by S. R. TABONE
“Why is this boy still sleeping?” Rex exploded kneeling to check the boy for a pulse on his neck. As he moved his head close he could hear Nathan breathing slowly. “Wake up…wake up boy.” Rex shook Nathan’s shoulders. “This is very strange.” Rex pointed out. Achodon looked on and didn’t dare respond. “Transfer this boy to the hospital quarters immediately.” Rex ordered.
“Yes Master.” Achodon answered. Rex left the dungeon and headed back to the courtyard.
“Master, I have news for you.” Asog said as Rex retook his place at the centre of the courtyard. One of your dragons is missing.
“Which one?” Rex asked.
“Dusur, a patrol dragon Master. Some of the dragons had noticed he’d been missing but didn’t suspect that he was up to anything.”
“Are there any others missing?” Rex asked.
“No Master.” Asog replied.
“When Dusur returns, seize him and bind him. We will then all judge and punish him according to what he’s done.”
Chapter 4: The Unicorns Transform into Unipegs
Nathan was trying to work out how to make it back to the island before someone discovered what he was up to. He walked through the entrance door, up the stairs and stopped on the level below the Parker’s flat. He walked to his mother’s flat door. He could hear his family inside talking over the sound of the TV. He heard his mother’s voice in the kitchen. He could smell the food she was cooking. Should he enter the flat? He really wanted to see his family. To look at his mother’s face and study her expressions. But a thought advised against entering. He decided not to.
Later in the Parker’s flat, Nathan thought of a way to communicate with the family. Olivia was drawing a dragon on a piece of art paper. Nathan removed the pouch from around his waist. He turned it inside. He placed his right hand fingers inside the pouch and picked up a green coloured felt tip pen. When Olivia saw the pen wiring on her drawing she called and ran over to her mother.
Bella read the writing: ‘I’m Nathan writing this. I’m in spirit form you cannot see me. I need to help me get back to my body on the island before it’s too late.’ Olivia recognised Nathan’s handwriting. Bella became teary-eyed and informed her husband about Nathan. Alex didn’t believe her and suggested she should take a pill and forget about it.
“Alex, Nathan is here in the room right now.” Alex looked at Bella as if to say she was mad. “I’m telling you it’s true. Here look at this own handwriting. He’s trying to communicate with us. He needs our help.” Bella pleaded with Alex hoping for an upbeat response. Once Alex saw the pen writing further messages and informing him to speak his thoughts out loud so that Nathan could hear Alex decided to act.
He telephoned Tony Stokes and asked to see the unicorns. He wanted to see whether their wings had grown enough that that they’d be able to fly as unipegs.
“Listen Alex, I’ve looked after these creatures for ages. I’ve invested a lot of time and money into making sure they stayed in good shape. You can’t just decide to take them away from me just like that without making a payment.”
“This is urgent. I have to see them. They’re mine don’t forget that.” Alex said.
“Are you threatening me Alex?” Stocks laughed. “You come up with some money to compensate me for all the years I’ve looked after them and then you can call them yours. At this moment, my brother in law is considering using them in his English Bros funfair.” Alex Parker didn’t have the kind of money Stokes would want to return his unicorns. Stokes had looked after them for years. He’d want many thousands of pounds and in cash too otherwise he’d never give them back. Alex discussed this with Bella but they couldn’t come up with a plan how to get their unicorns back. They talked it over and over but they concluded that however they might go about getting back the unicorns it wasn’t going to work out.
Nathan had been listening to them and was thinking of a way. He wrote his idea and the Parkers thought it could work. They wasted no time in leaving their flat and getting into Alex’s van. It was late they felt tired but their mission gave them strength to stay awake and find out if Nathan’s plan might work. Olivia googled the location of the funfair and found out they were settling up in Shrewsbury. It took them almost 3 hours to arrive. They parked outside of the grounds. There was a fence around part of the trailers that held the fairground rides. They were in luck the four unicorns had been removed from a large mobile horsebox truck and were inside a 40 foot high red and white striped tent.
Nathan went to investigate leaving the Parkers waiting in the van. He walked through the tent. There was a lit light bulb hanging from a rope near the ceiling of the tent. The unicorns had rope around their necks and the ends were tied to large metal ring and pin tent pegs that had been driven into the ground.
He stood looking at the animals. He’d never seen such glowing white beautiful creatures. He’d been used of living around dragons, monsters, giants and many other strange creatures but had never seen bright horses with spiral horns. He could sense they were aware of his presence. In his mind he said hello. The creatures all responded. He heard them in his mind.
They told him they’d many times dreamed about flying away but their wings were the size of swan wings and couldn’t understand why. They told Nathan how Stokes had treated them poorly by whipping, shouting and beating them everyday. Nathan told them about his story and how he and the Parkers had hoped the unicorns might help. They told him they were willing to but without proper wings able to carry them in flight they didn’t know what assistance they could offer.
Nathan had an idea. He remembered he the giants at Dark Bells continued to go by looking at the colours of the sun’s ray. Nathan asked them how many times they’d been in the sun. Hardly ever they replied. This response gave him hope. He told them he’d be back and headed back to the van.
The Parker’s found out about what was going on. Nathan wrote to Olivia asking her to Google the sun’s ray. He searched the images and when she came across a bright white yellow one Nathan wrote stop. He instructed her to go with him to the tent and show the unicorns the picture.
She did as he suggested showing each animal the same picture for several minutes. However there was no change. He wrote she should place her iphone closer to the animal’s eyes. She did as he instructed and the first unicorn she tried it on lit up from its horn to its tail like a bright light bulb. To her amazement the creature’s wings grew too large.
The unicorn was now a proper unipeg and it flapped his wings and it rose from the ground. The rope prevented it from flying. The spiral edges of its horn transformed to. The horn became very sharper than ever from the tip all the way around the spiral edges. The unipegs legs bent and straightened out causing the unicorn to jump. It placed its head down and struck the rope with its horn. In one swipe the thick rope was cleaning cut as if a strand of cotton had been cut by a pair of tailor scissors. The unipeg took flight around the inside walls of the tent. It returned and started to talk to Olivia. It thanked her for helping it to fly.
The other three unicorns couldn’t wait for the same transformation to happen to them. Without delay Olivia repeated the process and the same results occurred. The unicorns were over the moon about making the journey to the island. They couldn’t stop talking about it. They made so much noise they woke up one of the fairground workers who’d been sleeping in a caravan just outside of the tent.
The man went inside the tent and spotted Olivia standing amongst the unipegs. He saw their large wings and didn’t know what was going on. He decided to raise the alarm. He quickly left the tent and rushed to a brass bell on a stand. He grabbed the clapper and swung it against the mouth of the bell causing a loud sound.
The workers who were awake got to him first. The others who were sleeping woke up, got dressed and also headed towards the bell to find out what on earth was going on.
“Get on my back and place your hands around my neck Chatterbox told Olivia.” Hearing this, Nathan rushed back to the
van to warn Alex and Bella what was going on. They turned on the vans lights and waited all eyes on the tent.
A group of about 20 fairground workers approached the tent doors. They pulled the rope out of the rings in the tent flaps and pulled aside the tent doors. It was dark inside the tent. Someone had turned off the light bulb. They couldn’t see anything. They looked at each other pulled faces and shrugged her shoulders. A few started entering the tent and the others followed. When they’d walked to the centre of the tent the unipegs sneaked out. One of the workers who’d been facing the door spotted their escape and shouted to the others. They all rushed out of the tent and chased after the creatures. They were running faster and faster away from the workers and the fairground. They ran into a field.
“Now!” Blaze shouted to the others in front of him. They slowed their speed and turned looking at Blaze’s fire like beaming orange and blue eyes. Blaze nodded and they picked up speed heading back towards the fairground. They spread their wings, flapped and they thrust their bodies up taking off smoothly leaving the ground below them. Within seconds they were high above the funfair ground.
The workers looked up in amazement. The Parkers looked out of the van windows. Alex started the van and started to drive back to Blackpool. He felt happy and exited. Bella was smiling but worried about Olivia. Nathan was anxious about the journey back to the island now that it looked like a real possibility. Mr Stokes answered his phone. It was his brother in law who told him what had happened.
“We cannot go back now.” Alex said.
“Back where?” Bella asked.
“Back home. We cannot go back home. If we do Stokes will be waiting for us. We’ll have to stop over at a hotel, sleep the night and leave for the island in the morning.” Nathan wanted to get back to the island as soon as he could. He could bear wasting any time but understood that though he in his spirit could feel tired, the other needed to sleep.
They stopped at a motorway hotel and slept well that night. The Unipegs stayed out of the way in a field at the back of the hotel. Nathan spent the night communicating with the unipegs.
Chapter 5: Journey to Vonberg
The Parkers woke up early the next morning. The unipegs were keeping a low profile behind bushes in the field.
“So what’s the plan Dad?” Olivia asked.
“To take Nathan’s spirit back to the island then save him and some of the other child.” Alex said.
“But what about the curse?” Bella asked.
“I don’t believe in it.” Alex replied.
“How can we all fit on the unipegs? There’s me, you Dad, you Mum, Nathan, and the other children on the way back.”
“That’s a good point I hadn’t thought about that.” There was a knock on the hotel room door.
“Who could it be?” Olivia asked looking at her Dad.
“Maybe it’s Nathan.” He replied. “Answer it.” Olivia opened the door. Tony Stokes pushed her and walked up to Alex. Bella screamed.
“Shut up!” Stokes told Bella as he grabbed Alex’s shirt collar tightly and held him against the wall. “Pay me for looking after the creatures all these years or give them to me now.”
“We don’t have any money but you can have the creatures.” Stokes released Alex.
“Where are they?” Stokes asked.
“In the field over there.” Alex said pointing out of the window.
“Let’s go and have a look shall we?” Stokes said. They all headed for the field at the back of the hotel. They found the unipegs and explained to Nathan what was going on. Nathan communicated to the unipegs what he wanted to say to Stokes. Blaze told Stokes the following;
“You have the right to be paid for looking after these creatures for all these years. And if you are not paid you have the right to demand ownership of them too. But these creatures and the help of the Parker’s is the only way I can be saved from certain death. If you allow the journey to go ahead and you come with us I will lead you to chests of pirate treasure containing gold and silver coins and jewels. You will be a very rich man.”
“How I can be sure that the treasure is there.” Stokes inquired.
“You have my word it’s all there. I’ll take you to it myself.” Nathan reassured.
“No I don’t agree. I think you’re tricking me. I’m taking you beasts with me. Do you understand?” Stokes concluded.
Nathan placed his hand in the pouch lay on the ground beside Stokes shoes. He grabbed the end of Stokes’ trousers and pulled. Stokes legs was pulled out he lost his balance and fell to the ground. As he tried to get up Nathan pulled again and Stokes fell back to the ground. Nathan moved the pouch to the back of Stokes shirt collar and held on. When Stokes tried to get up he could only move his head a few inches before being pulled back. The unipegs started to laugh out loud. Bella and Olivia joined in.
“Okay, okay I agree to your offer.” Stokes said. Nathan let him go.
“We need a carriage so we can travel comfortably.” Alex said. These four unipegs and pull it, two at the front and two at the rear. He explained.
“I can sort that out.” Stokes said standing to his feet and adjusting his shirt. But no more funny tricks.
They all headed back to Blackpool. The unipegs said they’d wait at the beach and set off with Nathan by air. Stokes followed the Parker’s van in his Range Rover and thought about getting his hands on all that pirate treasure. He called his contact he knew had a carriage used for weddings. He asked to hire it for a few days and said he’d be picking it up that same day. Alex drove wondering how Stokes found out they’d stayed at the hotel. Olivia couldn’t wait to see the island. Bella was worried about the Headmaster’s curse.
The unipegs landed on the golden sands of the Blackpool beach. Their wings and their horns disappeared. They looked like normal horses. Though there was hardly anyone around Nathan saw that they had a number of different powers and abilities. Nathan watched as they ran along miles of shoreline and back. Increasing their speed each time they turned to run again. They didn’t seem to run out of breath.
The Parker’s arrived back at their flat. And started to pack some basic items they thought might come in handy for the journey. Alex told Bella and Olivia to pack light because there wouldn’t be much room in the carriage moreover on the way back.
Stokes picked up his trailer and set off to pick up the carriage from his friend. When he arrived his friend informed him that the wedding carriage was being repaired and wouldn’t be ready until a week later. Stokes insisted he needed it today. His friend made a call and after 10 minutes on the phone gave Stokes the name and address of a friends business that had an old carriage in his garage he could pick up.
Stokes thanked his friend and headed off to the address. It was 6 miles away. He arrived at Funeral Directors, F. C. Blackmann & Sons. He lowered the ramps of his double axle trailer. Some of the workers helped him roll up the antique passenger carriage onto the trailer. They lent him hour saddles and four harness sets that included the reins. He called the Parkers and told them to meet him at the beach.
After packing some things the Parkers headed for the beach. Alex parked his van on a road beside the golden sand and they walked towards the sea hoping that Nathan would spot them or they the unipegs. They saw four white horses running up and down the beach at a very fast speed but they didn’t have any wings or horns. They walked closer to the sea. The horses saw them and slowed down and approached.
“Are you…” Olivia started.
“Yes we’re your unipegs.” Little Jewel one of the unipegs whose head looked like a diamond said.
“But where are your wings and horns?” Alex asked.
“Here.” Blaze said causing his wings and horn to as if appear as if growing fast out of his body. “When we don’t need to use them we’re able to hide them.
“Joe! Open up. Joe.” Stokes banged on China Joe’s door. Joe opened the door and was smoking.
“I need you to help me harness the creatures. We�
�ve got to go on a journey. You can come too if you want.
“I’m busy. I got to paint my house.” Joe said.
“Okay suit yourself but if you don’t help me you won’t get any of the gold on the island.”
“Gold? Really…Okay yes I come.” Joe said in his broken English Maltese ancient voice. “What about my cat Tony. Who feed my cat?”
Dame stinking cat Stokes thought. “I’ll get Mavis to feed it every day and empty his litter tray. But you’ll have to pay her £5 per day. She’s not going to do it for nothing.”
“Okay I’ll pay.” Joe said.
“Give me a spare set of keys and we’ll drop them off to her on the way to the beach.” Joe searched through a ceramic flower pot he used to place odds and ends in. He pulled out a spare set of keys and handed them to Stokes.
“Right let’s get going there’s no time to lose.”
“Okay, okay…buy Snobby. Be good.” Joe said to his cat and closed and locked the door to his old house. He got into Stokes’ Rangie and Stokes stepped on the accelerator and headed towards the sea pulling the trailer carrying the carriage.
“We go by sea Tony?” Joe asked.
“No Joe we will fly.” Stokes replied.
“I don’t like planes Tony.” Joe replied.
“Don’t worry Joe we’ll be flying by the unipegs.”
“No Tony they can’t fly! Wings small.” Joe said and tutted.
“Not anymore Joe. Not anymore, you’ll see soon enough.
Half a mile on route to the beach Stokes stopped off at Mavis’ house. He gave her Joe’s spare keys and instructions. She was going to be paid £5 a day to look after Joe’s cat. She daren’t refuse because she owned Stokes money and didn’t want to upset him since sometimes she was late making her weekly payments. He let her off without any added finical penalties because she knew his mother. But in the end she still had to pay the money back just as all the others unfortunate people who borrowed money from him had to. In any case Mavis had cats of her own so knew how to look after Snobby and what he might like.
