Are you ready to meditate with Kori?
Lie down in your bed and make sure that you're very,
Very comfortable.
It's time to let go of your day.
So it's time to be still and quiet so that you can relax your body and hopefully fall fast asleep as you listen to this story.
Stephanie had had a crazy week.
She was on vacation,
No school.
She loved it when there was no school.
It was the best.
She got to do things with her friends all week.
She'd been roller skating,
She'd been to the movies,
They'd gone to the beach.
Some days she just hung out with her friends and they went to the park.
Other days she went shopping with her mom for new clothes for next semester.
She'd had a really crazy,
Busy,
Awesome week and she was tired.
She'd had a shower,
Put on her pajamas and she was brushing her hair at a table in her bedroom.
She was brushing through all of the tangles.
She hadn't washed her hair all week.
She'd had it in braids,
It had been up in a ponytail.
One day she had it down,
Then it got so it needed washing so she had it up and then she was too busy to wash it.
It was really nice to finally have a good shower and sit there now with clean hair.
But it was super luggy because she'd barely brushed it all week.
She thought about Moonbow Forest,
That special place,
The other world that she visited.
She thought about what everyone would be doing there and the fact that there was still so much of Moonbow Forest to see.
She was sure of it because it seemed like every time she went she saw something new,
Something different.
She wondered if Earth was like that.
Every country you visit,
Or maybe just even a different state,
A different town or village.
Whether everything felt so different no matter where you went and yet we were all on the same planet.
People living so differently in different places and yet we're all here in the same home.
She'd finished with her hair.
She grabbed a scrunchie out of her drawer and put it in the back of her hair and just hung it in a loose ponytail to dry.
And then she decided,
Let's go,
Let's just go.
It's been a while.
She opened the jewelry box,
Took out the earrings that her mom had bought her for her 9th birthday all that time ago.
She put them in her ears and closed her eyes.
She took a nice,
Long,
Slow,
Deep breath,
Settled in to start to feel the normal sensations that she felt in her body while the magic from the earrings took place.
She felt the tingles,
She felt the shivers going up and down her spine,
Her ears tingled,
Her fingers tingled,
Her nose tingled,
Even her toes was tingling.
This made her shudder as if she was being tickled.
And then her nose got super itchy,
Just like it always does,
As if she was going to sneeze.
And there she could see the veil.
She smiled.
She paused and just looked at it,
Shimmering.
The clear veil between this world and Moonbow Forest.
The other friends that awaited her there,
Luna,
The other unicorns,
All of the different animals and creatures that she'd met so far.
She was intrigued to see whatever she was going to see this time.
It looked quite shadowy and dark on the other side,
And she wondered if it was evening time there.
She lifted her left hand and reached for the veil,
The curtain that divided the two worlds.
She pulled it over to the left and stepped through.
She smiled again.
She could feel the grass beneath her feet,
Soft and spongy,
Like a plush,
Furry rug.
She whittled her toes and grabbed at the grass with her toes.
The earth seemed to move and soften beneath her feet that were moving around a little bit.
And then she took a big deep breath and smelt the night air,
Opening her eyes and staring at the sky.
There were thousands and thousands of stars up above.
It was like skies that she'd never seen at home.
There was too many lights,
Too much fog,
Too much pollution,
Too many people where she lived to see that many stars so clearly.
But in Moonbow Forest,
There wasn't any such thing.
And the night skies were something that would take your breath away,
They were so beautiful.
The stars twinkling,
Shooting stars here and there.
She could stay there just to look at the stars,
Find a nice piece of grass like what she was stood on,
And just lay down and stare up at the sky for hours and hours and hours.
She was quite tempted to do so.
Maybe that's all she came for this time,
To just lay and look at the stars.
After her busy week with her friends and doing all the socializing,
It would be nice to just settle down and not do anything.
To just regather her energy and watch the beautiful night sky.
But instead,
She looked around,
Bringing her gaze down from the stars,
Down into whatever it was that was there in front of her.
None of the unicorns were there in the trees,
Like they normally are.
The only thing that did catch her attention was a sound.
It sounded like a bird,
Like a hawk,
Or a blackbird,
Or some kind of bird.
It was crawling away,
Making a really loud screeching sound,
To the point where she thought the bird might be in distress or something.
It sounded loud and quite angry.
The sound started to get closer.
For a moment,
She was a little bit scared.
She'd not heard this sound before at Moonbow.
She wasn't familiar with it,
And when you're not familiar with something,
You always have that sense of fear that runs through your body.
Something new could be,
Possibly,
Something dangerous,
Right?
Stephanie froze a little bit,
Waiting,
Curious but still cautious.
What was that sound?
And then through the trees,
Something very big,
With a very big wingspan,
Started to fly towards her.
Stephanie swallowed and froze even more.
She even stopped breathing.
She held her breath and watched.
The thing that was flying got closer and closer and closer until it stopped directly in front of her.
It was as big as she was,
Its eyes staring at her.
But then,
Without words,
She felt a sense of calmness fall over her body,
Like this thing had energetically told her it was okay.
The hair that was standing up on her arms,
The hairs relaxed,
Her breath released,
And her shoulders softened.
She knew it was okay.
She felt like it was okay.
This thing told her she was safe.
It had bright orange eyes and it had the head of a raven.
Black feathers,
Long black beak,
Bright orange eyes and then it had the mane of a lion,
Fiery orange and golden,
Long fur all around its head.
Its neck was like a lion's neck,
But then its chest and its wings were raven wings and then its legs were lion's legs with lion's claws on the tips.
Stephanie didn't know what she was looking at.
What are you?
She said in her mind,
Not even out loud.
And the thing said that it was a la-raven,
A la-raven.
Stephanie kept saying it in her head,
La-raven,
La-raven,
A la-raven.
The thing,
The la-raven,
That was half lion,
Half raven,
Nodded,
Yes,
That's what I am,
It spoke to her.
Cool,
Said Stephanie,
Out loud this time.
You are really cool,
I've never seen anything like it.
The la-raven,
Even though it didn't,
Did smile at her.
It didn't move its beak,
Its beak didn't change so it could smile or anything,
But she just energetically saw a smile there,
Felt a smile coming from the thing.
The raven,
How,
What,
This is so bizarre.
The raven once again just seemed to smile,
Yes,
Yeah,
That was it.
Okay,
Said Stephanie,
Where's everyone else?
The raven peered down its beak with its brilliant orange eyes at her,
So intense,
So fiery,
She felt everything it was saying.
You're coming with me this time,
I have something very spectacular to show you.
Stephanie got excited.
Okay,
She said,
Where are we going?
Just wait and see.
Patience,
Stephanie,
Just wait and see,
The la-raven said.
The la-raven motioned for her to get on its back.
Stephanie climbed up the lion's legs,
They were strong and sturdy,
And they held her weight very easily,
And then she shuffled up onto the back and held onto the inner part of the raven part's wings.
The la-raven whooshed out its wings to full length,
They must have been as big as a car,
They were enormous.
Stephanie held on tight,
Feeling that they were going to go up into the air any second,
As they did,
Soaring through the sky within moments.
The la-raven flew extremely fast,
So much faster than the unicorns.
It was going that fast that Stephanie had tears sliding out from her eyes into her hair.
The scrunchie that she had in earlier had flown out ages ago,
And her hair was flying all over the place,
Her wet hair instantly drying and becoming very frizzy and curly.
She thought to herself,
I wish I'd have put more leave-in conditioner on.
And then she smirked at the whole thought of it,
What was she thinking?
Who cares,
She thought.
She shook her head around and let her curls fly even higher,
Even wilder,
Into the night sky.
The stars were beaming down on her,
Shining silvery light,
And it felt like the la-raven was flying in and out of them,
Buzzing around them,
Through them,
It was so intense.
It was like the fastest ride that she would have ever been on at a fairground or something.
It was taking her breath away.
She was holding on for grim death,
Her knuckles white with the tightness and the pressure that she was holding onto the la-raven's wings with.
She kept taking big deep breaths,
Calming herself down.
Where is this thing taking me?
And then there at the top of a hill was a tree,
The la-raven aiming straight for it.
It was a very big tree,
A very,
Very big tree,
Bigger than the biggest tree that was in the redwood forests big,
Kind of big,
Like a 20-story building big.
And it was wide,
Wider than three trucks all lined up together.
And it was sparkling,
As if it had twinkle lights all over it.
One solo tree.
As they flew closer and closer,
Stephanie noticed vines coming out of the tree that were all shining like the twinkly lights that were in the tree,
Luminous as if they were shining in the night sky,
Brilliant silver-white vines coming down towards the ground,
All the way down.
The la-raven landed at the base of the tree,
And that's when Stephanie noticed the immensity of the size of this tree.
The vines must have been 100 feet long,
Hanging down from the lowest part of the tree,
Not even from the top of the tree.
The tree was full and bushy,
And the base of the tree,
The trunk of the tree,
Was as round as a house.
Stephanie slowly started to walk around the tree,
Looking at all these vines hanging down,
Swinging from the tree,
As if they were calling her name.
This is beautiful,
Said Stephanie.
As she reached up,
She could feel the bottom of the vines,
And she tickled them as she walked through them.
They felt like extensions of the tree,
Roots almost,
But the roots were on the outside,
Coming from the lowest branches of the tree.
As if the roots were growing from the branches,
It was quite weird.
But they were all shiny and bright and lit up,
As if something that was running through them was illuminous to the night sky.
Maybe in the daytime they would look completely normal,
But at night time,
They were lit up,
White,
Bright,
Silver vines.
What is this?
Said Stephanie.
The Leraven said,
This is where you learn to be brave,
You learn to be curious,
And then you receive the magic.
Just like me,
I am brave.
The Leraven used its lion legs,
And clawed at the earth beneath with its big,
Long,
Talony claws.
I am brave,
It said with its eyes as it looked at Stephanie.
But then,
I'm also curious,
And magical.
It flapped its wings as if it was expressing its raven side.
Dark,
Mysterious magic glimmered in its eyes.
Stephanie chuckled.
She would like both of those qualities.
I would like to be brave and courageous,
Curious and magical,
She said out loud.
The Leraven just nodded,
As if to say,
That's why we're here,
Child,
And that's what I already knew.
Stephanie smiled,
And turned once again,
To see if she could tickle the vines coming down from the lowest branches of the tree.
What does this tree have to do with it?
Can we eat the tree?
The vines,
As if feeling an objection to that thought,
Pulled up and away from Stephanie.
Oh,
Oh,
Don't,
Don't worry,
I'm not going to eat you,
If that's what I'm not supposed to do,
It's just that normally everything here in Moonbow Forest you can eat.
The Leraven smirked at her and said,
Well,
You can eat parts of this tree,
But you have to work for it.
You have to be brave,
You have to be curious,
You have to be courageous,
You have to climb the vine.
What vine?
Said Stephanie.
Any vine,
Any vine that calls to you,
For there is a magical treat at the top.
Stephanie instantly looked up to see if she could see the magical treat at the top of the vines,
But she couldn't see anything,
They were so far away,
The top was that far away that she swallowed hard and said,
How am I supposed to get up there?
The Raven's intense eyes looked down on her,
Surrounded by that lion mane,
Blowing slightly in the breeze.
It breathed out of the nostril holes that it had in its beak,
And she could see the breath coming out.
For a moment,
She went still and froze again,
But then its face softened,
And it said,
You climb,
You can climb,
You can do it,
You climb,
Whichever of these vines talks to you,
Walk around and see,
And trust,
You'll know.
And just like that,
The Le Raven stepped back and flew away.
Stephanie was left alone there under the tree,
Nothing to do but to do what the Le Raven suggested.
She started to walk around the base of the giant trunk of the tree,
Taking her time,
With her arms up straight in the air,
Allowing the bottoms of the vines to tickle with her fingers as if she was sensing some kind of connection with each one of them,
Until she got halfway around and she got a strong beam,
A strong sense,
Like a jolt of energy,
Zapped into her fingertips from one particular vine.
She stopped instantly.
She reached higher onto her toes to grab a hold of that one vine that just zapped her with a beam of energy.
She grabbed it with both hands and it seemed to lower for her,
As if she'd made the right choice.
It came all the way down to the ground and then instantly formed itself into a ladder,
Like a snake,
Moving backwards and forwards,
Across,
To the left,
To the right,
To the left,
To the right,
Giving her steps to climb up.
She accepted the invitation and started to climb up the vine,
One step after the other,
Slowly,
Steadily,
And with courage.
She went higher and higher.
She kept going.
She didn't look down.
Too high now to look down.
Definitely don't look down.
She kept talking to herself the whole time.
You've got this,
Stephanie.
You can do this,
Stephanie.
You are brave,
Stephanie.
Reading her mind,
Encouraging words,
Encouraging statements,
Don't look down,
Don't look down,
Don't look down.
At one point she stopped.
Stopped still for a bit.
She dare not move,
As if a freeze had taken hold of her joints,
Her hands,
Her feet,
Her knees.
Everything froze.
But she took a deep breath,
As if she was bringing in the warmest breath.
She was melting away the frost in her body,
The frost in her joints,
The frost that was coming from the fear in her body.
She was refusing it,
Denying it.
Go away,
Frost.
Go away,
Freeze.
I am not going to be a scaredy cat today.
She thought about the lion's mane on the La Raven.
She imagined that her hair,
Her curly,
Long hair,
Wild,
Frizzy,
Flown all over the place from the right there,
Was her mane.
It was her lion.
She roared.
From her deep,
Deep,
Deepest place in her tummy,
She roared really loud and took about twenty steps so fast.
And then she just kept going.
Nothing was going to stop her.
Nothing was going to scare her.
Nothing was going to stop her from getting to the top.
The La Raven believed in her.
He didn't even know her and he knew that she could do this.
I can do this.
I know myself.
I believe in myself.
Go,
Go,
Go,
Stephanie.
Stephanie made it to the top and when she got there,
It was as if there was a river of golden fluid running through the top of all the vines.
She heard the tree say,
You deserve it.
Take a drink.
Stephanie leaned forward and put her lips to the golden fluid.
It was sweet.
It was thick and rich and it tasted like honey and maple syrup and golden syrup all mixed together.
It was sticky and sweet and it was delicious.
She could just imagine how good it would be on pancakes or on strawberries or on top of ice cream.
She licked and licked and licked and licked and licked like a hummingbird licking the sweet scenter from the flowers.
She licked and licked and licked and licked and licked until she saw that her hands that were holding onto the branch of the tree were golden,
Shining.
Her body was golden,
Shining,
As if drinking this magical nectar that transferred into her body and her whole body was lit up,
Lit up like the vines,
Like the golden nectar.
But her body was gold,
Gold,
Like a brilliant yellow golden light.
It was sparkling,
Twinkling like a fairy light in the tree.
She heard the whoosh of wings.
Moments later,
The La Raven landed in a branch close by.
Well done,
It said as it pointed its head down to her,
Gazing intensely through its orange fiery eyes.
Well done,
It said again.
Why am I shiny like this?
Said Stephanie,
Peering down at her arms and her hands,
Turning them over,
Looking at the back of her hands,
Looking at the palm of her hands.
Why am I so shiny?
You deserve to be bright,
Said the La Raven.
This is going to last about 30 minutes.
Where would you like to go with it?
What would you like to do with it?
Who would you like to show it to?
Stephanie thought about it.
She was like a star.
Her whole body was bright and shining and beaming with light like a star.
I want to be a star,
She said.
The La Raven lowered its head as if to say,
Climb on board.
Stephanie climbed on the back of the La Raven and held on tight to the middle of its wings once again.
And bam,
Just like that,
It was up in the sky.
Flying her through the stars,
Flying her into the night sky,
Flying her so that she could be a star of her own in the night sky.
He flew so fast that to anyone down below,
She must have looked like a shooting star beaming through the sky.
He did it over and over and over again.
And Stephanie smiled,
Hoping that Luna and all of her friends below,
Hoping that they wouldn't be sleeping,
Hoping that they would see her as a star.
No one back home would believe this,
She thought to herself.
Stephanie closed her eyes and allowed the wind and the speed to take her to a whole new place.
She felt like she was a star.
As bright,
As big,
As wide,
As gigantic as a star.
The La Raven flew Stephanie around the sky for the whole 30 minutes until the golden light faded away and she found herself back in her normal body.
And then a few moments after that,
She found herself back in her bed.
She laid there,
Staring up at the fan on her ceiling,
Watching it go round and around and around.
Sleep would probably not come too easy tonight,
She thought to herself.
That was too much of a ride.
The End
