by Pip Bird
Mira hung back while the others rounded up the kittens and put them safely back into the caticorn’s nest. The mother soon settled down happily next to them.
“Let’s head back to the chickicorn barn!” said Jake, still grinning from his kitticorn cuddle.
Mira took one last, sad look at the nest. The four little rainbow kitticorns were settling down sleepily. But the mother caticorn was looking around in a worried way …
“Wait!” said Mira.
“You’ve already tried to make them like you,” said Darcy impatiently. “You’ve just got to let it go.”
“No,” said Mira. “The golden kitticorn isn’t in the nest!”
The mother caticorn was pacing around now and meowing loudly, calling for her missing baby. Mira swallowed guiltily. She’d been so focused on trying to cuddle the kitticorns that she’d forgotten Bruce said that caticorns were easily scared. She hadn’t been very careful at all!
They looked everywhere around the bins and the pigicorn pens for any tiny little space the kitticorn could have run into. The mother caticorn’s meows were getting louder and more worried. They strained their ears, but they couldn’t hear the kitticorn anywhere.
What they did hear was a loud scratching sound. Dave was by the Doglark tree, scratching his butt on the trunk.
“Oh, Dave, you could at least help!” said Mira crossly.
Dave stopped. And then he ran backward at Mira and swooshed his tail in her face.
“PAH!” said Mira, trying to push Dave’s tail away. “Stop it!”
Then Dave ducked his head and started running in and out of Mira’s ankles. The two of them got tangled up and fell to the ground.
“What are you doing, Dave?” said Mira helplessly. “We’ve got to find the kitticorn—we don’t have time for messing around!”
Dave sighed, then dropped to the ground on his back. He waved his hooves in the air, and then pointed straight upward.
Mira looked up.
There, on the tallest branch of the tallest tree on the farm, was the golden kitticorn.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Rescue Mission!
“Great,” said Darcy. “So now we’ve stolen a chickicorn AND gotten a kitticorn stuck up a tree.”
“AND we could miss the bus home!” said Jake crossly.
Mira felt a tear roll down her cheek. She’d been so excited to come to BARCC and meet all the animals and learn about the farm and make best friends with a kitticorn. And win an awesome quest medal. But it had all gone wrong. She sniffed and wiped her nose.
Raheem, Darcy, and Jake were all calling up to the kitticorn. Jake was even making mewing sounds. But the golden kitticorn was very high up in the tree, and didn’t seem like it was going to move anytime soon.
Mira looked for Dave. She wanted to say sorry for not realizing that he’d been trying to tell her where the kitticorn was. But she couldn’t see Dave anywhere!
She realized then that she hadn’t really been paying Dave much attention on this trip at all. All she had thought about were kitticorns. Dave must know she didn’t love kitticorns more than him, she thought. He was her UBFF! But then she remembered Dave’s sad expression at the picnic. Maybe he DID think she loved kitticorns more—and maybe that was why he’d left!
Mira started looking frantically around. The others were helping the kitticorn. She needed to find Dave.
“Here kitty, kitty, kitty!” called Darcy. “Come on down! We promise Mira won’t try to pet you again!”
“Dave!” Mira called. “Dave, where are you? I’m sorry, Dave, come back!”
Just as Mira started to panic, she heard the sound of hooves thudding through the sparklecorn behind her. She turned around and saw Dave running as fast as his little legs could carry him. He had Mira’s lunch box in his mouth.
“You came back!” Mira gave her unicorn a huge hug. Dave was out of breath from running so fast.
“I didn’t notice he was gone,” asked Jake. “More important, how are we going to get this kitticorn down from this massive tree?”
Dave dropped the lunch box on the ground. A packet of vanilla creams fell out.
“I thought you ate them all—oh! Dave! You’re actually a genius!” Mira gasped. She gave him another hug and the little unicorn blushed.
“I don’t get what’s happening,” said Jake. “Why is Dave a genius?”
Mira grinned widely. “Kitticorns love vanilla creams! Quick, let’s see if we can persuade this little one to come down.”
Mira took a vanilla cream out of the package and held it out for the golden kitticorn to see. Sure enough, the kitticorn crept to the edge of a branch and then climbed down a couple of branches.
“Yay! Keep going!” Darcy started clapping.
The kitticorn kept jumping down. Then it suddenly slipped. Mira’s heart was in her mouth as it dangled from a high branch, mewing pitifully.
“We have to help it!” Jake cried. He jumped up but couldn’t reach the branch. He stood on Pegasus’s back and tried to reach again.
“It’s still too high for you,” said Darcy.
“Yes, thanks, that’s really helpful,” Jake muttered with a frown. “Come on, Mira. I need your help. Climb up on my shoulders.”
Mira hung back. “But it doesn’t like me! Can’t someone else do it?”
“I’m too scared,” said Raheem.
“And I’m taking a picture. Smile!” Darcy held up her phone for a group pic.
Mira took a deep breath. She knew she had to help the kitticorn. After all, if she hadn’t disturbed the nest, the kitticorn wouldn’t be stuck up in the tree in the first place!
Dave nuzzled her arm and gave an encouraging fart. It was just what Mira needed.
“Thanks Dave,” she said gratefully.
With the package of vanilla creams between her teeth, Mira started to clamber up onto Pegasus’s back. Dave gave her a helpful shove with his muzzle. Carefully, she climbed onto Jake’s shoulders. Wobbling slightly, she stretched out her arm. She still couldn’t reach the kitticorn.
“I think we need Dave!” she called down.
“Does it have to be Dave?” said Jake, but Mira’s plump little UBFF was already climbing onto Pegasus, letting out little farts with the effort. Pegasus looked pained.
Dave eventually climbed onto Mira’s shoulders. She passed him the vanilla creams and he reached up his hoof. The kitticorn hung upside down, looking at Dave and blinking. Mira could see that it was so scared it didn’t know what to do.
“Come on!” Mira pleaded.
Dave farted one more time.
Startled, the kitticorn let go of the branch, fell onto Dave’s nose, and wrapped its tiny paws around Dave’s horn. The chickicorn popped its head out of Dave’s mane and cheeped. The kitticorn squeaked and jumped, sliding off Dave and down into Mira’s arms.
The kitticorn was so surprised that it lay completely still in Mira’s arms for a moment. Its fur was supersoft and its little heart was beating quickly. It smelled of warm grass and vanilla creams. Despite being balanced on Jake’s shoulders and a long way from the ground, Mira felt a moment of total bliss.
Then the kitticorn ran down her legs and off Jake’s back. With one big leap from Pegasus’s butt, it scampered away behind the pigicorn pens and back into its nest.
Dave and Mira climbed down more carefully.
Darcy and Raheem gave them all a round of applause. Mira high-fived her friends and pulled Dave close for a huge hug.
“You’re the best, Dave,” she whispered in her unicorn’s fluffy ear. “Come on, Team Awesome, let’s get that chickicorn back and go home.”
MEEOW!
Mira turned to see the entire caticorn family standing in a line, staring at her. Before she could say “uh-oh,” the adorable kitticorns ran in and out of her ankles, purring. Then they all dropped to the ground and flailed their legs in the air, allowing her to tickle their tummies, before disappearing back behind the bins.
“Are you about to c
ry again?” asked Darcy.
There was a big lump in Mira’s throat as she smiled. “My book says when they do that, it means they REALLY like you!” she said.
“Honestly?” said Darcy. “More than when they give you tons of cuddles and kisses like they did for me and Jake?”
Raheem coughed. “Let’s just get to the chickicorn barn, shall we?”
* * *
Mira thought Dave would be a little tired after all the excitement, so she gave him some more vanilla creams for energy (after leaving some by the compost bin for the caticorn family to enjoy later).
When they reached the chickicorn hatching barn, Mira slid the barn door open. All the chickicorns were sitting happily in their nests and cheeping. Mira picked up the chickicorn from Dave’s mane and dropped it carefully into one of the rainbow-straw hatching nests.
“There you go!” she said brightly. “Just like Dave’s mane. But better!”
The chickicorn looked up at her. Quick as a flash, it jumped out of the straw and hopped back up onto Dave’s head.
CHEEP!
Mira tried again and again and again, but each time the chickicorn jumped back onto Dave and burrowed into his mane.
Then Mira got Dave to stand outside the barn. She picked up the chick, ran into the barn, put it down, raced back out as fast as she could, slid the barn door shut, and returned to Dave. He hung his head and snuffled.
Mira gave his ears a tickle. “Aww, I know you liked that chick, Dave. But don’t worry, it will always be right here.” Mira pointed to his heart.
“No it won’t,” said Darcy.
“Sshh!” said Mira. “I’m trying to make Dave feel better!”
“Yes, but the chickicorn is back.”
Darcy pointed. Sure enough, there was the little fluffy blue chick, perched on top of Dave’s big round bottom.
“Argh! We’ve got to get back!” cried Mira. “What are we going to do? THIS is your home, little chickicorn!”
Darcy was inspecting her nails. “The trouble is that the chickicorn thinks Dave is home,” she explained. “The chick jumped on him as soon as it hatched. It thinks that Dave is its mom.”
“That’s it!” cried Mira. “Darcy, you’re a genius!”
“Well, duh,” said Darcy, fluffing her hair. “Why this time in particular?”
Mira raced back into the barn. “There you are!” she said, scooping up a sad-looking, light-blue henicorn with a bent horn. “There’s someone you need to meet.”
Cluck cluck cluck.
The chickicorn popped its head up from Dave’s tail. Cheep?
Cluck!
Cheep! CHEEP!
The henicorn hopped out of Mira’s arms just as the chickicorn slid down Dave’s tail. They ran toward each other in a flurry of clucks and cheeps.
The chickicorn had found its real mom!
CHAPTER EIGHT
Gift-tastic
Mira really was proud of Dave. She knew it was always hard saying goodbye to your friends. She hated saying goodbye to Dave when she left Unicorn School, but at least she knew she was always coming back soon. She gave her UBFF an extra big pat as they all raced back through the sparklecorn field.
Riding beside Mira, Raheem looked glum.
“Are you okay?” Mira asked.
Raheem shrugged. “I just would have liked to finish the quest.”
“We still had three more answers to find. It was really hard,” Mira consoled her friend.
“Actually we found two more,” said Raheem. “‘What hisses but is not a snake?’ was kitticorns, and ‘What has a bark but no bite?’ was the Doglark tree.”
“Whoa!” said Darcy. “We finished the quest and you didn’t say anything?”
“Raheem, that’s awesome!” said Jake.
Raheem shook his head. “No,” he said. “We still have the last riddle to solve.”
Jake stopped suddenly. “Where is everyone?”
“We’ve missed the bus!” Raheem started to panic.
“Chill, they’re in the—ARGH!” Darcy pulled Star up so quickly that the others bumped into her.
Mira started panicking now. “What’s wrong? Have they left without us?”
“No,” said Darcy. “Nobody told me there was a gift shop! There’s no time to waste!”
They all galloped toward the shop in the visitor center, where they could see the rest of Class Red choosing pencils and erasers and cuddly horned toys. Mira breathed a sigh of relief as they joined their classmates. They’d returned the chickicorn, met lots of kitticorns, and hadn’t missed the bus home. Phew!
Miss Glitterhorn was upstairs in the café, surrounded by empty teacups and reading a book. She looked happier than she had in weeks.
Seb and his unicorn, Firework, were trying out all the rainbow-colored art pencils. Jake and Pegasus bought matching skull-and-crossbone rainbow badges. Darcy and Star trotted past, wearing feather boas and unicorn-horn headbands, heading for the elevator to the café. Raheem was showing Brave the books about animal facts. And Flo was squealing with delight at all the cuddly toys.
Mira left Dave at the café having a large hot chocolate (with extra marshmallows) and headed downstairs again to join Flo.
“Mira, I can’t decide which kitticorn to get! Do you like the pink one or the lavender one?” Flo was holding up two kitticorn cuddly toys. “OR should I get this life-size lambicorn OR this slothicorn? I just can’t decide!”
Mira laughed. “They’re all super cool.” She reached into a basket of toy chickicorns and rummaged around until she found a pale blue one. She smiled. She knew Dave would love it.
Bruce Hasselhoof appeared at the gift-shop doorway. He looked different. His eyes were a little wild and his hair was standing up all over the place. Mira wondered if Class Red were more energetic than their usual visitors.
“Who did it?” Bruce cried.
“Who did what?” asked Freya.
“The field … my … sparklecorn, it’s … it’s all … hoof-marks … flattened!”
“Bruce, you’re not making any sense,” said Freya.
Miss Glitterhorn stormed down the stairs from the café. “Who on EARTH flattened the sparklecorn field?” she shouted. “Class Red, this is unacceptable.”
Miss Glitterhorn did not look relaxed anymore. Mira gulped. They’d only flattened one square yard, she thought. Although they had trotted back and forth through the sparklecorn several times …
“Hey! We made a maze!” Darcy yelled from upstairs.
Everyone looked up at Darcy on the café balcony. She waved at them to join her. Bruce Hasselhoof took the stairs two at a time. Class Red followed a little more slowly. Miss Glitterhorn looked at the elevator, but it was full of unicorns, so she climbed the stairs, too. Soon everyone was on the café balcony, looking out at the flattened sparklecorn field.
Mira’s throat felt dry. They had flattened a LOT more corn than she realized.
Bruce cleared his throat. “This is unbelievable.”
Miss Glitterhorn put her hands on her hips. “Darcy, Mira, Raheem, and Jake. What have you been doing? Have you damaged BARCC property? If I find that you ran away from Bruce’s carefully planned awesome activities, then there will be consequences! As Bruce said, that sort of behavior is totally unacceptable!”
“No, no,” said Bruce faintly. “I said it was unbelievable. Not unacceptable. There was a maze here back when I completed the quest, but it got overgrown. I’ve wanted another one ever since.”
“So for a million years,” said Darcy.
Bruce ignored Darcy. “Mazes are amazing!” he said in delight.
Miss Glitterhorn didn’t know what to say, so Darcy quickly started three cheers for the new maze before she could stop them.
Raheem rummaged in his backpack. He pulled out the quest checklist and cleared his throat.
“Um, Mr. Hassel
hoof? I think we’ve sort of completed the quest.”
The rest of Class Red gasped. Bruce and Miss Gli
tterhorn hurried over and looked at their checklist. Raheem explained how they’d found the answers to the first four riddles.
“And then, number five is ‘What is an amazing sight inside which you cannot see,’” he continued. “Well, you just said that our maze in the sparklecorn field is ‘amazing’ and we couldn’t see it when we were inside it.”
“Wonderful work!” Bruce was ecstatic. “That question must be left over from when we had the old maze. No wonder no one ever completed the quest. But you DID!” His face fell. “Oh, but there are no quest medals. No one’s completed it for so long that we just stopped keeping them in stock.”
Darcy gave Mira a nudge. “I’m sorry, Mira. I know you love medals.”
Mira hugged her friend. “You know what?” she said. “Today was so awesome. It doesn’t need a medal.”
“NO, WAIT!” Bruce dashed off. He came back a minute later holding a boot from the boot station with BARCC Medal written on it in mud. “You can take this as a trophy of your excellence.”
Jake snatched it away from Bruce before anyone else could get their hands on it. “As unofficial quest leader, I think I deserve to keep this,” he said.
Dave trotted up and nibbled the toe off the boot so now it said, BARCC Me.
Mira, Raheem, and Darcy burst into laughter. They high-fived Jake and he joined in with the laughter, too.
Bruce clapped his hands. “Right-o, kids, time to get rid of you! Ha ha, only joking. But seriously, get on the bus.”
Class Red scrambled to buy their souvenirs and then lined up outside the bus. Miss Glitterhorn was collecting clipboards and ticking the children’s names off her list as they got on board.
“Raheem, Seb, Freya, Flo—hang on, Flo, what’s that on your back?” Miss Glitterhorn said, stopping Flo.
“What’s what?” said Flo, turning around in circles to look behind her. Mira saw that Flo was wearing a cute, furry, slothicorn backpack.
