My Secret Unicorn (6 page)

She and Max raced towards their father who turned to run but, as he did so, Buddy jumped excitedly in front of him. Mr Foster tripped up and went
sprawling in the snow. Giggling and squealing, Lauren and Max threw themselves on top of him.

By the time they stood up they were
all
covered in snow.

Mrs Foster grinned at them all. ‘Hot chocolate, anyone?' she said.

Later that morning, Michael arrived with Jodie. ‘I've brought my saddle and bridle with me,' he told Lauren. ‘I thought that we could clean our tack even if we can't go riding.'

‘Sounds good to me!' Lauren said happily. She liked cleaning tack. ‘I'll get mine and we can clean it in the kitchen. It's way too cold in the stable.'

She fetched her tack and, while Jodie and Lauren's mum went through to the lounge to chat and catch up, Lauren and Michael settled themselves down in the kitchen with buckets of warm water, sponges, saddle soap and metal polish. They put their saddles on the kitchen bench and hung their bridles from the cupboard door handles.

As they worked they talked about ponies non-stop. Michael told Lauren all about the livery yard where he kept Moonshine, his friends there and his plans to enter some shows. And Lauren told him about the things she'd been doing with Mel and Jessica.

‘Then there's my friends Jo-Ann
and Grace,' she told him. ‘Grace's mum owns a yard on the other side of the woods. Grace is the one I told you about who's got,' she lowered her voice to a whisper, ‘a baby unicorn. He couldn't fly very well at first and –'

‘Let's not talk about unicorn stuff,' Michael broke in suddenly.

Lauren looked at him in surprise. ‘What?'

Michael shrugged. ‘Someone might hear us.'

‘But Max is out with Dad on the farm and our mums are talking,' Lauren said. ‘We can whisper. I want to hear some more of the things you and Moonshine have done.'

But Michael shook his head. ‘No. Let's talk about something else.'

He looked uncomfortable. Lauren frowned. Why didn't he want to talk about unicorn things?

She fell silent for a moment and concentrated on rubbing saddle soap on to her stirrup leathers. Michael didn't say anything either. As she put the stirrup leathers on the bench to dry she glanced across at him. His face looked closed up and unhappy.

There's something the matter with him
, Lauren thought.

She remembered how he'd snapped at her the evening before when she'd told him he should get the mistletoe for
Jodie. Something was definitely up. But what?

‘Are you OK?' she said.

‘Yeah, fine.' But the way Michael muttered his reply made her feel sure that he wasn't.

Lauren hesitated. Part of her really wanted to ask him straight out what was wrong but she remembered something Mrs Fontana had said to her once when she'd been worried about Twilight:
Just let him know that you'll listen when he's ready to talk.
Should she say something or should she do what Mrs Fontana had said?

Mrs Fontana always knew best
, she decided.
I won't keep asking what the matter is. He'll tell me if he wants to.

She turned back to her tack cleaning. For a while neither of them spoke then Michael said, ‘Are we still going to go flying tonight then?'

‘You bet!' Lauren answered. ‘I'll meet you in Twilight's field again at midnight.' A thought struck her. ‘Oh, but do you know about snow and unicorn magic?' She didn't want to say
any more in case she was giving away a secret power, but to her relief Michael nodded.

‘The purple sparks? I found out about flying through snow last winter.'

Lauren grinned. ‘It's so cool, isn't it?'

‘Yeah,' Michael said. ‘We'll have a great time tonight. We can play tag in the snow and have some serious fun!'

After Michael had gone home with his mum, Lauren thought about what he had said as she carried her tack back to the tack room. It
was
lovely having fun with their unicorns, but she knew it was important not to just use a unicorn's magic for fun – if you did that, they got
ill. They had to keep doing good deeds to keep their magic strong.

I wonder if Michael knows that
, she wondered.

As she thought about it, she realized that there was an easy solution. As Jodie and Michael had been getting into the car to go home, Lauren had heard Jodie telling Mrs Foster about her problems finding mistletoe to take back to the city.

All Michael has to do is get some mistletoe tonight
, Lauren thought.
Twilight and I will go and see that Rosie is all right earlier in the evening and then, when we meet up with Michael, we can get the mistletoe so we've both done good deeds. Then we'll be
able to have fun for the rest of the night. Problem solved.

Feeling pleased with herself, she smiled and hurried into the tack room.

As soon as her mum and dad went to bed that night, Lauren crept out of the house. ‘Let's check on Rosie,' she told Twilight, as she let him out of the stable. They flew to the bottom of the field where there were some rose quartz rocks.

‘Rosie!' Twilight said, touching his horn to one of the rocks. As the purple smoke cleared, Lauren and Twilight saw Rosie in the rock. She was in her bedroom. The moon was shining in through the window. As they watched,
Rosie sat up and turned her bedside light on.

Lauren saw there was another girl asleep on a camp bed next to Rosie's bed. Rosie went over and gently shook her awake. Lauren leaned closer to the rock so she could hear what Rosie was saying.

‘It's time, Ellie!'

The other girl sat up and pushed a hand through her red hair. It was the same girl they had seen the night before when Sparkle had touched his horn to the rock.

‘Time for what? What are we going to do, Rosie? Why won't you tell me?'

‘I
have
told you. I'm going to show you that your mum is OK.'

‘But how can you possibly do that?'

Rosie looked at her friend. ‘Trust me. We need to get dressed and go to Sparkle's field. He's going to help
show
you your mum's OK.'

Lauren caught her breath. ‘No!' She sat back and looked at Twilight in alarm. ‘It sounds like Rosie's going to let Ellie see Sparkle as a unicorn!'

‘But she can't!' Twilight exclaimed. ‘No one must ever be allowed to see a unicorn unless they're a Unicorn Friend themselves!'

Lauren grabbed a handful of Twilight's mane and swung herself on to his back. ‘Quick! We have to stop her!'

As Twilight rose into the air, Lauren suddenly remembered something. ‘Wait!' she gasped.

Twilight slowed down. ‘What is it?' he demanded.

‘Do you remember when we first started doing magic and Jessica ran away because she was really upset that her dad was about to marry again? She thought
her stepsister, Samantha, hated her but we used the rose quartz to show her how worried Sam was that she'd run away.'

‘I remember,' Twilight said. ‘Jessica isn't a Unicorn Friend but we were still allowed to show her the magic and let her see me. Mrs Fontana told us how to make a magic potion that would mean she forgot everything afterwards.'

‘Yes!' Lauren exclaimed. ‘Well, can't we use the potion again? Ellie would have to agree to take it, but if she does then Rosie could let her see Sparkle and look in the rose quartz.'

‘That's a great idea! Where's the recipe for the potion?' Twilight asked.

‘I don't know,' admitted Lauren. ‘I had it on a piece of paper but I haven't seen it for ages. It had two moonflowers in it but I can't remember what else.'

Twilight thought for a moment. ‘Maybe Mrs Fontana wrote it down in her journal!'

‘Fly back down, Twilight,' Lauren said. ‘The chest is in the tack room. Let's check in the journal and see!'

Twilight dived to the ground. Lauren raced to the tack room, where she had left the chest. Fingers trembling she threw open the lid and pulled the journal out. She flicked quickly through the pages. It would be about two and a half years ago that Mrs Fontana had told her about the Unseeing Potion. Her eyes skimmed across the pages, looking for entries marked L and T.

Got it!
she thought as she found the right section.

L and T are trying to help J. She needs to look in the rose quartz. I have given them the recipe for the Unseeing Potion. By drinking it J will forget all about having seen T and his magic but the memory of happiness will remain inside her even after the actual memories have gone.

The Unseeing Potion

Take two moonflowers and a hair from a unicorn's mane and put them in water in the light of the moon. After ten seconds the flowers and the hair will have dissolved in the water and the potion will be ready to drink. Within thirty seconds the person who has drunk
it will have forgotten they have ever seen a unicorn.

Lauren jumped to her feet. This was just what they needed! There was an empty jam jar with a lid on the side. Grabbing it, she filled it with water at the sink. Now they just needed to stop at the clearing and pick two moonflowers. She put the lid on and raced outside. ‘I know what to do, Twilight! Come on!'

They swooped over the woods and down towards the copse of trees where they had met Rosie and Sparkle before. There was no one there but as Twilight
landed, they heard the sound of two voices through the trees.

‘Rosie! What are we doing?'

Lauren recognized Ellie's voice from the rose quartz.

‘We have to be somewhere quiet and secret before I can show you your mum's OK,' she heard Rosie reply. ‘I shouldn't really but I know you won't tell anyone.'

Lauren felt a rush of relief. She and Twilight had got there in time!

She scrambled off Twilight's back.

‘You'd better hide in the trees, Twilight,' she hissed. ‘Ellie mustn't see you until she's agreed to take the potion.'

Twilight trotted into the trees just as Rosie led Sparkle into the clearing, Ellie beside her.

‘Lauren!' Rosie gasped. ‘What are you doing here?'

Ellie looked astonished. ‘Who are you?' she asked, looking at Lauren.

‘My name's Lauren,' Lauren told her quickly. She turned to the blonde girl. ‘Rosie, I need to talk to you. Ellie, could you hold Sparkle, please?'

‘But-but how do you know my name?' stammered Ellie.

‘I just do,' said Lauren, her heart pounding. ‘Rosie! I really do need to talk to you!'

Rosie gave Sparkle's leadrope to Ellie
and followed Lauren to the far side of the clearing. ‘What are you doing here?' she hissed. ‘I was about to help Ellie. I know normal people aren't supposed to see unicorns, but I've just
got
to help her! I've checked in the rock and her mum's fine – it's just that the radio links are down in the place where she's camping. I've tried telling Ellie that everything is OK, but she won't believe me. I have to let her look in the rose quartz. There's no other way to show her that her mum's all right.'