Unicorn Princesses 7

by Emily Bliss

Ernest pulled his wand from his cloak pocket and waved it as he chanted, “Bookily Snookily Readily Rack! Please Make Cressida an Orange Quack Stack!”

  Wind swirled around Cressida. And then, right in front of her was a tower of bright orange ducks. “Quack! Quack! Quack!” the ducks called out, opening their orange beaks and blinking. They looked, Cressida thought, very confused.

  “Oh dear!” Ernest said, scratching his forehead. “Did I say ‘quack stack’ again? There are ducks all over my room at the moment. Let me give it another go.”

  He raised his wand and chanted, “Quackily Quickily Quirkily Quond! Please send the quack stack straight back to the pond. Bookily Snookily Readily Rack! Please Make Cressida a Magic Backpack!”

  Another gust of wind swirled around Cressida. The ducks vanished. And then, in her hands appeared a glittery orange backpack with rainbow-striped straps. Shiny orange gems—just like the magic citrine on Firefly’s black ribbon necklace—spelled “CRESSIDA” across the outer compartment.

  “I love it!” Cressida said, grinning. “It’s the perfect size for books!”

  “That’s exactly what I was thinking,” Ernest said.

  “Thank you, Ernest,” Cressida said.

  Ernest took a bow.

  And then Cressida heard what sounded like at least a hundred ducks quacking in another part of the palace.

  “Oh dear!” Ernest said. “I bet they’re hungry again. Off I go to feed the ducks!” And with that, he turned on his back claws and sprinted down the hall.

  Cressida put on the backpack and twirled around. “What do you think?” she asked Firefly.

  “You look ready to go spelunking,” Firefly said, grinning.

  “Spelunking?” Cressida said, enjoying the sound of the strange, new word as she said it. “What is that?”

  “Spelunking means ‘exploring caves.’ I learned it the last time I read the dictionary,” Firefly said.

  “Well,” Cressida said, “I’m definitely ready for spelunking!”

  Firefly kneeled, and Cressida climbed onto her back.

  “See you at the Glow Library!” Firefly said as she trotted across the front hall of Spiral Palace.

  “See you soon!” Sunbeam and Flash said.

  “We can’t wait to see the library!” Bloom and Prism said.

  “I’ll aim to get there with Breeze half an hour early!” Moon called out as Firefly leaped out the palace’s front door.

  As Firefly galloped along the clear stones that led from Spiral Palace to the surrounding forest, Cressida held on tightly to the unicorn’s silky orange mane. For a few seconds, Cressida glanced back to admire the princesses’ sparkling home. She giggled when she spotted an entire flock of orange ducks sitting on the roof of the palace’s top tower. She faced forward again as Firefly turned onto a thin trail that wound downhill through a grove of cedar trees.

  Cressida inhaled and smiled. She loved the smell of cedar.

  “I absolutely can’t wait to show you the Shimmering Caves,” Firefly said. “And I’m even more excited to show you the Glow Library. I’ve been working on it for months. There’s a huge reading chair for each of my sisters and me. And I made sure to include all the different kinds of books my sisters like. They’ll love it! Well,” she added, sounding worried, “all of them but Breeze will love it. If you can think of any way to make Breeze like the library a little more, will you let me know?”

  “The library sounds amazing,” Cressida said. “I can’t wait to see it.”

  Cressida remembered what Breeze had said about not liking reading as much as her sisters. There were certainly some activities, like swimming, that Cressida didn’t like quite as much as her friends did. Cressida could swim just fine, and she enjoyed playing in the water for an hour or two. But when she went to the pool with Eleanor and Gillian, she always wanted to leave before they did. There had been a few times when her friends had tried to convince her to like swimming more, and when that happened, Cressida had ended up liking swimming even less. She guessed that was how Breeze felt.

  “It’s so very kind of you to try to think of a way to make your new library more appealing to Breeze,” Cressida said gently to Firefly. “It might be that Breeze won’t ever like reading quite as much as you do. I know this sounds like a strange idea, but if you accept that about her and don’t try to change her mind, she might be more willing to do reading activities with you and your sisters.”

  “Really?” Firefly asked.

  “I was just thinking that I usually like things even less when my friends try to make me like them more,” Cressida said.

  Firefly was quiet for several seconds. “Now that I think about it, that’s how I am too,” she said. “The more Bloom tries to get me to like gardening, the more I don’t even want to try weeding or planting seeds. But probably if she’d stop trying to convince me that gardening is as much fun as reading, I’d be glad to occasionally help her with the Enchanted Garden.”

  “I can completely understand that,” Cressida said. “I’m the same way with swimming.”

  “I’d better think about it a little more,” Firefly said. She slowed down, and the path entered a clearing with large gray rocks and small hills covered in long grass. She trotted down a steep, rocky path and stopped in front of a hill with a shiny orange door built right into it. Above the door was a black sign that said “Shimmering Caves” in glittery citrine gems. “Are you ready?” Firefly asked, kneeling down.

  “Yes!” Cressida said, and she slid off Firefly’s back.

  Firefly hopped back and forth on her hooves with excitement. “Let’s go spelunking!” she said, and she used her mouth to pull open the door.

  Cressida followed Firefly into a narrow corridor made of stone. Torches mounted on the walls overflowed with blinking fireflies. Lanterns brimming with glow-in-the-dark rocks hung from the ceiling. Tiny flecks of citrine embedded in the stone walls and ceiling shimmered in the pale yellow light.

  “This is amazing!” Cressida said.

  “I was hoping you’d like it,” Firefly said. “We have time for a little fun before we finish getting ready for the reading party. My very favorite cave is the library. But do you want to see my second favorite?”

  “Definitely!” Cressida said. She and Firefly walked farther along the corridor and then down a long spiral staircase made of giant slabs of glowing rock. At the bottom, Firefly and Cressida came to an orange door with a black sign above it that said “The Cave of Creativity” in pieces of citrine.

  Firefly opened the door, and Cressida followed her into a large shimmering orange cavern. Stalactites hung down from the ceiling like long icicles, and stalagmites jutted up from the floor like thin towers that reminded Cressida of miniature models of Spiral Palace. Torches affixed to the cavern walls brimmed with fireflies, and the floor was made of glowing yellow rocks.

  “You must be Cressida!” a voice called out.

  Cressida turned toward the voice. A long, thin stalactite with bright eyes and a smiling mouth winked at her and said, “I’m Stella! Stella the stalactite.”

  “And I’m Stuart,” a stalagmite said. “Princess Firefly has told us all about you.”

  “It’s wonderful to meet you,” Cressida said, giggling. “I’ve never met a stalactite or a stalagmite before.”

  “We’ve never met a human girl before,” Stella and Stuart said.

  And then all the stalactites and stalagmites sang out, “Welcome, Cressida!” Their echoing voices sounded both eerie and beautiful, and goosebumps suddenly covered Cressida’s arms.

  “We’re about to go put the finishing touches on the library,” Firefly explained to the stalactites and stalagmites. “But first, I was thinking we could show Cressida the Cave of Creativity’s special magic power.”

  “Fantastic idea!” the stalactites and stalagmites called out.

  Firefly turned to Cressida and said, “Close your eyes and imagine the cover of a book you’d like to read this afternoon at the grand opening
.”

  Cressida closed her eyes. For a moment, her mind went blank. And then she remembered the pink flying unicorn she had made up in the library at school. That seemed like the perfect subject for a book to read at the grand opening party. She imagined what the cover would look like: a pink unicorn with a magic ruby gemstone necklace soaring high above pale pink clouds. As soon as the picture looked clear in her mind, Cressida heard a high, humming noise.

  “You can look now,” Firefly said.

  Cressida opened her eyes. The stalactites and stalagmites began to flicker and flash in every color of the rainbow. The humming grew louder and more rhythmic. All the fireflies that had been in the torches joined together to form one gigantic yellow swarm that flew faster and faster in circles around the cave. After several seconds, the humming crescendoed and then grew softer and softer. The fireflies slowed down and then, in small groups, returned to the torches. The stalactites and stalagmites stopped flickering and flashing. Finally, a tiny door on the other side of the cave that Cressida hadn’t even noticed before opened.

  Five large yellow worms with curly orange hair and big fluorescent-green glasses emerged carrying a book. “Those are the bookworms,” Firefly whispered to Cressida.

  Grinning proudly, the bookworms slid across the cave until they were right in front of Cressida’s silver unicorn sneakers. “Proudly presenting Adventures in the Air for Cressida Jenkins,” the bookworms said in unison. They smiled as Cressida kneeled down and picked up the book, which felt warm, like clothes that had just come out of the dryer. The cover looked exactly like the one she had imagined, only better: the unicorn was an even brighter shade of pink, the clouds looked even softer and puffier, and the ruby on the unicorn’s necklace looked even shinier.

  “Thank you!” Cressida said to the bookworms.

  “Our pleasure!” they said. And then they turned around, slid across the cave floor, and disappeared behind the tiny door.

  Cressida stood up and showed the book to Firefly. “I can’t wait to read it!” she said.

  Firefly looked at the cover, and her eyes widened in surprise. “You imagined a book about my sister!” she said.

  “Your sister?” Cressida said.

  “Oh, you’ve never met Feather!” Firefly said, smiling. “She’s the second youngest unicorn princess. Her magic power is to fly, and she’s very adventurous. She’s been away from Spiral Palace for a long time, exploring far-off realms and meeting other magical creatures.”

  Cressida grinned. She loved the idea that there really was another unicorn princess—especially one that was pink and could fly. “Maybe I could meet her the next time she comes back to the Rainbow Realm,” Cressida said.

  “What a fantastic idea,” Firefly said. “We’ll be sure to invite you to visit us as soon as she comes home.”

  “Thank you,” Cressida said.

  Firefly looked again at Adventures in the Air and said, “That book looks so good I’d love to start reading it with you right now. But I think we’d better go finish getting the library ready. We’ll have plenty of time to read it at the grand opening party.”

  “That sounds great,” Cressida said as she put the book inside her backpack.

  “Thank you so much for visiting us!” Stella called out.

  “Yes, come back any time!” Stuart chimed in.

  “See you soon, Cressida,” all the stalactites and stalagmites sang out. Echoing laughter filled the cave, and Cressida giggled as even more goosebumps covered her arms.

  “It was wonderful to meet you. Thank you so much for the book!” she called out as she followed Firefly out the door.

  And now, I can’t wait to show you Glow Library!” Firefly gushed as she led Cressida down another narrow corridor. “I’ve spent every morning for the past six months in the Cave of Creativity imagining all the books to fill the shelves. And after that, I organized all the books so it would be easy for my sisters and me to find exactly the kinds of books we feel like reading. There are a few more books I want to put on the shelves. And maybe you can tell me if you think I put the armchairs in the right places.”

  Cressida was so excited to see the library that she could barely keep herself from jumping and dancing alongside Firefly.

  Firefly stopped in front of an orange door. Above it, in orange gems, a sign read, “WELCOME TO THE GLOW LIBRARY.”

  Firefly pulled the door open. And then she gasped. “Oh no!” she whispered. Cressida opened her eyes and blinked with surprise at the scene in front of her.

  The cave looked like it would have been an incredible library. Floor-to-ceiling shelves covered all the walls. Grand chandeliers crowded with fireflies hung from the ceilings. Reading lamps, teeming with even more fireflies, bent over giant orange and yellow velvet armchairs that looked perfect for reading. Above each set of shelves was a sign made of glowing gems. There were more signs than Cressida could read all at once, but she noticed ones that said, “Fun and Games,” “Sports,” “Gardening and Plants,” “Art and Artists,” “The Great Outdoors,” “Fiction,” “Adventure,” and “Magic.”

  The trouble, though, was that there were no books on any of the shelves. Instead, the books were in messy heaps and towering piles all over the floor. But that wasn’t the most surprising thing about what Cressida saw. Everywhere she looked, there were dozens and dozens of tiny magical creatures, each the size of Cressida’s hand.

  On the chairs, tiny unicorns dipped their mouths into bags labeled “SEEDS” and flung what looked like clouds of dust onto the cushions. Rainbow cats and gnomes darted around chair legs and across small piles of open books flying kites, playing hide-and-seek, and chasing each other in games of tag. Dragons wearing hats and scarves skied down the sides of mountains of books, while silver and gold foxes hiked to the peaks wearing bulging backpacks. On the floor, between the piles of books, phoenixes kicked balls back and forth and swung rackets with their beaks. On some of the shelves, painted fairies, unicorns, dragons, and phoenixes wearing smocks painted on easels and admired each other’s artwork. On other shelves, unicorns ate from troughs, slept, walked, talked, and laughed. Cressida looked up to the ceiling and saw unicorns, wizard-lizards, trolls, and griffins floating in hot air balloons, hang gliding, and riding magic kites in loops around the chandeliers.

  “What on earth do you think happened?” Firefly asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Cressida said, though she was almost positive one of Ernest’s magical mishaps was to blame.

  For several more seconds she and Firefly stared at the miniature creatures.

  “It’s interesting to watch them,” Firefly sniffled. “But my library is a disaster. I’ll have to cancel the grand opening. And I worked so hard to imagine all these books and organize them. It took months and months of work. And now everything is ruined.” Tears slid down Firefly’s cheeks.

  Cressida wrapped her arms around Firefly’s neck. “I’m so sorry this happened,” Cressida said. “But let’s not cancel the grand opening just yet. There must be something we can do.” As she said it, Cressida had to admit she had no idea how they could possibly move so many miniature creatures, organize the books, and put them back on the shelves before the party was supposed to start.

  Firefly took a deep breath. “You’re right,” she said. “Let’s see what we can do. Maybe we should start by trying to move all these creatures.”

  “Good idea,” Cressida said.

  Firefly cleared her throat and shouted, “Excuse me, tiny magical creatures! Please line up in front of me!”

  The creatures didn’t even look up.

  “Would it work to pick them up?” Firefly asked.

  “I could try it,” Cressida said, feeling a little nervous. She walked over to an armchair where a unicorn was throwing seeds into the cushion. She slowly reached toward the unicorn, but the unicorn whinnied and reared up, looking frightened. “I’m sorry, little unicorn,” Cressida whispered softly, and she pulled her hand away. The unicorn immediately resumed
throwing seeds.

  “Do you have any other ideas?” Firefly asked.

  “Let me think for just a moment,” Cressida said. She looked down at her feet, trying to imagine a creative way to herd dozens of creatures to a different part of the Shimmering Caves. And then something odd caught her eye: a book lay open on the floor, and though it had words on the pages, there were two blank white rectangles where Cressida would have expected to see illustrations. Cressida picked up the book and turned the page. Again, there were words and more blank white rectangles. She flipped through the book. There was not a single picture or illustration.

  She closed the book and looked at the cover. Winter Sports for Magical Creatures was written in cursive across the front, right above another blank rectangle.

  Cressida looked more closely at the biggest mountain of books. Not only were there dragons skiing down it, but there were trolls, unicorns, and fairies snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, riding sleds, and figure skating.

  “That’s interesting,” Cressida said to herself. She picked up another book. The cover said Painting Fruit: A Guide for Magical Creatures above a large blank rectangle. She flipped through the book and, sure enough, there were words, but only blank squares and rectangles where the pictures should have been. Careful not to step on any of the creatures, Cressida walked around several heaps of books and over to the set of shelves where the fairies were painting at easels. She looked more closely. Fairies, unicorns, dragons, and phoenixes painted rainbows and landscapes on one shelf. On another, the magical creatures used pencils to sketch trolls and mermaids. And on the next shelf where Cressida looked, she found unicorns, phoenixes, and dragons wearing smocks and berets, painting pictures of the fruits Cressida had seen when she visited the Enchanted Garden with Bloom: roinkleberries, cranglenapples, and froyananas.

  Cressida walked back over to Firefly. “I’m pretty sure,” Cressida said, “that these tiny creatures are from the pictures in all these books.”