The Order of the Unicorn Read online

  Slowly, Pearl stood, then, keeping her hand closed around the fireflies, she slid her arms under the unicorn’s belly and lifted. She smiled, happy to discover that the foal wasn’t any heavier than a basket of laundry.

  With silent speed, she began to retrace her steps—at least, that’s what she hoped. But as she searched for yellow yarn, she found none. Don’t panic, she told herself, instinct pulling her forward. She was certain she’d come this way, certain she’d find a piece of yarn. Never slowing her pace, Pearl ran and ran. The unicorn was warm against her chest, its heart beating as fast as a bird’s. Pearl wanted to tell the little creature that everything would be okay, but how could she be sure? What if they were lost? What if the giant moth dove down from the clouds and carried the foal away?

  Doubt filled Pearl’s mind. Her arms began to throb. Not much farther. Keep going. Just as she thought she might drop the unicorn, a voice called from the darkness. “Pearl! We can see the bobbing light. We’re over here!”

  The words vibrated through the darkness. Although Pearl was happy to hear Ben’s voice, she knew the loud sound would bring danger. Roots ripped from the ground, and a stomping arose. Ben’s voice had woken the flesh-eaters! Though she had little strength left, Pearl took a huge breath and pumped her legs. There’d been no flesh on the metal trap, but there was plenty to be found on a girl and a unicorn. Ben was near. His voice was her path. “Pearl!”

  A blaze of light hit Pearl’s eyes as she burst into the Tangled Forest. “Get back!” Dr. Woo warned, stepping between Pearl and the dark wall. A flesh-eater poked out of the darkness, its petals snapping like jaws. Dr. Woo aimed a spray bottle, and a stream of liquid shot at the flower. The petals began to sizzle, and the plant retreated with a hissing sound. For a moment, all was quiet.

  Except for Pearl, who was breathing like a racehorse. “You’ve got spray that kills flesh-eaters?” she asked. “How come you didn’t give me some?”

  “You are not authorized to use this particular serum without further safety training.” Dr. Woo took the foal and laid her on the ground.

  Ben looked at Pearl. “You okay?”

  “Yes,” she said. “You saved me. I was lost, but then I heard your voice.” She hugged him so hard he groaned.

  “You’re… squeezing… me.”

  “Sorry.” She let him go. Pearl needed to catch her breath, but she also wanted to tell Dr. Woo everything. “He’s in there. Maximus Steele. I saw him. He had a moth strapped to his back, and he flew in and laid a trap.”

  “That is terrible news that requires our attention,” Dr. Woo said. “But right now we must focus on our patient. That is always our first priority.”

  Pearl sat beside the medical bag, watching as Dr. Woo took the foal’s temperature and felt for broken bones. While the doctor wrapped a bandage around the foal’s ankle, Ben picked up the spray bottle and read the label. “ ‘Nasty Weed Repellent.’ ”

  “Nasty is not a nasty-enough word,” Pearl said with a shudder. She’d never again complain about having to pull weeds out of the alley behind the Dollar Store. Dandelions seemed like diamonds compared to the flesh-eaters.

  Ben set the bottle back in the bag, then his eyes widened. “Look.”

  Pearl didn’t know what to expect. Since she and Ben met Dr. Woo and became her apprentices, nothing had been ordinary. Was Ben staring at another carnivorous plant or a swarm of fire-breathing dragonflies? Were the giants migrating in their direction?

  She swiveled around and squealed with joy. The unicorn king was prancing down the path. Pearl scrambled to her feet, as did Dr. Woo. Everyone bowed. With the creature calculator in hand, the doctor spoke. “The foal’s ankle is sprained, but it will heal in a few weeks’ time. She’s dehydrated and needs her mother’s milk. Other than that, she’ll be just fine.”

  The unicorn king touched his nose to the foal’s nose. Then he looked at Dr. Woo and neighed. Dr. Woo read the calculator’s screen. “There is no need to thank me, Your Highness. My apprentice Pearl is the one who found your daughter.”

  “His daughter?” Pearl asked. She’d saved a princess? “Wow!”

  Then she grabbed Ben’s sleeve and pulled him close. “Ben helped, too. I was lost, and he’s the reason we found our way out of the Dark Forest.” Ben’s cheeks turned red.

  The unicorn king neighed again. Dr. Woo read the screen. “He thanks you both and says that you are to become members of his blessing.”

  “Really?” Pearl asked.

  “Indeed. It is a huge honor.” Dr. Woo slipped the calculator into her pocket and removed a pair of scissors from her bag. The king bowed, and Dr. Woo snipped two thin strands of hair from his mane. Then she removed Pearl’s ponytail holder. Pearl’s hair fell to her shoulders. Dr. Woo touched the top of the unicorn strand to the middle part in Pearl’s hair. Pearl felt a tickling sensation.

  “It’s attaching itself,” Ben said with a gasp.

  Though Pearl couldn’t see it, the strand now looked as if it had grown right out of her head. The king’s white unicorn hair blended with Pearl’s blond human hair.

  Then Dr. Woo tucked the second, shorter strand between layers of Ben’s hair. “It tickles,” he said. Pearl watched as the strand attached itself to Ben’s head.

  “It’s hidden,” she assured him. “No one will see it.”

  “Weird,” Ben said as he touched his hair.

  Pearl touched her hair, too. “What does this mean?”

  Dr. Woo did not ignore this question. She answered it with her head held high, her voice full of pride. “It means, Pearl Petal and Benjamin Silverstein, that you are now members of the Order of the Unicorn. And those are your crowns.”

  19

  One thing is certain about travel—the coming-back-home part is never as exciting as the getting-there part. Which is why Pearl didn’t skip into the Portal with a huge grin on her face. And when Dr. Woo told the captain that their destination was Buttonville, Pearl’s sigh was so long it could have inflated a balloon. She was sad to leave. The only unicorn back home was the tiny plastic one inside her Pony Parade board game.

  Pearl longed to stay in the Tangled Forest. As a new member of the blessing, she wanted to spend time with the unicorn princess. Get to know her. Do some unicorn-y things, whatever those might be.

  But alas, a minute later, her hair a tousled mess after the Portal ride, she stood alongside Ben and Dr. Woo on the tenth floor of the hospital. As her insides settled, the Portal disappeared, and the yellow fairy dust drifted to the floor.

  Violet wasn’t there to greet them. A note taped to her switchboard read:

  “Can I visit the unicorn princess again?” Pearl asked as she and Ben followed the doctor to the stairwell.

  “Visiting is not something we do, I’m afraid,” Dr. Woo told her. “Human interaction in the Imaginary World must be kept to a minimum. Therefore, we only travel when duty calls.”

  “What about Maximus Steele?” Ben asked as they stepped into the stairwell. “He’s not supposed to be there. How’d he get in?”

  An excellent question, Pearl thought, and one she wished she’d asked.

  “The fairies who supply the dust that powers the Portal have an exclusive contract with my family. It has been this way for centuries. One human doctor, one contract. How Max got inside is a mystery.” She started down the stairs, her steps quick and graceful.

  “He took the rain dragon’s horn,” Pearl said, keeping pace beside the doctor. “And now he wants a unicorn’s horn. How can we stop him? Are there police in the Imaginary World? My aunt Milly would be happy to go and arrest him.”

  “The laws in the Imaginary World are not the same as ours,” Dr. Woo explained. They’d wound down the staircase, past floors nine, eight, and seven. “We are not supposed to interfere. I sprayed the flesh-eater out of necessity, but that was only because you are my apprentice and I am responsible for your safety. You needed my protection.”

  This didn’t seem right to Pearl. “But…” Th
ey passed floor six. “But Maximus Steele is a human, like us. How can the creatures protect themselves from him?”

  The doctor didn’t answer this question. She quickened her pace. When they reached the second-floor landing, she opened the door and headed down the hall. Pearl and Ben soon found themselves in the familiar room that was Dr. Woo’s office. As usual, it was crowded with crates and odd things, like giant bones, rainbow feathers, and jars of dead insects. Dr. Woo set the medical bag on the floor, then stood in front of her office window, staring out over Button Lake. Her hands on her hips, she said nothing for a very long time. Pearl and Ben watched, waiting for her to make sense of the situation. Hoping she’d know how to fix it.

  Finally, she turned around, her expression stormy. “My duty as a doctor is clear. I give medical care to Imaginary creatures, whether they are deadly like the kelpie or peaceful like the unicorn. I have never strayed from that responsibility. I am not meant to interfere in any other way.”

  Pearl imagined the unicorn foal and her beautiful horn. She remembered the gleaming teeth of Maximus Steele’s trap. Her heart felt as heavy as a brick. How could Dr. Woo not do anything?

  “However…” The doctor folded her hands and her dark eyes flashed. “Unicorns are special. And they’re particularly special to me. So it would appear that I have a new duty. To find and capture Max and return him to this world.”

  “Yay!” Pearl and Ben cried.

  Dr. Woo didn’t smile. She sank into her desk chair. Then she pulled two pieces of paper from a drawer and wrote on them. “You have each earned a certificate of merit in the art of Saving a Unicorn Foal.” She handed the certificates to Pearl and Ben.

  “Thanks,” they both said.

  She nodded. “You may go now,” she said, her voice heavy with exhaustion.

  “Guess we’d better trim those nose hairs,” Ben said after tucking his certificate into his pocket.

  “Yeah, okay,” Pearl grumbled. She turned to leave, but one more question needed to be asked. “Dr. Woo? Why are the unicorns special to you?”

  With her four-fingered hand, Dr. Woo pulled back her hair, revealing a silky strand of white.

  20

  There are few places more disgusting than the interior of a sasquatch’s nose. Not only did hair grow inside, but all sorts of things got stuck up there.

  “Gross! Is that a booger?” Pearl asked.

  “No,” Ben said, examining the item. “I think it’s a caterpillar.”

  The sasquatch didn’t seem to mind. Pearl had found a chocolate bar in the Staff Room, so the stinky creature was perfectly content to sit and munch. The kids worked as fast as they could, snipping, picking, and trimming.

  “Don’t do that,” Pearl scolded as the sasquatch stuck the candy wrapper up one of its nostrils.

  It was a gooey situation, one that neither apprentice wanted to repeat. Relieved that they’d finished the task, they bid the sasquatch good-bye, then left in a hurry.

  Once downstairs, Pearl and Ben returned the clippers to the Supply Closet, dumped their lab coats into the laundry bin, and washed their hands in the Staff Room. What remained of Ben’s yellow hat was a mangled mess, so Pearl threw it away. “You can get another one from Aunt Gladys. She’s got hundreds of them.”

  “Uh, thanks,” Ben said, though he didn’t sound very thrilled.

  They punched their time cards and thumbtacked them to the OFF DUTY side of the bulletin board. Ben checked his watch. They had a few minutes to play fetch with Metalmouth and to fill him in on their latest adventure. As the dragon bounded after the yellow tennis ball, the lobby walls vibrated, loosening flakes of paint. His tail kept smacking the elevator button, sending the doors into a repeated rhythm of open and close. Pearl had to squeeze into the corner to keep from getting squashed. When the kids told Metalmouth about Maximus Steele, he dropped the ball and flattened his ears. “I don’t like him. He’s mean.”

  Pearl was expected back at the Dollar Store to do her afternoon chores. And Ben had agreed to help his grandfather with the brisket. “See ya Monday,” Pearl said as Ben handed the tennis ball back to the dragon.

  Metalmouth’s tail thwapped. “Can we play fetch again then? Huh? Can we?”

  “Sure,” Ben told him. “I’d like that.”

  After the dead bolts slid into place, Pearl and Ben raced down the steps and across the overgrown lawn. They couldn’t use the gate, since it was locked. Even though Metalmouth had the key ring, there was no way he could step outside, into the open, where everyone could see him. So they climbed over a rusty section of fence that they used for such purposes and landed on the sidewalk. The afternoon was sunny, the sky bright blue. No bread crumbs or bits of yellow yarn were needed to guide them home. Pearl knew the streets so well she could have found her way blindfolded.

  “Guess I’ll see you tonight at Victoria’s ceremony,” Pearl said, her certificate of merit rolled in her hand.

  “Yeah, guess so.”

  “I’m glad Dr. Woo is going to find Maximus Steele.”

  “Me too.”

  But then Pearl frowned. If Maximus wasn’t allowed in the Imaginary World, did that mean he would come back to the Known World and start hunting the animals here? Maybe Dr. Woo could help him get a regular job—but not at the Dollar Store! No way would she work with someone who’d tried to hurt a unicorn!

  “What are we going to tell people if they notice the unicorn mane in our hair?” She touched the silky strand, then pulled her hair back into a ponytail. “You better come up with a good story.”

  Ben smiled. “No problem.”

  They headed down Fir Street, then turned right onto Main Street, where they bumped into Mrs. Mulberry. Had she been waiting for them? She held a box.

  “It arrived,” she announced happily. The yellow shipping label read:

  Pearl frowned. “You got them already?”

  “Yes, indeed.” Mrs. Mulberry opened the box. Inside, a tangle of red worms glistened on a bed of wet dirt. But one worm lay in the corner, barely moving. “Looky, looky, this one’s not doing so well.” She smiled as if she’d found gold in a river, or a ruby in her ice cream.

  Pearl and Ben exchanged nervous looks. Then they leaned closed. A tiny sound emerged from the worm. Was it possible? Had it actually… coughed?

  “I’ve got a sick worm. That means I can make an appointment at the hospital.” Mrs. Mulberry threw her head back and laughed with glee. “Now Dr. Woo has to see me!”

  Drat!

  CREATURE CONNECTION

  Unicorn

  The unicorn is one of the best-known creatures from mythology. It became very popular during the medieval period in European history—a time when kings, queens, and nobles ruled the land. Pieces of art from this age show the unicorn as a smallish white horse with a goat’s beard, a lion’s tail, and a pointed spiral horn in the center of its forehead.

  Unicorns are symbols of purity and grace. During the medieval period, it was widely believed that these creatures actually existed. Legend said, however, that a unicorn would only show itself to a maiden—a young girl. If the maiden sat quietly, the unicorn would lay its head on her lap and fall asleep.

  The unicorn’s spiral horn was believed to be magical. If ground into dust, it could be sprinkled into poisoned water, making the water drinkable. Poisoning was a real worry in those days, especially for members of a royal family. So hunters, hoping to get rich, tried to find the shy unicorn. They hired young girls, hoping to coax the creature from the forest.

  Viking traders figured out another way to get rich. They came to Europe, carrying what they said were unicorn horns, also called alicorns. They sold them for more than double their weight in gold. It was a very profitable business. The Throne of Denmark is said to be made of unicorn horns. Even Queen Elizabeth I bought one. Crafty merchants ground these horns into powder and sold it as a medicine that could cure everything. Special cups were carved from alicorns and given to kings and queens to keep them from being poisone
d.

  We can look back on this period of time and laugh because we know that unicorns were made-up creatures and that the alicorns were actually narwhal tusks. Those Vikings were pretty clever.

  Other cultures had similar unicorn-like creatures in their stories. The Chinese qilin had the body of a deer, the head of a lion, and a long horn in its forehead. It was said to be a good omen and thought to appear with the arrival and the passing of a great leader. The Japanese version was called the kirin.

  The famous explorer Marco Polo wrote that he saw a real unicorn, but he described it as ugly, with dark buffalo hair and a large black horn, wallowing in the mud. What he actually described was a rhinoceros.

  In 1663, a German mayor named Otto Von Guericke took the bones of a woolly rhinoceros, the bones of a mammoth, and the horn of a narwhal, and created a skeleton. Then he told everyone it was a unicorn. People traveled from far and wide to see this amazing find. Are you laughing again? I wonder what silly things we believe today that will make people laugh in the future!

  STORY IDEA

  You are a Viking and you’ve anchored your ship off the coast of England. You’ve rowed into a town, carrying a bag of narwhal horns. You want to trade them for gold coins. How are you going to convince the townsfolk that they are actually unicorn horns? What would you say? How could you prove it?

  ART IDEA

  According to legend, alicorn powder is a very powerful, magical medicine. Pretend you own a company that is trying to sell the powder. Draw a picture of your product. Does it come in a box, a jar, or a tube? What does the label look like? What information will you put on the package to persuade people to buy it? Look at some of the boxes in your pantry for ideas.