Sparkles Winning Entry

      Not all had been lost for Mae. Most importantly, she had her two children-- Abel and Ivory. She also had her beautiful log cabin where they resided. Her husband had built it by hand. It was a sturdy and comfortable home with a warm fireplace, three cozy beds, and a roof that had never failed to protect them from the rain.

      That was, until it burned to the ground on December twenty-second. Cause of fire, unknown. The Obsideon family of three was devastated, with no one and nowhere to turn to. Mae knew nothing of any civilization outside of her cabin. All the life she had known before she met her husband was so distant of a thought, that even the faintest memories were of no help. Confused and pain-struck, Mae and her two children had no choice but to wander the thick wilderness in search of help.

      Three days had passed with no sign of hope. Abel and Ivory were healthy, most importantly. Mae had picked them forest berries to keep them fed, and she knew the way to the waterfall to roast fish-pals or drink water. But on those cold and windy nights of winter, there was no warm bed or fireplace. All that they had was a snow-topped cave with cold gusts blowing in. Sleeping was near impossible.

      However, on the fourth morning, Mae woke up early to the sight of a mysterious yellow bird-like Misticpal. It was perched on a low branch of a near pine tree, looking her in the eyes. "Follow me," said the bird, and it flew across to perch another tree. "Follow me, and I will help you."

      The confused mother shook her children awake, and instructed them to follow her. The bird, with it's astonishingly bright yellow coat, continued to fly from one pine to another, urging them to follow. Mae had been so focused on its pelt, which seemed to glow, that she hadn't noticed when the bird had come to a stop. By the time she looked away from it, she found herself standing before the burnt rubble of her old cabin. A gasp shot down her throat and a tear came to her eye. Her children, too, were standing in shock, unable to move.

      Suddenly, Mae, Abel, and Ivory lost their vision to see nothing but a white flash. When their sight returned, what they saw was incredible. The mysterious, yellow bird was perched on top the chimney of a newly constructed cabin. It was beautiful, and looked exactly the way it did when it was first built by her husband, years ago. Except, one thing was different. Colorful wrapped gifts of all shapes and sizes were surrounding the new home in all directions, peeking out from below the lowest branches of the pines. Nobody is quite sure what happened from that point on from that miraculous twenty-fifth of November, but the bird did have one last thing to say: