Kiki sat on the banks of the pond and kicked his legs in the water. His apple-selling venture hadn't been going so well - case in point, he was eating one of his wares. The juice and sweetness of the apple soothed his worried mind more than enough for him to relax a bit. Okay, so the whole apple-selling thing wasn't going great, but he still had other things to do! This pond was all his! Well, at least other people hadn't claimed it. People walked by now and again, sure - but they hadn't claimed it. He didn't particularly know why he was in France in the first place. One day, he'd gone to sleep in his nice little home nearby one of the big factories in Manhattan, and suddenly, he was waking up in a box, kicking off the lid, and running away from a ship. He remembered reading something about some sort of child kidnapping spree in the city, and it made him sad that all the kids had been killed. Apparently, he hadn't though. Just dropped off in France. Which... was an odd place to be dropped off.
He'd run about the streets a bit, looking for a place to stay.. but he didn't have money here. He could GET money, that wasn't the issue. Branches of Mommy's Business were everywhere, and they all liked him, so he could pretty much get whatever he wanted if he knew the secret phrase... which he did. Mommy had made him memorize it when he was littler. Whatever the case with that, he hadn't found someone to tell it to anyway. He HAD found this little park with a pond in it, though, and he'd been sleeping here at night. There was a little bench, and a lot of rags and stuff, that he could cover himself with. It was fun! Like camping!
Today, he decided, he would build something just for himself. Yesterday, he'd found a big ol' rusted nail by the water's edge, and today he was gonna make a unicorn with it! A protector-unicorn, to protect the park and the pond. So deciding, he pushed himself to his feet, and started to scout a decent place to make his masterpiece. There was a place nearby the north side of the lake that was mostly sand and wet dirt. It was perfect for drawing, and there were lots of pretty white, black, and gray rocks to make a design with. That's where he'd build his unicorn.
He started, as one does, with an outline. Kiki was pretty good at art. His Mommy had used to say that he was a modern-day Rembrandt, whatever that meant. All Key knew was that his drawings looked like what they were supposed to look like, and this one was going to look like a unicorn. A pretty one, with a bull-rush mane, and a pretty agate he'd found for an eye, and a nail for a horn. He hummed happily while he worked, making sure that the outline was exactly as he wanted it, before starting to place stones and pieces of wood and rushes into the outline to make it more substantial.
It took him the better part of two hours to get everything just-so. He'd had to adjust the ears, and work with water and a little sand to get the mane to look just right. Finally, though, the horse-part was done. He was all giddy with glee, looking upon his noble protector. Of course, it was just rocks and sticks, and bull-rushes, and the occasional pretty stone. It wasn't a real horse. That was okay. He could have a pretend-unicorn, too. But it wasn't a unicorn yet! Unicorns were magic! They also had big, pretty horns.
Kiki remembered some of the weird squigglies that a friend of Mommy's used to draw on walls, and copied them around the horsey's head. That took care of the magic bit, 'cause it looked all magical and pretty. Now, the finishing touch!
With a massive flourish, Key knelt beside the horse's head, and fitted the nail into the pre-defined space for the horn. Giggling, he cried "Come, my valiant steed!" as he tapped it into place with his foot, jumping up and clapping his hands in utter glee that his masterpiece was finished.