Chapter 2

Chapter 2 "The king here must be brave," Lucas said as he and Princess Pulverizer entered the kingdom of Leononia. "His royal crest has a lion on it. Lions are brave—like I wish I could be."

Princess Pulverizer didn't respond. There wasn't much she could say without hurting her friend's feelings. "Come on," she replied instead. "Let's get some food. I'm starving." "Please make sure that roast beef is lean," the princess heard a woman saying as she walked into a nearby food shop. "It's for the king. I'm his chef." "You're not the royal chef I met yesterday," the shopkeeper said. "Or the one I met the day before." "Nobody in the king's kitchen keeps their job very long," the chef admitted. Princess Pulverizer snickered. The king must be one picky eater. Why else would he keep firing chefs? "The king is convinced that his previous chefs were all trying to poison him," the woman continued. That is another explanation.

"I need a bag of navy beans, too," the chef continued. "King Harvey wants beans with every meal." "Don't they give him gas?" the shopkeeper asked her. "Terribly," the chef agreed. "You can't imagine the sounds that come out of that man. Every time his stomach hurts, he fears he's been poisoned," the chef explained. The shopkeeper laughed. "The king is a bit fearful." "Afraid of his own shadow," the chef added. "Can't the royal doctor convince the king that it's the beans causing his tummy trouble?" the shopkeeper wondered. "He doesn't believe him," the chef replied. "King Harvey is convinced the only way to stay safe from poison is to drink from a unicorn's horn. So he has ordered his knights to bring him one." "Good luck with that. There's no such thing as a unicorn," the shopkeeper scoffed.

Princess Pulverizer opened her mouth to insist that unicorns were very real, and that their horns were called alicorns, but before she could get a word out, the chef said something very alarming. "One of the knights actually spotted one— an old fellow, with little strength." "That should have made him easy prey," the shopkeeper pointed out. "If he really saw a unicorn, why didn't he catch him?" "It was before the king gave his order," the chef explained. "I'm hoping the knight will find the old unicorn again and present King Harvey with his horn. It's probably the only way I will keep my job past tonight's dinner." Princess Pulverizer gasped so loudly they both turned to stare at her.

"Can I help you, miss?" the shopkeeper asked. "Um... no," the princess answered nervously. She grabbed Lucas by the arm. "Come on. We have to get out of here." "But we haven't bought anything," Lucas objected. "We don't have time," the princess argued. "We have to get back. NOW!"

"How am I supposed to make grilled cheese sandwiches without cheese or bread?" Dribble wondered when Princess Pulverizer and Lucas arrived back in the garden empty-handed. "We can eat later," Princess Pulverizer told him. "After we save a unicorn." "A very old unicorn," Lucas added. Dribble looked at him, confused. "Fortune isn't old," he said. "Not Fortune," Princess Pulverizer explained. "There's an old unicorn who's been spotted by one of the king's knights. He's in big trouble, because the king has ordered the knights to get him a unicorn's horn." Dribble frowned. "So now we have to find Fortune's family and keep the knights from capturing the old unicorn." "Exactly," Princess Pulverizer agreed. "Good thing I know so much about unicorns. The information in this book will give us clues to places they go and how they think."