The Map with the Yellow Ribbon

Knut adjusted the bumpy brass rings of his spyglass with a tiny squeak. "Look, Dinkabel," he whispered. "Look right by the bubbling mud!"

Dinkabel leaned in close, her square head bobbing under the bright amber sky. Through the round glass lens, the distant figures snapped into sharp focus. Standing right beside the crooked wooden wheels was not a friendly traveler at all. It was the mischievous sky-thief herself. She had big fluttering wings the colour of dark purple grapes, wild tangle-bush hair as green as cabbage, and unusual patches of pink and green across her cheeks. She was tapping an iron lever with the toe of her boot, frowning down at the sputtering axle.

Then, the fairy turned around. Her eyes went round and wide. She saw the little brass lens glinting across the white salt flats, and she saw Knut looking right back at her.

With a sudden burst like popping a balloon, she vanished into a cloud of black, glittering magic dust. When the dark cloud drifted away, the salt flats were completely empty, except for the abandoned wooden cart. Its iron smokestack gave a wheezy cough, and two loose gears rolled off the frame with a soft clink-clank into the warm mud.

"She disappeared!" Knut gasped, lowering his spyglass. "Did you see her wings, Dinkabel? She looked right at us!"

"She was searching for the magic," Dinkabel said, tapping her chin with a shiny silver mitten. "She wanted to know who thawed out her crystal statues. Now she knows we are here, and she flew away like a startled bumblebee."

"Then we have to find out where she went," Knut declared, his love heart shaped head glowing with a warm pink light. "We must find her secret hideout before she catches any more unicorns."

The five rescued unicorns nudged their shoulders gently, tossing their silver manes as if they agreed with every word. Knut, Dinkabel, and their five pearly friends set off together across the crusty ground. The salt went crunch, crunch, crunch under their boots, while the unicorns trotted along with light, steady footsteps.

When they reached the bubbling mud pots, the crooked little handcart was still warm from its sputtering engine. The iron smokestack gave one last quiet hiss and fell still. Up on the wooden bench, resting right beside a broken lever, lay a soft brown leather pouch tied with a sunny yellow ribbon.

"Look here," Dinkabel said. She reached out and untied the knot with a gentle tug.

Inside the pouch lay six tiny brass cogs that rattled together like dried peas. Tucked snugly behind them was a folded piece of thick parchment paper, creased along the edges and dusted with orange sand.

Knut carefully unfolded the paper across the wooden bench. "It is a map!" he cried, clapping his hands together.

Dinkabel pointed with a round finger. Drawn in dark berry ink across the parchment was a winding dotted trail. It curved past the bubbling mud, snaked around the giant orange sand dunes, and led straight up toward the distant, shimmering crystal peaks of Planet Sheekium. Right at the top of the highest jagged peak, the fairy had drawn a tiny crooked tower.