Willow felt a glow of pride. It was lovely being able to help.
‘Which way is it?’ Sapphire called to Troy. They all had stars streaming out of their horns too.
‘Dragon’s Peak is on the mountains to the west,’ he called. ‘Follow me!’
The others joined him.
Willow grinned at Troy. ‘You know, I never thought I’d say this, but I’m glad you wanted to win the treasure hunt so much. If you hadn’t been so keen you wouldn’t have studied the maps and we wouldn’t have known which way to go now.’
Troy smiled. ‘True, but I wish I hadn’t been so silly earlier. I should have realized that helping Littleclaw was more important than winning.’
‘What made you come back?’ Willow asked him.
‘Well, I found the next clue but it wasn’t any fun and as I was flying to the next place, I suddenly realized that I really wanted to be with all of you. I’d rather be helping Littleclaw than be on my own even if it means not winning the treasure hunt.’
Willow nudged him happily with her nose. ‘I’m so glad you came back!’
‘Me too.’ Troy snorted. ‘Anyway, even if I had carried on, I wouldn’t have won the treasure hunt. Storm’s the one who’s really good at solving clues. I’m rubbish at it.’
‘We’re all good at different things,’ Sapphire said. ‘You’re great at finding your way to places, Troy. Storm’s really good at working out puzzles. Willow, you’re really good at healing, which helped Littleclaw get his puff back.’ She frowned. ‘I don’t know what I’m good at.’
‘Making sure we don’t argue too much!’ Willow said. ‘And you’re brilliant at rose-quartz gazing!’
‘We make a great team when we work together,’ said Troy.
‘The best!’ said Storm.
They all whinnied happily and galloped on through the snowy sky.
When they reached their destination, Troy led the way to a jagged mountain with stony outcroppings that looked like dragon’s teeth. There was a pink cloud above it just like the picture in the rose quartz.
‘This is Dragon’s Peak,’ said Troy.
‘It is! It is!’ cried Littleclaw, blowing out a puff of smoke in excitement.
The pink cloud cast a glow over the whole mountain. It seemed to have a similar effect to the unicorns’ purple rainbows – keeping everywhere warm. There wasn’t a speck of snow on the mountainside, just green grass and a winding clear stream.
Willow and the others let their purple rainbows disappear as they landed on the sloping sides of the mountain.
‘There’s my cave!’ cried Littleclaw. He bounded towards the entrance, his wings flapping. ‘Mum! Dad!’
There was a snort of relief and the large green dragon they’d seen in the rose quartz hurried to the cave entrance. ‘Littleclaw!’ she exclaimed, her dark eyes widening in delight.
Littleclaw charged over. ‘Mum!’
The big dragon folded her wings round him and hugged him tight. ‘Oh, Littleclaw, where have you been? We’ve been so worried about you. Your father’s out looking for you.’
‘I flew too far and then lost my puff and couldn’t fly.’ Littleclaw explained what had happened. His mother looked gratefully at Willow and the others.
‘Thank you so much for bringing Littleclaw home,’ she said.
‘That’s OK!’ said Willow happily.
The dragon lifted her head and blew out three short smoke rings. They floated into the sky. ‘Your father will see the smoke and realize you’re back,’ she said to Littleclaw.
He snuggled against her. ‘I’m sorry I got lost, Mum.’
Willow glanced at her friends. They were all smiling. It felt wonderful to have brought Littleclaw back safely. ‘We should go back to school now,’ said Willow.
‘You must take something with you,’ said Littleclaw’s mother. ‘To say thank you for finding Littleclaw. Here!’ She turned her head and plucked a scale gently from her tail. It glinted and glimmered like an emerald as she held it out to them. It was beautiful. The unicorns stared at it in awe. None of them had ever seen a dragon’s scale before.
‘Thank you.’ Troy bowed and took it. He put it into the leather bag and then set off into the sky. ‘Bye, Littleclaw!’
‘Bye!’ Littleclaw called. ‘Thank you for helping me.’
He and his mum watched them go. As the unicorns flew away from the Dragon’s Peak they saw another big green dragon heading swiftly towards the cave.
‘I bet that’s Littleclaw’s dad,’ said Willow in delight. ‘I’m so glad we helped him!’
‘Me too!’ said Sapphire. ‘Even if it has meant we’ve lost the treasure hunt.’
Storm and Troy both whinnied in agreement.
‘At least now we can just have fun finding the rest of our objects,’ said Willow. She shot forward. ‘Come on! We’ve still got three left to find!’
Chapter
Nine
Wish Magic
Willow, Storm, Sapphire and Troy raced through Arcadia, finding their three remaining objects: a red crystal in an old tree trunk in Wilderness Wood, a yellow crystal hidden under a mossy bank in Moonflower Vale and a pink crystal hidden in a sparkling rock pool on Mermaid Beach.
‘We’ve got them all,’ Willow said in delight as Troy put the last crystal into the bag. ‘Now we can go back to school!’
As they flew back they joined a crowd of other unicorns also flying back to school, their bags bulging with crystals.
‘I wonder which team won,’ said Sapphire as they flew through the school gates.
They flew over to the platform where a group of unicorns was standing round the teachers and the Tricorn. ‘Who won?’ Willow called out.
Oriel, a Year Three unicorn, looked up and whinnied. ‘My team did! We got back here ages ago. We’re going to have all the shamrock!’
‘Well done!’ Troy said sportingly. He put down their bag on the table.
Atlas emptied it out. As the dragon scale slid on to the tabletop, everyone gasped. ‘What’s this?’ Atlas exclaimed. He picked it up. It glinted and shone in the light.
‘It’s a dragon’s scale.’ The Tricorn’s deep voice broke the silence. He walked over and looked at the scale. ‘How did you get this?’ he asked curiously, looking at Willow, Storm, Troy and Sapphire.
‘We helped a baby dragon,’ Willow said. ‘He was lost.’ The story about Littleclaw poured out of her. All the other unicorns listened spellbound. ‘We had to help him,’ Willow said to the Tricorn as she finished, hoping they weren’t in trouble. ‘We couldn’t have left him.’
The Tricorn smiled. ‘No, you did just the right thing. You all acted as true future Guardians of Arcadia.’ Willow felt a rush of relief and pride. ‘And now you are lucky enough to have this.’ The Tricorn held up the scale.
‘It’s beautiful, isn’t it,’ said Sapphire happily.
‘It’s more than just beautiful, Sapphire,’ the Tricorn told her seriously. ‘Dragons’ scales are immensely valuable. They are full of wish magic.’
‘So, we can use it to wish for something?’ Storm said.
‘Yes,’ the Tricorn told him. ‘You should be very honoured the mother dragon gave you such a gift. But use it well. Each scale will only grant a single wish.’
Willow looked round at her friends. ‘What are we going to wish for?’
‘We should decide together,’ said Troy. ‘As a team.’
‘We’ll have to think about it very carefully,’ said Sapphire.
Storm nodded.
‘Go and think about it,’ the Tricorn told them.
Storm took the scale and he and the others walked a bit away from the platform. ‘What should we wish for?’ Storm said, putting the scale down on the snow.
‘I don’t know,’ said Willow.
‘New bags for us all?’ said Sapphire.
‘New stable blankets?’ suggested Troy.
‘A feast,’ said Storm.
‘How about some shamrock, seeing as we didn’t
win the treasure hunt?’ Willow suggested.
They looked at each other.
‘All those wishes would be good but they don’t seem somehow special enough,’ said Sapphire slowly.
Willow knew exactly what Sapphire meant.
Just then there was the sound of disappointed whinnies behind them. They swung round. Oriel and his team were standing by the wooden crates of shamrock.
‘The shamrock’s ruined!’ Willow heard Oriel exclaim. She wondered what he meant.
Atlas trotted over with Sirona. ‘The lids on the crates weren’t done up tightly enough,’ he said. ‘Shamrock goes off in the cold weather and it’s been out here all day with the frost getting to it.’
Oriel and his friends looked really upset.
‘Don’t worry,’ Atlas told them. ‘You might not be able to have a term’s supply of shamrock for winning but we’ll find you another prize. A trophy or a medal or something.’
Oriel bit his lip. ‘OK,’ he said slowly.
Willow felt very sorry for him and his friends. A trophy or a medal was nice but nowhere near as amazing as a term’s supply of shamrock. An idea exploded into her brain. She swung round quickly to the others. ‘I’ve got it! I know what we can wish for!’
‘What?’ Troy asked.
Willow beamed. ‘A term’s supply of shamrock – for the whole school!’
The others gasped.
‘That’s a brilliant idea!’ whinnied Storm.
‘Just perfect!’ said Sapphire.
‘Come on, let’s tell the Tricorn!’ Troy exclaimed.
Ten minutes later, all the unicorns – teachers and students – were standing round the wooden table munching delightedly on great piles of delicious shamrock.
Willow sighed in contentment. There were lots more crates of shamrock kept safely in one of the feed stores. Enough shamrock for everyone to have some every day for the rest of the term. The Tricorn had been delighted by their wish.
‘I can see the dragons made a wise choice when they gave you a wishing scale,’ he said. ‘I’m very proud of you all.’
The words echoed round in Willow’s head. She felt as if she was glowing. She and her friends might not have won the treasure hunt that day but it didn’t matter. They’d had a great adventure, helped Littleclaw and they’d made everyone in the school really happy. What could be better?
Troy nudged her. ‘It’s been a good day, hasn’t it?’
‘It’s been fantastic!’ Willow looked at him and smiled.
Unicorn School: the Treasure Hunt Page 4
