by Julie Sykes
Ariana hugged him tightly, her heart swelling with love. She was filthy from crouching in the mud, but she didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was Whisper.
He nuzzled her. “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you, earlier – about things seeming strange in here. I was sure you were imagining things.”
“It’s OK,” said Ariana. “I know I’m always super careful and overcautious.”
“Well, I’m very glad you’re so organised and thought to bring the sky berries with you,” said Whisper. “And I’m sorry you got all muddy.”
“I don’t care,” she said. “I’m just glad you’re feeling better now.”
“We have to find out why the animals are all behaving so strangely,” said Rosa.
“It’s really odd,” said Freya. “The animals who live in these woods are supposed to be very shy. Even the fierce ones usually avoid people.”
“Look!” Matilda pointed. “The fox cub is back.”
The little fox was staring intently at Matilda from round the side of a tree. Then it ducked back. Seconds later it reappeared. When the fox vanished then reappeared for the third time, Matilda suddenly understood.
“I think it wants us to follow it.”
Excitement flashed in Rosa’s eyes. “Maybe it needs help. It might be trying to show us why the animals are behaving so strangely.”
“Shouldn’t we tell a teacher rather than follow it?” said Ariana.
“There’s no time to call for a teacher. The fox might not wait. I think we should follow it. Who’s with me?” asked Rosa.
“Me!” chorused everyone except Ariana.
“I really think we should,” said Whisper quietly.
Ariana wasn’t very happy, but she trusted Whisper and she didn’t want to let him down. She and Whisper set off with the others after the fox cub. It went at a fast pace, but every now and then it slowed to check that the girls were still following.
After a bit, Crystal lifted her head. “I think I can smell water in that direction,” she said, looking further down the path.
“Me too,” said Pearl.
“I wonder,” said Rosa thoughtfully. “There’s a magical waterfall in the middle of these woods – the Verdant Falls. There’s a pool at the bottom and a stream where the animals drink. Do you think the fox cub is taking us there?”
“It looks like it,” said Freya. “Maybe there’s a problem with the water and that’s why the animals are behaving weirdly?”
Ariana bit her lip as Rosa, Matilda and Violet nodded. If the fox was taking them to the waterfall, then it would mean going even deeper into the wood, exactly what they’d been told not to do. However, if there was something wrong with the water then they really needed to know, especially as future guardians of Unicorn Island.
“Ariana? Are you still OK?” Whisper asked.
“Yes,” she answered firmly.
Whisper nuzzled her leg. “Good, because I’ll look after you,” he promised.
“We’ll look after each other,” she said, hugging him tightly.
The unicorns headed through the trees. As they trotted down the track, Ariana heard the sound of trickling water.
“Do you think that’s the Verdant Falls?” Matilda said.
Freya frowned. “No. The Verdant Falls is a really powerful waterfall. I’ve seen pictures in books. The water comes flowing out of a hole in a cliff face and lands in a pool. It would make a much louder noise than that.”
“I can definitely smell water this way,” said Crystal, sniffing the air again.
They rounded a bend and stopped. Ahead of them was a rocky cliff face. A tiny stream of water was trickling out of a cave near the top. It was falling into a sludgy brown pool at the bottom. The fox walked to the edge of the pool. Then it looked at the girls.
“Is that the magic waterfall?” asked Rosa in surprise. “It’s not very impressive.”
“It can’t be the Verdant Falls,” said Freya. “There isn’t enough water.” She looked around. “Everything else looks the same as the pictures though – the cliff, the pool at the bottom…” She trailed off. “I’m sure this is the falls, but what’s happened to it?”
Ariana caught her breath. “Maybe someone has done something to stop the water flowing properly.”
The fox pricked its large red ears.
“You’re very friendly, aren’t you?” said Rosa, smiling. The young fox yapped happily and bounded closer, its bushy tail wagging. “How sweet!”
The fox cub rolled over on to its back to have its fluffy tummy tickled, and Rosa got off Crystal to stroke it. After a bit, the cub got to its feet and ran to the pool. The girls and their unicorns watched as it lapped up a few mouthfuls of water with its pink tongue. As the cub swallowed, it stiffened. It looked round at them and the hackles on the back of its neck rose. Lowering its head, the cub bared its teeth and snarled. Its eyes glowed and then it pounced.
Whisper instantly stamped his hoof. Sparks flew up and landed on the cub’s head. With a surprised bark, it skidded to a halt. The glow faded from its eyes. The cub shook its head. Whining in confusion, it trotted over to the girls.
Rosa crouched down and patted it. “You clever thing,” she said. “You’re trying to tell us that there’s something wrong with the water.”
Ariana stroked Whisper. “Well done. Are you OK?”
He nodded. “The cub was smart enough not to drink too much water, so I only had to use a little bit of magic. We’ve got to do something though, Ariana. We can’t let the animals all turn bad!”
“I know,” she said.
Violet and Matilda had dismounted and were making a fuss of the little fox cub with Rosa. Meanwhile, Freya had got off Honey and was examining the water. “Someone might have put a dark magic spell on this pool and there’s no fresh water to wash it clean,” she said, wading through the shallow water at the edge. She turned over the nearby rocks and boulders. “There may be some clues somewhere. Come and help me look.” The others joined her, but Ariana hesitated. It looked very muddy and wet.
“Why don’t we go to the top of the cliff, Ariana, and see if we can find anything up there?” said Whisper. “We might find out why the water isn’t flowing properly out of the cave.”
“OK.” Ariana liked that idea far better than the thought of rootling around in the mud. She told the others what they were doing. “We’ll go up there,” she said, pointing to a path that led up to the top of the cliff.
“All right, shout if you find anything,” said Rosa.
Whisper followed the path up the cliff. When they were nearly at the top, Ariana dismounted and they cautiously approached the cliff edge so they could look down at the hole the water should be flowing from. Whisper’s hooves slipped on the wet rocks as he got closer to the edge.
“Wait!” Ariana said, getting off his back. “It’s not safe. Have you seen how steep the drop is to the pool below? You stay here and I’ll go on. I can crawl.”
“Are you sure?” said Whisper. “You’ll get wet and dirty.”
“I don’t care.” Ariana thought about the brave little fox cub. It knew there was something wrong with the water and had got them to follow it. “The others are right – we have to find out what’s going on.”
She shrugged off her rucksack and, dropping to her hands and knees, crawled to the cliff edge. She flattened her tummy to the ground, held tight to the rocky edge and peered over it. She could see her friends at the bottom searching for clues. A few metres below her, a slow stream of water was trickling from the hole in the rocks. But what was that noise? From the cave came a dull rumbling roar. It sounded as if there was a massive river flowing beneath her. Where was it going if it wasn’t flowing out of the opening?
Ariana crawled back to Whisper. “I need to look in the cave,” she told him.
Whisper’s ears flickered and he looked worried. “That sounds dangerous,” he said. “You’ll have to climb down the cliff.”
“I’ll be OK. I brought a torch
and a rope with me and it’s not far down.” Ariana started unpacking her rucksack. Pulling out the rope, she tied one end around her waist, making sure the knot was secure. Then she wrapped the other end around an outcrop of rock and tied it tight. She took out the torch and put it into her pocket. “Wait here. If I need help, I’ll shout to you. Hold on to the rope in case it comes off the rock I’ve tied it to!”
Whisper nodded. “I will.”
Ariana took a deep breath. She really didn’t want to climb over the edge of the cliff and go into the dark, mysterious cave, but she knew she had to. She was going to be a guardian one day and that meant she had to protect Unicorn Island and stop anyone who wanted to harm it – or the creatures who lived there.
“You can do this, Ariana,” said Whisper as if reading her thoughts. He nuzzled her hair. “I know you can.”
Feeling his warm breath on her cheek, her courage rose. Dropping to her hands and knees, she crawled to the edge and, trying not to look at the drop below, she turned round and lowered herself over it. Using the jutting out bits of rock for hand and footholds, she inched her way down the cliff towards the opening, her nails breaking on the rocks, her clothes getting streaked with even more dirt.
Suddenly she heard a shout from below. “Look at Ariana!” It was Matilda. Ariana didn’t dare look down, but whinnies and shouts rose to her ears.
“Ariana! What are you doing?” Violet shrieked.
“Be careful!” cried Freya.
“Oh, wow, Ariana!” That was Rosa. She sounded very impressed.
Ariana forced herself to block out their voices and concentrate on what she was doing. If she slipped, she had no idea if the rope would hold her weight.
Just a little bit further, she told herself firmly. Keep going.
She was level with the cave entrance now. Gripping the edges of the cave she swung her feet inside. She heard her friends gasp as her feet hit the rocky floor and she wriggled into the dark hole. Yes! She’d made it!
She was standing on solid ground inside the cave, a fine spray of water soaking into her hair and clothes. The rumbling and roaring were even louder here. Pulling her torch out, she gasped. It was the strangest thing she had ever seen. A large river was flowing through the cave straight towards the cave entrance, and towards her, but for some reason, about three metres away from her feet, the river just stopped and seemed to vanish into thin air. Why? The beam of her torch caught on ten blue pearls that were laid out in a line on the rocky floor, just where the river vanished. Ariana edged closer. The pearls sparkled in the torchlight. She had seen something like them before…
Rain seeds! They were magical seeds, Ariana remembered. Not only could they make rain, but when they were placed near a body of water, a spell could be put on them to make that water vanish and reappear somewhere else. Her dad had shown her a picture of them last year and told her that the old headteacher of Unicorn Academy – Ms Primrose – had used them to try to shut the academy down by causing Sparkle Lake to flood. Someone must be using them here to transport the magic river away somewhere else – maybe so they could use its magic power!
Right now, Ariana knew she didn’t have time to think about who might do such a thing or why. She had to remove the seeds. But how? If she picked them up, the river would start flowing again and she’d be swept out of the cave in the torrent of water. It was a steep drop and she probably wouldn’t survive. No, there had to be a safer way to move the seeds. In her head, Ariana ran through the things in her rucksack. A smile spread across her face. Oh yes, she might have just the thing she needed!
A few minutes later, Ariana was back outside the cave, balancing on the rocky footholds and clinging on with one hand. In the other, she held the collapsible fishing net she’d packed. She’d extended the pole to its limit and it was now several metres long.
“What are you doing?” Rosa shouted.
“Ariana, have you gone nuts?” yelled Matilda. “You can’t fish up there!”
Ariana ignored them. “Whisper! Are you holding tightly?” she shouted up the cliff.
“Yes!” Whisper whinnied. “When are you coming back?”
“In a moment – I hope. But first I have to do this. Hold tight for me!” Taking a deep breath and trusting Whisper with her whole heart, she let go of the handhold and swung the net inside the cave. She swiped it along the blue rain seeds, scooping them up. As she pulled the net back, the river came crashing through the opening, its spray drenching her from head to toe as it fell in a glittering, sparkling sheet into the pool below.
“Oh no!” gasped Ariana as she heard her friends’ screams of suprise as the water cascaded down. Their screams turned into shrieks of delight as they started splashing around in the rapidly filling pool with their unicorns.
“The river’s flowing again!” cried Rosa.
“The waterfall is back!” shouted Freya.
Feeling a rush of relief, Ariana folded up the net, put the rain seeds in her pocket and started to climb back up the cliff.
By the time she reached Whisper, she was shaking with relief and could barely untie the rope from around her waist. She leaned against him and he nuzzled her, his breath drying her damp skin. “What happened? Are you OK?” he demanded.
“Yes, I’m fine,” she said, hugging him. She quickly told him what had happened.
“You’re so brave!” he told her, his eyes round with awe. “You saved the waterfall and made it flow again!”
Ariana smiled. “Come on, let’s go and tell the others,” she said.
When Whisper and Ariana reached the pool, it had filled completely. A stream was flowing away from it again, carrying the clean magic water off through the trees for all the animals in the woods to drink.
“OK, you have some serious explaining to do!” said Rosa as the girls and their unicorns waded out to greet Ariana and Whisper. “What do you think you were doing climbing down a cliff, swinging from a rope, disappearing into a cave…?”
“It was nothing,” said Ariana modestly.
“It was so! She was amazing,” said Whisper proudly. He told the others what Ariana had done.
“Rain seeds,” breathed Freya. “I’ve heard about them.”
Ariana pulled the bright blue seeds out of her pocket. “They were what was causing all the problems. Someone must have wanted to send the river somewhere else.”
“But why?” said Violet.
“To use its magic in some way, I guess?” suggested Freya. “I wonder who it was.”
“We’ll have to tell the teachers about this, but, wow,” Rosa shook her head, “you saved the day, Ariana.”
“With a fishing net!” said Matilda, her eyes wide.
“I told you all the things I had might come in useful!” said Ariana.
“I’m really sorry I teased you for having such a big rucksack now!” Matilda said.
“Me too,” said Rosa. “It was really clever of you.”
Ariana grinned. “Just call me Little Miss Organised.”
“You’re brilliant! No one is ever allowed to tease you for being organised again!” Rosa declared. The unicorns whinnied in agreement.
Ariana felt as if she was glowing inside. “That’s OK. I don’t mind being teased.” She meant it. As she looked around at her friends’ happy faces, she suddenly realised that, for the first time, she really felt part of the dorm – part of a team.
Violet hugged her. “Oh, sorry,” she said as she looked at the mud she’d just left on Ariana. She giggled happily. “Oh dear, I guess we all look like mud monsters today!”
Crystal plunged into the pool. “I’m going to get clean!” she said. “Who’s going to join me?”
With a chorus of delighted whinnies, the other unicorns cantered after her.
“Come on in, Ariana!” called Whisper as he splashed into the water. “The water’s lovely and clean now!”
Ariana decided she was so wet already she might as well join in. Whisper stamped his hooves, splashing her with m
ulticoloured water. It was so cold it made her gasp, but it was also crystal clear and it washed all the mud away. She spun around in it, feeling tingly with happiness.
“See, it’s not so bad being outdoors, is it?” asked Whisper.
“No, it’s not,” said Ariana, hugging him. “Thanks for making me realise that.”
“Can we do more outdoorsy things from now on?” asked Whisper eagerly.
“Definitely!” said Ariana.
“Though plaiting and grooming is OK too.” Whisper nuzzled her. “I want us both to do things we like and be happy.”
“I am happy because you make me very happy,” Ariana said, kissing him on the nose. “You’re the best unicorn in the world!”
“Water fight!” shrieked Rosa, splashing water around.
Everyone joined in, squealing with laugher.
“Girls!” A sharp voice broke through the air. “What on earth is going on?”
They all stopped dead and looked round. Ms Rivers was on the bank, sitting astride her unicorn, Lady.
“You’re supposed to be conducting a survey of animals on the outskirts of the woods, not playing games in the middle. I realised you were missing and have been very worried. Come out and explain yourselves at once!” she said.
“We’re sorry, Ms Rivers, but please don’t be cross. We think we have worked out what’s been going on, and Ariana’s fixed it,” Rosa explained as everyone waded out of the pool.
“What do you mean?” Ms Rivers’ stern look faded. “No, first, let’s get you all dry and then you can explain.” She touched Lady’s neck. The unicorn shook her mane, sparkles flew into the air and a second later the girls felt a warm breeze swirling around them, drying their skin and clothes and leaving them toasty warm. “That’s better,” said Ms Rivers. “Thank you, Lady.”
