Read Online Unicorns? Get Real! by Kathryn Lasky - Free Book Online

Gundersnap.
    “Only had one,” Alicia answered breathlessly while pressing her pony forward. “One leg, one kneecap, one arm, one hand, one eye, and one horn growing out of his forehead. So naturally he’d be the saint of the unicorns. He is also called the saint of oneness.”
    “Sounds adorable,” Myrella said, crouching her tiny body low in the saddle and keeping her eyes fastened on the herd. So minuscule was the princess that she appeared as not much more than a bump on the back of her pony.
    Princess Maggie raised her right hand and gave the signal for them to slow to a trot.
    The ten princesses trotted up into a circle at the woods’ edge. “Well, we’ve lost them for now. All we can do is keep sniffing for the rose scent and look for hoofprints. We should meet back here in…what do you say, Kinna?” Maggie asked, consulting her cocaptain.
    From her waistband Kinna took a watch on a chain. “In thirty minutes,” Kinna replied. Then she continued, “The buddy system, remember? Maggie and I will be one team. Rosemary and Hutta, you two go together. Gundersnap and Myrella, Alicia and Kristen. Remember to follow streams when you can.”
    The buddy teams began to thread their ways through the forest in different directions. Standing up in their stirrups, they poked their noses into the air as high as they could to sniff for roses, but all they smelled was the rich earth of the forest floor.
    Gundersnap was lost completely in her own mournful thoughts about Menschmik and, though she had been looking down for hoofprints, her mind was far away as she tried to envision the battlefield in the Empire of Hottompot. Suddenly she noticed a trickle of water. But no, it was more than a trickle, and she wondered how far she had been following it, for very shortly it turned into a lively stream. And then without even lifting her eyes from the ground or her nose into the air, she caught the scent of roses.
     
    “I don’t know where she went. One minute she was there. And the next minute, she had just wandered off on her pony.” Myrella was almost in tears as she tried to explain how she had lost Princess Gundersnap.
    The cocaptains glared at her. “She couldn’t have just disappeared,” Maggie scolded.
    “Didn’t you hear her pony walking away?” Kinna asked.
    “I don’t know! I don’t know!” Myrella wailed.
    “We came here to round up a unicorn, and now we have to spend time looking for the Princess of Slobodkonia. Zounds! Gundersnap, of all princesses to lose. If her mother the empress finds out, she’ll declare war on the camp!” Maggie steamed.
    Myrella wailed even harder. “Well, stop your mewling!” Princess Maggie spat the words out.
    “Hey! Watch it, Princess,” Kristen said sharply as she rode her pony right up to Princess Maggie. Kristen leaned forward in her saddle and looked Maggie straight in the eyes. A kindling energy rustled between the two fiery-haired princesses. Alicia thought she might actually have seen sparks. It certainly looked as if something could ignite any second and the two princesses might burst into flames. “Lighten up, Princess Maggie. Myrella doesn’t have eyes in the back of her head. Now let’s backtrack to the spot where Myrella first realized Gundersnap was gone.”
    They had been riding for perhaps a quarter of an hour when they first caught the scent of roses. Quietly they proceeded, and as they came into a clearing, they all gasped at the amazing sight. Princess Gundersnap was standing straight up on top of her saddle near a pond of spring-fed water. She was beginning to twirl her satin lariat over her head. On the other side of the pool was a unicorn, a pure white unicorn, busily drinking. The rose scent was almost overpowering. How Princess Gundersnap stood so steadily in the saddle they would never know. How she cast the lariat from such a position was unimaginable. But silently a loop of pink satin ribbon sailed out across the pool and dropped perfectly