Unicorn School (4 page)

‘So, when do our lessons start?' Troy asked Juniper.

‘This afternoon,' Juniper replied. ‘I checked your timetable and after lunch you've got a magic charms lesson followed by a flying lesson.'

Willow's ears pricked. Wow! Charms and flying! She couldn't wait!

After lunch, Juniper took the Year Ones in Rainbow House to join the other Year One unicorns in the Charm Fields.

‘Enjoy your lesson,' he told them.

‘Thanks,' they all chorused.

The charms teacher was a very slim unicorn with pale-grey dapples and a tail that swept all the way to
the floor. She smiled round at them with friendly eyes. ‘Hello, everyone. My name is Damaris and I will be teaching you about charms and curses. As I'm sure you all know, a charm is something that helps you or brings you good luck and a curse is something that does something bad to you.'

The unicorns all nodded.

‘You can charm or curse an object so if a unicorn wears the object or sleeps with it for a night they will be affected by it,' Damaris continued. ‘Curses are contagious, which means that you can catch them simply by touching another unicorn who has the curse.'

Troy lifted his head to raise his horn. ‘Why do we have to learn about charms and curses? My father's always told me that unicorns shouldn't use magic like that; unicorns should use the magic inside them.'

‘Your father is completely right,' Damaris replied. ‘But occasionally it is useful to know how to charm something, in case you need to help someone who you can't be near enough to touch with your horn.' She fixed the class with a stern look. ‘Unicorns of course should
never
use curses. We only teach you about them so you know how to avoid them. Now today I'm going to
teach you how to make a good luck charm. Let's begin.'

Damaris gave each of the unicorns an old metal horseshoe, and explained how to cast a good luck charm by touching it with their horns and imagining all sorts of lucky things. She told them that when the horseshoe was properly charmed it would turn silver and glitter.

It was hard to do, but by the end of the lesson most of the unicorns had managed to make their horseshoes glitter a bit. Willow's horseshoe was one of the shiniest. ‘Well done,' Damaris praised her as she collected the horseshoes. ‘It looks like you might be a natural at this.'

 

Willow glowed with happiness. She liked being good at magic!

‘Why can't we just do magic?' Storm asked. ‘Why do we need lessons? I've read that unicorns who live in the human world can do proper magic as soon as they first turn into their magical unicorn shape. Why can't we be like that?'

‘A very good question, Storm,' Damaris answered. ‘The secret unicorns who live with humans are born with a lot of magic, so they don't have to practise in the same way as we do.' Damaris smiled. ‘However, one day I'm sure you'll all find it just as easy to do magic as the secret unicorns do.'

Willow exchanged looks with Sapphire. She hoped so!

After the lesson, Damaris took them up the cliff path to the Flying Heath to meet Atlas for their first flying lesson.

The teacher began by organizing them into a line. ‘Flying isn't
difficult so long as you are prepared to practise,' he told them. ‘Soon you'll find it as easy as cantering. By the end of this term you should be able to play games in the sky and have flying races. The important thing to remember is that you must believe you can do it, and when you get up in the air just take things very slowly. No racing round until you can turn and land. Do you understand?'

They all nodded.

He made them practise taking off, flying a little way up in the air and then coming back down. ‘The mistake unicorns always make is to fly too high before they're ready and
then they start crashing into things and losing control.'

I can do this
, Willow told herself. She took a deep breath.
Fly
, she thought. A shiver of magic ran across her white coat, her body seemed to get lighter and then suddenly she was rising into the sky rather rapidly.

Down
, she thought quickly as she remembered what Atlas had said about not flying too high to start with.

She floated down to the ground. As she landed lightly she gave a pleased whinny. All around her, unicorns were rising up into the air and landing again. Troy was really good at it. He

 

was going very high up then coming down and landing perfectly. But no one seemed to be having problems – well, apart from Storm, Willow realized. He seemed to be finding it hard to get off the ground.

‘You have to believe you can do it,' Atlas told him. ‘Try harder and give a little push with your back legs.'

A look of determination crossed Storm's face. He pushed down hard
with his strong back legs and flew upward into the air. ‘Whoa!' he cried, his legs flailing. Several other unicorns had to land hastily to get out of his way.

‘Come back down!' Atlas called to him.

But Storm didn't seem able to control himself. He shot backwards.

Troy was just behind him. ‘Stop!' he shouted in alarm.

In an effort to avoid Troy, Storm tried to plunge forward and shot straight into Sapphire! She spun round out of control. Her legs kicked but she couldn't save herself. With an alarmed whinny, she crashed down on to the ground.

‘Sapphire!' Willow whinnied. Storm landed on his knees. He scrambled up and cantered over to Sapphire, who was lying on the ground.

Atlas reached her at the same time. ‘Are you all right?' he demanded.

The heavy landing had knocked

 

all the breath out of Sapphire. She gasped for air. Atlas touched his horn to her chest. His horn glowed and a second later a look of relief crossed Sapphire's face as Atlas's magic began to work and her breathing slowed.

Next, Atlas touched his horn to a long scrape on her side. It healed over instantly.

‘Oh, Sapphire, I'm sorry I bumped
into you!' Storm exclaimed wretchedly. ‘I'm so big and clumsy.'

‘It's OK,' Sapphire told him as she got to her feet and shook the dust from her coat. ‘It was just an accident.'

‘I'm so stupid,' Storm groaned.

‘No, you're not,' Atlas told him kindly. ‘You just need to learn how to use your strength properly. But you'll get better the more you practise.'

‘I'll help you, Storm,' Troy offered. ‘We can practise in between lessons.'

Atlas looked round at the others. ‘Come on then, everyone, the excitement's over. Let's try again.'

*

By the end of the lesson, everyone apart from Storm was able to fly a few metres into the air and then land without crashing. But Storm wouldn't go more than a few centimetres off the ground. He seemed very worried about hurting someone again.

When the lesson finished it was time for tea. As they all headed back to Moonlight Meadows, Oriel came cantering by. He grinned at Storm. ‘I just heard about your flying lesson. It sounds like you had a
smashing
time.' He sniggered at his own joke. ‘You have to be the clumsiest unicorn ever, Storm!'

Storm looked very awkward.

Willow glared at Oriel. ‘No he's not!'

‘Well, just so long as I'm not flying when he is!' Oriel replied. ‘I don't want to be bulldozed into the ground!' He laughed and cantered off.

Sapphire nuzzled Storm. ‘Ignore him.'

Troy looked crossly after Oriel.

‘Don't worry. I'm sure you'll be great at flying soon.'

But Storm didn't look convinced.

The next week raced by. There was so much for them all to learn – more flying and charms and curses, rose-quartz gazing and healing, unicorn history lessons and lessons about the geography of Arcadia and the human world. Willow, Sapphire, Troy and Storm became good friends. They had great fun together. But Storm was still having problems learning to fly. Whenever he flew more than a little way off the ground he seemed to panic. To make it worse, the other Year One
unicorns were all improving quickly. By the end of the week, Willow and Sapphire could turn and circle in the air and Troy could dive and swoop like a Year Three. They could all fly up to their stable in the clouds, but they never did because they didn't want Storm to feel left out.

On Friday, when everyone was getting ready for a flying lesson, Storm hung back. ‘Are you coming?' Willow asked him.

‘I've got a sore back,' Storm replied, avoiding her eyes. ‘Atlas said to rest in my stall.'

‘Can't you get Atlas or one of the other teachers to heal it?' Sapphire asked in surprise.

 

‘Unicorn healing magic should only be used for serious injuries. I just need to rest it,' Storm whinnied. ‘See you later!' He hurried away.

‘He doesn't look like he's got a sore back,' Troy said suspiciously.

‘I think he's making it up to get out of the flying lesson,' Willow declared.

‘Poor Storm,' Sapphire snorted. ‘He's really unhappy that he can't fly.'