Suddenly I think how brilliant it would be if Win came back and found me trotting around the camp on a unicorn . . . Also, Rose thinks she’s it galloping across Roar on Orion, but what if I had a unicorn as my personal form of transport? In seconds I’ve imagined it all. The unicorn and I have become friends. He’s called Ronaldo and he only eats from my hand.

I step closer. Ronaldo doesn’t move, so I step around his side and gently settle myself on his beautiful silky back.

“Arthur . . . what are you doing?!” Win has come back clutching an armful of apples. But he doesn’t look impressed: he looks horrified.

Just then the unicorn swivels his head around and glares at me.

“He wanted me to ride him,” I say, wondering if this wasn’t such a great idea. “I knelt down and so did he. Then he tucked his head in and waited for me to climb on his back!”

“Are you sure he wasn’t just pulling that juicy worm out of the ground?”

I draw in a sharp breath. Win’s right. Hanging out of the corner of Ronaldo’s mouth is a fat wriggling worm.

“I didn’t know unicorns ate worms. Anyway, yesterday you said if we found one we could ride it!”

“A female unicorn. They’re really friendly, but male unicorns are massively aggressive so if I were you, I’d get off his back right now, nice and slow.”

I nod. I don’t need telling twice. The unicorn has started to growl and is glaring at me. Also, from up here I can see that his horn is very sharp indeed—kind of pointed, like a spear. I go to get off him, but, in a flash, he lets out a whinny of outrage and leaps to his feet, lifting me up in the air with him.

To stop myself from falling I grab hold of the closest solid object: his horn.

This does not go down well.

“LET GO OF HIS HORN!” screams Win as the unicorn starts bucking around the clearing. “LET GO OF HIS HORN!”

But I can’t let go of his horn. It’s the only thing stopping me from being thrown off. With an enormous whinny and twist of his head, the unicorn finally tosses me off his back.

I shoot over his head and crash down on the ground. For a second stars dance in front of my eyes. I blink them away to see the unicorn bearing down on me, his horn pointing toward my chest like a spear.

“I’m sorry!” I yell, trying to scramble away from him, but the unicorn is too fast, and his horn is too long. There’s no escape.

Chapter 10

“It could have been worse,” says Win, trying to cheer me up.