Petal and the Rainbow Puddle
In a meadow at the edge of the rainbow lived a very small unicorn named Petal. Her horn was only as big as your thumb, and it made only the tiniest sparkle — piff — like a single snowflake landing.
The big unicorns made big magic. They painted sunsets. They stirred up spring. Petal watched and sighed. “My magic is too small to matter.”
One grey drizzly day, Petal found a puddle on the path. Beside the puddle sat a little hedgehog, looking gloomy.
“Rain again,” sniffed the hedgehog. “Grey sky, grey path, grey puddle. Grey, grey, grey.”
Petal looked at the puddle. It was very grey. She thought about her tiny sparkle. It’s not much, she thought. But it’s mine.
She lowered her little horn and touched the water. Piff.
And the puddle changed. It didn’t become a sunset or a spring. It became a mirror of rainbows — swirling pink and gold and green, glowing softly in the grey day like a small round window into somewhere wonderful.
The hedgehog gasped. “It’s beautiful!” He leaned over and saw himself sparkling back. He laughed — and hedgehog laughs are wonderful, all snuffly and warm.
Soon the rabbits came to look. Then the field mice. Then even the grumpy old badger, who smiled for the first time all week. One tiny puddle, glowing like treasure, made the whole grey meadow feel bright.
Petal watched them laughing, and something warm filled her up from hooves to horn.
That night, back in the meadow, a big unicorn nuzzled her gently. “We saw what you did, little one. That grey day needed your sparkle more than it needed another sunset.”
Petal fell asleep smiling — a very small unicorn who had learned a very big thing: no magic is too little, when it lands in just the right place.
The end. 🦄
Talk about it together
- What did Petal's little sparkle turn the puddle into?
- What small kind thing could you do tomorrow?
- If you had one sparkle of magic, what would you use it on?