Have you, dear reader, ever heard about such a wonderful place – the Mysterious Forest? It is not on maps; it is not visible from satellites, but sometimes it appears to little children who walk the streets of Ukrainian towns.

The crown of trees in this Forest is multi-colored, and the trunks seem to be made of silver. Carrot juice flows in the river, and the lakes are completely crystalline, you can see every frog, croaking loudly nearby. There is always sunny and the picturesque lawn with limp leaves smell pleasant. There are no birds and animals, only the inhabitants of the water and charmed denizens.

One upon a time, 7th-grader Yaroslav from the village of Sokyrnytsia, in Zakarpattia, noticed a strange wooden sign at the corner of his street. Strange because it had never been there before and it didn’t point to anything. The boy became very curious about where exactly it was going, so he decided to follow its direction.

In a few minutes he found himself in the Mysterious Forest. His attention was immediately drawn to a wee winged shadow, shining near the river. Yaroslav headed along the only path that led straight to a huge pine tree. On one of the branches sat a wise owl, who was preparing dinner for the forest dwellers. Petro the hedgehog, Zina the bee and a dachshund dog named Fedir gathered for lunch. But the boy was most impressed by Unicorn Zhanna, whose horn was iridescent with all the colors of the rainbow and resembled a huge Christmas lollipop. And this is not surprising, because the mystery of these creatures was that they all consisted of various sweets. Everything that was in that Forest could be tasted. The boy was told about this by the fairy Lila, who was watching him all the time, and just flew right up to him.

‘Hello, boy! My name is Lilia.’ greeted the little fairy.

‘Hello, Lily. I’m Yaroslav. What is this place?’ he asked in surprise.

“You got to the Mysterious Forest,” Lily began to explain, “all our residents are very friendly, but sometimes we feel sad and lonely, because no one has ever visited us.”

That’s why my elf friend Mykola and I bewitched someone with cotton candy instead of fur, someone with caramels instead of eyes, and a unicorn with a lollipop instead of a horn. I saw, you already noticed it. After that, little children come to us from time to time.

“That’s incredible! Everything is so exciting!” shouted the boy.

“You could join us for lunch. The old wise owl prepared a bunch of treats. The hedgehog Petro brought fruits, Mykola and I helped with the preparation.”

“With pleasure, Lily! I`ll be there!” Yaroslav was burning with desire. “But why is your Forest hidden from other eyes? Why do only children come here?”

“Because adults, my dear friend, don’t pay attention to foreign signs around the corner of the street and are no longer interested in its direction. They are engaged in rat race and see almost nothing! But we have fun with children!” the fairy smiled.

They sat down at a huge table and began to eat the variety of dishes. During lunch, the boy met all the fantastic creatures and promised to bring his friends to them next time. Going back down the road, the boy turned around, but there was nobody around the tall pine. The next day, the wooden sign disappeared and was never seen again on that street.

The Mysterious Forest traveled further. And that boy started writing his splendid story one day after. Dreames come true, miracles exist!