Stronger Than Magic

by Stronger than Magic (epub)

  Mrs Foster appeared at the top of the path. ‘Max!’ she interrupted them. ‘Can you go and get your swimming things, please? We don’t want to be late.’

  Max ran off as Mrs Foster walked down to Lauren. ‘Do you want to come into town with us, honey?’

  Lauren shook her head. ‘I’ll stay here with Twilight.’

  ‘OK,’ her mum said. ‘Dad’s around. If you need anything, just ask.’

  After her mum and Max had driven away, Lauren groomed Twilight and then set to work cleaning his tack and tidying the tack room. By mid-morning everything was spotless.

  Lauren went down to the paddock where Twilight was grazing. She sighed. There wasn’t much else she could do. Unless…

  Lauren looked round. Her dad was out on the farm and there was no one else nearby. If she turned Twilight into a unicorn, they could at least talk. Maybe they could even look to see if there were some more people to help. That wouldn’t be too tiring. All he’d have to do was touch his horn to a rock.

  She led Twilight to the shadow of the trees and said the magic words.

  ‘So, how are you feeling?’ she asked as soon as Twilight was a unicorn again.

  ‘Not too bad,’ Twilight answered. ‘Just a bit weak and…’ He pawed at the ground with his hoof. ‘Anyway, I’m feeling better than I did yesterday.’

  ‘I was so frightened,’ Lauren said. ‘I thought you were terribly ill.’ She looked towards the bottom of the field. ‘Can we go and use your magic powers? I want to see if there’s anyone else I can help.’ She sighed. ‘I didn’t exactly do that well with David and Joanne yesterday.’

  ‘At least you tried,’ Twilight said reassuringly.

  ‘I guess,’ Lauren said as they went over to one of the rocks.

  ‘When will your mum and Max be back?’ Twilight asked.

  ‘Probably not for ages yet,’ Lauren replied. ‘But we could check and see where they are just to be on the safe side.’

  Twilight nodded and, touching his horn to a rock, he murmured, ‘Mrs Foster and Max.’

  The picture in the rock showed Mrs Foster and Max having a drink in town. Lauren leaned closer. ‘I’m never going to get Buddy to fetch,’ Max was saying.

  ‘Oh, Max!’ Mrs Foster said. ‘You’ve only been trying for one day. Just be patient.’

  ‘Poor Max,’ Lauren said to Twilight. ‘He’s really unhappy that Buddy won’t –’ She broke off. ‘I’ve had an idea!’ she said, her eyes widening. ‘Why don’t I teach Buddy to fetch? Just think how pleased Max would be to get back and find that Buddy could do it after all!’

  Twilight didn’t answer. He was rubbing his head against his leg as if it hurt.

  Lauren looked at him in concern. ‘Are you OK?’

  ‘I’m feeling strange,’ Twilight replied weakly. ‘I think I need to rest.’

  ‘I’ll turn you back,’ Lauren said immediately.

  As soon as Twilight was a pony again he sighed and half-shut his eyes.

  Lauren stroked his face. ‘Do you want anything?’

  Twilight shook his head.

  ‘OK,’ Lauren said. ‘Well, I’ll be by the stable with Buddy. If you need me, just whinny.’

  She went to find Buddy. The puppy was asleep in the kitchen. He got up eagerly when Lauren came in.

  ‘Come on, boy,’ Lauren said, taking a packet of dog treats, a long dog lead and a toy from the cupboard. ‘I’m going to teach you to fetch.’

  Taking Buddy outside, she clipped on his lead. ‘I’m going to throw this toy,’ she told him. ‘And I want you to bring it back.’

  Buddy woofed in excitement as he looked at the orange plastic duck in her hand.

  ‘Go on then, boy,’ Lauren said,

  throwing the toy. ‘Go fetch!’

  Buddy raced after the duck, grabbed it and then, just as he had done with Max, he started to bound away. But this time, the lead pulled him up short. He stopped in surprise and shook his head.

  Lauren held out a dog treat. ‘Here, boy,’ she encouraged.

  Buddy looked at her and tried to back off but the lead held him tight.

  Lauren waved the dog treat. ‘Come on, Buddy.’

  Buddy hesitated for a moment and then seemed to make up his mind. Still holding the toy, he trotted over to her.

  ‘Good boy!’ Lauren cried as he dropped the plastic duck and eagerly gobbled up the treat. She made a fuss of him and then stood up. ‘OK. Let’s try that again.’

  Twenty minutes later, Buddy had got the hang of fetching the toy. As soon as he picked it up, he carried it back to Lauren, knowing that a treat was waiting for him.

  ‘You are such a clever boy,’ Lauren praised him after he had done it without the lead attached. ‘Max is going to be so pleased!’

  Buddy wagged his tail and, leaving him to play, Lauren went back to check on Twilight.

  He was lying down in the paddock. Lauren knelt down beside him. ‘Twilight? How are you feeling? Shall I get Dad to call the vet?’

  Twilight shook his head and rested his muzzle on her knees.

  ‘Oh, Twilight,’ Lauren said. ‘I wish I knew what the matter was.’ She massaged his ears and he sighed.

  *

  Lauren wasn’t sure how long she’d been sitting with Twilight when the silence was broken by the sound of Max’s voice.

  ‘Buddy! Where are you?’ Max came running down the path to the paddock. Buddy woofed in delight and bounded over to say hello.

  Seeing Twilight lying down, Max stopped in concern. ‘Is Twilight sick again, Lauren?’

  Lauren stood up. Her legs felt stiff from sitting on the ground for so long. ‘He just seems tired.’

  ‘Poor Twilight,’ Max said. ‘I hope he gets better soon.’ He patted Buddy. ‘Come on, Buddy. Now that I’m back I’m going to teach you to fetch.’

  Lauren remembered her good news. ‘You don’t have to,’ she said, smiling.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Max said in surprise.

  ‘I taught him while you were out. Watch this.’ Seeing the toy duck lying by the gate, Lauren picked it up and threw it. ‘Fetch, Buddy!’

  Buddy trotted over, picked the duck up and brought it back. ‘Good boy!’ Lauren exclaimed, feeding him a dog treat from her pocket.

  She turned to Max, her eyes shining. ‘What do you think?’

  To her surprise, she saw Max was frowning crossly at her. ‘But Buddy’s my dog. I wanted to teach him!’ he cried.

  ‘I was just trying to help,’ Lauren said.

  ‘No, you weren’t.’ Max looked close to tears. ‘You just wanted to show that you could do it and I couldn’t!’

  ‘Max –’ Lauren began.

  But Max wouldn’t listen. ‘You always interfere, Lauren! You always ruin things!’ Pushing past her, he ran off into the woods at the side of the paddock.

  Lauren watched him go, feeling awful. She wanted Max to be pleased. She hadn’t meant to upset him. But now that she thought about it, she could see what he meant. Perhaps training Buddy hadn’t been a good idea. How would she feel if someone had done the same thing with Twilight? She wondered whether to go after him, but decided it was best to leave him until he’d calmed down.

  With a sigh, she turned and went to find her mum to tell her about Twilight.

  *

  ‘I’ll call Tony,’ Mrs Foster said, looking at Twilight lying down in his field. ‘Have you been riding this morning?’

  ‘No, we just –’ Lauren broke off. ‘Well, we just stayed in the field.’

  ‘So there’s no reason why he should be tired,’ Mrs Foster said.

  Lauren shook her head. All Twilight had done that morning was some magic. A thought struck her and she almost gasped out loud. Magic! Of course! Why hadn’t she thought about it before?

  Six

  Lauren’s thoughts raced. Every time Twilight had started feeling strange, he had been in his unicorn form doing magic. Maybe he had some sort of special unicorn illness. That would explain why Tony Blackstone couldn’t find an
ything wrong with him!

  As her mum went back to the house to ring the vet, Lauren ran to Twilight. ‘Twilight!’ she said urgently.

  Twilight looked up.

  ‘I’ve had an idea. Maybe it’s not the pony bit of you that’s sick,’ she said, ‘maybe it’s the unicorn bit! You always seem to be ill just after we’ve done some magic.’

  Twilight looked thoughtful but Lauren couldn’t tell exactly what he was thinking. She was filled with frustration. If only she could turn him into a unicorn and ask him what he thought, but she couldn’t. Not in the middle of his field in broad daylight with her mum around. Then she had an idea.

  ‘Maybe my book on unicorns will have something on unicorn illnesses,’ she said. ‘After all, that’s where I found the words for the Turning Spell.’

  Twilight bowed his head, as if in agreement.

  ‘I’ll be back later,’ she said, almost running into her mum coming in the opposite direction.

  ‘What’s the matter?’ her mum said in alarm. ‘Has Twilight got worse?’

  ‘No,’ Lauren said. ‘There’s no change in him.’

  ‘Well, I spoke to Tony,’ her mum said. ‘He’s out on call at the moment and can’t come over, but he said he’ll ring in a few hours and see if there’s any improvement.’

  Lauren nodded. ‘Thanks, Mum.’ And before her mum could ask her what she was doing she raced on to the house and up to her bedroom. There she picked up the battered blue book lying by her bed and sat down. Turning to the front page, she scanned down the five chapter headings.

  Chapter One:

  Noah and the unicorns

  Chapter Two:

  Arcadia

  Chapter Three:

  Unicorn Myths

  Chapter Four:

  Unicorn Habits

  Chapter Five:

  unicorns and Humans

  Lauren frowned. None of them seemed to be about illnesses. She looked at the list again. She knew the first chapter about Noah and the unicorns almost by heart now, but maybe one of the others might have something useful in them. Opening the book at the second chapter, she started to read.

  Half an hour later, a knock at the door made her look up. ‘Lauren?’ her mum said, looking round the door. ‘Have you seen Max?’

  ‘No.’ Lauren’s head was swirling with unicorn facts. ‘No, I haven’t.’

  ‘He must be outside somewhere with Buddy,’ Mrs Foster said. ‘I’ll call him. It’ll be lunchtime in five minutes.’

  Lauren nodded. She just had a few more pages to read.

  Mrs Foster left and Lauren turned back to the last chapter. She hadn’t found out anything about unicorn illnesses and she was starting to feel increasingly desperate. The last chapter was all about what unicorns did on Earth. Lauren skimmed over the words. She knew most of it already. She read the last paragraph.

  Magic is a very powerful force. It must be used wisely or it will exact a powerful toll. Only when a unicorn’s powers are used to help those who are truly in need, will the unicorn be strengthened and his powers replenished.

  Lauren frowned at the words. What did they mean? She thought she understood the last sentence – if Twilight did good, then he would become stronger. Well, that was all right. They’d been doing loads of good recently. He should be extra strong.

  ‘Lauren!’ her mum called from downstairs. ‘Can you come here, please?’

  Lauren sighed and shut the book. She’d found out absolutely nothing about unicorns getting ill. Maybe they didn’t get sick. Maybe her idea had been wrong after all.

  She walked slowly downstairs. As she went into the kitchen, she stopped in surprise. She’d been expecting to see Max and her mum sitting at the table ready to eat lunch. But there was no sign of Max, and her mum was standing by the sink, looking worried.

  ‘I can’t find Max anywhere,’ Mrs Foster said. ‘I’ve been calling him, but he hasn’t come in.’

  Lauren frowned. ‘Maybe he’s playing with Buddy.’

  ‘Buddy’s here,’ her mum said, pointing under the table.

  Lauren’s stomach tightened. Max hardly ever went off without his puppy.

  ‘When did you last see him?’ Mrs Foster asked her.

  ‘It was just after you got back from swimming,’ Lauren replied. Just then, she remembered the argument and her cheeks flushed. ‘We had a bit of a fight.’

  ‘What sort of a fight?’ her mum asked quickly.

  ‘I’d taught Buddy to fetch while you were out,’ Lauren said. ‘I was just trying to help but Max got really cross and ran off into the woods. I didn’t mean to upset him, Mum.’

  ‘Oh, Lauren,’ Mrs Foster sighed. ‘I understand, but I can see why Max got angry. It’s hard for him being the youngest. Sometimes it must seem to him as if you do everything before him. Training Buddy is the first thing he’s ever done on his own.’

  ‘I know, I should have realized,’ Lauren said regretfully.

  ‘I’d better call your dad on his mobile phone,’ Mrs Foster said. ‘Perhaps Max is with him.’

  Lauren watched anxiously as her mum made the call. She could tell from her face that it wasn’t good news.

  Mrs Foster replaced the receiver. ‘Your dad hasn’t seen Max. He’s coming back to help us look.’ She twisted her hands together. ‘Which way did Max go when he ran off, Lauren?’

  ‘Into the woods,’ Lauren replied.

  ‘That must have been about an hour and a half ago,’ Mrs Foster said, checking her watch. ‘I’ll try ringing his friends. Maybe he went to one of their houses. Otherwise we’d better start searching.’

  None of Max’s friends had seen him, and when Mr Foster got back he and two of the farmhands, Tom and Hank, set out to look in the woods.

  ‘Max could be anywhere,’ Mrs Foster said to Lauren. ‘He could still be walking or he might be hiding or…’ her voice faltered, ‘he might be hurt.’

  ‘It’ll be OK, Mum,’ Lauren said quickly. An idea had come to her.

  Mrs Foster nodded and took a deep breath. ‘Yes, you’re right,’ she said, as if she were trying to convince herself. ‘It will.’ She shook her head. ‘Oh, if only we knew which direction he’d gone. I just want him home.’

  ‘I… I’m just going to see Twilight,’ Lauren said.

  Mrs Foster nodded distractedly. ‘I’ll stay by the phone.’

  Lauren ran down to Twilight’s field. Twilight had stood up and was by the gate.

  ‘Twilight!’ Lauren burst out. ‘I know you’re not well, but Max has run away and no one knows where he is – I really need your help. Please can I turn you into a unicorn? It would just be for a few minutes so that you can use your magic to see if we can find out where Max is. I wouldn’t ask but…’

  Twilight was already nodding his head up and down.

  ‘Oh, thank you!’ Lauren gasped.

  Twilight started to trot to the trees. Lauren ran after him. As soon as they reached the safety of the shadows, Lauren said the magic words.

  As she spoke the last line of the verse, she tensed expectantly.

  There was a pause. For one awful moment, Lauren thought that the spell wasn’t going to work, but then there was a weak purple flash and Twilight was suddenly a unicorn again.

  ‘What happened then?’ Lauren gasped.

  ‘I don’t know. It felt very strange,’ Twilight replied, looking confused.

  ‘I thought you weren’t going to change,’ Lauren said, her heart pounding.

  ‘Let’s not worry about it now,’ Twilight said quickly. ‘We need to find out where Max is.’ He touched his horn to the nearest rose-quartz rock. ‘I want to see Max!’

  Lauren and Twilight waited. They looked at each other.

  Nothing had happened!

  Seven

  ‘I hasn’t worked,’ Lauren said, looking round. ‘Maybe it’s the wrong sort of rock. Try that one.’ She pointed desperately to another.

  Twilight trotted over. ‘Max!’ he said, touching his horn to the hard surface.


  Again, nothing. Lauren looked horrified.

  ‘Your magic’s not working!’ she exclaimed.

  Twilight looked totally bewildered. ‘I don’t feel right. I feel drained, as if,’ he looked at her in alarm, ‘as if all my magic’s been used up.’

  His words sent a shock through Lauren. ‘Used up? But it can’t be!’

  ‘That’s how it feels,’ Twilight said.

  ‘But the unicorn book said that when unicorns do good they get stronger and their magic gets replenished,’ Lauren said. ‘We’ve been doing lots of good deeds. You should have loads of magic.’

  ‘What did it say exactly?’ Twilight asked urgently.

  Lauren tried to remember. ‘It was something about how a unicorn’s magic mustn’t be used lightly. I’ll go and get it!’

  She raced back to the house and returned a few minutes later with the book. ‘Here,’ she said, and she read out the last paragraph.

  Magic is a very powerful force. It must be used wisely or it will exact a powerful toll. Only when a unicorn’s powers are used to help those who are truly in need, will the unicorn be strengthened and –

  She broke off with a gasp. ‘Oh no! That’s it!’

  ‘What?’ Twilight demanded.

  ‘Don’t you see?’ Lauren said, pointing to the book. ‘We’ve been trying to help everyone with all their little everyday problems, not people who are truly in need, so your magic hasn’t been strengthened, it’s just been used up. A toll is something you pay; well, maybe you’re having to pay for how we’ve been using your magic. Maybe that’s why you’ve been feeling ill!’

  Twilight stared at her. ‘You might be right.’

  Tears sprang to Lauren’s eyes. ‘What are we going to do? Now we really need your magic to help find Max, we can’t use it because there’s none left.’

  Twilight nuzzled her. ‘Don’t worry. We can still help to find Max even if we can’t use my magic. There must be another way.’

  He pawed at the ground, as if trying to think. A stick cracked beneath his hoof. ‘I know what to do!’ he said suddenly. ‘Get Buddy and see if he can find Max. Pretend it’s hide and seek. Buddy is brilliant at that!’