The Pegasus Quest Read online

  CONTENTS

  Map of the Kingdom of Wrenly

  Chapter 1: Song of the Owls

  Chapter 2: Troubled Trolls

  Chapter 3: The Stranger

  Chapter 4: The Ghost Horse

  Chapter 5: A Berry Good Idea

  Chapter 6: Dragon Talk

  Chapter 7: The Stall

  Chapter 8: Night Flight

  Chapter 9: Grace

  Chapter 10: The Salve

  About Jordan Quinn and Robert McPhillips

  Song of the Owls

  * * *

  * * *

  Prince Lucas and his best friend, Clara Gills, leaned on the balcony railing and gazed at the full moon. A ribbon of blue light shimmered across the Sea of Wrenly. But this was no ordinary moon. It was a blue moon—something so rare it is said to happen only once in a lifetime. All the owls in the kingdom flocked together and sang once in a blue moon. Lucas and Clara waited and listened for the owl song.

  Ruskin yawned, stretched, and curled up near the children. The young scarlet dragon had no interest in singing owls. He shut his eyes and sighed peacefully.

  “Look at that enormous blue cloud,” said Clara, pointing.

  Lucas tilted his head back. “It’s been there since this afternoon,” he said.

  “I know,” Clara said, studying the cloud. “It hasn’t budged.”

  Lucas looked at the great cloud thoughtfully. “Maybe there’s a floating castle inside it,” he said.

  Clara laughed. “You read too many fairy tales!” she said jokingly.

  “And most of them have turned out to be true,” Lucas reminded her.

  Clara shook her head. “You’re such a dreamer.”

  Then they began to hear a steady thrum. It sounded like the deep beating of wings. The friends turned toward the blue moon and gasped in wonder. Hundreds of owls swirled across the moonlight.

  The children stood very still and listened. The owl song began softly, and gradually got louder.

  Hoo Ha HOO-hoo-hoo! Hoo Ha HOO-hoo-hoo!

  Goose bumps tingled and swept over the children.

  “Listen,” whispered Lucas. “They sound so spooky.”

  “Like a ghostly chorus,” agreed Clara.

  The owls sang and soared gracefully, round and round in the blue-glowing night sky.

  “Wow, I wish I could fly like an owl,” Lucas said, spreading his arms out.

  “Me too,” said Clara. “If I had wings, I’d fly right up to that cloud.”

  The owls finished their eerie song and disappeared into the night. Then a dazzling shooting star blazed across the sky.

  “Make a wish!” Lucas exclaimed.

  The star left a sparkling trail of light as it vanished over Burth, the island of the trolls.

  “What did you wish for?” asked Clara.

  “I wished for an adventure,” Lucas said.

  “Me too,” said Clara.

  Troubled Trolls

  * * *

  * * *

  The next morning Lucas returned to the balcony with Ruskin. He noticed that the great cloud was still there. He wondered again about floating castles. Then he shook his head. He was about to go back inside, when he heard a few knights talking down below. He stood still and listened.

  “The trolls are in an uproar,” he heard one of the knights declare.

  “What seems to be the trouble?” asked another.

  Lucas leaned against the railing.

  “Their prized enderberry crop has been nearly wiped out,” said the first knight.

  The second knight gasped. “By what?”

  “Nobody knows,” the first knight replied. “We should investigate.”

  Lucas cupped his hand over his mouth. Oh no! he thought. I have to tell Clara about this!

  The prince and Ruskin hurried over to Clara’s house and told her what they had heard. Clara put down the broom in her hand.

  “What are we waiting for?” she asked.

  They ran down the hill and over the long stone bridge to Burth. All of the enderberry bushes grew in the meadows just over the bridge.

  Lucas, Clara, and Ruskin slipped into the enderberry grove and began to inspect the bushes for clues. All they found were clusters of empty stems. Bush after bush had been picked clean of berries.

  “Someone or something sure was hungry,” said Lucas.

  Clara shifted some branches and peeked deeper into the bush.

  “There isn’t a single berry in here!” she exclaimed.

  Then they heard a rustle in the bushes.

  Ruskin squawked.

  “Get away from my bushes!” boomed a gruff voice behind them.

  Lucas, Clara, and Ruskin whirled around and came face-to-face with a grim-looking troll. But the troll’s expression quickly changed when he saw it was the prince. He bowed.

  “I beg your pardon, Your Majesty,” the troll said. “I didn’t know it was you!”

  Then the troll introduced himself as Grumblesnout.

  Lucas and Clara forgave the troll and apologized for their surprise visit.

  “We’re trying to figure out what happened to your enderberries,” said Clara.

  Grumblesnout sighed heavily. “It’s very mysterious,” he said darkly. “You see, most creatures don’t like the taste of enderberries. They are incredibly bitter and sour. But we trolls love them—though we can only eat a handful without sugar.”

  Lucas nodded. “Do you mind if we help look for clues?”

  “Of course not,” Grumblesnout said. “We need all the help we can get.”

  So Lucas and Clara began to look for animal tracks in and around the berryless bushes. Ruskin followed behind, sniffing the ground for unusual scents. But they found nothing out of the ordinary. Then Lucas saw Grumblesnout across the field, talking with somebody.

  “I wonder who that is?” questioned Lucas.

  Clara looked over to see someone dressed in a brown hooded robe. The stranger had a lasso strapped to a belt, and a bow with arrows slung over one shoulder.

  “I wonder if that stranger knows about the missing enderberries!” said Clara suspiciously.

  “Let’s find out!” Lucas said.

  The children ran across the field toward Grumblesnout. But by the time they reached the troll, the stranger had already disappeared into the woods.

  “What did that person want?” Lucas asked as he caught his breath.

  Grumblesnout raised his bushy white eyebrows and shook his head.

  “Nothing, really,” he said. “Just asked if I saw a shooting star last night.”

  Lucas and Clara glanced at each other. They were both thinking the same thing. Maybe the shooting star and that stranger have something to do with the missing enderberries!

  “Let’s go!” Lucas cried. “Thank you, Grumblesnout, and good-bye!”

  As the troll waved farewell, they charged into the woods after the mysterious traveler.

  The Stranger

  * * *

  * * *

  The children and Ruskin zigzagged between pine trees as they raced through the forest. Soon they came to a trail that spread out in three different directions. They looked from one trail to the next, but they couldn’t tell which one the stranger had taken.

  Lucas huffed and puffed. “It looks like our only clue just got away.”

  Clara put her hands on her knees to catch her breath. “I have another idea,” she said. “Why don’t we do some research in the royal library?”

  Lucas thought for a moment. Well, at least the library will get my mind off losing the stranger, he said to himself.

  “Okay,” he agreed. Then, with Ruskin leading the way, they tramped toward home. When they got to the castle, they hurried to the royal library.

&
nbsp; The library had a whole section on trolls. Lucas and Clara each grabbed a book and sat on a bench topped with a purple velvet cushion. Ruskin curled up by their feet while they read.

  “Here’s something about enderberries!” said Clara excitedly.

  Lucas looked up.

  “Oh, never mind,” she said. “It just says how much trolls like them.”

  She snapped the book shut and slid it back onto the shelf. Then she picked out another book and sat down. They both read quietly. Suddenly Lucas’s eyes grew wide.

  Clara looked over. “Did you find something?” she asked.

  Lucas nodded. “I found a legend about a pegasus,” he said.

  Clara leaned in closer. “You mean, like, a horse with wings?”

  “Exactly,” he said, pointing to a drawing on the page.

  “But what does a pegasus have to do with missing enderberries?”

  Lucas couldn’t take his eyes off the page. “It says here that a pegasus once visited Wrenly,” he said. “And listen to this! It also says the pegasus loved the tart flavor of enderberries.”

  “Let me see that!” said Clara as she tugged at the edge of the book.

  Lucas pulled it right back. “Hold your horses!” he said excitedly. “There’s more!”

  Lucas turned the page. Clara bounced on the cushion in suspense.

  “It also says that the pegasus came down in a great ball of light!”

  Clara’s eyes widened.

  “From its floating castle in the sky!” said Lucas triumphantly.

  Clara suddenly made a frowny face. “You’re making this up!” she declared.

  Lucas stabbed the page with his index finger. “It’s all right here!” he said proudly.

  Then he handed the book over to Clara. She reread the pages and saw for herself.

  “Wow! Maybe it is true!” she said, mystified.

  Lucas nodded knowingly. “That shooting star was headed straight for Burth,” he said, “the land of enderberries!”

  “Maybe the pegasus has returned to Wrenly,” said Clara, believing it more and more every minute.

  A wide grin spread over Lucas’s face. “And it’s our job to find it!”

  The Ghost Horse

  * * *

  * * *

  The prince hitched two horses, Ivan and Scallop, to the rail outside the bakery. The children planned to get an early start, but first they had breakfast—warm blueberry muffins and milk. As they ate, they listened to Mr. Gills wait on a customer.

  “Those are nice-looking horses you’ve got out there,” said the customer, referring to Scallop and Ivan.

  “One belongs to my daughter, Clara,” Mr. Gills said proudly. “And the other to Prince Lucas.”

  The customer nodded and smiled.

  “Speaking of horses,” he went on, “I saw a very unusual one on the mainland yesterday. A white stallion stood in the foothills in the early-morning fog. It looked like a ghost horse. And then it vanished like a ghost too!”

  Clara’s father raised his eyebrows and looked at the man doubtfully.

  “That is unusual,” he commented.

  “Yes . . . very unusual,” repeated the customer. Then he tucked his loaf of bread into a sack, tipped his hat, and headed for the door.

  Clara pinched Lucas on the leg. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” she whispered.

  Lucas nodded. “It might be the pegasus!”

  “Let’s get going,” whispered Clara.

  They packed some muffins and filled their canteens with water. Then they unhitched the horses and galloped across the mainland. When they got to the foothills, they began to look for clues.

  Clara pointed to a print on the ground up ahead. “Is that something?” she wondered out loud.

  The children studied the print. It looked like a horse hoofprint but with a twirling pattern. It was definitely some kind of animal track.

  “The ground is soft from the rain we had the other day,” Lucas observed. “So this might be a squishy pegasus track.”

  “There are more tracks up ahead,” Clara said. “Let’s see where they lead.”

  They followed the tracks into the forest. Ruskin wandered in front, sniffing the ground like a bloodhound. The tracks led to a clearing with a great oak tree in the middle. Then the tracks ended just as mysteriously as they began.

  “That’s strange. The hoofprints end mid-stride,” Lucas commented.

  “You know what’s even stranger?” Clara said under her breath. Lucas followed her gaze. There, on the edge of the clearing, stood the stranger they had seen the day before in Burth. This time her hood was down. It was a woman with short curly hair. The woman began to run toward Lucas and Clara. She swirled her lasso over her head.

  “Get out of the way!” she cried.

  Then everything happened at once. The branches above them began to shake. The stranger hurled her lasso into the tree. They heard the sound of thrashing wings in the treetop.

  Ruskin squawked nervously. Ivan and Scallop spooked, and the children had to fight to stay in their saddles. WUMP!—the empty lasso fell to the ground with a thud.

  Everything became quiet for a moment. Then a magnificent white stallion took flight from the tree. The creature had feathery silver-and-white angel wings, along with a golden tail and mane. Without a word, the woman ran off in the same direction as the pegasus.

  Lucas and Clara both struggled to settle their frightened horses. But by the time the horses had quieted down, the female hunter and the pegasus were long gone.

  A Berry Good Idea

  * * *

  * * *

  “We have to save the pegasus from that hunter!” declared Lucas.

  “But how?” Clara asked.

  A knowing smile swept across Lucas’s face. “With enderberries!” he said.

  Clara looked at the prince like he was crazy.

  “Where are we going to get enderberries?” she questioned. “The trolls are already guarding what little they have left.”

  Lucas shrugged. “Maybe Cook knows where we can get some.”

  “Well, it’s worth a try,” said Clara doubtfully.

  They galloped to the stables and returned the horses to their stalls. Then they hurried up the stone stairs and burst through the back door and into the kitchen. Cook jumped from his kettle in terror. His spoon clattered to the floor.

  “Please don’t do that ever again,” he said, fanning himself with his hand. “You scared me out of my wits!”

  “We’re sorry,” said the prince, picking up Cook’s spoon.

  “Everybody is always sorry,” complained Cook, cleaning his spoon on his apron. “Now, what is it I can do for you?”

  “We wondered if you have any enderberries,” said Lucas.

  Cook shook his head in surprise. “Enderberries!” he said dramatically. “I do not prepare enderberries in my kitchen.” He seemed a little bit offended.

  “But do we have any?” Lucas persisted.

  Cook let out a long sigh. “Yes, we have loads of enderberries!” he said. “The trolls give us those darn things every year as a gift! I don’t have the heart to refuse them. Go ahead; help yourself. They’re in the royal cupboard next to the raisins.”

  Lucas and Clara threw their arms around Cook. Then they thumped down the stairs to the royal cupboard and grabbed a basket of enderberries. They stowed it away in the playroom, behind the toy chest, for safekeeping. After the berries were hidden, Lucas saw Clara to the door.

  “Okay, let’s meet at the path to Mermaid’s Cove at dusk,” Lucas said.

  “Don’t forget the berries!” said Clara as she trotted down the lane toward home to help her father close up the shop.

  Dragon Talk

  * * *

  * * *

  The children and Ruskin walked down the moonlit path to Mermaid’s Cove. They crunched over the sand and looked for the perfect spot to watch for the pegasus. Lucas set the basket of enderberries out in the open. Then they hid in
the shadow of a large rock and waited.

  Soon Ruskin began to whine.

  “Shhh,” shushed Lucas.

  The dragon swished his tail back and forth.

  “I think he hears something,” Clara whispered.

  Lucas cupped his hand to his ear.

  The faint sound of a ship’s sail flapped in the wind. The sound gradually grew louder. But it wasn’t a ship’s sail at all. It was the steady beat of pegasus wings! The snow-white stallion dropped to the sand and dipped his nose into the basket of enderberries. Ruskin let out a welcoming squawk. The pegasus looked up and shook his mane calmly, as if to say hello in return.

  “He’s so beautiful,” Clara said softly as she gazed at the velvety down feathers on the wings of the pegasus.

  The pegasus twitched his ears at the sound of Clara’s voice. He began to back away. Ruskin let out three short reassuring grunts and carefully walked over. The pegasus relaxed and returned to the basket of enderberries.

  “Excellent work, Ruskin!” praised Lucas.

  Ruskin squawked proudly.

  “Can you ask the pegasus not to be afraid of us?” Clara whispered.

  Ruskin nodded. Then he began to chirp, squawk, and grunt. The pegasus nickered and lowered his head.

  The great beast seemed to understand that the children could be trusted. When the pegasus finished the enderberries, Lucas stepped forward.