Chapter 10

Chapter 10 "Ow! That horn is sharp!" The people of Beeten Wheeten gasped as the unicorn made a sudden turn, then jabbed Ralf in the leg with its horn. "It's Ralf's fault my barn is now a giant ash pile!" the farmer shouted.

"It's Ralf's fault I was puking my guts out all night!" another man added. "That's not true!" Ralf exclaimed. He turned to face the crowd of people coming up behind him. "The unicorn made a mistake. This proves nothing." The unicorn lowered his head and butted Ralf right in the rear end. "It's no mistake," Princess Pulverizer said. She reached over and quickly yanked the copy of Unicorns from A to Z from Ralf's back pocket. "Hey, that's mine!" Ralf shouted. "OW!" He let out a squeal of pain as the unicorn butted him again. "It's on page 37," Princess Pulverizer continued. "Unicorns have the unique ability to spot a liar. If a unicorn senses someone is telling a lie, he will poke him with his horn." She smiled triumphantly. "You were lying when you said Dribble started the fire on purpose."

"Ouch!" Ralf exclaimed as the unicorn poked him in the rear end once again. "That's it! I'm out of here." Ralf started running down the road. "Ralf!" Bertha called as she hurried after him. "Wait for me!" But Ralf didn't wait. He couldn't. Not with the unicorn following him so closely and poking his rear end. "I guess I owe you an apology, big fella," the farmer said as he headed over to Dribble. "We all do." Purple tears started flowing from Dribble's eyes. Princess Pulverizer was pretty sure they were tears of joy this time. "It's okay," Dribble said. "For a while even I started to believe I was guilty." "It was a good thing that unicorn knew who the real liar was," Lucas said. "Capturing him sure backfired on Ralf." "Yes," the farmer agreed. "But now we all have to undo the mess Ralf left. It will take us

months to clean out that river." "We'll help you," Dribble said. "Right, Princess Pulverizer?" "Huh?" Princess Pulverizer looked up at the sound of her name. She hadn't heard the farmer or Dribble. She'd been too busy reading about unicorns in Ralf's book. "I said, we can stick around for a while and help these nice people clean up their river," Dribble repeated. "I don't think that will be necessary," Princess Pulverizer replied. Dribble stared at her. "I thought you wanted to be a knight. No truly kind knight would leave these people with a river filled with garbage." "I'm not doing that," the princess assured Dribble. "I'm just saying they won't need our help. It says in this book that a unicorn can purify water with his horn. So all we have to do is get the unicorn to stick his horn in the

river, and it will be cleaned up in an instant. Easy peasy." "That's a great idea!" Lucas exclaimed. Princess Pulverizer beamed with pride. "It's not easy," Dribble argued. "Or peasy." "It's not?" Lucas wondered. "Why not?" the princess demanded. "Because the unicorn is gone," Dribble reminded them. "And I don't think he's coming back." "I don't blame him," Lucas said. "He thinks Princess Pulverizer tricked him into being captured." The crowd stared at them, surprised. "Why would you do that?" the farmer's wife demanded. "I didn't," the princess insisted. "At least I didn't mean to. Ralf tricked me." "But the unicorn doesn't know that," Dribble said. "I suppose not," Princess Pulverizer agreed. "I wouldn't blame him for never trusting me

again." The princess sighed. She wanted to move on and finish the rest of her good deeds in her Quest of Kindness. But she knew that wasn't possible right then. She had to stay and help the people of Beeten Wheeten clean their river. It wasn't that cleaning out a polluted river wasn't a good deed. It was just that it was going to take so long. And that river smelled awful. "I guess we should get started," Princess Pulverizer finally said. "Grab some trash bags and clothespins." "Why clothespins?" Lucas asked. "For our noses," she replied. "No one wants to smell that trash all day." "Dribble, will you please make us some sandwiches as we clean up?" the mayor of