They just sat and listened to the sounds of the brook, and the rustling of the wind in the trees beyond, and the buzzing of the small flying things, and the warmth of the sun on their heads and shoulders, and the cool wet of the grass beneath, and letting their thoughts drift with the fluffy white clouds above, when they heard a whirlpool of whispering, a strange sound like they had never heard before. And on the other side of the brook, as the sounds began to fade away, a ghostlike shape appeared, and it looked like something their mother had shown them in the old leather bound book she had kept high up on the kitchen shelf, and as one, they remembered and they said its designation, "Unicorn" in hushed tones so as not to frighten the creature that had appeared before them. The unicorn looked directly at them, and saw them, and it spoke, with a voice like gentle bells, "You can see me." -- Silvia Hartmann, "The Golden Horse" (2001)