1Chapter One: Discoveries
"Don't touch me." Rio snapped as her mother started to place her hands on her shoulders.
"What is your problem? You're always in such a bad mood. I don't like it. What a daughter I have. I came to tell you that you have to clean out the garage or else you're not going anywhere this weekend." Rio rolled her dark blue eyes as her mother Annette walked away from the half moon shaped table Rio was sitting at.
The polished wooden table was placed against the wall by a large window looking out at their own section of private Caribbean beach. It was dusk, and the sun was almost done setting across the ocean. She sighed. 'Why do I have to clean out the garage? Christ! She always makes me do everything that she doesn't want to do!' Rio got up from the table and walked through the sunburst colored kitchen and into the bright red themed living room and outside through the french doors.
Out on the deck, a warm breeze welcomed Rio. She decided to go for a walk down the beach. On the right of her house were her neighbors and more fancy houses decorating the shores. But to her left, was a tropical forest that stretched down to the end of the coastline. Her mother always told her to never walk down that way during the nighttime, no matter how much she wanted to. 'Curiosity killed the cat', she always used to say. What an old, used saying, usually effective though. But tonight, that uncivilized part of the beach was so inviting, and Rio felt she just had to walk down that way. Rio had been in the forest during the day, so why not at night? There was no carnivorous animals that would attack her down there. She was wearing bug spray after all. Mosquitoes were the only carnivores that she needed to worry about. So Rio started down that inviting way of the beach.
'A moonlit walk on the beach. Just the thing to clear one's mind….and hopefully to cure my everlasting boredom.'
Rio walked a straight line barefoot down the part where water meets sand. Her dark blue eyes glanced back, her long fiery auburn curls swaying around her back, every step washed away on the shore. Ahead of her, something fairly large had rolled up on shore. Her pace quickened as her curious mind went to investigate. As she neared the object, she noticed how it was silvery in color, a little excited, her imagination thought of how it could be some sort of treasure. Not too far away from it, she ran right up to the object, not paying attention to it.
The moon was suddenly clouded over. It was now quite darker than when the moon was shining brightly. The forest did not relent with its devious sounds. She approached the object, which seemed like a shadow in the temporary darkness. It seemed to be round in shape, and she leaned over with her slender arm now outstretched, to touch the rounded shadow. It smelled quite fishy from the ocean. As the clouds started to reveal the moon, she touched the object and squealed.
"EW! Gross! Oh my God! Sick!" She yelled to herself and ran into the water trying to wash her hands in the ocean. "I can't believe I just touched that!" She had just touched a fairly large dead silvery fish that seemed to have washed up on the shoreline just recently.
It was missing an eye, and had long, slender, sharp looking teeth protruding from its mouth. She had not seen or heard of this type of fish before.
Rio sighed. She had hoped it was something special. But it was obviously not. She continued her walk down the beach, singing to herself. She did not know all the lyrics, so she added different lyrics from other songs to fill in the nameless parts. This was an attempt to try and forget about touching the creepy dead fish.
Rio stopped singing as she heard a rustle in the bushes to her far left. Her head turned immediately in the same direction from which the sound occurred. The rustling sounds continued and she heard a bell jingling as well. Perhaps an unlucky animal had been caught in a hunter's trap. She now heard stomping and snorting sounds as she slowly approached the forest. She looked ahead of herself and saw the whole tree shaking that the creature was tied to. Rio wondered what it was as she walked closer to the animal. But she did not wonder long, for she heard more sounds that indicated that the animal was a horse. Certainly not a wild one, they didn't have wild horses around here. A high pitched whinny could be heard above the sounds of the bell.
Rio walked through the bushes and in a small clearing she saw the hind end of a white horse. The horse reared, and turned to face Rio. She gasped. The horse wasn't a horse at all. Yes, this was a creature of magical proportions. With cloven hooves, a white lion's tail, and a long, sharp, spiraling horn protruding from the forehead, this creature was no doubt a unicorn.
"Oh my God...you are...its ok, let me help you." Rio was at a loss for words even though the unicorn may not understand her.
"I'll untie you." Rio said as she neared the unicorn. There was a rope with a quick knot tied around the unicorn's neck, just beneath the jaw, extending up into the tree, causing the animal to choke. The unicorn obviously wasn't able to release itself, because the rope was behind the long, wondrous spiraling horn. She carefully climbed the tree, crawled along the wide branch and released the rope which bound the unicorn to the tree.
She jumped from the tree and neared the unicorn and clear violet eyes met blue. Rio extended her hand to the unicorn's nose and heard a voice. "Thank you Rio." The voice was inside her head, and this did not surprise Rio, because she had read about unicorns in books. The unicorn's voice was clear and softly masculine. Rio walked to his side and untied the remaining rope with the bell that hung loosely around his neck. "I must leave you, and you should depart as well, for my captor's voices are nearing." He connected once again to Rio's mind. "Farewell Rio." His voice lingered in Rio's mind. "Goodbye." Rio said as she watched the unicorn gallop out towards the shore and gracefully slowed to wade into the water. Rio watched until the tip of his horn disappeared beneath the water.
I have half of a second chapter done so far for this story, but I was so excited about it, I just had to post this first one now! I want to know your thoughts on this so please review!