Pearl the Flying Unicorn
Page 2
Olive and Tweet hugged Pearl.
“You were so clever to send the pink butterflies to scare the gobble-un pirates,” Olive said.
Pearl didn’t tell her friends that she’d done it by accident.
“Let’s go get those feathers!” said Olive.
Chapter 6
By the time Pearl reached Gull Island, Olive and Tweet were already gathering the glitter feathers.
Olive picked them up and crammed them into her pockets.
“Look!” Olive said. “These are the ones that blew off my hat, but there are lots more, too.”
Tweet jumped straight into a pile and kicked her feet in the air.
Pearl was tired, and dripping with water, but she loved seeing her friends having so much fun.
Olive emptied her feathers into the ogre boat. “I have plenty to make a new hat, but if we collect more, Tweet can have some to make a little coat for special occasions.”
“Some for Pearl, too!” squawked Tweet.
“We could make a unicorn hat with a hole for your horn,” Olive said.
Pearl smiled. She didn’t need a hat, but if her friends wanted her to have one, she’d wear it.
“We’d better go before those gobble-un pirates come back,” Pearl said.
Olive pushed the ogre boat back into the water.
“Pearl, are you ready to swim back?” asked Olive.
“I think I’ll try flying again,” Pearl said.
Olive and Tweet paddled away as Pearl took a big breath. Soon she’d be flying over the sea. She’d circle up over the cliffs and surprise the seagulls.
Flickety-flick-prance-kick-kick!
She leaped into the air …
Up, up, and …
Pearl hit the sand. She got up and tried again.
Flickety-flick-prance-kick-kick!
Pearl sprang into the air once more.
Up, up, and …
Pearl stamped her hoof. “Tossing tadpoles! Why can’t I do it? The wind’s blowing nicely. Maybe I need a run-up.”
Just then, Pearl heard something horrible.
It was a gobble-un song!
The biggest gobble-un was back in the pirate boat, and all three pirates were rowing hard toward the ogre boat.
“Sixteen bugs on a gobble-un’s hat!
Stinky, pinky, yuckety splat!
Stinky, pinky, yuckety spew!
Now we’re gonna have ogre stew!
Stinky, pinky, filthy pew!
And we’re gonna stew firebird, too.”
“And pick our teeth with the feathers!” yelled the smallest gobble-un.
Pearl tossed her mane. She had to rescue Olive and Tweet!
Chapter 7
Flick-flickety-flick-prance-flick-kick! Pearl thought of her best friends and leaped high into the air. She closed her eyes and pretended she was galloping across a green meadow and up a hill.
This time there was no plonk of hooves. Instead she felt lighter than air.
Pearl opened her eyes.
She was doing it! She was flying! Below her was the blue bay. Pearl took a deep breath to call out to her friends but then decided not to in case she lost her concentration and fell into the sea again.
The pirate gobble-uns were still rowing after Olive’s ogre boat and they were getting closer and closer!
Pearl flew over the pirate boat, but although the pirates stopped singing their stew song, they didn’t stop rowing.
What to do? thought Pearl.
Oh, if only she could knock those pirates back into the sea! All of them! If only she could make the ogre boat fly … Wait! Maybe she could!
Flick-flickety-flick-prance-flick-kick! went Pearl in the air.
Pink sparks flew, hitting the ogre boat and making it sparkle.
Pearl concentrated hard on lifting the ogre boat.
“Hold on!” cried Pearl.
Then Olive looked up. “Pearl! You can do it.”
“You can do it!” squawked Tweet. “Wheeeee!”
Olive clung to the ogre boat, and Tweet clung to Olive.
Jumping jelly beans! It was working!
Up came the ogre boat, swinging over the top of the pirate gobble-uns.
“Hee-hee!” laughed Tweet, shaking her tail at them.
The biggest one roared as he reached up to grab the ogre boat. Olive lifted her paddle and bopped him on the nose.
The biggest gobble-un yelled and shook his fist.
“I’ll stew you for this, unicorn!”
“Stop ’em! They’re getting away!” howled the other gobble-uns.
Flying herself and the ogre boat was the hardest thing Pearl had ever done in her life, but she wasn’t going to give up now. And thank goodness the harbor was right underneath her.
“Hang on!” she called down to her friends.
Pearl landed with a thud of hooves, and the ogre boat splashed down in the harbor. Olive jumped ashore and dragged the boat onto the sand.
Pearl’s friends were safely on shore, but the pirate gobble-uns were still rowing. They could still catch Olive and Tweet.
Suddenly Pearl had a great idea. Gobble-uns hated pink. They also hated being clean, so …
Kickety-kick-kick-flick! went Pearl.
Pink sparkles shot out over the gobble-un pirate boat.
For a moment, it seemed as if nothing would happen. Then …
A shower of pink soapsuds covered the gobble-uns and their boat.
The gobble-un pirates howled in fright.
“Ugh! Yuck! Pink! We’re clean!”
“Quick, quick, stinky magic!”
“Argh! The boat’s sinking!”
The dirt that had held the boat together had started to dissolve in the thick pink soap.
On the shore, Olive and Tweet stood staring at the sight of three clean, soapy pirate gobble-uns leaping out of their sinking boat. Splashing and howling, the gobble-uns swam away.
Tweet pointed with her wing and started to giggle. Before long, she was kicking her feet and squawking loudly with laughter.
Pearl laughed, too. She was so happy that she could help her friends.
Olive turned to Pearl and grinned her big ogre grin. “I knew you could do it, Pearl. You’re the best unicorn friend an ogre and a firebird could have.”
“It felt so good to fly,” Pearl said. “You know my magic often goes wrong.”
“I know,” said Olive, “but when it matters … when it really, really matters … then it goes right.” She sighed. “All that rowing’s made me hungry.”
“I’ll magic up some marshmallows!” said Pearl happily.
Flick-kick-flick!
Out flew pink sparks.
Down came … a pile of cucumbers and strawberries.
“Oops!” said Pearl.
“Yum! My favorite!” said Olive. As she ate the strawberries, she started collecting the glitter feathers they had found.
Tweet leaped feetfirst into the pile of strawberries and buried her beak in the biggest one. “Yum!”
“Oops,” said Olive as one of her glitter feathers flew up into the air.
“I’ll get it!” Tweet flapped her wings and flew up. “Wheeeee! Got it!” Her glee ended in a startled squawk as the wind got serious, taking the firebird and blowing her up and over the sea again.
“Help!” cried Tweet.
Pearl sighed. “Jump on, Olive,” she said. “I’ll fly, you catch, and please don’t lose your feathers!”
About the Author and Illustrator
SALLY ODGERS was born in Tasmania, Australia, in 1957, and has lived there ever since. Sally began writing as a child, and her first book was published in 1977. More than 250 books have followed, including Good Night, Truck. She is married to Darrel Odgers, and they have two adult children, James and Tegan. Darrel and Sally live in a house full of books, music, and Jack Russell terriers.
Visit him Online at SALLYODGERS.WEEBLY.COM, or sign up for email updates here.
ADELE K THOMAS is a Melbourne-bas
ed illustrator, director, and art director with over ten years of design experience in animation production, TV, children’s books, advertising, and apps.
Visit her Online at ADELEKTHOMAS.COM, or sign up for email updates here.
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
About the Author and Illustrator
Copyright
A FEIWEL AND FRIENDS BOOK
An imprint of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC
120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271
PEARL THE FLYING UNICORN. Text copyright © 2018 by Sally Odgers. Illustrations copyright © 2018 by Adele K Thomas. All rights reserved. Printed in China by RR Donnelley Asia Printing Solutions Ltd., Dongguan City, Guangdong Province.
Our ebooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact your local bookseller or the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension 5442, or by email at MacmillanSpecialMarkets@macmillan.com.
ISBN 978-1-250-23552-7 (hardcover) / ISBN 978-1-250-23553-4 (ebook)
Feiwel and Friends logo designed by Filomena Tuosto
Originally published in 2018 in Australia by Scholastic Australia under the title Pearl the Flying Unicorn.
First US edition, 2020
mackids.com
eISBN 9781250235534
First eBook edition: November 2019