By Aisha L. Marzouqi

Illustration by Alexandria Dizon

Amelia is an adventurous girl. She always went outside to play and look around.

Her neighbor, Robert, has a garden. A beautiful garden, Amelia would answer if you were to ask her.

Lately, she’s noticed a small dove flying above Mister Robert’s garden.

The little dove has milky white feathers as well as black eyes that Amelia is scared of.

Amelia shakes her head at the thought of the bird, there’s no point in thinking of a little bird, ‘I have to get ready to go with Mom to the market!’ She thought.

And so Amelia went ahead and got ready. Amelia always thinks her mother is far too strict sometimes, always spoiling the fun, she said. This is why Amelia considers herself a magician since she’s able to escape her mother’s sharp eyes.

‘Fooled mom again! I wonder how long it will be until she realizes I disappeared?’ She was thinking hard and then stopped when she saw the forest near the market. It was a scary forest for Amelia and she would not have gone inside.

She would never think of it but as the thought of going inside the forest left, a pretty butterfly made its way into the forest. The butterfly was blue and such a lively blue it was. Entrance by its color, Amelia decided she was going into the forest to look for that butterfly again.

The little girl made her way into the forest easily. Amelia searched and searched around the area for any signs of the blue butterfly. Luck was not on her side since she had no clues of the butterfly being near her.

It was starting to get dark and Amelia was starting to get scared. She did not want to be left here inside the forest all alone, she still had more adventures in her life. Just as she was about to cry, a milky white dove flew above her head.

She noticed it immediately and was drawn to it. She called out to the bird, “Hey..! Little birdy!”

She followed the bird until she saw the end of the forest. She was happy and relieved that she would not spend the night camping in a scary forest.

As she got out of the forest, her mother spotted her and quickly went to her. Amelia was hugged by her mother so tight she thought she would lose air. While Amelia’s mother started scolding her, she looked up to see the same dove perched up on a tree branch.

‘It looks like I have my own guidebird, hehe!’

She and her mother went home after the scolding and on the way home Amelia was thinking of what to name the bird.

“Ciel is what I will name the bird since it guided me like how the skies would guide my ancestors in the sea.”

And from that day on, Amelia started to own a pet dove named Ciel.

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