My Secret Unicorn

by Linda Chapman

  ‘OK,’ he said excitedly. ‘It would be brilliant if we could get the sleigh for Jodie.’

  ‘But how are we going to find our way there?’ Moonshine said.

  ‘Yes, how?’ Michael said, his face falling. ‘I know the address – Fox Farm, Bull Run Mountain – but I don’t know how to get there.’

  Twilight pushed Lauren with his nose. She grinned as she remembered the new power they’d discovered only the other day. ‘Don’t worry about that! We’ll lead the way!’

  Twilight and Moonshine flew across the woods towards Bull Run Mountain. Michael didn’t ask how Twilight knew the way there but Lauren had a feeling that he’d be trying to work it out with Moonshine soon enough!

  ‘What’s Jodie going to say when the sleigh turns up at your house tomorrow?’ Lauren asked.

  ‘Let’s just see if we can get it back there first,’ said Michael. ‘We can worry about that later!’

  Lauren nodded. ‘Come on, Twilight! Faster!’ she cried.

  He sped up. The wind blew her hair back and the stars blurred around her.

  Twilight used his magic to guide them to Fox Farm. It was set on its own, well away from any other houses. The security light came on as they landed on the driveway and they saw a shed next to the house. ‘I bet the sleigh’s in there!’ said Michael, getting off Moonshine.

  He found the plant pot with the key underneath, and opened the shed door.

  Inside there was a bright red pony sleigh with a harness nearby.

  ‘It’s gorgeous!’ said Lauren. ‘It looks so Christmassy!’

  ‘This harness should fit Moonshine,’ Michael said, looking at it. ‘Come on, girl.’

  Moonshine walked obediently over to the sleigh. Michael carefully did the harness up, adjusting the buckles until the red leather straps were all a good fit. ‘There!’ he said. Moonshine pulled the sleigh out of the shed into the snow.

  Lauren grinned. ‘Who needs reindeer? Someone should tell Santa that unicorns are much better!’

  ‘Will you be able to fly with it?’ Michael asked Moonshine.

  ‘I don’t think so,’ said Moonshine, looking worried. ‘It’s too heavy. If I take off now I’m sure it will just drag me back to the ground.’

  ‘What are we going to do?’ Lauren said.

  ‘Let me try something,’ said Twilight.

  He walked forward and touched his horn to the red sleigh.

  Lauren held her breath. Was anything going to happen?

  Twilight’s horn glowed and a silver star shot out of the end. It turned into a flame and ran around the top of the sleigh leaving a glittering, sparkling trail.

  ‘What’s happening?’ gasped Michael as the whole sleigh suddenly started to glow and glitter as if covered in silver stardust.

  Lauren grinned at Twilight. ‘Magic,’ she said.

  CHAPTER

  Ten

  Twilight stepped back and Moonshine cantered forward through the snow. ‘The sleigh feels so light!’ she gasped. She flew into the sky, pulling the sleigh behind her. ‘Look at me!’

  ‘The magic’s worked!’ exclaimed Michael.

  Lauren hugged Twilight. ‘You did it, Twilight!’

  Moonshine cantered round in a circle and flew back down. ‘It’s easy to pull now.’

  Michael shut the shed doors and climbed on to Moonshine’s back. ‘Come on! Let’s get it back to my house!’

  They flew into the sky, Moonshine pulling the sleigh and Twilight cantering along beside her. ‘We’d better not forget the mistletoe!’ Lauren reminded Michael.

  They reached the woods. Twilight flew among the trees, stopping near the top branches so that Lauren could lean forward and snip away bunches of mistletoe leaves with their clusters of greeny-white berries. When her arms were full they cantered to the sleigh and Lauren put the mistletoe inside it. ‘I’ll get some more!’ She and Twilight flew back and forth.

  ‘I think that’s enough!’ Michael grinned. ‘Jodie’s going to freak when she sees so much mistletoe.’

  ‘You mean more than she’s going to freak when she sees the sleigh?’ said Lauren. ‘How are you going to explain it to her?’

  ‘I’ve had an idea about that.’

  ‘What?’ Lauren demanded.

  Michael just tapped the side of his nose. ‘Wait and see!’

  They set off to Michael’s house. Checking there was no one about they flew round to the quiet back garden. Moonshine landed softly on the snow and Michael quickly undid the buckles and straps and set her free. He folded the harness up and put it into the sleigh under the mistletoe.

  ‘Perfect!’ he said, as he looked at the sleigh. ‘Now I just need a Christmas card!’

  He let himself quietly into the house and a few minutes later returned with a card in an envelope. He put it on the sleigh seat.

  ‘What does it say?’ Lauren whispered.

  Michael grinned. ‘I’m not telling.’ He glanced up at the house window. ‘I’ll turn Moonshine back and get ready for bed, then I’ll wake Jodie and Chris up, saying that I’ve heard a noise outside. You and Twilight can hide in the trees over there and watch.’

  ‘OK,’ Lauren agreed excitedly. She couldn’t wait to see Jodie and Chris’s faces when they saw the mistletoe-filled sleigh!

  Hiding in the trees, Lauren and Twilight watched as Chris pulled back the curtains and looked out of his bedroom window. He turned and seemed to shout something. The next second, Jodie and Michael were standing beside him.

  ‘They’ve seen it!’ Lauren whispered to Twilight.

  He snorted softly. ‘I wonder what they’ll say?’

  A few minutes later, the door opened and Michael, Jodie and Chris came hurrying out into the snow.

  ‘It’s the sleigh!’ Jodie gasped. She touched it as if she couldn’t believe it was real. ‘But…but how can it be?’

  ‘It can’t have just arrived in the middle of the night,’ said Chris.

  ‘It’s filled with mistletoe! And look, there’s a card,’ said Jodie. She picked the card off the seat and opened it.

  ‘With love from Santa,’ she read out.

  Michael’s eyes glanced towards Lauren in the trees. Her hands flew to her mouth as she tried to stop herself giggling out loud.

  ‘I must be dreaming,’ Jodie said, passing a hand over her eyes.

  ‘You’re not dreaming. It’s real!’ Michael told her.

  ‘Michael’s right!’ said Chris. ‘I don’t know how the sleigh got here but it’s definitely here!’

  Jodie started to laugh. ‘It’s a miracle. That’s what it is! The sleigh’s here and it’s full of mistletoe and we can take it back with us tomorrow morning! I don’t know how it got here but this is the best Christmas present I could ever have had!’ She hugged Michael and Chris. ‘I’m so happy!’

  Looking over Jodie’s shoulder, Michael grinned in Lauren’s direction.

  Feeling a warm glow inside, Lauren hugged Twilight. ‘Come on,’ she said. ‘Let’s go home.’

  Twilight walked quietly through the trees. When he was a safe distance away he rose into the air and they began to fly back towards the farm. ‘I’m so glad we got the sleigh and the mistletoe,’ Lauren said. ‘And that I worked out what was wrong with Michael in the end. I should have just asked him straight out when he started acting strangely.’

  ‘Why didn’t you?’ Twilight said.

  ‘I was trying to do what Mrs Fontana once told me,’ Lauren admitted. ‘Just wait and be there to listen when he wanted to talk.’ She sighed. ‘But that wasn’t the right thing to do this time. If I’d just found out what was wrong, I could have told him he was worrying about nothing much sooner than I did. Well, from now on, I’m going to do what Sidra said. I’m going to follow my heart. Sometimes I will do what Mrs Fontana would have done, but only if it feels right.’

  ‘It’s not easy being the Keeper of Secrets,’ Twilight said to her.

  ‘No, it’s not,’ she told him. Determination filled Lauren as she thought about
how they’d just helped Rosie and Michael. ‘But I can do it, I know I can – with you helping me, of course, Twilight.’

  Twilight whinnied. ‘I’ll always help you, Lauren.’

  ‘We’ll always help each other,’ she said, hugging him.

  A snowflake drifted down and then another and another. ‘It’s snowing again!’ Lauren said.

  Twilight tossed his head up and purple sparks shot out of his horn. They covered him and Lauren in a glowing arch of light. Warmth flowed through Lauren, partly from the magic but partly from knowing that she and Twilight would get through any problem – together.

  The snow began to swirl more heavily. Twilight cantered faster and faster. The wind streamed through Lauren’s hair and her skin tingled and glowed. She laughed out loud in delight. It was almost Christmas. She had a new friend with a unicorn and she felt she was beginning to learn how to be Keeper of Secrets at last. There was a new year coming and it was going to be fun!

  She wrapped her hands in Twilight’s mane as they galloped onwards through the snow, a rainbow of glittering sparks arching above them.