The leopard
An enormous leopard burst from the curtain of plants, and Nicola leapt out of the way just in time. Screaming, she slammed the door, trapping the big cat inside. She ran down stairs, so frightened that she accidentally dropped the magic wand on her way to the basement, the best place to hide.
Nicolas older sister, Jessica, wandered in from the backyard a minute too late make sense of Nicola's rush to the basement door, almost stepping on the twinkling wand in front of her.
"Wow, a wand!" she said, picking it up. "I'm going to pretend to be a fairy". With a flick of her shiny brown hair, she danced back out to the yard, held the wand too the sky and wished aloud for a horse.