The Unicorn Guide, Chapter 14

This is a first draft of Chapter 14 (the last chapter!) 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 14

A New Ally

“Nossa!” José exclaimed, getting his first good look at the unicorn. “It’s true! I couldn’t believe my eyes on that day when I saw you and Tumi the first time. Even before I could see your horn, I could tell that you were no ordinary horse.”

“I am not a horse at all,” Esmeralda said. “A unicorn is less a horse than you are a monkey.”

“That, I can plainly see, Miss Esmeralda. I have been riding horses my whole life and the best of them are but a dim shadow of your greatness.”

Esmeralda lifted her horn so that it was no longer pointing directly at José. “I guess you’re not all bad, then.”

José’s eyebrows shot up and he gestured at himself. “Me? I’m not bad. What makes you think I am bad?”

“You’re tearing up the jungle. Your construction work has taken you very close to the Lost Jungle, and now here you stand in the Lost Jungle.”

“It is my job. It is how I put food on my family’s table. We try to do our work without displacing the local tribes.”

“That may be, but the Lost Jungle has been in this part of the rainforest for a very long time. When it was made, there were no settlements of any kind for many miles. We unicorns have had to start keeping an eye on the border to make sure that we are safe. But, it looks like we may not be safe in the Lost Jungle much longer.”

Esmeralda kicked at the ground with a front hoof, sending a clump of grass flying behind her.

“And this is happening on _my _First Protection,” she said, sounding more miserable with each word.

“Hold on, Miss Esmeralda,” said José. “Do not fear. I have always dreamed of a place like the Lost Jungle. As a small boy in a small city, I loved it when my family would go into the jungle. There was always so much to see. As amazing as the jungle was, though, I always dreamed of more. I dreamed that there must be a place in the heart of the jungle which people had never seen and which was filled with wonders beyond compare. I have only just stepped into the Lost Jungle and, already, I see that it is my dream come true.”

Tumi looked hopeful. “So, you’re not going to tell anyone about it?”

“As much as I would love to, no, I will not tell anyone,” José replied. “I will even do what I can to stop the construction from breaking through.”

José looked back toward the construction site. When he looked straight in the direction from which he had run, I could see a shimmering oval with ragged edges. To either side of the oval, he could just make out slight ripples in the air. Through the oval, the view was completely clear.

“What is that over there?” José asked. “How is it that we have not been able to do our construction here so far?”

“We call it ‘the border’,” Esmeralda replied. “People and animals have trouble seeing through it, and it also uses small tricks to keep people out.”

José looked at the slightly swollen bee sting on his arm and the still yucky bird mess on his shoulder and knew exactly what he meant.

“As I said, I will do what I can to keep the construction out,” José began, “but I’m not sure if it will work because of that.” He was pointing at the oval opening he had created when he ran into the Lost Jungle.

Esmeralda and the others went over to investigate. Her eyes opened wide.

“There’s a hole in the border!” she exclaimed. “Oh no! My First Protection is a complete disaster!”

“Surely this isn’t the first hole in the border,” Andrea said. “I had an inflatable raft and it had a hole in it. I wanted a new one, but my dad just got a patch and put it on.”

Tumi looked doubtful. “What do you cover a hole in an invisible curtain with?” He looked around. He broke a few branches off of some large ferns and cut a length of vine. He used the vine to tie the fern to the branches of other plants around the oval opening in the border. After a couple of minutes’ work, the opening was covered up to look like a naturally dense part of the jungle.

Tumi grinned. “It’s not magic, but at least people won’t just come walking in that way!”

Andrea sighed. “Tumi, that’s never going to work. You can’t just cover up a hole in a magic curtain with a bunch of leaves.”

“Maybe we can patch it,” Esmeralda said. “Well, not us, but the people who made it. We just have to go see the Council in the Castle!”

“There’s a castle in the jungle?” José asked. He had imagined fantastical creatures like unicorns in the jungle, but his dreams had never included castles in the jungle.

“Yes, there is,” Esmeralda said. “We unicorns watch the land around the Unicorns’ Glade, but the Council in the Castle makes sure that the whole Lost Jungle is safe. The Council made the border originally, a long time ago.”

Andrea jumped onto a rock. “Good! We’ve got a plan. José, you go back out of the Lost Jungle and make sure that no one bothers the border. Esmeralda, Tumi and I will just pop over to the Castle and we’ll have the border fixed in no time. Let’s go!”

José shrugged. It seemed to him that the unicorn knew more about the jungle, but the city girl was in charge. “It was nice to meet you all. I hope to see you again soon.” The others said goodbye and he carefully pushed aside the fern branches that blocked the hole in the border and exited the Lost Jungle.

“Okay,” Andrea said. “No time to waste. Is it this way?” She started down the path that skirted the construction site and led back to where she had fallen from her river cruise.

Esmeralda followed her with Tumi close behind. “Not exactly, but we do need to go that way. We need to get to the river, because we’ll never find the Castle without a dolphin.”

Andrea stopped in her tracks and looked back at Esmeralda. “A dolphin? Is the Castle in the water or something?”

“No, but we’ll have to follow a dolphin to get there.”

“Oh,” Andrea said, suddenly looking a bit lost. “Maybe you should lead.”

Esmeralda smiled. Perhaps these humans had some sense after all.

The trio made their way back toward the river, each one excited to continue their adventure and to see the Castle for the first time.


I hope you’ve enjoyed this first draft preview of The Unicorn Guide. This preview will be online until I’ve written all three of the Quests of the Lost Jungle books (books 4, 5 and 6 of the 11 Quests series), probably through the whole summer of 2013. I expect to publish The Unicorn Guide in fall or winter 2013.