The Magic Spell

her.
    The bookshop owner showed them to the door. ‘Do call again,’ she said. ‘And good luck at Granger’s Farm.’
    ‘We will – and thank you so much for the welcome gift,’ Mrs Foster said.
    The door tinkled shut behind them. Lauren was suddenly struck by a thought. ‘How did Mrs Fontana know that we had moved to Granger’s Farm? We didn’t tell her.’
    Mrs Foster frowned. ‘Didn’t we?’
    ‘No,’ Lauren said.
    Her mum shrugged. ‘Oh, well, it’s a small town. News has probably got around. Now, come on. Dad and Max will be wondering where we are.’
    They got into the car. As her mum started the engine, Lauren looked back once more at the bookshop. Walter, the little dog, was sitting in the window, staring out. It looked just as if he was smiling at them.

Four
    A s Mrs Foster drove back to Granger’s Farm, Lauren looked at the beautiful book she had been given. When she came to the page with the picture of the baby unicorn, she could almost hear Mrs Fontana’s voice saying, I’ve seen a unicorn .
    Lauren gently stroked the picture with her fingertip. She was sure that Mrs Fontana must have been making up all that stuff about magical creatures. The old lady couldn’t really have seen a unicorn.
    Could she?
    Of course she couldn’t , Lauren told herself firmly. Unicorns don’t exist. Mrs Fontana has just been reading one too many of her old books .
    ‘So, what have you bought?’ Mr Foster asked, coming out to meet them as they pulled up at the farm. Max ran out after him.
    ‘Lots,’ Lauren said, jumping out of the car.
    ‘Can I see?’ said Max, opening the back door. He pulled a hoof pick out of one of the bags. ‘What’s this for?’
    ‘Come on, Max,’ Mr Foster said. ‘Lauren can explain while we unload.’
    They carried the bags to the stable, and then Mrs Foster went into the house to do some more unpacking while Lauren, her dad and Max carried the purchases for Twilight into the little shed which was going to be his tack room. Mr Foster hammered two metal hooks into the wall, one for Twilight’s bridle and one for his new red and blue head-collar. Then he fetched a low table and an old striped rug from the garage.
    With the rug on the floor, a light bulb gleaming brightly and Lauren’s shiny new grooming kit and first-aid box laid out

    on the table, the tack room looked very cosy and cheerful.
    ‘This is great,’ Lauren said, looking around happily.
    ‘Now all we need is Twilight,’ Mr Foster said, smiling at Lauren.
    Lauren imagined Twilight’s grey head looking out over the stable door. ‘I can’t wait till tomorrow!’ she said.
    That night, when Lauren went to bed, she opened the book that Mrs Fontana had given her and began to read the first chapter. ‘Noah and the unicorns,’ she whispered quietly to herself…
    Many years ago, there was a great flood that threatened both animals and magical creatures. The magical creatures fled to safety in Arcadia, an enchanted land that can’t be found by humans.
    Meanwhile, a man called Noah gathered together two of every animal and took them on to the Ark he had built. As the rain started to fall, Noah saw two small grey ponies in the grassy meadows beside the rising sea. He took them on to his Ark with the rest of the animals .
    Through a magic mirror, the unicorns in Arcadia watched gratefully as Noah took care of their young. For these two grey ponies were, in fact, baby unicorns who hadn’t yet grown into their magical powers. They had been left behind in the rush to Arcadia.
    Whilst on the Ark, the time for the two young unicorns to gain their magical powers came and went. They had lost their chance. And the unicorns in Arcadia mourned.
    When a whole year had passed, the floods went down. Noah released the young unicorns on to the Earth with the other animals. And there they remained, trapped in their pony bodies.
    Back in Arcadia, the watching unicorns worked on a Turning Spell that would give the unicorns another chance to gain their magical powers. The spell took years and years to perfect. At last it was ready. But the spell would only free a unicorn if spoken by a goodhearted human who believed in magic.
    A very brave unicorn risked his own powers to fly back to Earth. He searched long and hard for a human to whom he could entrust the spell. Eventually he found her.
    The spell worked – and the two young unicorns became great friends with the human who had helped them. They grew beautiful horns and flew