Have you ever been with your friends and some competitive event arises amongst the group? It may be physically related, such as sports. Or the completely random competitions, for example who can grow the best beard or who can shovel the driveway faster. An uncontrollable sensation builds up to win and losing is not an option. Winning grants you bragging rights over them, but most importantly, it makes you the alpha male. Whether you win or lose, backing down is not an option. These constant little battles builds the genuine bond of friendship.

When I was eighteen and first moved out of my parent’s house, I was living with one of my former hockey teammates, Caden. It was late February and we were watching a survival documentary. Throughout the documentary, an urge to go deep into the woods and spend a few days camping began to arise. There had been a stretch of a few “warm” days that week. By the end of the documentary we were pumped to go camping, but most importantly, the ability to out-camp one another. There was no way I was going to let him camp longer and better than myself!

The decision had been made we would go camping that weekend for three days. It was supposed to be 25° degrees out. We headed over to Walmart and each bought a 30° sleeping bag. Of course we ensured each other that would be warm enough. Each of us had our own expert plan for the items and food to bring.

The plan was to find some state land and hike in a few miles to set up camp. Google Earth is a great tool to get a brief understanding of the land. We decided to go to the Eau Claire State Forest. As we were driving out to begin the adventure, there was a lot of big talk to reinforce each other we had what it took to make it the full three days. Maybe we would stay for four days, why not?

Neither of us had ever done any real camping. I went out a few times with my parents as a kid, but I never hiked into the woods and camped out. After walking a couple of miles, an agreement was reached our location was a good spot. In reality we were both surprised how difficult it was to walk through the wet snow with all our gear. Day one primarily consisted of setting up our gear. I choose to sleep in a hammock and Caden went with a tent. He assured me that a tent was a great idea because the snow would serve as padding. Despite the cold, we were in high spirits throughout the day as we crafted our own campsite.

On the morning of day two we expressed how each of us slept like a baby. It was actually the coldest I had ever been, but no way I was telling him that. We brought a hatchet to acquire firewood. Prior to the trip, we had this peculiar desire to chop down our firewood. Both of us had no idea how time-consuming it was to get firewood. A saw would have been much better tool than the hatchet. Since our friendship is built around competition, a hatchet throwing contest quickly sparked. This lead to a long distance throwing challenge. Caden was first and threw the hatchet as hard as he could at a tree 35 yards away. We watched the hatchet fly through the air, miss the tree, and disappear into the snow. This lead to an hour investigation. Assuming it was gone forever we started walking back to camp. All of a sudden Caden’s boot kicked the hatched under the snow and we hugged in joy for about five minutes.

My brilliant game plan for food was to bring only Bush’s Baked Beans. Caden brought various granola bars and about four cans of sloppy joe’s. We were heavily dependent on canned food, and a can opener would have been a great idea to bring. Unfortunately the hatchet was our only option, it worked about as well as you’d expect. The best strategy was to chop a hole in the side of the can. When Caden hacked opened his first can of sloppy joe’s, he realized you actually need to buy ground beef as well. I had a great laugh about this and criticized his camping abilities. However, I lived on fast food as most eighteen-year-olds and didn’t know you needed to buy beef either. Luckily I had a surplus of Bush’s Beans and didn’t each much due to the difficulty of opening a can.

It was still getting dark really early and we spent half of the day sitting in the dark. We were a little blown away how dark it really was and the little amount of light a fire provided. We spent most of the time sitting in my hammock observing the bright stars. Without light pollution from a city, the night sky comes alive. By the time we were going to bed, the only pants I brought were completely soaked from the snow. I was dreading the long night ahead and it was much colder than the prior night because of the wind. So I hung up my pants and decided to wear my jacket as pants. Sleeping in the hammock was absolutely terrible because you can only lay in one position for eight hours. The wind was so cold on my back I was considering laying on top of my sleeping bag instead of inside it.

The next morning my pants were stiff as a board. I could swing them around like a tennis racket. Caden had a lot of snow in his boots making for an excellent start to the morning. Somehow he made it both nights without water soaking through his cheap tent. We agreed to pack up our gear and make the hike back to our car at the break of dawn. The closer we got to the car, the more we began to admit our mental and physical challenges. We’ve played hockey in so many different cold rinks and thought it had conditioned us. We couldn’t believe how cold it had been and most importantly the pure excitement to get into a warm car.

As we loaded our gear into the car, still starving and freezing, we were laughing and full of joy to be alive. We’d never been so cold and laughed about how we were going to freeze to death before admitting we wanted to go home early. Caden said he was convinced I was going to cave once I started wearing my jacket as pants. We stopped at the closest McDonald’s and went inside to enjoy the warmth and food before heading home to sleep all day.

It has been a few years since this adventure and every February Caden and I laugh about the trip. We consider this to be the weekend we became men. Even though we were awful campers, we found our limits and what it means to struggle. Since then, we’ve done a lot of long and difficult camping trips. For some reason the unanticipated difficulty of this trip made us love camping. Now we do lots of research and each invested in a good quality sleeping bag. Our mind-set to “out-camp” one another has morphed into an appreciation for nature and the significance of teamwork.

Written by: Chuetou Kha

During my years in junior high and high school, I really didn’t accept my identity as a Hmong person. I spoke the language, I looked like one, my last name declared it, and I grew up in the culture. Sure, the Hmong culture I grew up in wasn’t the traditional Hmong culture. The Hmong culture I grew up in was influenced by American culture and Christian values. But not keeping the traditional customs created a barrier between my Hmong friends and me. One would even say that I wasn’t really Hmong if I was a Christian. However, that didn’t mean that was able to fit in with the white people.

I started questioning this at the beginning of 8th grade in junior high. I didn’t know where I belonged, and I didn’t want to accept my Hmong identity. I tried fitting in with the white people as they seemed “cooler” as most of them were “popular”. They played sports, they had a sense of style, they had cliques, and their personal lives on social media were something I wanted. I looked at my people and they weren’t cool, they were loud, swore a lot, and I thought they were disrespectful and looked down upon. I went as far as “I am only gonna dating white girls for now on.” So, I started distancing from them and not considering myself as Hmong, but if I’m not Hmong, what am I? It’s obvious I’m not white and will never consider myself white, I’m already an American and Hmong-American is the same thing. I’m not Chinese, Japanese, or Korean; the cooler Asian race. So, what am I? I’m not entirely sure.

I had once noticed my cousin, who was Hmong, who really got along with the white people. He rarely hung out with us and was considered to be “cool”. My cousin was known as “white-washed” to my Hmong friends. This term is usually used to describe someone who isn’t white but acts like they are white. But, that’s what I wanted, so I started to look at what he was doing. I noticed he played sports and that is probably how he became “cool”. So, I started to do what I thought white people did and I started playing sports. I ran track and played soccer. I didn’t suck at sports because I was athletic, so it was nice to feel good at playing sports. Some of my white teammates were cool, and others were fake as people like to say. But I felt and noticed those that I thought I wanted to be my friends would never actually be my true friends. I wondered what I did wrong and tried to figure out how my cousin did it all up until my junior year of high school.

Junior year was when I found my Hmong identity. After many years of constantly questioning, I thought, “why do I not accept my true Hmong identity?” I may be different from my other Hmong friends, but they always treated me as one of their friends. Even when one of them made a rude comment towards me, he still treated me as a friend. As I slowly accepted them back, I was able to slowly accept my identity as well. I also met two of closest friends. It wasn’t until my freshman year of college where I completely accepted my Hmong identity and I’m glad that I did. I have been speaking my language more often and have learned to respect my culture. Us Hmong may not be well-known and may not be as “cool” as the Koreans and the Japanese but something I will always take pride in is that we fought alongside the Americans during the Vietnam War. Many may not know about it because it was ran by the CIA so it was kept a secret. However, it makes me feel like the Hmong were warriors and it’s something for the Hmong people to be proud of.

By: Marissa Steele

I grew up loving the outdoors, camping with my family, spending weekends at the lake, or even just playing outside with my friends. My family took a lot of weekend camping trips around Minnesota with just my mom, dad, older sister, younger brother and I. This camping trip was going to be extreme, we were going to pull our pop up camper down to the Grand Canyon and back in three weeks. We got our truck and camper all packed up for the trip, and the journey began.

This expedition was going to be a lot of down time in the car so to try to keep us kids occupied, my mom made all three of us travel journals. These journals had entries for each day that would let us write about what we did that day, we would keep track of how much money we spent on gas, food or souvenirs and there was a section for license plates. We had to try to find all 50 states on different cars in campgrounds or on the road. We all still have our journals and they are nice to look back on because they are very detailed. We documented every little thing that we saw or did during the days, some things I don’t even remember until I read my journal again.

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We were going to drive 8 or 9 hours a day and would only stop for food or gas when we needed to. We found campgrounds along the way to stay in for two to three nights so we weren’t constantly packing and unpacking. Once we got to Colorado, we started to see some mountains and canyons. This was a nice change of scenery as the past couple states we had driven through were flat with nothing but fields. The campground we stayed in for the weekend was amazing! We could see the mountains from our campsite and during the daytime we would see big moose walking through the campground. We spent most of our time there in the campground as they had a pool and mini golf course, but one day we got out to explore the town. We took a train ride in Durango, the train went right up on the mountain side to Silverton. In Silverton, we walked around the unique small town for a bit and then got back on the train to go back down the mountain.

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One of the next stops that was very memorable was Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. This park is known for its well preserved Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings and the huge Cliff Palace. Going to this park was an experience I will never forget. The tour we took had us walking across about one foot wide rock with the edge of the cliff on one side and a 50 foot drop into a hole on the other side with just a little linked chain to hold onto to help yourself across. I was only 8 years old at the time and my younger brother who was 4 had to walk the same path. My moms hand print was indented into his arm by the time we left there but it is still an adventure that we talk about up to this day!

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Once we got to our campsite at the Grand Canyon we stayed for 3 days. The views were amazing! We would spend the days walking around the canyon and it definitely is one of the seven wonders of the world. I remember my mom being so nervous having us young kids walking so close to the edge. The campground that we stayed in was full of RV’s, we were the only pop up camper in the park and we thought that was pretty funny. We would spend our evenings walking around the campground looking at all the fancy campers and also for license plates to cross off in our journal. I was shocked at all the different plates we saw from all over the US, we even found Hawaii and Alaska!

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We were now headed back home and our first stop was Bryce Canyon National Park, there were hoodoo rocks for as far as the eye could see. This park is known for those bright colored hoodoo rocks, which are spire-shaped rock formations. The sunsets that we saw there were extraordinary.

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The trip home from a vacation usually is never as fun as on the way but in this case the whole trip was a vacation. We stopped at many different national parks on the way back. We saw the Grand Tetons at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, hot springs and geysers at Yellowstone National Park, and Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. The list of parks and sights goes on and on.

This camping trip is one that I will never forget, it will always be a special memory to my family and I. We made some amazing memories together and got to experience a lot of sights that most people don’t get to see in their lifetime. I learned many new things and saw exquisite sights, it really opened my eyes to how much there is to see in the world and makes me eager to go out and see more.

The early sun broke the frost from the tips of the cattails.
He dove the paddle deep into the creek.
Each stroke, strong and true, threw him further from reality.
This was the life he preferred.
Simple. 
Living, breathing, taking, and giving, 
this was better.
Better than the generation he was a part of.
He thought of him often as he ran his trapline.
He could feel his presence, 
as the wind picked up and blew over his neck.
This made him smile.
He knew they shared a love for nature.
Her forests, and streams,
her meadows, and mountains.
In his time he had walked them too.
He had laid his traps, and loved this land,
as he did now.
His ancestral hero.
Although he never remembered meeting him, 
he knew him well.
Each stroke brought them closer together.
An invisible encounter.
This was their time together, for now.
Some day they will stride together, 
in the land that knows no parting.
And they will look down on their next of kin,
making sure he knows they're there with him. 

We Login to canvas, hopes are high, the grade is seen

Eyes full of sadness, followed by, lowered self esteem

Really mad about the letter, sick of my behavior

Effort put in is bad, could do better, I am a failure

Not doing homework is a choice that makes me free

Oddly thought I wouldn’t care yet this grade haunts me

Screams and shouts in my head, everything is gleaming

Terrified, yet I realized that I am dreaming

Returned to reality, the grade is still real and I am unbound

Amused by my lack of motivation, I going to turn this around

Need a better letter, F this grade, get up off the ground

Going to improve with all my distractions removed, the path has been found

Ending procrastination, discontinuation of a characterization, success is inbound

Relapse won’t happen, time to get smart

Starting over is falling apart, like going back to the start

Today is not the day to fail, I will pass the class

Of course, I must forecast to surpass this class you need to study which is ass

Long night of rest, got dressed hoping today would be different from the rest

Only, I guessed, because I was stressed, this wasn’t going to be my best test

Victory maybe near, only time will tell, which I can not foresee

Effort paid off, I passed at last, the grade I see is C

Read the first letter of each line

Author: Josh Goodreid

Editor: Willa Rodencal

Written by Willa Rodencal

There are several moments in life I was able to predict. I could expect that each year your birthday will be on the same day, you can anticipate graduating from college, and you can plan what you will eat for breakfast for the week. I have always found myself to be a planner, I like to have a consistent schedule for my weeks. My friends know that if they want to see me it will have to be planned days in advance, not a few hours before. With all this information in mind, I never thought I would be riding on the back of a motorcycle through the Grand Canyon… in the middle of a rainstorm.

            To tell this story I have to go into some background. From ages 0-18, my older sister, Cassidy, and I were both homeschooled and raised by the traditional hippie parents, which I’m sure is not surprising information. My mother stayed at home with us when I was young, and my father went to work at the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee, WI. Our family was about as extroverted as we could be, my father loved networking and had connections in all corners of the world. His networking was especially prevalent in the Harley-Davidson community, and he had many interesting experiences at his fingertips because of this. So it is no surprise when he said yes to racing coast-to-coast on a 100 year old motorcycle, for the second time.

            This race was called the Cannonball and was to take one month to complete the ride. In 2016, 70 teams gathered on the boardwalk of Atlantic City, New Jersey, to set off on the endurance race. The goal was racers to make it all the way from the east coast to the west coast on absurdly old motorcycles. Support teams followed along ready to pick up bikes if they broke down, and to help repair them at the end of the days travels. The first time my family completed this race it was our small family of four as our team, and people thought my parents were crazy for bringing their 11 and 9 year old daughters on a race across the country. The second time around my mom opted out of the travels and allowed my sister (17) and me (15) to be my fathers only support crew as he rode his 1915 Harley Davidson board track motorcycle from New Jersey to California.

            With our minivan loaded up with spare motorcycle parts and plenty of snacks we set off. Legally I was not allowed to drive at the time which meant that my older sister had to drive over 4,000 miles in total, averaging about 250 miles a day. Support crews and racers took different routes along our journey so that we would not cause any traffic issues. It was also for the safety of the riders as the motorcycles could only go about 40 miles per hour, and needed gas station stops much more often. The amount of miles my sister and I drove each day took us roughly 3 hours, but would take my dad and other riders about 6-9 hours. I’m sure you can imagine what it would be like locked in a car with two teenage girls everyday for a month, so I’m glad to say we never had any extra riders joining us. We had lots of highs and lows, though most conflicts were resolved with Dunkin’ Donuts and singing as loudly as possible to Hannah Montana.

We learned a lot about our selves and about our country as we drove through each state, slowly making our way westward. We learned that driving up steep Colorado mountains in a dodge minivan pulling a trailer is a terrifying experience that leads to many near vehicular breakdowns (as well as mental ones). But the drive didn’t teach us nearly as much as the parking lots did. Each night as teams gathered in the parking lots of hotels to fix their motorcycles for the next days ride it was a bonding experience like none other. We shared stories not only of that days travels, but my sister and I still very much in our youth would listen to stories told by others that were from before we were even alive. We had the pleasure of getting to know wonderful people, and most of them are very dear friends to this day. Most of my friends my age think it’s strange when I tell them that I have friends in their 70s, but in this journey of life you never know who you will meet along the way. I learned this lesson while listening to Pat Simmons, lead singer of the band The Doobie Brothers who were popular in the 70s, sing us his songs in a Hampton Inn and Suites parking lot.

Pat Simmons and his wife Cris were among many influential people on our trip. They have taught me a lot along the way, and their free spirits helped teach me to not miss out on wonderful adventures. So when we were just over halfway across the country, the buzz early in the Arizona morning was that it was the day we were passing the Grand Canyon. Everyone was figuring out the best places to stop and sightsee, but unfortunately for our team my father wouldn’t be making the journey. The previous night his motorcycle had many issues and he didn’t think it would make it through the day, which meant an extra rider in our minivan. So when one of the support crew who was riding on a modern motorcycle to watch over the historic bikes and make sure everyone was safe on the trip, offered me the chance to get out of the minivan for the day I jumped on the chance for adventure. With only about 20 minutes to find extra gear and I was stumbling over my habits of planning.

So there I was. On the back of the motorcycle of some guy that I had met only about 2 weeks before, I’m pretty sure I was going against everything my mother ever taught me. But riding on the back of a Harley is always freedom like none other, this time wasn’t any different. As we traveled across the red sandy horizons, gazed up at huge mountains, and looked into deep ravines. I was barreling head first into this life of adventures without plans. And then the rain came.

Luckily, we had noticed the skies getting dark and quickly pulled over about an hour before the entrance to Grand Canyon National Park. With our rain suits zipped up we rode on, what started as a drizzle quickly became a downpour. You know when you’re in your car on the highway, with your wipers on the highest setting and it’s still hard to see? Well picture that but your car doesn’t have a roof or doors, and that’s roughly what we were experiencing. Our rain gear didn’t keep us dry for long, but thank goodness for Arizona having warm rain. As we finally pulled up to the gates of the park we knew our soaking limbs would be worth it as soon as we looked at the natural wonder. Weaving our way through the park with the rain finally starting to lighten up as we got nearer to the viewing points. When the rain had turned back to a mist with the humid air surrounding us we parked our motorcycle and climbed off our motorcycle, walking towards the steep drop off of the edge of the canyon. Standing there with our clothes dripping completely in disbelief of what we saw; nothing.

Spreading as far as the eye could see (which wasn’t very far) the entire Canyon was covered in fog. In the moment I had no idea how to react, every emotion coursed through me, though I mainly felt disappointed. We had traveled through a rainstorm to see a beautiful gorge and yet all we got was fog. It was like waiting all year to open your Christmas gifts and finding all of the boxes empty. Yet, all we could do was laugh. We found our selves in one of the most unfortunate situations that was completely out of our control.

I think that is when I learned my life lesson about planning, sometimes you just have to take risks no matter the possible outcomes. It’s an experience I will most likely never have again, and I thought this over as we rode out of the park. With the rain starting up again, I pondered nature and the miraculous ways in which it works, we passed a herd of moose to top off the crazy things we had seen that day. With the rain passed we pulled into the parking lot of our next hotel after finishing our roughly 9 hour ride.

The rest of our journey I used my new found epiphany of taking risks and jumping on the chance for adventures, in just the way my free spirited parents always hoped I would. We visited many historical locations like driving on route 66, visiting the four corners of the United States, and swimming in both coastal oceans within the span of three weeks. The life lessons I learned on this trip and from these people I still take with me to this day. I can best describe it by a quote from the great Jerry Garcia “what a long strange trip it’s been.”

Photos Of Our Travels.

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All photos courtesy of Cassidy Blue Rodencal, and Willa Rodencal.

By: Adam and Maddison Richards

There once was a rainbow river, at the end of the river there is a magical island called, Unicorn Island ruled by the pixies. Everything on the island is magical, the water looks like glitter flowing through the crystal rocks and the trees and animals all speak and have their own lands. On this island there is an evil witch named Evalyn; her evil ways have made her age rapidly. Now she wears a mask to cover her wrinkled face. Evalyn has one mission in life, to be young forever, but she needs unicorn horns to create her youth potion. Evalyn has a sister named Lula, she is a good witch whose heart is full of love for all creatures and her best friend is a unicorn named Nina. Nina is purple with markings of stars and comets and she defends the island and all its creatures. Many of the creatures refer to her as the Defender Unicorn.  

            One day Lula and Nina are playing by the glitter river when the King and Queen pixies came to tell them that unicorns have started disappearing.

The King Pixie said, “We can’t find Kyle, or Klunker, we need you to investigate what is going on.”

“We are on it.” said Lula and Nina.

 First, they go to Fox Forest to look for clues. They ask the leader of the foxes Sly, some questions.

“Has anyone seen anything suspicious recently.” asked Nina. Sly replied stating he had seen a weird snake slither by.

Next on their journey they head to Bunny Burrow to find more clues. There they ask Heidi, the leader of the bunnies, if her and the other bunnies had noticed anything strange. Heidi said she saw the tracks of two unicorns, and a strange snake creature go by. “Hmm, we should go back home and evaluate our clues.” Nina said.

Everyday Evalyn sends her henchmen out hunting unicorns. Her henchmen are two tall green goblins named Crab and Goil. While out in the forest they ride these black, dragon like creatures. Once they locate a group of unicorns, they burst into action chasing them down. When they get close, they have these snake-like spears that they hurl at the unicorns. Once the spears get close to the unicorn, they come alive and wrap around the unicorn’s legs immobilizing them. The captured unicorns are then put in a net and dragged back to Evalyn’s secret lair where she prepares to pull out their horns for her potion.

After examining all the clues Nina and Lula have decided they need to scout the Whispering Woods. They decide to follow a group of unicorns that are going out to the Whispering Woods to take a nap. Everything seems calm and normal until Crab and Goil jump out from behind an elder tree and begin to chase the unicorns.

That is when Lula and Nina spring into action and start chasing after the goblins.  Lula says, “Should we fuse our powers together and destroy those goblins?”

 Nina replies to Lula, “No we need to find out where they have taken the other unicorns, so we can rescue them, we should just follow them for now.” Suddenly Nina hears a familiar voice scream. Crab and Goil have captured a young unicorn named Anna, she is Nina’s little sister. It is very hard for Nina, but she manages to stay calm and follows the goblins to the lair. Lula notices that Nina’s tail is swinging fast, this is a sign that Nina is very mad. Lula turns to Nina and tries to comfort her and assure her everything will be all right. As they follow the two goblins, they soon enter the Endless Caves.

Nina and Lula follow the goblins into the Endless Caves. Once they enter, they find all the unicorns locked in cages. They also see a masked person stirring a caldron in the center of the cave. Nina asks, “Who is that?”

 Lula replies, “More importantly, what’s in the caldron?”

When suddenly the masked person yells out, “Crab, Goil! Do we have enough unicorns to finish my potion?”

Lula’s says, “I know that voice, that is my sister behind that mask.”

Nina and Lula jump out from behind a bolder and yell, “Release those unicorns!”

Evalyn looks up and says, “Sister, you have found me. Oh, and who is your friend? I could use another unicorn horn.”

Nina jumps up and states, “I am the great Defender Unicorn. Now release those unicorns!”

The goblins soon begin to attack Nina and Lula, hurling their snake spears at them. Dodging the spears while firing spells at the two goblins Nina takes out Goil with a fire blast, from her horn and Lula takes out Crab with a sparkle blast, from her wand.

“Enough!” says Nina, your henchmen are gone witch, now give up.

“Ha!” says Evalyn, “You can’t stop me, you are not strong enough.”

Lula and Nina use a combined blast of fire and ice, but Evalyn just laughs. Evalyn then retaliates with a spell of her own, poisoned razor leaves. A direct hit on the two friends, they are so weak now and cannot move. “Now you can watch me remove your friend’s horns to make me young again.” says Evalyn.

Evalyn walks over to Anna and grabs her horn and begins to pull it out, Anna is screaming in pain. “Nooooooo!” Yells Nina, “That is my sister. Leave her alone.”

 “Excellent!” says Evalyn as the horn is removed. The removal of a unicorn horn causes an eternal sleep to overcome unicorns. In Nina’s rage she finds the power to get up and use a spell to help Lula. Nina cannot do this alone.

“Foolish girls, you can’t stop me. You may as well lay down and wait your turn.” Says Evalyn.

 Nina begins to glow brighter and brighter. “What is happening?!” says Evelyn. She fires another spell at Nina and Lula, to no avail.

“Get on my back Lula I have a plan. We need to combine our powers for an ultimate rainbow blast. Together they glow even brighter when suddenly, they hit Evalyn with the ultimate rainbow blast. Nina and Lula collapse, when they awake, they notice the mask and Annas horn on the ground where Evalyn once stood. “Oh, my I have to get Anna’s horn back in or she will sleep forever.” said Nina.

“Here Nina take Anna and her horn back home I will free the other unicorns and be right behind you.” says Lula.

After freeing the unicorns and returning home with Anna. Lula informs Nina that returning unicorn’s horns is one of the most difficult potions to make, one of the ingredients is very difficult to get. “What do we need, and where do I need to go?” asks Nina.

“Tears from a loved one, a leaf from the tallest elder tree, and a speed berry found only in fearful cave on top of stormy mountain. The berry is very difficult to obtain, you must be brave and pure of heart or fearful cave will drive you mad.” says Lula.

“I can do it, let’s go!” says Nina. Lula collects Nina’s tears.

“I will get the leaf, but you must retrieve the berry on your own.” Lula says. “Be careful on your trip you must be brave and not get sucked in by Fearful Caves tricks, we can’t lose you too. retrieve the berry and come back home.”

 Climbing Stormy Mountain is very difficult and exhausting. Nina is blasted with wind, rain, sleet, and snow, finally she arrives at the entrance to Fearful Cave. A creepy voice says, “Enter child if you dare.” Followed by a very creepy and evil laugh.

 Nina enters the cave when all her fears are realized, but she continues to push through. Suddenly she sees that Anna will never wake up, Nina lays down and starts to cry. After some time goes by Nina works up the courage to stand. She yells out to the cave, “This is not real, you cannot fool me. Show me the berries, I have to save my sister!”

 A light shines down on the Speed Berry Bush, quickly she collects the berries. She takes off at a sprint out of the cave racing down the mountain back to their home. Nina arrives home with the berries and gives one to Lula. “Go, stay with Anna while I make the potion. I will have it mixed up shortly. Nina are you ready? I have finished mixing up the potion. Do you have the horn?”

“Yes, I am ready what do we do?” Nina replies.

 “Hold the horn in place while I poor the potion on Anna.” says Lula. Slowly Anna starts to wake up.

“What happened Nina? How did we get home?” asked Anna once she awakens. Nina proceeds tells her the entire story. After defeating Evalyn we released the other unicorns and brought you home. Then Lula and I set out on another adventure to get the ingredients for the potion to return your horn. Lula collected my tears and the elder leaf, while I went to stormy mountain to get the speed berries and now you are awake and safe. By working together, we were able to defeat Evalyn and save all of the unicorns. Now everyone is safe, and can live happily ever after

**The End**