The Adventures of Lucy The Unicorn - Chapter 7
Copyright © Author: Susan Harris 20.01.2018
Chapter 7
For two days Lucy and Albie stayed away from the garden, the scare with grandpa had shaken them up so much they’d decided not to go back again!
They’d had lots of fun in the glade and as the corn was so high lots of the unicorn children had been playing chase and hide and seek amongst the towering stems, it wouldn’t be long now before all the villagers got together to help with the harvesting.
The following day it was too hot to run around so Lucy and Albie were sitting by the stream.
“I’m not sure” said Albie, Lucy had been trying to persuade him to visit Mavis and Betty again.
“Come on” urged Lucy “school starts in a couple of weeks and then we wont have much opportunity, and the harvest is only a couple of days away and we’ll be expected to help out with the littl’uns while our parents are bringing the corn in.”
Albie had another think and finally a smile spread across his face “okay, but no wandering off, we’ll only say hello to Mavis and Betty and stay within sight of the fence, just in case.”
Meanwhile grandpa had made himself a nice cup of tea, picked up a packet of biscuits and was making himself comfortable on the bench by the pond as he had done for the past few days, much to Mavis and Betty’s delight! They were both under his feet, ready for any escaping
crumbs which there normally were quite a few. Grandpa looked about but his eyes settled on the broken fence panel he’d noticed a few days ago, really should get round to fixing that he thought.
As Lucy and Albie squeezed through the gap and before they’d even had a chance to make sure the coast was clear they heard a voice!
“Well, look at you two, if my own eyes don’t deceive me, aren’t you handsome!”
Within seconds the little unicorns had realised grandpa was sitting on the bench, they’d inched closer together and without saying a word had touched horns and disappeared.
“Haha” laughed grandpa “the old disappearing act! Fabulous.”
He didn’t move but stayed where he was, knowing eventually they would reappear, he wanted to reassure them that he was no threat.
“It’s okay” he said “I won’t hurt you, in fact I once knew what might have been a relative of yours, fine chap he was, black as the night sky with a silver mane, he used to visit me here when I was a young lad of about 5, we had some wonderful times together! So you’ve worked out how to disappear and I saw you flying around the other day, have you worked out how to make yourselves bigger yet?”
"Lucy, we better go before we reappear again and grandpa eats us!” Albie tugged at Lucy to go back through the fence with him but Lucy was curious, who was this black unicorn grandpa was talking about?
“No, let’s stay” said Lucy “grandpa seems really friendly and Mavis and Betty aren’t frightened of him are they!”
Gradually the two little friends began to reappear, much to grandpa’s relief.
“So, who have we here then? I assume you have names?”
“Yes” replied Lucy sounding much more confident than she felt “my name is Lucy and this is my friend Albie.”
“Err hello” stammered Albie, wishing that Lucy wouldn’t get him in to so much trouble, he would much rather have gone back through the fence and ran straight home and never visit the garden again.
“Well I’m very pleased to meet you both, I thought I was losing my marbles for a while there” he chuckled to himself.
“Erm, what was that you said about getting bigger?” said Lucy, always keen to try new things.
“Yes” said grandpa “if you turn around clockwise you get bigger, well that’s what happened to Tom anyway, why don’t you give it a try?”
Lucy and Albie came out of the flowerbed and stood on the grass, tentatively they both began to turn around and gradually they began to get bigger and bigger!
“Oh goodness me” exclaimed Mavis looking up at the two impressive unicorns “careful or you’ll trample on us”
“Don’t be silly” said Lucy “we’d never hurt you.”
They both stopped turning and felt a bit giddy, grandpa got up off the bench and walked over to them, gently patting each of them, they were the size of a small Shetland pony and grandpa had an idea.
“Are you doing anything tomorrow?” he asked.
“My granddaughter Molly is having her birthday party here in the garden and she loves unicorns, it would make her day to see you two, you look absolutely fabulous.
“Well we could try and get away but we might be needed at home” said Lucy.
“There’ll be plenty of cake, don’t worry I’ll make sure you’re looked after.”
“You better turn around the other way now to make yourself smaller, we don’t want to spoil the surprise if the children come back too soon with all the shopping!”
Lucy and Albie did just that and soon they were small enough to fit in grandpa’s hands, he gently lifted them onto the bench, shared the biscuits and began to tell them all about Tom….
Copyright © Author: Susan Harris 20.01.2018