Chapter 2

Maggie knew she shouldn’t touch the piglets when their mother, Carmelita, was watching, but one baby was lying on its back, wedged in the corner of the stall, kicking the air with its little trotters. The piglet looked as if it was stuck. She couldn’t just leave it there!

Moving slowly so she didn’t startle the pigs, Maggie walked around the edge of the stall and reached for the baby. When Carmelita snorted and lurched to her feet, Maggie turned the baby so it could get up, then started running to the stall door. She could hear the mother pig charging after her. With only seconds to spare, Maggie threw herself at the half-door, grabbing the top with both hands. Heaving herself up and over, Maggie felt the sow’s teeth graze her shoe. The door shook as the mother pig crashed into it.

‘What are you doing?’ Leonard asked. He was a regular horse, except for the fact that he could talk. ‘It sounds as if you’re trying to knock down the stable!’

‘I was just helping a piglet,’ Maggie said, inspecting her shoe.

‘If you made Carmelita mad, I suggest you shut the top door, too,’ said Leonard. ‘She is a flying pig, remember?’

Maggie gasped and turned around. She hadn’t seen the sow fly lately and had forgotten that she could fly. Maggie heard the whoosh of beating wings and slammed the top half of the door shut. She had scarcely latched it when the sow crashed into it again. The angry squeals were loud enough to make Maggie cover her ears.

‘Keep in mind that there are no ordinary animals here,’ Leonard reminded her.

‘Says the talking horse,’ Maggie said with a laugh.

Leonard snorted and peered over his stall door. ‘I must say, you’ve been busy today. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this barn look so clean.’

Maggie shrugged. ‘I didn’t do that much. I just cleaned the stalls like I usually do, and washed the water buckets.’

‘And swept out all the nooks and crannies, and knocked down spider webs, and brushed me and Randal,’ Leonard reminded her. ‘Thanks for that, by the way. I know I feel a lot better, and Randal does too. The old unicorn has never looked so good. He really likes that you polished his horn.’

‘I’m glad,’ Maggie said.

Randal was the only unicorn who had a permanent home in the stable. Years before, Bob had found him caught in a trap with his leg horribly mangled. Bob had brought him home, but the unicorn’s leg was so badly injured that it had to be replaced with a peg leg made out of wood. The unicorn loved Maggie, who always went out of her way to make him more comfortable.

‘The sheriff stopped by,’ Bob said as he walked into the stable. ‘I was just telling him what a hard worker you are, Maggie.’

Maggie’s stepmother, Zelia, had kicked Maggie out of the family cottage a few weeks before. Ever since then, Maggie had lived with Bob and his wife, Nora. She loved the elderly couple as much as if they were her own family and was always happy to help out. Still, three things worried her even from her safe new home: when would her father return from cutting wood on the far side of the Enchanted Forest? What would happen with her stepmother when he did? And what would her obnoxious stepbrother Peter do next?

Carmelita squealed and banged into her door so hard that the entire wall shook.

‘What’s wrong with her?’ asked Bob.

‘Maggie helped one of her piglets,’ explained Leonard.

Maggie nodded. ‘The baby was stuck and couldn’t get up.’

‘Carmelita is angry because she wasn’t able to take a chunk out of Maggie,’ Leonard finished.

‘I’m not surprised,’ said Bob. ‘The sow’s been going a little stir-crazy lately. I think I should take her outside and let her stretch her wings.’

‘Aren’t you afraid she might fly off?’ Maggie asked.

‘Not with her babies here. I’ve tended mother flying pigs before. She’ll come back in a few hours and be in a much better mood. Stay out of sight while I take her outside, Maggie. She’s angry with you now, but she won’t be by the time she gets back.’

‘You can brush me some more,’ Leonard told Maggie. ‘There’s an itchy spot on my back that really needs it!’

Maggie groaned, but smiled and looked for the brush.