儿童故事集：Katie and the Unicorn

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You may recall that Katie has a great aunt who is of course a witch. Her name is Chloe, and despite her advanced years, she is still very sprightly² and not at all lacking in energy. A few years ago, she invited Katie to come and stay with her to witness a very special event. The horse who lived in the field next to her cottage was due to give birth to a foal. When Katie heard about this invitation, she immediately asked if she could bring her best friend Isis with her. You see, Isis loved horses, and she even owned a pony³, which she often let Katie ride. Aunt Chloe agreed, and the visit was arranged.

 

The two girls spent Saturday lazing around and chatting, and taking the next door neighbour’s dog for a walk on the heath. The big event happened late on Saturday night. In fact, Aunt Chloe had to get the girls out of bed to see it. When they reached the barn, they saw the beige mare⁴ was lying on her side in the hay and her body was already heaving with contractions⁵. She neighed and grunted⁶ but seemed to understand what was happening and was not at all stressed. Nor was she bothered that four people were watching her, although she turned her head to look at Katie and Isis as if to say, “Come in. You are just in time to see my foal being born.” Her thick tail swished and some water gushed⁷ out of her. And then a translucent⁸ white sac started to appear. It was slightly torn and they could see a horse’s hoof⁹ inside it. Katie felt a special thrill. She thought:

 

“I’ve seen plenty of magic, but this is different. This is life. This is a miracle.”

 

The farmer went over and started to gently tug¹⁰ the hoof to help the foal emerge. Quite soon his head and shoulders were out in the open and the rest of his body quickly followed. He lay on the hay while his mother licked his damp and mottled hair. He did not remain still for long, and started to wriggle¹¹. In fact, he had only been born a few minutes before he tried to stand up. His gangly legs splayed wide apart. He staggered forward, fell down in the hay, and got up again.

 

“Oh he’s just been born and he wants to walk! He’s so sweet!” exclaimed Isis. She already loved the little foal so much she wanted to hug him and take him home with her.

 

“Do you notice anything unusual about him?” asked Great Aunty Chloe.

 

“Er, his legs are very long,” suggested Katie.

 

“No, it’s quite normal for horses to be born with long legs. In the wild they have to be ready to run from predators¹².”

 

“Oh, look, he has a perfect white star on his nose!” exclaimed Isis. It was hard to see because the rest of him was a light fawn¹³ colour.

 

“Yes, he does,” said Chloe, “But it’s more than that. Can’t you see there’s a little stump¹⁴ growing out of it?”

 

Actually, it wasn’t really visible, not unless you had eyes like Aunt Chloe, but Isis said:

 

“You mean like a unicorn¹⁵?” She was joking of course. Chloe replied:

 

“Not like a unicorn, he is a unicorn my dear.”

 

Was Great Aunt Chloe joking? It was hard to tell. Isis giggled¹⁶.

 

Later on, when the girls were back in bed, Isis asked Katie: “What was all that about a unicorn?” And Katie, who was tired after all the excitement, yawned and said, “Anything is possible in this world. Let’s see in the morning.”

 

Over breakfast, Aunt Chloe explained that the foal’s father was a unicorn, which meant that there was a 50-50 chance that his offspring would be one.

 

“You don’t see many unicorns¹⁷ about these days,” said Isis dryly.

 

Aunt Chloe nodded as she spread her jam made from very special berries on the toast. She said:

 

“Unicorns were very common in King Arthur’s time but now they are rare indeed, which is one reason why they are so valuable. The other is that their horns can be ground into powder and used in magic spells. Unfortunately there are bad people, witches mostly, who steal unicorns and sell them on the black magic market. That is what happened to the father, and I very much fear that the same thieves might come back for the foal.”

 

“Oh how awful!” exclaimed Katie. “He’s just been born and he’s already in danger.”

 

“Well, I think he’s safe for now,” said Chloe, “but in about a year’s time when he’s ready to leave his mother, and his horn is showing, we shall have to move him somewhere secret that the thieves don’t know about.”

 

“I know,” said Isis. “He can come and live in the same stable as my pony. Nobody would think of looking for a unicorn there and Katie and I – oh how we would just love to take care of him! In fact, Katie needs a pony and she could ride him when he’s old enough. Oh let’s do that Aunt Chloe! Please say you’ll let us look after him.”

 

“Well, thank you,” said Chloe. “I may take you up on that when the time comes.”

 

Eight months later, the unicorn, who now had a name, “Cupid,” came to live with Katie’s pony. He had grown quite a bit but he was still a baby and was tossing his head because he did not know where he had come to.

 

Isis rubbed his neck and said soothingly¹⁸: “There, there, Cupid, you are going to have a lovely life with us. I know you miss your mother, but this is Hera. She’s my pony and she’s going to look after you.”

 

And Katie spoke¹⁹ to Isis’s pony saying: “Now, you be super-nice to Cupid because he’s only little and he misses his mummy,” and Hera nodded because she understood Katie perfectly²⁰, and she remembered the day she left her own mother.

 

Cupid’s horn was still a little stump, and if anyone asked about it they replied that it was a growth and the vet²¹ had said it was harmless.

 

As Cupid grew older, they took him out more and more, letting him play in the meadow, and sometimes leading him around the pen. Although they tried to keep him away from the other horses, over time more and more people saw him and commented on his horn. By the time he was three years old, there was no hiding the fact that he looked just like a unicorn. Katie and Isis were starting to ride him. If he ever tried to kick or bite, Katie spoke to him in his ear, and he liked that so much that he promised to be good.

 

One Friday morning, Isis’s mum took the two girls to the pony farm super-early before school. They went into the stable and could not quite believe their eyes. Cupid’s stall was empty. They knew that the stable girl, Emma, sometimes took the ponies²² out to exercise them, but she usually came in the evenings. The empty stall was truly puzzling, and worrying.

 

Katie spoke to Isis’s pony: “What happened?” she asked.

 

“Prrrrrr,” said Isis’s pony. “A man and woman came in the middle of the night and took her.”

 

“But you promised to look after her!”

 

“I neighed and whinnied and kicked my stall but there’s only so much I can do when I am boxed up in here.”

 

“Well, I suppose you did your best,” said Katie. Now they felt desperate.

 

They went outside.

 

“Shall we call the police?” asked Katie.

 

“Not likely,” said Isis. “If we say our unicorn’s missing they will probably lock us up for pranking and wasting their time.”

 

“So what are we going to do?” asked Katie.

 

Isis’s eyes brightened.

 

“We’d better solve this mystery ourselves,” she said with determination, “because we promised to look after Cupid, and so it’s up to us to get him back.” And suddenly Katie felt better. She pressed her hand against her friend’s. They would do this together.

 

The two girls looked around and found some heavy track marks. They might have been left there by a horse van. Katie took a picture of the marks with her phone. It was great to find a clue, but it did not really get them much closer to discovering who the criminals were.

 

All day at school, Katie turned the problem over and over in her mind, when she should have been concentrating on things like her maths and her geography. But she drew a blank. She felt more and more down. It seemed like the thieves had got clean away.

 

On the way home, she sat next to Isis on the bus. Her friend said: “What do you think they will do with Cupid?”

 

“Sell her, I suppose,” replied Katie. And then it hit her. Yes, it was one thing to steal a unicorn and get away with it, but it was quite another to sell it and make a profit. How many people have a unicorn for sale at any one time?

 

“That’s it!” said Katie. “We have to find out who is selling a three year old unicorn.”

 

“Do you mean we should search eBay?” asked Isis.

 

“I don’t think he’ll turn up there,” said Katie, “but we could look in my mum’s crystal ball in her shop. Any witch who has something special to sell lists it on the magic market.”

 

And so they got off the bus at the shopping precinct and dropped into the magic shop that Katie’s mum owned.

 

“Can I show Isis your crystal ball?” asked Katie.

 

“Sure,” said her mum, “but be careful not to buy anything by accident.”

 

Katie held the ball in her hands and whispered to it “I want to buy a three year old unicorn.” Colours swirled²³ around inside the sphere and within a few seconds there he was, a three dimensional image of Cupid inside the ball with a price tag of 10 million pounds.

 

“That’s incredible,” said Isis.

 

Katie spoke again to the ball: “Message to seller; we would like to view unicorn tomorrow. Please make an appointment.”

 

A few minutes later, a message came back and the ball’s mysterious voice said: “12 noon tomorrow.” A map and image showed them where to go. It appeared to be a house in the countryside, not too far from where Great Aunt Chloe lived.

 

The next day, Katie and Isis felt like real undercover detectives as they sat on the train. They discussed their cover story. Isis would say that she was the daughter of a Russian oil billionaire and that her name was Yelena Babiova. Katie was her equine adviser²⁴ which meant that she knew a lot about horses. But how would they actually rescue Cupid if they found him?

 

“This is just a fact-finding mission,” said Katie. “We’ll get away safely and decide what to do later. We probably need help for the next stage because it will be even more dangerous.”

 

Isis agreed.

 

When they reached their stop, they called a taxi to take them to the sellers’ house. The driver had trouble finding it, because it was really off the beaten track. When they found the turn-off, they went down a long, winding²⁵ drive. There were fields, hedges and trees all around. Eventually they came to a large white mansion²⁶ with a fantastic view over the valley. Everywhere you looked the landscape was lush and green. Several expensive cars were parked in front of the house. The girls got out, and Katie rang the doorbell. A butler answered.

 

Isis spoke in her best phoney Russian accent.

 

“We are here to view the, er special pony.”

 

“Come in,” said the butler, and he showed them into a conservatory²⁷ and brought them tea while they waited.

 

In due course, a young woman dressed in a tweed suit came to meet them. She said her name was Eleanor.

 

“That is like me, I am Yelena, that is Russian for Eleanor,” said Isis, not forgetting her Russian accent.

 

“Have you come by yourselves?” asked Eleanor in a decidedly English accent.

 

“Yes, my father is in Moscow,” said Isis. “I am studying at boarding school on the South Coast.”

 

Eleanor looked at Katie. “And this is Violet,” said Isis. “She knows everything there is to know about horses, and er, of course about unicorns.”

 

Katie could feel a tingle²⁸ in her spine²⁹ that told her that Eleanor was a witch. Presumably Eleanor could sense that Katie was one. In fact, the way she looked at Katie said it all. It takes one to know one, as they say.

 

“Good,” said Eleanor. “I am certain you will like the unicorn. Let’s go and see him.”

 

They went out to the stables. And yes, joy of joys, there was Cupid. He snorted and did a little dance when he saw his friends. “Oh Cupid, stay still,” thought Katie, “don’t let on that you know us.”

 

“Can I ride him?” asked Isis. This was not part of the plan, and Katie wondered if it was a good idea. She thought they should make their excuses, leave, and come back with help. But Eleanor agreed. She asked the groom³⁰ to saddle up Cupid. Isis climbed up into the stirrup, and started to walk Cupid around the ring, and then to trot³¹, and all of a sudden she kicked her heels onto his sides. The unicorn, with a little magic as well as horsepower, broke into a canter, took off, and cleared the fence.

 

“What are you doing?” cried out Katie in dismay. She realised that she was in a fix, ran for the gate, and climbed out of the pen. Eleanor was on her phone. Katie looked around for somewhere to hide, and dodged³² behind a barn. From there ,she saw two four-wheel drive cars chase Cupid and Isis across the meadow. Cupid was young, and not used to going fast. The cars had caught up with him and were circling round and hooting³³ their horns. Isis had no choice but to pull the reins³⁴ up to halt Cupid. Just then Katie felt a firm hand on her shoulder. Both she and Isis were prisoners, not to mention Cupid.

 

The two girls were escorted back to the conservatory. The door shut firmly behind them and they heard it lock. Isis tried the glass door that led into the garden. It would not open.

 

“Can you use magic to open it?” she asked Katie.

 

Katie concentrated on the task, but it was no use, the door had been locked by an enchanted³⁵ combination, and she could not crack the code.

 

Isis looked pale with fear. She sat down on a wicker chair.

 

“Oh dear, we should have told our mothers where we were going,” she said forlornly.

 

“Fat chance they would have let us come,” said Katie, “it would have been all right if you had stuck to the plan.”

 

“I know, I’m sorry. I don’t know what got into me,” said Isis. “I suppose it was just seeing Cupid. It’s so outrageous³⁶ that they just, you know, stole him.”

 

Katie shrugged³⁷ and sat down. This was the worst fix they had ever been in. It was far, far worse than any trouble at school.

 

Soon they heard a loud juddering sound. They looked out of the window and saw a helicopter land on the lawn.

 

It was not long before they heard the lock turn in the door and a frowning Eleanor came in, accompanied by a crew-cut young man in a sharp suit and silk tie. He looked like he had just flown in from the city.

 

“Well, now, Miss Yelena,” said Eleanor. “We have done a little investigating. It turns out that your real name is Isis, as in, the Egyptian goddess I presume?”

 

“You know your mythology,” said Isis pertly.

 

“I know a myth is a mixture of truth and fiction, but you are just one big lie” said their captor.

 

“Who are you calling liars³⁸?” said Katie. “Is Eleanor your real name? I don’t think so.”

 

The lady who claimed to be Eleanor blushed slightly.

 

“And at least we don’t go around stealing other people’s unicorns,” said Isis.

 

“Is that so?” asked the man, “then what exactly was the meaning of today’s escapade?”

 

“I was only taking our unicorn back, because you stole him,” said Isis.

 

“Well, I see,” said Eleanor, “in that case we shall have to think about what to do with you two. And what is your friend’s name?”

 

“Violet” said Katie. She did not see why she should give any information away for free.

 

The unicorn thieves left the girls alone again. Isis began to cry. Katie hugged her friend and said: “There, there, you’ve been incredibly brave and I’m so proud of you. Don’t worry we’ll get out of this.”

 

Isis felt comforted. They would escape, even if it was hard to see how.

 

About half an hour later they heard a sound at the the window. Tap Tap. They looked round, and there, on the other-side of the glass door stood a delightful³⁹ figure: Cupid!

 

He nodded his shaggy mane at them in acknowledgment, and then he started to back away, before lowering his head and charging at the door. His horn went straight through the lock. He pulled back and shook the splintered pieces of wood off it. Katie easily pushed the broken door open.

 

“Quick, come on,” she called. She grabbed a chair so that they could easily climb onto Cupid without stirrups. Isis sat in front, because she was the best rider, and she held onto his yellow and purple main. Katie clung to Isis, and off they rode across the meadow. When they reached the road they trotted⁴⁰ into the village. Fortunately there was a gymkhana going on, which is an equestrian⁴¹ event including competitions and races on horseback. There were lots of ponies and riders spruced up to look their best. Katie, Isis and Cupid blended into the crowd like a sort of fun and amusing entry. Nobody assumed that Cupid was not a real pony.

 

“We need somebody to help us,” said Katie.

 

“How about those two?” suggested Isis,

 

She was looking at a pair of burly fellows – both farmers sons. They summoned up their courage and went up to them.

 

“Excuse me,” said Katie, “there are some bad people after us. If they come, will you see them off?”

 

“Sure,” said one of the boys, who looked like he might enjoy a fight.

 

“And there they are!” exclaimed Isis, pointing at a black four-wheel drive. The boys gave Eleanor and her male companion evil looks. They wisely stayed in the car.

 

“Do you want us to call the police?” asked one of the girls’ chivalrous⁴² protectors.

 

“Er, better not,” said Katie, “But can I use your phone to call my aunt please?”

 

The girls’ phones had been confiscated⁴³ when they were captured. The boy handed his to Katie. Katie dialled the number. Aunt Chloe was rather old fashioned and preferred crystal balls to phones. Would she pick up? It rang and it rang. And then a voice said:

 

“Hello”

 

“Aunt Chloe, we need your help,” said Katie.

 

“I’ll be there in a jiffy,” said her aunt. A few minutes later they saw an elderly but straight-backed lady riding a white horse. He was, of course, a magic horse who had flown to the village with Chloe on his back. Aunt Chloe took risks like that. She thought that everyone would be concentrating on the ring at the gymkhana, not looking up at the sky, and if anyone did see her, the country cider would probably take the blame.

 

When the horse-nappers in the black car saw her, they started up their engine and drove off. Chloe glared at them.

 

“I know that witch,” she said. “She’s dangerous. You two girls have taken a very silly risk.”

 

But Katie and Isis both had their arms around Cupid’s neck, and the three of them looked so sweet, that she could not be cross for long.

 

And that was the story of Katie and the Unicorn.

 

And Bertie would like to thank Kiki who left a comment on a story at storynory.com saying,

 

dear Bertie

umm… I LOVED The Story. I got the most AMAZING IDEA

Katie finds a unicorn and keeps it with Isis’s pony.

 

So thank you Kiki. And thank you to Milly who told us that she loves horses and would like a story about a unicorn.

 

We can also see from some of the names you choose for yourselves that a unicorn story might be popular, so thanks to Awesome⁴⁴ Unicorn, Steve the Unicorn, Pretty Pink Unicorn, I Love Unicorns, and all the other unicorns who listen to Storynory and leave comments.

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