Unicorns? Get Real!

unicorn’s chest, and she felt the pounding heart skip a beat and then another. “Oh no…Oh no,” Gundersnap moaned as his gallop slowed.
    Then she felt a strange movement under her calves. She looked down. “Vyne Vott! Berfluggen splurplunkne faction. Ingrotz Silkmi hoff!” Which roughly translated from Slobo means, “My Lord! A faction comes true and is not a fiction. Silk is growing wings!” She moved back in her saddle to give the wings full range, and soon she felt herself and Silk leaving the ground. Then, caught on a warm updraft, they began to float higher and higher and were soon over the sea of Hottompot. The wind rushed by her ears in a satin rustle. A wave of moonlight swept across them as Silk flew, and overhead stars scattered and broke the night into one immense sparkling flower. Silk’s wings had unfurled completely now and were glorious to behold. Transparent, with flushes of iridescent colors near the edges, they glimmered in the night.
    But beneath her she saw a battle raging, and soon they began their descent. Settling in a thickly wooded area on the fringes of the battlefield, they could hear the din of war. Great bonfires burned where gunpowder kegs had exploded or the clashing armies had attempted to burn each other’s supplies and weapons. The forest itself was out of reach of the flames, but it was nonetheless bright with the fiery glow of the battlefield. The sound of cannons and muskets being fired was deafening.
    Where to begin? Gundersnap thought. I must look for the drops of blood . She closed her eyes and tried to remember the tapestry in the hidden turret. She could picture those drops of blood so clearly. They glistened now in her mind’s eye, bright as rubies, rubies on moss. “We must look for the moss first,” she whispered to Silk. She dismounted and began to walk, leading Silk with satin reins.
    It was not long until she found a patch of moss and soon another patch and another and another, until there was a soft moss path. Then, on a sprig of a small white flower called moondrops that poked through the moss, she saw the first spot of blood. She bent down and touched it. “It’s still warm!” she whispered to Silk. Her face was pale with fear. “We’ll follow this trail. I see more drops of blood ahead.”
    With her heart beating like thunder, Gundersnap pushed on. She had not gone far when she heard a weak whinny between the blasts of cannon fire, followed by a groan. Her eyes opened wide in horror. “Menschmik!” she cried. She pushed aside a low hanging branch and saw her bloodied and panting pony sprawled on the ground.
    Gundersnap dropped Silk’s reins and fell to her knees beside the pony. His eyes were glassy with fear but seemed to soften as his mistress stroked his head. There was a terrible gash on his head that was bleeding freely.
    Just then a large, familiar shadow slid across the fire-stained night.
    “Myshussenfreit! Grott mykin! Shussenfreit schussenfreit nincompoopen .” Gundersnap heard the words and could hardly believe it.
    Gutten grieffen gobben ich stynken Mummy! The shadow was that of her mother in her full battle dress—metal breastplate, her chain-mail gown, and the helmet with the horns of the giant Slobodkonian bull. She was riding her great warhorse, the charger Thrompen Monschtark, or Thunder Monster. They were apparently looking for wounded and dead, and any enemy weapons they could find scattered about. Gundernsap began to tremble uncontrollably as she heard the crunch of footsteps nearing. Scouts! She’s sending in scouts to search . She knew that the rule of the battlefield was that badly wounded animals—warhorses or ponies—were killed instantly. Menschmik was badly wounded.
    The footsteps were coming nearer and nearer. Suddenly Gundersnap felt Silk’s head nuzzling her shoulder. “Calm yourself, calm yourself,” he seemed to be saying. Just before the scout stepped out into the clearing, Gundersnap slid behind Silk. She heard a small gasp. She peeked around. The scout was Frizzmor, a favorite of her mother’s. “Eininhorken!” he blurted out. He turned around and rushed to where the empress waited on her charger.
    “Empress minghotten styrnofkein ingen eininhorken!”
    He was telling the empress that he had seen a unicorn, but said nothing of Menschmik. Was it possible that he had not even noticed the poor animal? Suddenly Gundersnap heard the unmistakable, loud, raucous, hysterical laughter of her