by Emily Bliss
With the unicorn princesses right behind her, Cressida walked through the kitchen and down the hall that led to her bedroom.
“Grown-up humans are so much taller than human girls,” Flash said.
“And how strange that there’s a kitchen without any dragons in it,” Firefly said.
Cressida opened her bedroom door, and all eight unicorns walked inside. She closed the door behind them. “Look at all these unicorn paintings and sculptures!” Prism said, admiring the watercolor unicorn pictures on the walls and all the unicorn sculptures Cressida had made of milk cartons, paper towel rolls, pipe cleaners, string, and straws.
“And look at this unicorn lamp!” Flash said.
“And this unicorn rug!” Breeze said.
“There’s even a unicorn bedspread,” Moon said.
“And a unicorn nightlight,” Sunbeam said.
“And a unicorn clock,” Prism said.
“I think there are more unicorns in here than in the Rainbow Realm,” Firefly said.
Cressida giggled.
“It is so much fun to go on an adventure,” Sunbeam said.
“I’m thrilled we could all go together,” Feather said.
“I’m very glad,” Cressida said. She put her magic key, which was still in her jeans pocket, back in her bedside table drawer. Then, she put the bottle of magic potion and her pictures of the Rainbow Realm on top of her bureau. “We can use these whenever you’re ready to go home,” Cressida said. “But I sure do hope you’ll stay for at least a little while.”
“Absolutely,” Feather said. “This is already the best adventure I’ve ever been on. And I’ve been on a lot of adventures!”
Just then, the doorbell rang.
“Stay right here!” Cressida said, jumping up. “I’ll be right back.”
Cressida raced out her bedroom door, down the hall, and up to the front door. She opened it, and there stood Gillian with her mother and Eleanor with her father. Both girls were carrying sleeping bags and backpacks.
“Hello!” Cressida said, hopping with excitement. “There’s something I cannot wait to show you in my room!”
“Really?” Gillian said.
“Let’s go!” Eleanor said.
Gillian, Eleanor, and Cressida raced down the hall. When they got to Cressida’s closed door, Cressida said, “I need to just make sure of one thing. Do you believe in unicorns?”
Gillian smiled. “My mother always tells me they’re not real. But I don’t believe her.”
“Unicorns are definitely real,” Eleanor said.
“Great,” Cressida said. “Now close your eyes.”
Gillian and Eleanor shut their eyes. Cressida opened her bedroom door. “Now take three big steps forward.”
Both girls walked into Cressida’s bedroom.
Cressida closed the door. She winked at the unicorn princesses. And then she said, “Now you can look!”
Gillian and Eleanor opened their eyes.
“No way!” Gillian said. “Are those stuffed animals?”
“I promise they’re real and alive!” Cressida said.
Eleanor’s jaw dropped. And then she began to giggle. “This is the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.”
“I feel like I’m in a dream,” Gillian said.
“These are my friends Sunbeam, Flash, Bloom, Prism, Breeze, Moon, Firefly, and Feather. They’re visiting from the Rainbow Realm,” Cressida explained. “And these are my two best human friends, Gillian and Eleanor.”
“Now we have three human friends!” Sunbeam said, grinning.
“It’s wonderful to meet you,” Flash said.
“They talk!” Eleanor shrieked, laughing and jumping up and down.
“This is incredible,” Gillian said. She looked at the unicorns. She took a deep breath. “It’s wonderful to meet you,” she said.
“Thank you so much for coming to our sleepover,” Eleanor said.
“Thank you for having us,” Breeze said.
“This is absolutely amazing,” Bloom added.
Just then, there was a knock on the door. “Don’t worry,” Cressida whispered to Gillian and Eleanor. “Only people who believe in unicorns can see them!”
Cressida opened the door. Her father stood with a plate of chocolate chip cookies. “I thought you girls might like these! Just don’t eat too many before dinner.”
“Thank you!” Cressida said.
“You’re welcome,” her father said, and he smiled and walked away.
Cressida closed the door and turned to her friends.
“Those look really good,” Eleanor said.
“Did you make them yourself?” Gillian asked.
“I sure did,” Cressida said. “Want to try them?”
“Sure!” Gillian and Eleanor said at once.
Then Gillian looked at the unicorns. “Do you want some, too?”
“Okay,” Sunbeam said, sounding uncertain.
“It never hurts to try,” Feather said.
“Hopefully we’ll like them more than you like froyananas!” Bloom said.
Cressida held the plate out for Gillian, Eleanor, and each of the unicorns.
“These are great!” Gillian said, after she took a bite.
“They sure are,” Eleanor said, nodding.
Cressida looked at the princess unicorns. They were all grimacing and frowning as they chewed and swallowed.
“I think we’ll stick to froyananas and roinkleberries,” Bloom said.
“But thank you for letting us try them,” Feather added.
Cressida giggled. “No problem,” she said. “Were they at least better than seaweed juice?”
Feather blushed. “I think they were worse!” she confessed.
Cressida, Gillian, Eleanor, Sunbeam, Flash, Bloom, Prism, Breeze, Moon, Firefly, and Feather all burst out laughing.
Cressida looked at her human friends and her unicorn friends. She smiled. And then she said, “Want to play a game?”
“Yes!” Gillian and Eleanor said at once.
“Definitely!” Sunbeam said.
“How about Telephone?” Eleanor suggested.
“Good idea,” Gillian and Cressida said.
The eight unicorn princesses looked at each other with puzzled expressions and shrugged. “We’d really love to play,” Feather said, “but we don’t know how.”
“We’d be happy to teach you,” Cressida said. She quickly explained that one of them would start by whispering a sentence into the ear of the person—or unicorn!—next to her. That person or unicorn would repeat what she heard to whoever was sitting next to her. And they would keep doing that until the sentence had been whispered all the way around the circle.
“Let’s try it!” Bloom said.
“I always love learning new games,” Sunbeam said.
The other unicorns nodded.
“Why don’t you start?” Gillian said, looking at Cressida.
Cressida blushed. “Okay,” she said. She thought for a moment. And then she leaned to her right and whispered, “I’m so happy my friends are here,” into Eleanor’s ear. Eleanor leaned over to Gillian, and whispered into her ear. Gillian whispered into Sunbeam’s ear. Sunbeam giggled and whispered into Flash’s ear. Flash leaned over and whispered to Bloom, who whispered to Prism, who whispered to Breeze, who whispered to Moon, who whispered to Firefly, who finally whispered to Feather.
“Now, Feather says what she heard from Firefly,” Gillian said.
Feather blushed. I heard, “Froyanana cookies sure would taste better!”
Cressida laughed. “And I said, ‘I’m so happy my friends are here.’ ”
The human girls and the unicorn princesses all burst out laughing. Cressida felt her heart swell with joy as she looked around her. Her very best friends—both from the human world and the Rainbow Realm—were all right there in her bedroom, and she couldn’t think of anything better in the whole world.
Emily Bliss lives just down the street from a forest. From her living
room window, she can see a big oak tree with a magic keyhole. Like Cressida Jenkins, she knows that unicorns are real.
Sydney Hanson was raised in Minnesota alongside numerous pets and brothers. She has worked for several animation shops, including Nickelodeon and Disney Interactive. In her spare time she enjoys traveling and spending time outside with her adopted brother, a Labrador retriever named Cash. She lives in Los Angeles.
www.sydwiki.tumblr.com
BLOOMSBURY CHILDREN’S BOOKS
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This electronic edition published in 2018 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published in the United States of America in August 2018
by Bloomsbury Children’s Books
www.bloomsbury.com
Text copyright © 2018 by Emily Bliss
Illustrations copyright ©2018 by Sydney Hanson
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bliss, Emily, author. | Hanson, Sydney, illustrator.
Title: Feather’s flight / by Emily Bliss ; illustrated by Sydney Hanson.
Description: New York : Bloomsbury, 2018. | Series: Unicorn princesses ; 8 Summary: Cressida visits the Rainbow Realm where Feather, a unicorn who can fly, is having a sleepover, complete with magic pajamas created by Ernest the wizard lizard that will allow the others to fly.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018005074 (print) | LCCN 2018013252 (e-book)
ISBN: 978-1-6811-9930-6 (HB)
ISBN: 978-1-6811-9929-0 (PB)
ISBN: 978-1-6811-9931-3 (eBook)
Subjects: | CYAC: Unicorns—Fiction. | Princesses—Fiction. | Magic—Fiction. | Sleepovers—Fiction. | Flight—Fiction. | Fantasy.
Classification: LCC PZ7.1.B633 Fe 2018 (print) | LCC PZ7.1.B633 (e-book) | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018005074
Book design by Jessie Gang and John Candell
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