Wait, DO flying unicorns exist?
Chapter Three - Do Flying Unicorns Exist?
Holly felt herself being flung down onto the rough spiky train carpet with an alarming crash. The train rocketed into the side, and carriage doors slammed open, their hinges shrieking as fallen luggage and flying metal and glass spun out. Another lurch, and she was thrust back against the wall, her head hitting the hard metal wall. Her skull feeling crushed, blood clotting at the back of her head, the train shrieked to the other side and the aisle table tipped over, and an avalanche of orange juice cartons and biscuits fell on her. The vase fell too, Ming shattering everywhere, smashing onto her body. Her nerves felt on fire, blood roared in her ears, nerves like molten steel, wavering to and fro. She struggled to get up, her skin burning, and the train spun again. She throbbed, staggering; some more children spin out of their carriages, injured and screaming in a frenzy of panic. One boy had his leg bent the wrong way, and another child was knocked unconscious. Holly stumbled as the train gave another stumble, wheeling sharply go the side. A bump in the track made her fly upwards, and she caught sight of the left side of the train; the roof was giving in, crumbling, iron roof shards and broken glass cutting the blood-stained carpet. The children were shrieking at the top of their lungs, and the catering tray fell forward. Holly steadied herself before another sharp lurch; she felt her panic giving in.
"Jay!" she shrieked, her black hair whipping around to her cheek. Her skin burnt with cuts and her head felt droozy and hot, as if it were filled with magma, but she pushed on, being tossed aside by a screaming boy in a uniform.
Suddenly, her brother Leo slammed a carriage door open with a bang, with such strength that it smashed of its hinge. He bolted out as the train gave a jolt. Debris was fallen everywhere. The train was on the brink of derailing, and the roof was falling in. "GET JAY!" he shouted, rushing towards her.
Holly staggered towards the door to the next wagon, dodging a falling roof plate and a flying trunk. The door was swinging open and shut, and Holly felt her blood run cold as she realised that the connection between the two wagons was almost broken.
"It's no use!" she shouted, the waling wind buffeting up the skirt of her uniform, cold air slapping against her face. The short tunnel between the wagons had split apart, leaving only a narrow piece of metal to hold them together as well as a big space of air. "If I jump, I could damage what's holding the wagons together, and the back part of the train could stop and topple over!"
"Climb up on the roof then!" Leo shouted, dodging forward.
Holly felt hopeless. She was useless in situations where she had to do something physical - but if she stood still for too long, what would happen to Jay? He was blind - he would have no idea where the falling debris was, and where he was hitting. He could be injured, or crushed already for all she knew!
It was then that Holly spotted a slender girl weaving her way through the frenzy. She was pale, and pretty, with a plait of shiny golden hair, and her eyes burnt sky blue with determination. Suddenly, a sharp veer in the train's course sent her flying through a window. Glass shattered with a *slash!*, and she fell out, lying sprawled on the neighbouring train track, blood trickling around her in a messy slosh.
"No!" Leo bolted forward, and to Holly's suppressed horror, flung himself through the cracked glass, hurling himself out of the window like a madperson. The moment, in Holly's terrified eyes, seemed to last a full decade, deconstructed into a smooth, daring leap, as he, limbs stretched out, not thinking for even half a second, flung in a perfect arrow through the window in a bold, graceful leap, newfound energy bursting through his legs. His deep brown eyes blared strongly, and Holly cringed and shut her eyes, not wanting to see. He would surely be dead. Knocked out. Blow to the head. Bones smashed. The velocity of the train was too quick to survive. He would be instantly dead. Now she was alone.
Time seemed to freeze as the terrible truth dawned on her. What's going on?! her thoughts screamed. I'm actually in a train crash. One of my brothers is dead. The other is blind, stuck where I can't see him. Maybe's he's dead too. I don't think I'm going to survive. This is the end. How can this be happening? Why us? What have we done? Is this just a dream?! It can't be true! No, no...yes. No!
Lifting her hands from her cheeks, and raising her gaze, she ran to the wagon door. Two children were already trying to lift it up, but it was no use. What are the mathematical chances that I'm in a train crash, AND the escape door is jammed?
"We need to get into another wagon!" she screamed. "Jay! Leo! Leo, why did you have to leave me..?" she sobbed, a choke caught in her throat. She was going to have to risk it. It was now or never. She hurled herself at the wagon behind, despite the fact that the safety tunnel had been destroyed. Her feet lingered in the air awkwardly for a split second, before clumsily hitting the carpet of the next wagon.
"Jay!" she cried out with relief. He was alone in the crumbling wagon, as all the other children had all escaped messily by the wagon door, thoughtlessly leaving him alone. He was feeling around his strange surroundings, banging into everything and tripping up. They had seconds to escape before the train toppled for good.
"Where's the exit?!" he shouted to himself, fingering everything with panic.
Holly ran to him at the speed of light. So far, he'd been lucky, and nothing had crushed him. She gripped his hand, and guided him to the open door. "Come over, everyone!" she cupped her hand and yelled to the people on the next carriage.
"Not so fast!"
Holly and her brother froze.
"Don't try and escape your destiny, demi-gods. You're coming with us to save the world."
They spun round. Poking his messy blonde hair through a latch in the roof, a fit-looking man stared at them with round expectant blue eyes and a cream-coloured stubble.
Another woman appeared beside him. She had an ornate face, and a pale tone as her shoulder-length light-brown flew in the whipping wind. Holly reeled in surprise, as chilling air streamed in: one half of her face was gone! Just raw, pink flesh and an empty eye socket that geared through her skin, as if she was a strange kind of half-human monster. Her one blinking green eye stared down, boring into Holly's skin with a fierce intensity in the gaze. "Don't stall, Cloudtail," she snapped. Her one eye softened as she looked upon Holly and Jay. "Come on up, you two, you look as if you need a hand."
Holly's heart rushed as blood pounded in her ears. "What about the others?!" she burst out.
"The quicker you hurry up and get out, the quicker Spiderleg will be able to work his magic, and the quicker everyone'll be safe," the blonde man glared crossly, lowering his arm through into the wagon.
"Spiderwhat?!" Jay swung his head around to have his face facing up. "What is that?!"
"Who, you mean," the woman replied, her tone getting impatient. "Just get out, please. I know it's confusing, but please trust us."
Hollu's heart felt as if it were going to burst out of her chest, as it beat thrashingly, her thoughts whizzing. Going out on the roof of a train with complete strangers? She would rank that as eighty-six on the danger scale, out of one hundred. Going out on the roof of a derailing train with complete strangers? That made the circumstances entirely different. What kind of choice did she have?
"We'll go," she answered, letting Jay hoist himself up first. His entire body was shaking as he struggled through the ceiling latch, hanging on tightly to the stranger's arm. Holly went next, and her fear rushed through her as the blonde's grip tightened on her arms and she felt the rushing outside air hit her skin and chill it to the bone. She shivered as she clambered onto the steel plates messily, the wind raging through her clothes like a sheet of ice. Blood was running through her veins, and her head throbbed with confusion.
"Wow," Jay mutter beside her, "I'm feeling so much adrenalin going through me that I'm actually hearing horses nearby or something. How random."
It was only when Holly raised her gaze that she stifled a gasp. For, before her, on the roof of the train, the two people she had seen were climbing comfortably into a massive gold-and-marble chariot, with another three people flopped on board. And, most importantly of all, the chariot was pulled by four white horses. With wings. She almost collapsed on the spot - wha-, this wasn't on her list of possible things that could happen this term. She hadn't read about winged horses in her science textbook either. Or ever read about them at all. This was not possible. How could they be standing in front of her?
I'm going to Heaven, she thought, trembling. Jay and I have died. Bye bye, cruel world. She would never see another maths textbook again.
"Come on, get in," the driver, a bearded dark-haired man snapped. "Spiderleg, get out and fix the train. Don't forget to stop it so they can collect the ones who went off. And let's get the other boy, the Lion one."
Getting into a stranger's chariot pulled by winged horses on the crumbling roof of a derailing train? her thoughts thundered, spinning around in a tangled circle. That's one hundred on the danger scale. No question about it.
"What do we do?" she whispered to Jay, her voice shaking with grief. Her brother's sightless blue eyes were set determinedly in front of him. They were sparkling with deep courage, but shadowed with worry, a trace of uncertainty visible. "We go," he croaked.
Holly was too much in a haze to think properly. The cuts she had got from the vase shattering in her still ached, a throbbing sort of raw, stinging pain. She and her brother were pulled up onto royal red cushiony seats, and one of the passengers, a young black-haired stark-pale man, bearing a leather satchel carrying poking tools, stepped out and began to lower himself into the train. He was naturally skinny, but his build had increased due to hours of heavy work with strong metals.
"Good luck!" The last passenger, a ginger-blonde woman in her forties shouted. And, miraculously, the pearl-white horses lifted their perfect silver hooves, and, in a movement too smooth to describe, just...well, lifted into the air. Their huge feathery ornate wings flapped up and they were hoisted into the sky, pulling the whole chariot with them. Holly was too stunned to speak.
"Is he going to fix the train?" Holly finally managed to stammer as they soared under the clouds, back the way the train had come.
"Of course," the first man turned back his head to look at them. "Spiderleg's an expert at this kind of stuff. Trust me, that petty mortal vehicle will be back to normal in a trice with his hands on the job."
"I don't think anyone could fix that wreck even if they were a child of the metalwork god," Jay muttered under his breath darkly.
The blonde man laughed as he overheard. "Ha, that's funny, because as a matter of fact he is the child of the metalwork god."
"WHAT?!" Holly's ears rang in disbelief.
The ginger-blonde patted her hand soothingly. "Shush, I know you don't understand anything right now, but I promise that everything will be made clear to you soon. You're in good hands."
"She's right, you know," the driver assured, hardly comforting Holly's racing thoughts. "You'll be fine, and so will all the train's passengers."
Suddenly, she felt a rush of air buffet against her face and a crawling sensation in the pit of her stomach as the chariot swooped down, as the driver loosened his reins on the horses' necks. If they even were horses. Maybe they were evil monsters. Or just a rare donkey breed that humankind had never heard about before.
As they plunged down into the air, her heart rushed with relief as she saw the distant figure of Leo, standing safely on the edge of the track with the girl that had fallen through the window before. She was unconscious, but he wasn't. A nervous thought crept up into Holly's mid and curiosity prickled her. How had he done it? Now had Leo managed to fly out of a rushing eighty-miles-per-hour train, crashing through the window's glass, and remain conscious? Holly peered closer, squinting in the morning sunlight. How is he absolutely uninjured? That's not scientifically possible! she told herself.
But all the same, she was glad to have him back safe and sound, as the chariot swooped down, it's golden wheels glinting like molten fire in the sun. With a steady clop of hooves and a rattle, they were set on the railtrack.
Leo stared up at them, his golden curly hair flings back across his face as he gaped in shock, clutching the unconscious girl on his arms. A look of pure horror crept across his face.
"Come on, get in, questions will be answered later!" the blonde barked, settling his belt hurriedly and glacing at a metal watch fastened around his wrist. "Move it! If you don't move your-"
"Cloudtail, don't swear to demigods!" the disfigured woman snapped.
"-big fat lazy HELLHOUND-CURSED THING OVER this instant, we're feeding you to the harpies!"
"Shut up, the poor soul thinks he's hallucinating."
"Mind your drakon jaws yourself, Brightheart!"
"Oy! Slap some ambrosia over there, you two!"
"STOP!"
All heads turned to the driver, who snapped his reins down in frustration. "Just load the kid, okay? Stop arguing. You're making Squirrelflight wait." For a second, he paused, seeming to freeze in time as he gazed at Leo, Holly and Jay, as if he felt protective of them for some reason...as if he felt...proud. Shaking her head in confusion, Holly clutched Jay's hand as one if the chariot's boarders went to guide the dizzy Leo to the chariot.
"Forgive me," she said kindly, "but this will all by over soon. My name is Sorreltail, and this-" she pointed to the annoyed-looking blonde man, "-is Cloudtail. Sitting next to him is Brightheart." She nodded towards the disfigured woman, who rummaged in her purple-velvet handbag hastily, her green nail polish glinting in the sunlight. "And this is Brambleclaw." The driver of the chariot flicked his reins in acknowledgement. The horses then gave a mighty whinny, before, much to Leo's suppressed control, leapt with a soar into the sky once more, making the chariot's golden twelve-spoked wheels glint in the sunlight.
This was all too much for Holly's brother. With a terrified gasp, he collapsed into his seat and lay still, mouth frozen mid-scream.
The blonde man, Cloudtail, took a quick look behind him and shrugged in an infuriatingly nonchalant manner. "He's out cold. Too bad, I thought him at least out of them three could stand it."
Brambleclaw the driver clenched his fists in annoyance. "Really, Cloudtail, don't you dare insult my s-"
"Don't worry, I've found it," the woman sitting next to Cloudtail interrupted hurriedly, casting Brambleclaw a sharp look, as if to say something to him. She removed a plastic pack of some sugary-looking squares out of her bag, and thrust her hand inside to retrieve one of the sweets. Holly found it fitting that she was called Brightheart, as if to say that her appearance didn't matter and you should look inside her heart. But the names that these strange people called themselves were very odd - perhaps they were nicknames? An uncomfortable feeling swirled awkwardly in Holly's chest, and a chill crept up her spine as she shuddered. She wished for her mother, and her comforting, loving face, telling her it would be all right. Except her mother wasn't there. Holly was sitting in a chariot pulled into the sky by flying horses, seated with several mad strangers. What was the chances? Help, what's going on? she thought helplessly.
Brightheart held out a sweet tentatively to Leo's unconscious body, and opened his jaws carefully. Holly was about to scream, but for some reason, something inside her told her to stop herself. Holly! she scolded herself in surprise. What are you doing? Letting a complete stranger feed something unfamiliar to your unconscious brother! What would your mother say if she were here?! Quick, stop her! But no matter how much her mind reeled, Holly stayed firmly where she was, gazing at the sight uncertainly. She didn't completely trust these people, but at least they had saved her and her siblings from the train crash.
"What's that smell?" Jay asked, sniffing the air curiosly with his sharp nose. Holly could smell it too - the sweet that Brightheart was putting in Leo's mouth, despite its small size, had a mouthwatering scent washing off it, like a cross between cinnamon and honey with sugared pear. It was delicious, like a perfect combination of all Holly's favourite foods, making her want to devour it all.
"It's ambrosia," Sorreltail replied as she closed Leo's mouth. Instantly colour flooded into his pale cheeks, and his battered arms looked immediately healthier. It was like a magic medicine, perfect, with instant healing and a fantastic taste personalised entirely for you. Holly felt herself longing for some.
"Can I try?" Jay asked nervously, licking his lips. "It certainly smells good."
Sorreltail shook her head in reply, before answering, "You can't, I'm afraid, because neither you nor your soul is injured. Ambrosia squares are the healers of immortals, but they kill humans and if demi-gods like you have too much, it burns your insides and kills you."
Jay wrinkled up his nose in disgust, but Holly barely noticed. Her mind was too concentrated on what Sorreltail had said - "demi-gods like you". What did that mean? Was there some sort of mistake? What even were demi-gods?
"What's a demi-god?" she blurted out suddenly, afraid she'd just said something stupid. Were they going mad, or was it her?
Cloudtail looked as if he was about to explain, but Brambleclaw stopped him by glaring across at him in reprimand. "We'll tell them when we get to camp," he said decisively, looking straight ahead. Cloudtail folded his arms but nodded reluctantly in agreement, looking defeated by Brambleclaw's sharp tone.
"Look," Sorreltail patted Holly's shoulder kindly, "perhaps you would like some ambrosia too? You've got lots of wounds from where that vase hit you." That much was true at least - Holly's cuts still stung from where the Ming had shattered on her, and small crusty pools of dried blood clotted on her matted uniform. Her legs were infiltrated with bruised, and her head still hurt from when it had banged hard several times on the floor and the walls.
Holly took a deep breath and sighed. "I'll take some," she accepted the proposal, and Brightheart handed her a perfectly square, sugary caramel-ly coated sweet that wavered up her nostrils with its powerful attractive scent. She felt it melt on her tongue, an exquisite combination of her favourite flavours - orange chocolate, salted toffee, cinnamon, sweet drippy honey and pear milk. Savouring the taste that flooded her mouth, she leaned back on her seat happily and let herself fall under its spell until she had swallowed every morsel. Instantly, like magic, she watched her cuts vanish before her eyes, melting into her normal spotless skin tone. Her bruises disappeared, and her aching spots left nothing but a bare thrum. She felt elated.
"Aargh! Milk chocolate cookies and cranberry slushie! With white chocolate sprinkles and salt-and-vinegar crisps! My favourite foods! Seriously, you guys are so selfish," Jay huffed moodily, glaring accusingly at his sister with his blind eyes.
"So you're the blind one then?" Cloudtail grunted.
"Cloudtail!" Brightheart hissed, glaring across at him with her narrowed eye.
Holly bit back an angry retort. How dare he? Did he have no room for spare feelings? Jay had already been shunned enough, for goodness' sake!
"Don't mind Cloudtail," Brambleclaw eyed the fluffy-headed blonde warily. "His tongue's too sharp for his own good."
"What about the other girl?" This interruption was made by Sorreltail, who glanced furtively at the unconscious girl that Leo had tried to save who was resting on Cloudtail's lap. She didn't look like anyone Holly recognised. Her soft narrow features were creased out into an expressionless face, her golden hair reflecting her tanned skin perfectly in the golden sunlight. She looked a little bit younger than Holly and her siblings - eleven, perhaps? She looked small for her age, as her features were relatively mature.
Cloudtail cast his gaze down, and gasped, slamming his fist against the chariot front and sending the horses stumbling for a split second as they whinnied in fright. "Blasted Kronos' skeleton horses! What's Heatherpaw of WindSide doing here?!"
The others immediately strained to peer at the girl, who was still wearing a matty blood-stained uniform for Westchester Hills High and a golden bracelet around her wrist, with a centrepiece of amber. Holly had never seen her before, and she had no idea what on the world the others were talking about. She wanted to stop, since the flight was making her feel sick and dizzy, as she was never a great fan of heights. Better still, she wanted to be home. She would give anything to make this strange series of incidents just a nasty dream, so that she could wake up soon on her cosy bed at home with her brothers snoring above her. But she knew this wasn't a dream. No matter how impossible, this was real.
"Should we give her ambrosia?" Brightheart enquired.
"No, I don't want to rid ThunderSide's stocks on a WindSide apprentice." Brambleclaw growled dryly.
"But she could die!" Sorreltail protested.
Cloudtail merely shrugged. "But that's none of our business, is it now?"
Brightheart gazed distantly. "I wonder if she was questing..."
Meanwhile, Leo seemed to be waking up. Whispering something in her other brother's ear, she did her best to quench the queasy feeling in her tummy. Had she and her brother made a mistake going off with strangers?
Leo lifted his eyelid sleepily. "Why the flying unicorns..?" he mumbled groggily.
Suddenly he sat up and pointed, in pure surprise and shock, at the winged horses. "F-flying unicorns!" he stammered. "B-but f-flying unicorns don't exist!"
"Do flying unicorns exist?" Cloudtail winked, turning his head to face them.
"Technically, they're not flying unicorns, they're flying horses," Jay corrected.
"Flying unicorns and flying horses are the same thing." Leo said resolutely.
"No, flying unicorns have magic horns!" Jay glared crossly.
"Wait. Unicorns have horns?"
"Stop being so far behind in the century."
"How dare you! Unicorns are not modern at all. Forgive me, but it's you that's ancient, Jay!"
"It's dead obvious. Unicorns have horns. Everybody knows that. Everybody except for you."
"...what? Can someone just slow down and explain?"
"Don't you have flying unicorns in your stupid battle comics?"
"Huh..? Oh yeah."
"Do they have horns?"
"Yeah."
"There you go."
"But they also have laser-eyes and super-hypno-tech robot-wing ultra-radiation!" Leo protested.
"Whatever. They have horns. These ones don't. Get used to it."
"They still have wings!"
"So what?"
"They're... They're... They're... I can't remember the word, but it's like... Pegattons! That's it, they're Pegattons!"
"There's no such thing as Pegat-whatever."
"It's true. I saw them in a movie in pre-school!"
"Leo. Pegattons. Do. Not. Exist," Jay explained slowly.
"They do!"
"I was right the first time."
"No you weren't!"
"Yes I was. I said that these are flying horses. You said that these are flying unicorns. We settled the matter. I was correct."
"We never settled anything!"
"We did. Too bad that you're a sore loser."
"They're Pegattons!"
Sorreltail patted Leo's hands. "I think you mean Pegasi. You were half-right."
"See!"
"No, I was more correct!"
"Nuh-huh, me!"
"Me!"
"I said me!"
Holly blocked her ears to stop herself from listening to her brothers' stupid conversation. She had more important things to worry about. Like what on earth was going on right now. Why they were two hundred feet up in the air, riding a chariot pulled by flying horses. Or Pegasi. Whatever. Where were they going? Who were these weird-named people? Were they in good hands? What was the mention of the son of the metalwork god about? Why did their train almost crash? Why were they different from everyone else, so different that these people had chosen to take them and nobody else in their weird chariot? And, most importantly what was going to happen to them?
"Hold on, camp-ahoy, we're about to land," Sorreltail waved her hand as she peered over the edge if the chariot. Holly shuddered. She often got vertigo, and judging by the fact that the clear sky's clouds were barely inches from the top of her head, they were an immense distance from ground level.
"Right, got it," Brambleclaw answered as he steered the chariot downwards. Holly felt a sharp lurch in her stomach as they plunged downwards, veering sharply vertically. Holding in absolute terror onto Jay, who was widening his sightless eyes in surprise and awe, she felt her hair cascade out behind her as they soared downward at the speed of light.
Suddenly, she caught sight out of the corner of her eye of a plastic supermarket bag, flapping in the wind and heading straight towards them as it spun out of control. It raced and fluttered under the chariot and through one of the horses legs, as it immediately lost control to give way to seizing panic.
Its high-pitched whinnying alerted the other Pegasi, who immediately began to panick in a flurry themselves, completely forgetting about their wings as they shrieked and whinnied while they and the chariot plummeted towards their doom.
"Hey boy, calm down - you two, Flame and Forest - that's it, Draco - no, don't lose control!" cake Brambleclaw panicked wail as he failed yo soothe his drivers.
"What's happening?!" Leo shrieked, his hands flinging to his hair. "Are we going to crash?!"
"EVERYBODY BRACE YOURSELF!" Cloudtail whooped, cheering excitedly.
Sorreltail's hair was spinning wildly as she screamed. "HOW CAN YOU THINK OF FUN WHEN WE'RE ON THE BRINK OF DEATH?!" she bellowed through the peircing wind.
"WHAT?! I'M AN APOLLO DEMI-GOD! I LOVE CHARIOTS! AND SCARY FUN STUFF!"
"HOLD ON EVERYBODY, WE'RE GOING TO CRASH INTO CAMP!"
That was the last thing Holly heard as they plummeted wildly towards their death.