The Unicorn's Winter Bell

A Sound in the Snow

On the quietest night of winter, Sora heard one silver note outside her window. In the snow stood a pale unicorn with a tiny bell hanging from a blue ribbon.

“It is not my bell,” the unicorn said. “I found it beside the forest path, and someone may be listening for it.”

They followed the unicorn's hoofprints through the sleeping village. At each door Sora rang the bell once. A baker shook his head. A baby waved. A dog answered with one hopeful bark.

The House Without a Light

At the last cottage no lamp shone, but the dog pulled toward it. On the step sat an old woman wrapping an empty collar in a blanket.

When the bell rang, the dog rushed forward. The old woman knelt in the snow and held him close. “There you are, Moss,” she whispered.

The bell belonged on Moss's collar. During the storm it had slipped free, and Moss had followed the road too far.

One More Silver Note

The old woman offered Sora and the unicorn warm milk. Moss slept with his head on Sora's boot, his bell safely tied with the blue ribbon.

“Your magic found him,” Sora told the unicorn.

“Listening found him,” said the unicorn. “Magic only made the snow sparkle.”

Before dawn they walked home. Behind them the winter bell sounded once—not lost now, but exactly where somebody hoped to hear it.