8-unicorns+and+narwhals

Herbert Runnmayer is your typical little boy. He had beautiful, large, green eyes and dark, dark, brown hair that covers those beautiful eyes. He’s a tiny little tot, but a big fighter. He hasn’t had the best of childhoods and makes it a point to show that. He doesn’t talk to many people and those that he does talk to, don’t exactly like him. His parents are divorced and though he didn’t show that their divorce hurt him, it did. Herbert is super smart and admittedly he’s a little crazy. But even though he’s crazy, comes from a broken home, and ﻿is big fighter, he’s the happiest kid on earth. Herbert lives in the windy city of Chicago. He has an apartment on the fifth floor of the Moore- Stevinson hotel. On weekdays he lives with his mom. On the weekends he goes to visit his dad. Herbert always preferred to stay with his mom because she was nicer and always made him a scrumdillyumptious dinner. His mom also tucked him into bed every night and sang him a bedtime song that she came up with on the spot. The two of them had endless laughs and memories. But Herbert’s dad wasn’t very nice. He never made Herbert dinner or tucked him in. When Herbert stayed with his father, he was usually ignored. And that made Herbert really sad. (But going into that explains why the father and son relationship is so confusing) One night Herbert, Herby for short, was reading a book about mythical creatures. He came across an article about how garter snakes are just as dangerous as the “nonexistent” unicorn. Finding interest in this subject, Herby, looked into it. He saw pictures on Google, obviously Photoshopped, and articles explaining that unicorns were just things that little girls made up so they could have one more thing in common with the next shallow and untruthful little girl they met. Herbert decided that unicorns obviously weren’t real and stopped looking into it. He decided to look into something more masculine, like narwhals. Herbert was amazed at what he found. These animals had long sword-like things right where their noses should be. Herby printed out a few pictures and hung them above his bed so that when he slept, if he had any bad dreams, the narwhals would chase them away. Herbert’s mom tucked him into bed that night, after a great dinner of soup and mashed potatoes, and sang him his bedtime song. Herby fell asleep fast and easy that night, almost as if he was in a trance. However something was brewing on the back burner of Herby’s mind. He kept thinking about how sad it was that unicorns didn’t exist. “I wish they did,” he murmured. He was about to drift off to sleep when he felt as if he was falling and jolted awake. In the corner of his room was a strange man. He was pretty sure it was a man. “Come forth, Herbert Runnmayer.” Herby didn’t know what to do so he yelled for his mom. “MOM! MOM!” he screamed and screamed. She didn’t answer. “She can’t hear you,” the man in the corner said. He was engulfed by shadow and Herby couldn’t see his face.But from what he could see the man looked huge and powerful. His voice was loud and scratchy, just like Herby’s father’s voice. “At least, not in your dream world.” “Huh?” Herby asked the man, confused. “Dream world? Who are you?” “My name is Zeus. And this is my brother Poseidon.” Another man emerged from behind Herby’s open closet door. He wasn’t as intimidating. He had broad shoulder, but not so broad that you could land a plane on them and not skinny enough for him to be friendly looking. His voice was deeper than Zeus’s. “You wanted to know about unicorns. We’re here to teach you.” “You wished that they were real. Since we can’t bring them back, we’ll bring you back to their time.” “My mom told me to stay away from strange people,” Herby said, trying to stifle his fear. Poseidon was getting impatient. “Look Herbert, you’re dreaming. You can’t get hurt. And even if this was real life we wouldn’t hurt you.” “Really?” Herby wasn’t sure about these two men. “What my brother is trying to say, Herbert, is that we’re just gonna take you on a little adventure. You won’t even leave home.” Herby contemplated this offer for a few minutes. Poseidon sighed loudly, showing his discontent and Zeus tried to calm him. Finally, Herby agreed with an almost unnoticeable shake of the head. Poseidon threw some powder at Herby and Herby had to close his eyes to stop them from stinging. When he opened them again, he was no longer in his apartment. “Really, was the powder necessary, Poseidon?” Zeus said, agitated. “Well you can’t have the kid seeing all this witchy magic we’re doing. He might tell someone.” “He’s a kid. Who in their right mind will believe him?” “They won’t. People in their left mind will.” “Not funny,” Zeus said. Herby secretly cracked a smile at that. When he looked around all he saw was grass. Grass to the left. Grass the right. Grass in front of and behind him. There were few trees, but many small ponds that animals, and even humans, could drink from.” “I THOUGHT YOU SAID WE WEREN’T LEAVING THE APARTMENT!” Herby screamed. He got out of his bed then and started pacing. “My mom’s gonna kill me. She doesn’t let me leave the floor of the hotel alone, much less the country! What’s she gonna think when she opens my passport and sees that I came here, wherever here is. You two are gonna get me killed. I’m going to die before I’m even tall enough to ride the big kid roller coaster at the amusement park!” Zeus and Poseidon looked at each other and then burst out laughing. “You’re dreaming. You didn’t leave the country, Herbert.” “Herby,” he said. “My name is Herby.” “Fine, we’ll call you Herby.” Zeus agreed. Poseidon pointed in the distance to a few large animals drinking by what looked like an ocean. Herby wondered how there could be an ocean in such a random place. Four of the majestic creatures were pulling whale like creatures out of the water. Herby started to make his way over to them, but realized they were miles away. Poseidon threw powder in Herby’s face again. And when Herby got the powder off they were in front of the animals and Herby could fully see them. Though, at the moment his eyes were completely full of Poseidon’s stupid powder. “Really?” Herby complained. Poseidon looked at Herby and tried to hold back a smile. “This time we were going near water so I thought you wouldn’t mind as much.” He laughed. Zeus and Herby looked at him, very unhappy. Poseidon stopped smiling. Herby looked around at the majestic creatures. From far away it looked like those four animals were helping the animal. But up close, they were really killing it. “Why?! Why would they kill that narwhal?” “That, Herby, is the circle of life. These horses live in a place with a lot of dangerous animals surrounding them. They kill the narwhals and take their horns. Then they put them on their head and use them to defend themselves against the dangerous animals.” Zeus stated. “Isn’t there another way?” “No. But these horses are owned by some travelers and the travelers wait until the horses have killed the animals and eaten parts of them. Then they eat the rest. And the horns that aren’t good get thrown back. All parts of the narwhals are used.” Zeus continued to explain. Little Herby couldn’t wrap his brain around the idea of one animal killing another to survive. It sort of sickened him. “Wait, I thought Greek gods and goddesses were myths.” “Who’s to say we aren’t? Not many people believe in us anymore. But we are here. Most people are now Christian, Jewish, or Muslim. So you’ll learn about us in your later years of school. Anyway, back to what we were talking about. Poseidon has something up his sleeve, something that should hopefully stop this.” “The Christian religion is quite new. Their leader has gone around telling people there will be a flood. He told a person named Noah to build an ark and take two of each animal on it so that their existence won’t be ended. He just predicted that. But I’m going to make it happen. These horses are in extreme danger and we need to get them to Noah’s boat now.” Herby nodded and together the three of them herded the horses and unicorns towards Noah’s boat. It was a damp, dark, day and Noah’s boat was built in the middle of a desert like area. Noah saw the horses and unicorns and took them on the boat. The horses went peacefully, but the unicorns wanted to frolic in the dirt for a while longer. Poseidon turned and walked away. Zeus carried little Herbert back with him. Zeus waved his hands and the sky turned cloudy. Rain started falling. In the distance Noah was yelling at the unicorns to get on the boat. They ran away. They passed Zeus, Poseidon, and Herby on their way. The waves were rolling and the sky was getting more and more cloudy. Herby begged and begged the two Greek brothers to stop, but they didn’t. Noah boarded his ship and locked the doors tight. The waves were now above Herby’s head. Poseidon threw powder in Herby’s face again. Herby closed his eyes and woke up underwater. He was perfectly able to breathe. He saw the unicorn clan as they died. Their eyes closed gently and their limp bodies flew through the water. As this happened, the angry narwhals ripped the horns off the unicorns to avenge their dead narwhalian-friends. Herby wanted to cry. He felt a hand on his shoulder and saw Zeus standing next to him. “They will be back. They will reincarnate as long as you believe.” Herby closed his little eyes and was back in his bed. He got up and ran into his mom’s room. He jumped on her bed screaming, “MOM! MOM!” She woke with a start, “What is it, hun?” “Unicorns. They’re real. They reincarnate into little kids dreams. They can’t reincarnate into older kid’s dreams because they don’t truly believe. But I do. And to save them you have to.” “What are you talking about?” “Zeus and Poseidon showed me all about it. They showed me how the unicorns lived and then died off. Mom, they’re real. The Greeks gods and goddesses are real. And unicorns, they’re real too.” “Go back to bed, Herby. We’ll talk in the morning.” The next morning Herby and his mom talked about unicorns for an hour before he went off to school. Herby was convinced that his mom believed him. But in reality, she just wanted to shut him up and send him to school. He boarded the bus and told all his friends. They thought he was kidding and laughed. He told his teachers, his peers, his classroom pets, and even the older kids. They all laughed at his theory. Herby spent the next few weeks in school being laughed at and made fun of. One by one, all the kids in school started to get dreams just like Herby’s. They stopped making fun of him and started believing in unicorns. They even posted narwhal pictures above their beds like Herby. For once in his life Herbert Runnmayer felt accepted by the people he knew. And now you know the myth of unicorns and narwhals. Narwhals are now classified as a type of whale and are endangered. And unicorns will never cease to exist as long as the human mind can keep dreaming them up. And as for Herbert Runnmayer…he moved to Greece to learn more about the Greek gods and goddesses. He got married and has two kids, Hubert and Rupert. And he teaches them about unicorns and narwhals so those animals can never die.