My Secret Unicorn Read online

  ‘We could try and find it,’ Twilight said. ‘If we can’t find them, you can always look it up on a map and we can go tomorrow night instead.’

  ‘OK,’ Lauren said eagerly. She packed the things away in the chest and scrambled up on Twilight’s back with it.

  He gave an excited whinny and galloped into the air.

  CHAPTER

  Three

  Lauren and Twilight soared over the woods. From their position high in the sky they could see twinkling houses and street lights on a mountain in the distance. ‘I think Bullmarsh is straight ahead,’ said Lauren. She frowned. ‘But then maybe it’s more over that way.’ She pointed to the left.

  ‘Bullmarsh…Bullmarsh…’ Twilight muttered, looking at the two different sets of lights. He suddenly whinnied.

  ‘What is it?’ Lauren asked.

  ‘It’s that way,’ he said, pointing to the left with his horn. ‘I don’t know how I know, but I just do!’

  Lauren gasped. ‘Your horn’s glowing, Twilight.’

  ‘It must be magic working,’ Twilight said. ‘I think we’ve just found another magic power, Lauren – the power to find any place we want.’

  ‘Oh wow,’ Lauren breathed. ‘That’s an amazing power! Do you think you can find the way to Rosie’s house then?’

  ‘Yes,’ Twilight said confidently. He flew to the left. They went on, letting his magic guide them, until a mountain loomed up before them. Twilight headed towards a farmhouse on the mountainside.

  ‘That looks like the place we saw her and Sparkle.’ Lauren pointed out a copse of trees behind the farmhouse.

  Twilight swooped down.

  A fair-haired girl was in the clearing with a unicorn. They seemed to be playing tag. The unicorn kept darting behind trees and she was chasing it. When the girl caught it, the unicorn turned round and chased her. Lauren grinned. She’d never tried that with Twilight but it looked fun!

  ‘Hi!’ she called.

  The girl looked up and gasped – her mouth gaping open – as she saw Twilight and Lauren in the sky.

  Lauren laughed at the surprise on her face. ‘I’m Lauren,’ she said as Twilight landed. ‘And this is Twilight.’

  Twilight whinnied a hello.

  ‘You’re Rosie, aren’t you?’ Lauren went on. ‘And this is Sparkle?’

  Sparkle had cantered over to stand by Rosie. He was a slim dark grey unicorn with a grey mane and tail.

  ‘Y-yes, I’m Rosie,’ the girl stammered.

  ‘And I’m Sparkle,’ the unicorn said.

  ‘How do you know our names?’ Rosie asked.

  ‘I’m…well…’ Lauren cleared her throat and tried to make herself sound serious and grown up. ‘I am the Keeper of Secrets,’ she told Rosie. She saw a look of confusion cross the other girl’s face. ‘It means I know all about the unicorns and their friends in this area,’ she explained. ‘I help them work out how to use their magic.’ She decided not to mention that Rosie was the first Unicorn Friend she’d ever come to see.

  ‘Oh wow,’ Rosie breathed. ‘I never thought I’d meet anyone else with a unicorn. Do you want to go flying together?’

  Lauren was tempted to say yes but she quickly reminded herself that she was there to do her job as Keeper of Secrets. I have to be like Mrs Fontana, she thought. She took a deep breath. ‘Not now. I am here because I know you have a problem, Rosie. Tell me and maybe I’ll be able to help.’

  Rosie looked disappointed for a second but then she sighed. ‘Actually, you’re right, I do have a problem,’ she admitted. ‘It’s my friend Ellie. Her mum makes wildlife documentaries. She’s in the Arctic at the moment, filming polar bears. But no one has heard from her for the last two days. Ellie’s really worried. I want to help her with unicorn magic but I just don’t know how.’

  ‘But that’s easy!’ The words burst out of Lauren before she could stop them. All Rosie had to do was get Sparkle to look for Ellie’s mum using some rose quartz. Then they would be able to check and see where Ellie’s mum was and what she was doing. ‘All you have to do is –’

  Twilight whinnied, interrupting her.

  Lauren suddenly remembered that unicorns and their Unicorn Friends had to find out about magic for themselves. What if Rosie and Sparkle didn’t know about rose-quartz gazing?

  ‘Um…what magic can Sparkle do?’ she asked more cautiously.

  ‘He can fly and talk to me,’ Rosie said.

  ‘And I can use magic to hear really well,’ Sparkle put in. ‘Oh, and I can make people feel braver by touching them with my horn.’

  ‘But how can any of those things help?’ Rosie said.

  Lauren thought for a moment. This was actually quite hard. They obviously didn’t know how Sparkle could use rose quartz to see anywhere in the world. How could she help them discover it? An image of Mrs Fontana came into her mind. Time after time, Mrs Fontana had said things that had sounded mysterious but that had helped her and Twilight discover the magic they needed in the end. I’d better do that, Lauren decided.

  ‘Sparkle has many powers you do not know of,’ she began, trying to make her voice sound wise. ‘You must strive to discover them. He does have a power that you can use to help.’

  ‘What?’ Rosie asked eagerly. ‘What is it?’

  ‘I cannot tell you,’ said Lauren.

  Rosie’s face fell. ‘Why not?’

  ‘You and Sparkle must learn how to use his powers by yourselves,’ said Lauren. It felt very odd trying to sound mysterious and grown up when she wished she could just tell the other girl what to do.

  ‘Well, can you give me a clue or something?’ Rosie asked.

  ‘Maybe you should…um…’ Lauren looked around. There were some rocks of rose quartz around the edges of the clearing, half covered with brambles. ‘Maybe you should get Sparkle to see if he can make his magic work on anything in the clearing.’

  Twilight nodded. ‘Try and work some magic,’ he told the other unicorn.

  ‘You mean touch things and see if anything happens?’ Sparkle said.

  Lauren nodded.

  ‘Try touching some trees,’ Rosie said eagerly. Sparkle cantered over to a cluster of oak trees and touched them with his horn. Nothing happened. Lauren had to bite her tongue not to say anything. Sparkle was only a metre away from the rose quartz rocks. Touch them, touch them, she willed the dark grey unicorn.

  ‘Try something else!’ Rosie urged.

  Yes, go on, go on! thought Lauren.

  Sparkle looked around and then touched his horn to the brambles. There was a flash of purple smoke. Rosie gasped and Sparkle gave a whinny of surprise. Before their eyes the woven mass of bramble branches started to untangle.

  ‘Oh wow!’ Rosie breathed. ‘Sparkle, it’s a new magic power. You can untangle things!’

  Lauren looked at Twilight. That wasn’t the power she’d meant Sparkle to discover at all!

  Rosie ran over and hugged Sparkle. ‘That’s brilliant!’ He whickered happily. A puzzled look crossed Rosie’s face and she turned to Lauren. ‘I’m not sure how we can use it to help Ellie, though.’

  Lauren didn’t know what to say. She looked at Twilight, but he seemed equally lost for words. ‘Um…a unicorn has many powers,’ Lauren said hastily. ‘Keep looking for the one that will help.’ She got back on to Twilight’s back. She was sure that if she stayed any longer she would end up telling Rosie what she had to do. ‘Twilight and I must leave you now. Good luck with trying to help your friend.’

  She knows there’s something she can do with his magic now, she told herself, and she knows that he can find it by doing something here in this clearing.

  ‘Thank you,’ Rosie said, looking a bit confused. ‘Will I see you again?’

  Lauren smiled. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘You will. Bye!’ She waved as Twilight soared into the air. He flew out of the clearing and into the sky.

  ‘That was really strange,’ he said as soon as they were out of earshot. ‘You didn’t sound like yourself at all, Lauren.’<
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  ‘I didn’t feel like me,’ Lauren admitted. ‘But then I’m not supposed to be me, am I? I’ve got to try and be like Mrs Fontana.’

  ‘I suppose so,’ Twilight snorted. ‘Do you think Rosie and Sparkle will understand what you mean and keep trying to do magic in the clearing until they find out about rose-quartz gazing?’

  ‘I hope so,’ Lauren replied. She hugged him. ‘Oh, Twilight, I really hope we’ve helped!’

  CHAPTER

  Four

  When Lauren got out of bed the following morning, the grass and the trees were covered in a thick white coating of frost that sparkled in the winter sunshine. She quickly pulled on her clothes. It was the perfect day for going for a ride in the woods. She couldn’t wait for Michael to arrive.

  As she brushed her hair, she thought about Rosie and Sparkle. Had they managed to find out about rose-quartz gazing after she’d left?

  Twilight and I had better go back tonight and find out, Lauren decided. She thought back over the night before. It had felt so odd trying to be like Mrs Fontana. ‘I guess I’ll get used to it soon,’ she muttered to herself.

  Outside, she heard Twilight whinny from his stable. Lauren smiled and hurried from the room.

  After feeding Twilight and refilling his water bucket, Lauren went inside for her own breakfast. Her mum was making pancakes. ‘Mmm,’ said Lauren, sniffing the air. ‘They smell good.’

  Mrs Foster smiled. ‘Help yourself,’ she said, carrying a plateful over to the table. ‘There’s loads. Max!’ she called through the kitchen door. ‘Breakfast’s ready!’

  Lauren sat down. Buddy, Max’s Bernese mountain dog, plonked his head on her knee and looked at her with hopeful brown eyes. ‘Go away, Buddy.’ She grinned at him, ruffling his fur. ‘I know you only want some of my pancake.’

  Buddy thumped his tail on the floor.

  ‘Come on, Buddy.’ Mrs Foster scraped some pancake scraps into his bowl. Buddy bounded over and wolfed them down in two seconds flat. He looked up hopefully for more.

  ‘No, that’s it,’ Mrs Foster told him.

  ‘Don’t worry, Buddy. It’ll be Christmas soon,’ said Lauren. ‘Then you can have a huge plateful of leftover meat and vegetables as your Christmas dinner.’

  ‘Just four days to go,’ said Mrs Foster.

  Lauren sighed happily and looked at the decorations she and Max had put up in the kitchen. She loved Christmas!

  ‘What time’s Michael coming round?’ Mrs Foster asked as Lauren poured maple syrup on to her pancake.

  ‘About ten,’ Lauren answered.

  ‘It’s ages since you’ve seen him, isn’t it?’ Mrs Foster said.

  Lauren nodded. They kept in touch via email but Michael was never very good at replying and he didn’t like writing much, so his emails were always quite short. She couldn’t wait to find out everything that he and Moonshine had been doing.

  ‘Are you going to go out for a ride together?’ Mrs Foster asked.

  ‘Yep,’ Lauren replied.

  And then tonight we’re going to go flying together, she added in her head. She grinned to herself. If only her mum knew!

  Lauren had just finished tacking Twilight up when there was the sound of hooves on the path leading to the stable.

  ‘Michael!’ Lauren cried, as a boy rode down the path on a pretty grey pony.

  Michael grinned. ‘Hi there!’

  Lauren ran to meet him. ‘Hi!’

  Moonshine snorted softly and nuzzled Lauren’s hands. Michael dismounted. He was at least a head taller than Lauren now. For a moment Lauren felt slightly awkward. He looked so different. But then he smiled at her and she felt her shyness melt away.

  ‘It’s good to be back here,’ he said. ‘Hey there, Twilight. How are you, boy?’

  He led Moonshine over and patted Twilight. The two ponies touched noses and snorted in greeting.

  ‘Should we go for a ride?’ Lauren said eagerly. ‘We can talk about… stuff when we’re in the woods.’

  ‘Sure,’ Michael said. ‘I’ve got loads of stuff to tell you!’

  They grinned at each other, knowing exactly what the other one meant.

  Ten minutes later, they were riding along the trail that led into the woods. The path was hard beneath the ponies’ hooves and as Lauren and Michael talked, their breath froze in the air.

  ‘So, what have you and Moonshine been up to?’ Lauren asked when she was sure they were completely alone.

  ‘Loads of things,’ Michael replied. His brown eyes shone. ‘She’s got so many magic powers, Lauren! We’ve been helping lots of people. There was my friend Tom whose cat got lost, and then we were out late one night and stopped a burglary!’

  ‘A burglary!’ Lauren said, her eyes wide.

  ‘Yes. Moonshine was using her powers to hear things at a distance and we heard these two men prowling around an old lady’s house nearby. We flew there and saw that they looked like they were about to break in. I called the police on my phone. They came round and caught the men just as they were breaking in through the back door.’

  ‘That’s amazing!’ said Lauren, impressed. ‘I’ve never done anything like that!’

  ‘It’s just so brilliant having a unicorn,’ Michael said. ‘I mean it would be great having an ordinary pony –’ he patted Moonshine’s neck – ‘but having a unicorn is just something else. I love Moonshine so much.’

  Moonshine flicked her ears and snorted happily.

  Michael told Lauren about some of the other stuff he and Moonshine had been doing. ‘So, how about you?’ he asked at last. ‘What’s been happening here?’

  Lauren told him about Mrs Fontana dying. ‘Now I’m Keeper of Secrets.’ She explained what that meant.

  Michael looked really impressed. ‘That’s so cool!’

  ‘I suppose,’ Lauren felt uncomfortable. She realized she didn’t really want to talk about it. Not even to Michael. It still felt so new to her and she felt very unsure about what she was doing. She changed the subject. ‘If we go down that track there’s some really good banks to ride up and down.’

  ‘OK!’ Michael shortened Moonshine’s reins. ‘Shall we have a canter?’

  Twilight and Moonshine didn’t need any urging. They both plunged forward. As the frosty air whipped against her cheeks, Lauren felt happiness flood through her. It was great seeing Michael and Moonshine and she couldn’t wait to go flying together that night!

  Lauren and Michael had a brilliant time racing Twilight and Moonshine up and down the banks. Afterwards, they rode back to Granger’s Farm, untacked the ponies and put them out in the field.

  As they went up to Lauren’s bedroom, she realized she hadn’t asked Michael about his adoptive parents. ‘So, how’s everything going with Jodie and Chris?’ she asked.

  ‘Great,’ Michael smiled. ‘Jodie comes and helps me with Moonshine and Chris has bought a trailer and takes me to shows –’ He broke off. ‘Hey, I remember that!’ He went over to Lauren’s bed and picked up a big purple book that was lying on the covers. It was very old and the writing on the front was in gold. Mrs Fontana had given it to Lauren when Lauren had first got Twilight. It was all about unicorns.

  ‘The Life of a Unicorn,’ Michael read out the title. ‘You lent this to me. I read about unicorns in it and then tried the Turning Spell on Moonshine. If it hadn’t been for this book, I might never have known she was really a unicorn.’ He grinned at Lauren. ‘It’s no wonder Mrs Fontana chose you to be Keeper of Secrets – you were helping unicorns and their friends even way back then!’

  Lauren realized he was right. ‘I guess I was.’ She smiled, suddenly feeling a bit better about being Keeper of Secrets.

  Michael leafed through the book. ‘I love all the pictures.’ He paused at one that showed a big unicorn cantering into the sky with a smaller one at its side. He read the caption: ‘A Unicorn Elder taking a Chosen Unicorn back to Arcadia.’ He frowned. ‘What does that mean?’

  ‘When unicorns have done loads of good de
eds with their human friend, they go back to Arcadia,’ Lauren told him.

  ‘What!’ Michael stared.

  Lauren nodded. ‘Didn’t you know?’

  ‘No. So what happens?’

  Just then, Lauren’s dad called to her. ‘Lauren! Mel’s on the phone!’

  Lauren headed for the door. ‘I’ll be back in a minute. You can read about it in the book.’ She hurried out and took the phone from her dad.

  ‘Hi, Lauren,’ Mel Cassidy, one of her best friends, said cheerfully. ‘I’m in town and I’ve found these great T-shirts with horses’ heads on them. Do you want to go halves on one for Jess for Christmas?’

  ‘OK.’

  ‘Which one then? There are different colours and different horses. We could have an Arab pony or a thoroughbred or a Welsh pony or…’

  Mel and Lauren discussed it for a few minutes. After they had settled on getting a purple T-shirt with an Arab pony’s head on for their other best friend, Jessica, Lauren said goodbye and went back into her room. Michael had stopped reading the unicorn book and was standing at her window, looking out at Moonshine and Twilight grazing in the field. There was a frown on his face and he seemed completely lost in thought.

  ‘Hi,’ Lauren said.

  ‘Oh, hi,’ Michael said, blinking. ‘Um. I don’t feel great. I… I think I might go home.’

  ‘Oh,’ said Lauren in surprise. ‘What’s the matter?’

  ‘I just feel… sick.’

  ‘Do you still want to meet up tonight?’ Lauren asked in concern.

  ‘We’re just going to go flying, right? We’re not going to help people or do lots of magic?’ Michael asked.

  Lauren shook her head. ‘I thought we could go out into the woods and I’ll show you the secret glade I go to with Twilight and then we can go flying together.’ She gave him an anxious look. ‘But if you’re not feeling well…’

  ‘I’ll be fine,’ Michael muttered.

  They went outside together. As they caught and tacked up Moonshine, Michael hardly said a word. As if sensing something was wrong, Moonshine nudged him several times with her nose. He patted her but didn’t smile.