdering, misguided jerks that created this whole dilemma. What they were doing was trying to entice young (very young) girls into the woods. Unless you're totally dense you can figure the rest out for yourself.

Something obviously had to be done to protect both the girls and the unicorns. Deep in the Sacred Groves around the countryside, all the healers (oft referred to as witches and warlocks so they could be burned, stoned, hung and otherwise eliminated so only 'certified physicians' could practice on the dis-eased) began to gather. They built fires and invoked the Goddesses and Gods. Fairies, sprites, devas (and even a few of the King's men) joined in the spirited celebration to honor all life and slowly, from within, a plan birthed itself.

I'm not allowed to tell much about the actual happenings here, but the local Orca where I live, have repeated several versions to me. The bottom line was that the only way to save the creatures born of solid majik was to hide them high in the mountains and feed them moonpeaches (a sky blue fruit shaped like a pear and tasting much like almonds - don't see them anymore) to suppress their horn growth.

It was the faithful few, that went with the majik creatures, that later witnessed the most amazing realities of all. At first they thought they'd fallen prey to playful hallucinations that were too bored to inhabit drunks, but as time trudged by, they came to believe that what they saw, felt and thought was true. If you looked carefully at a pregnant female, you could see a shining egg following her about 3 paces behind. Inside, the growing baby could be seen and heard. Often the 'babe in the bubble', as they were commonly called, hung around for a few hours after the mother had birthed the earthly baby.

Over time, the moonpeaches were no longer needed to suppress horn growth and both the horns and the blue fruit were rarities seldom seen. Somehow the unicorns branched into different groups. A couple kinds of camels, guanacos, vicunas, alpacas and llamas. All of them retain the majik of their ancestors and all will freely give that to those who are willing to sit down, hush-up and listen to their silent tales. And all are still followed by their luminous cria eggs. Often a mother will wait and wait to give birth so she can keep the spirit egg near her longer.

I knew many of you wouldn't believe this story, but I was lucky enough to catch this photo of Lassi and her egg before it vanished. True story, honest! If you don't believe me you'll have to get closer to one of the pregnant moms and just sit. Sooner or later, you'll believe too.