the little market in town where Pandora had seen the animals shopping. It was called the Town in the Forest, so of course it was a little town inside the forest. The market was calmer now, there weren’t so many animals rushing in the street, and in the air there was a slight scent of cheese, nuts and seeds being cooked. It was lunch time.
“Oi, you!” Somebody said. “You really can’t stop snooping in here, can you? First you were watching me in my house and now you already had to come down here?”
It was the little mouse Pandora had seen when she had open the book for the first time.
“Ratty, calm down,” the unicorn protested. “The girl didn’t know.”
The little mouse suddenly felt embarrassed for accusing someone without knowing the whole story, but he didn’t want to show it. He crossed his arms and kept complaining. “If she didn’t know, she shouldn’t have snooped. I was very well relaxing and this one looks down and says ‘Hello’. I was bathing. Bathing!”
“Ratty,” Pandora finally said. “I am sorry.”
The little mouse, that for a mouse wasn’t so little but even so much smaller than Pandora, suddenly realised how big the girl was and felt very scared. “It’s… it’s alright. It wasn’t a big deal. I was only bathing, nothing special.”
“Ratty, you need not be afraid.” The unicorn soothed. “She won’t hurt you. She won’t hurt anyone; she is just a little girl.”
“A girl? In the Town of the Forest? Impossible!”
“Nothing is impossible, Ratty.” The unicorn reminded the mouse.
“And the dog?”
“My namWOOF is BoltWOOF. And althWOOF you are a very annWOOFing mouseWOOF, I won’t hurt yWOOF.”
“Bolt, you are talking. That can’t be, it’s impossible.”
“Pandora,” the unicorn asked once more. “Didn’t I just say that nothing is impossible? Have you never heard of talking dogs in books?”
Pandora let her eyes fall and was feeling very ashamed. “No,” she answered, because she had never read a book.
“And you two,” the mouse pried. “What are you doing?”
“I am showing Pandora the forest.” The unicorn retorted.
“So you have told her about the big old bat.”
“No, in fact, I haven’t.”
“Who is the big old bat?” Pandora was very curious.
Ratti still didn’t like Pandora very much, and he wasn’t quite sure if she was going to hurt him or not, but he still replied. “He is a big and old bat that shows up from time to time. He dresses all in black and has big red eyes and sharp claws. He likes to scare the other animals but he doesn’t scare me. Oh, no, I am not afraid of him and, one day, I will teach him a lesson.”
“What kind of lesson? Is it math? I don’t really like math,” Pandora shared.
“No,” the mouse slapped his forehead. “Not that kind of lesson. I still don’t know it. But I will.”
At that precise moment, the street filled with squeals and a big old bat, dressed in black with big red eyes started flying on top of the heads of everyone still at the market. The animals started screaming and abandoned their baskets on the floor to run to their houses, where they felt safe inside.
“Let’s go. Let’s go,” Ratty pushed them. “Let’s go to my place.”
“But what about the lesson?” Pandora asked.
“Not today, let’s go.”
4
They all ran inside Ratty’s house. Ratty’s house was a big house to accommodate a little mouse but, even so, too small for a girl, her dog and a unicorn.
Trying to get in, Pandora destroyed the table and had to squat and hug her legs in order to fit. The unicorn couldn’t fit entirely and remained with its rear pointing outside the window. Bolt was yelping feeling squeezed against the wall.
“I want to see the girl,” the bat roared in a thunderous voice. “Show me the girl.”
Ratty was feeling very angry for having his house destroyed because of the old bat’s curiosity in Pandora and said. “We should send the girl outside. It’s her he wants. He has never seen a little girl in the Town of the Forest.
“NWOOF,” Bolt barked, showing the little mouse his teeth.
“Ratty,” the unicorn reprimanded. “Just because you don’t like her, doesn’t mean you have to throw her outside.”
“What if he takes too long? My house is already crumbling with the lot of you. I am sure he would feel frightened and leave if he saw her… She should go.”
Pandora, who was always adventurous and wanted to be brave, tried to get up but was barred by the ceiling of Ratty’s house that kept hitting her in the head every time she moved.
Then a weeping sound came from outside. “I want to see the girl.” The big old bat was not demanding anymore but pleading in a whining tone.
“I’ll go,” Pandora said very bravely.
“Pandora, you don’t need to,” the unicorn protested. “Ratti, was just acting like a scared little mouse.”
“Oi!”
“Perhaps, he just wants to be our friend,” Pandora suggested.
Ratty sneered: “A big old bat, our friend? With is mean posture, black clothes and those red eyes?”
If Pandora could move, she would have let her hands rest on top of her hips and tap her foot repeatedly. “My grandmother always says we should never refuse to be friends with someone because of their appearance or the way they dress. I’m going!”
“Alright, alright,” the unicorn said. “But I’m going with you. I refuse to stay here and be scared of a bat. I am a unicorn!”
“Me tWOOF!”
Pandora, who still couldn’t get up, opened the door and crawled outside. Getting up to walk the rest of the way to the crying animal. The bat had his face covered by its long black wings and was sobbing uncontrollably.
“Why are you crying?” Pandora asked.
The bat still didn’t show his face. “I just wanted to see the girl. I have never seen a little girl.”
“Why… why… did you want to see the girl?” Ratti squeaked from behind the unicorn’s leg. “Did you want to bite her? Scare her? Pluck her head off?
“No!” The bat was horrified and finally looked at the little mouse who cringed to hide himself better. “I thought perhaps she would want to be my friend. No one in the forest wants to be my friend. I thought that perhaps she would not be frightened of me.”
“But, I am not frightened of you,” Pandora said. The bat turned around very suddenly, his eyes were glowing red from crying but Pandora wasn’t scared. She felt bad for the poor animal, she liked having friends, she could only assume the old bat liked it too. “And I want to be your friend.”
The bat opened his eyes wide feeling very surprised. “You do?”
“Yes. But you can’t scare the other animals anymore.”
The bat let his head fall. “I don’t do it on purpose,” he said. “They see me and they just scare themselves.”
Pandora put one hand in her chin trying to come up with a plan. The same way she always did whenever she thought of something to play with her friends.
“Well, then we have to show them you are not so bad.”
“How?” The bat and the others asked in unison.
“I have a plan,” the girl said. “Come on, all of you hold hands.”
Ratti didn’t want to hold one of the bat’s wing, and almost tried to run away but the unicorn jabbed him with the tip of his horn and forced him to be beside the giant, old bat.
Pandora and her friends, holding hands, started walking the high street of the Town of the Forest while yelling to the animals hiding in their houses. “Animals of the forest, you don’t need to be afraid. Look, we are friends with the bat and he didn’t harm us. He just wishes he had someone to play with.”
One by one, the townsfolk started opening up their doors and peeping outside curiously. Some of them were even brave enough to venture closer to the bat, and two or three very brave squirrels gave him a wing shake. By
the end of the day, the poor bat had already made some new friends, because sometimes you just need to be the first person to befriend the one no one wants to be friends with, and everyone else soon will follow.
“Pandora,” the unicorn called from above all the cheering around the bat. “It’s time to go.”
“Already? But…”
“You have to. Your friends and family will be waiting for you. I will miss you though.”
“And I you. I will miss all of you.” She was trying her best not to cry in front of everyone in the Town of the Forest. “Goodbye, Ratty. Goodbye, Bat. Goodbye, everyone.”
In the blink of an eye Pandora was waving goodbye to her new friends, and when she blinked once more she was back at her room in her grandparents’ house with Bolt. She was confused and looking at the book in her hands. “Did you see that, Bolt?”
Pandora heard granny calling from downstairs. “Pandora, come downstairs we have a surprise for you.”
She started running down the stairs, despite the fact grandad constantly warned her about how dangerous it was. But she really needed to tell them what she had seen.
“Granny, you will not believe what just happened. I opened the book you gave me and, at first I saw a mouse having a bath. And then I closed it, because he was bathing and he wanted to be alone… And then I opened it again and I saw a unicorn.
“A unicorn?” Granny repeated.
“Yes. He showed me so many beautiful things. And then there was this bat and no one wanted to be friends with him, but I did. And… and Bolt talked.”
“Pandora, that is your imagination working. That is what happens every time you read a book. Books are the best companions for explorers and