CHAPTER 6

UNICORN MAGIC

Sassafras decided to be brave and come with Mom and me out back. After all, it was no longer raining, and Tiny was lying down so he seemed a little smaller.

We carefully dodged puddles as we went, but Sassafras slammed to a stop before we got to Tiny. Even lying down, a baby unicorn is pretty enormous.

Poor Tiny looked just awful. I tried not to think about how horrible I’d felt when my ear was infected with bad bacteria. I took a deep breath. This experiment would fix him up.

“Hi, Tiny! We’re going to figure out how to heal your infection, but first I need to grow some of the bacteria so I can run experiments. I need to touch your cut, but I’ll be very gentle. Is that OK?”

I realized my mistake too late. A yes or no question. Eeek! As Tiny nodded, I held on to my Thinking Goggles, and Mom clutched our supplies tightly, but it was too late for poor Sassafras. The huge gust of wind rolled him right into a giant puddle. Uh-oh.

For a few seconds, Sassafras sat stunned in the middle of the puddle, soaking wet. Then he hissed, puffed, and jumped all at the same time. He hopped around like crazy trying to shake himself dry.

“Oh, Sassafras!” I put my hands to my cheeks. “I’m so sorry, buddy!”

Tiny watched Sassafras and asked, “CAT HAVE OW?”

“No, he’s not hurt. He just really hates being wet! Don’t worry. He’ll calm down once he’s dry again.”

Tiny stretched his neck out toward Sassafras. My poor freaked-out cat was so worried about getting the water off that he didn’t see the unicorn horn coming at him.

When Tiny’s horn touched Sassafras, a quick burst of rainbow light appeared. When the rainbow light disappeared, it revealed a shocked Sassafras who was completely dry and clean.

“Whoa.”

Sassafras picked up and examined each paw. Then he walked around in a circle. “Mrrowww?” he asked.

“TINY FIX OW,” Tiny explained.

Sassafras blinked for a moment and then slowly walked over to Tiny. I could tell he was still a little scared, but he gently bopped his head against Tiny’s enormous leg and snuggled down next to him and purred.

Then it hit me. “Tiny! You can use your unicorn magic to fix your cut!”

Tiny shook his head, and thankfully it was gentle enough that it didn’t blow us away. “HORN NO WORK FOR UNICORNS. HORN FOR OTHERS.”

Mom nodded. “I don’t think you’ve seen my journal entries on unicorns yet, Zoey. I’ve met a few over the years because they are only able to help other creatures. Their magic doesn’t work on other unicorns or themselves. But don’t worry, we’ll figure out how to help Tiny.”

I stood up straighter. “Yes, we will!”

I grabbed a cotton swab from our supplies and carefully rubbed it near the bottom of the cut and tried hard not to think about how much worse it looked. Then I rubbed the same cotton swab gently on the surface of a petri dish. Mom put the lid on, taped the edges of the dish, and sealed the whole thing in a ziplock bag. I took four different samples from the cut, just to be safe.

I patted Tiny’s good leg. “Now we have to wait for the bacteria to grow. Oh! And I need to get started on my research. I’ve got to make a list of things that I think will get rid of this bacteria!”

Tiny nodded his head so weakly that it only made a gentle breeze.

My heart sank a little. Mom and I hugged Tiny. I ruffled Sassafras’s fur and left him behind because he wouldn’t budge from Tiny’s side.