Chapter 5

Chapter 5 A few minutes later, Sweetie arrived back at the hole with a canful of paintbrushes. "Where's Poppy?" asked Sugar. "I'm not sure," answered Sweetie, alarmed. "I thought he was right behind me!" A minute later, Poppy strolled out of the house with a handful of brushes. Sweetie gasped. Poppy's head was the size of a cantaloupe. "Poppy, your feathers are very, very... big," said Sweetie. "I think you mean voluminous," he answered. "That too," said Sugar. "You didn't happen to use the yellow hairbrush while you were in there?" "Nope," Poppy answered.

"I see," said Sugar, maintaining steady eye contact. "I used the green one," Poppy admitted. "Interesting choice," said Sugar. An acorn ricocheted off Poppy's face. He didn't flinch. "And the hair spray?" asked Sugar. "A little," Poppy admitted. "Just the roots, kid," whispered Sugar. "Just the roots." "Too much?" asked Poppy, embarrassed.

"Rookie mistake," said Sugar. "We'll try to scrape it off later. But in the meantime, you're highly flammable, so stay away from the blowtorch." "Ahem," Dirt interrupted. "Before we get back to the bone, I'd like to show you something I showed Sugar while you were in the house. I think it will help you understand what's in the hole and what it might—or might not—be." Dirt held up her timeline.

Poppy and Sweetie studied it for a moment. "I think you're forgetting something, Dirt," said Sweetie. "What's that?" asked Dirt, tapping her pencil. "Unicorns," answered Poppy. "Dirt says unicorns never existed," said Sugar with an eye roll.

"Then how do we know what they looked like?" asked Poppy. Poppy and Sweetie waited for Dirt to reply. Dirt had no reply. "So it could be a unicorn bone?" asked Sweetie. "Absolutely not," said Dirt. "Who thinks it could be a unicorn bone?" asked Sugar. "I do," said Poppy, raising his wing. "I do," said Sweetie, raising her wing. "I do," said Sugar, raising her wing. "You can't vote unicorns into existence!!" declared Dirt for the second time. "Okay, kid," said Sugar. "But you can't complain about the outcome if you don't vote." Poppy and Sweetie waited for Dirt to reply. "Fine." Dirt let out a heavy sigh. "I vote that it is not a unicorn bone." "Sorry, kid," said Sugar, counting wings in the air. "You lost again. You're not very good at this voting thing, are you?"

"Or at Sugarology," added Sweetie. "That's enough Dirtology for today," said Sugar. "Everybody, back in the hole!" "Wait," said Dirt. "We have to organize this the right way so we can keep track of our discoveries." Dirt held out a box of wooden stakes. "We'll place these in the ground to create a rectangle at the bottom of the hole. Then we'll run string from one stake to another