Once upon a time, long, long ago, the last pair of unicorns on earth realized the only way they could survive would be to disguise themselves and their magic from the world.
They ran away into the deep high mountains of South America. There they met a family who cherished them for what they were and recognized how special they were. They were allowed to roam the mountains freely, without interference.
One day the youngest child saw strangers on horseback riding up the trail that led to the high mountain valley where the two unicorns lived. Fearing the worst the child ran ahead to the unicorns and told them what she had seen.
Gasping and out of breath she said ‘Run, hide, disguise yourself. There are dangerous men coming up into the valley and I know they mean to harm you”. The unicorns were confused about what to do.
“No matter where we go”, the male unicorn said, “People will know us for who we are by our wonderful horn. What are we to do?”
“You will have to remove your horns, it’s the only way,” said the child in all honesty. “It may hurt, but I can’t think of any other way”.
The unicorns agreed, the male bit off his partner’s horn, and she bit off his. They stomped the horns into small pieces, each ate the others horn so there would be no trace, and the magic would be preserved.
And from that day, on every time the little girl would go up into the high mountain valleys she would call out to them with her very special name. "YAMA, YAMA, YAMAS come see me", she would call and they would come out of hiding and play with her.
One day her father followed her into the hills and heard the strange name she called out. "What else would I call them father, she said. "You Are Magic Animals, of course".
And now, hundreds of years later, when you go out into the fields, you will see their children, now called llamas still chewing on the magic of the horns their great-great-great grandparents passed on to them after all these years.
Copyright Tuesday, February 12, 2008 Gary Kaufman, Roads End Llamas Olympia WA. Permission is granted for nonprofit educational duplication and distribution. This permission is in addition to rights granted under Sections 107, 108 and other provisions of the U.S. Copyright Act.
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