The Unicorn Guide, Chapter 6

This is a first draft of Chapter 6 of The Unicorn Guide, the fourth book in the 11 Quests series. Books 4, 5 and 6 tell a new story, so you can read The Unicorn Guide even if you haven’t yet read the first three books. Since this is a first draft, if you spot any errors please let me know! I’d be happy to find out in email and fix it. Feel free to send along any other comments you may have. Make sure you read Chapter 1 first!

Chapter 6

The Reluctant Guide

“Hey, slow down!” Tumi yelled. He was running out of breath and he could barely see the unicorn through the foliage that encroached on the path. Apparently, Esmeralda heard him because she came to a stop. She stood with her tail facing Tumi, swishing back and forth irritably.

Tumi caught up with her. “Esmeralda,” he said, “you don’t have to show me around if you don’t want to. But, I’d like it if you did. I’m new to the Lost Jungle and still finding my way around. I’ve never seen unicorns before, but you seem like amazing creatures and I can’t think of a better guide to have.”

Esmeralda’s tail stopped swishing. Her head turned so that she could see Tumi and then she brushed the ferns aside as she turned her whole body around.

“You may not have seen unicorns before, but I’ve seen humans before,” she said. “Always claiming more land and tearing up the forest. My mother told me to show you around, so I will. But, don’t get any ideas about moving into the Lost Jungle!”

“My people do not tear up the forest,” Tumi said fiercely. “We love the forest. We live in the forest, alongside all of the other creatures and plants. The Unicorn Glade is the largest open area I’ve ever seen!”

Esmeralda’s eyes widened just a little. “Truly?”

“Yes. Where my people live, we are never more than a few steps from a tree.”

“All right. I believe you. Soon, you’ll see larger open areas than the Unicorn Glade. Let’s keep going down this path.”

She led the way at a pace that was slow for a unicorn but comfortable for a boy. As they proceeded down the path, she pointed out different plants and animals. Tumi was already familiar with the huge variety of life in the rainforest, but the Lost Jungle was so different from what he had known. He was delighted when he spotted a tree that was clearly a variety that he knew from his part of the jungle.

“I know this one! It’s a kapok tree,” he said. He looked up at the umbrella-like covering of leaves high overhead.

“No, this is a message tree,” Esmeralda replied. “When I have ventured outside of the Lost Jungle, I have seen your kapok trees. They are similar. But, this is definitely a message tree.”

Tumi studied the bark of the tree and ran his fingers around the trunk. It was a fairly young kapok with a trunk that was only two feet across. “How can you tell? It looks and feels just like any kapok I have seen.”

“Look away and I’ll show you.”

Puzzled, Tumi turned and faced away from the tree. He heard just a little movement from Esmeralda before she said, “You can look now.”

The boy turned and faced the tree and his mouth opened wide. Deeply and clearly engraved on the trunk of the tree were the words “Hello, Tumi”. He was shocked that the unicorn would mark the tree like that after all that she had said about the damage that humans did to trees, but he was even more shocked that he could read the writing. Only a couple of members of his tribe had learned how to read, and Tumi had never been interested in it.

Tumi turned and faced the unicorn. “Why did you mark the tree like that? Doesn’t it hurt the tree?” Esmeralda whinnied and Tumi thought it sounded a bit like laughter. “It doesn’t hurt the tree at all! Look again.”

He turned back to the tree and the writing that had been there moments before was gone. The bark was completely smooth.

“Where did the writing go?” Tumi asked.

“It disappeared because of the magic of message trees. You think of someone that you want to leave a message for and you trace the message on the tree. When that creature comes along and looks at the tree, they will see the message. As soon as they look away, it vanishes. It is a very powerful way to communicate. We use message trees all the time.”

“I never learned how to read, but somehow I knew what was written there on the tree.”

Esmeralda thought about that for a few seconds. “I think it works in the same way our speech works. You can understand me because I am a magical creature. If I was farther away, I don’t think you could read the message.”

“Oh. I’ll have to remember that. You have convinced me.”

“Convinced you of what?”

Tumi grinned. “That this is not a kapok tree.”

Esmeralda snickered, turned and started walking off. “We’d better get moving. We need to take a look at the border before it gets dark.”

The pair made their way through the rainforest. Esmeralda explained that the path was well-worn because the unicorns walked it each day to make sure that their border of the Lost Jungle was safe. During her First Protection, she had to prove herself capable of ensuring the herd’s safety. Any unicorn that is not too young, too old or too sick is able to lead the herd’s protection.

“How do you know where the border is between the Lost Jungle and the rest of the rainforest?” Tumi asked.

“If you look closely, at least while you’re with me, you can see a faint, greenish shimmering,” Esmeralda replied. “It’s like a very, very thin cloth. Look over there,” she said, gesturing with her horn.

Tumi looked in that direction and just saw trees, bushes and ferns. A dragonfly buzzed across his field of view and as his eyes followed it he noticed what appeared to be a greenish curtain waving in the air. He found it difficult to focus on the waving motion, but after thirty seconds of staring he finally did it.

“I see it!” the boy exclaimed. “But, why is it there? What does it do?”

“It does two things: one is it tells the magical creatures and plants where the border is so that they don’t accidentally attract attention. The other thing it does is distract any of the creatures and plants that don’t belong in the Lost Jungle. They just tend to turn around and walk a different way, back to where they belong.” Her eyes narrowed a bit at Tumi as she said this, giving the boy the impression that she still thought that he did not belong in her home.

The pair continued walking in silence after that.

The path snaked through the jungle. Every few seconds, Tumi would look back over at the border just to double check that it was real and still there. Sometimes it took him a couple of seconds before the green shimmer presented itself to him, but it always did. After a few more minutes of walking, Tumi noticed that the sunlight on the other side of the border was getting brighter. The dense jungle was thinning out until it disappeared entirely.

Boy and unicorn both stopped walking as Tumi stared, mouth agape, at the giant field just beyond the border. He had seen a cow once when a trader had passed his tribe and offered to sell them one. The tribe had no need of a cow, and Tumi was not sure what need people had for the hundreds of cows that he saw in the field.

“What happened to the jungle?” Tumi asked at last.

“The people decided that they wanted cows more than trees,” Esmeralda explained. “This is why we walk along the border every day. The humans have stopped coming this way, but you can see that they stopped just outside the border.”

Tumi turned around and looked back at the thick jungle. The plants and animals of the Lost Jungle were quite different from what he was used to, but the cleared off land with the herd of cows was like a different planet.

“Can we keep going now?” Tumi asked.

“Yes, I think we should. We haven’t reached the worst part yet.”


Continue reading with Chapter 7.