Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX, "A scarlet-horned cobra," Ariana breathed. She'd never seen one in real life before, but she knew they were very dangerous. The snake was right in the middle of the path. Its tiny black eyes glinted with menace as it uttered a long warning hiss.

"What do we do?" whispered Rosa. "We could turn around," said Ariana. "After all, we're not supposed to be going far into the woods." "We can't turn around yet!" said Matilda. "We've hardly come in any way at all." "We could try and trap it so we can get past," said Freya. "All we need is a branch with a forked end and a piece of string. Luckily I brought some string with me." She slipped her rucksack off and rummaged inside, pulling out a length of string.

Ariana couldn't believe her ears! How could Freya even think about catching the cobra? "We haven't got time for you to make something, Freya," said Violet anxiously as the snake started to sway menacingly from side to side. The unicorns skittered backwards. "Steady, Twinkle," she soothed him. "We need to make it go away," said Rosa. Before Ariana could stop him, Whisper trotted forwards and stamped his hoof at the snake. "Shoo!" A spark seemed to fly up from his hoof and Ariana's nose caught the faint smell of sugar. The scarlet-horned cobra shut its mouth and sank down towards the ground. For a moment, she thought it was going to do what Whisper had said, but then it suddenly reared up again and struck out. Whisper leaped back in alarm as the snake's fangs missed his nose by centimetres. "It really doesn't seem to want to go!" he

said, retreating to a safe distance. The snake swayed angrily on the spot. Ariana gulped. "If only we could frighten it away," said Rosa. "But how do you frighten a snake?" said Matilda. "They don't like bright lights," said Freya. "Light!" gasped Ariana. She pulled her rucksack off her back and rummaged for the torch she had packed. "Let's see what happens when I do this…" Taking a breath, she switched on her torch and shone it straight into the snake's mean eyes. It recoiled with a hiss and shrank back.

"It's working!" cried Violet. Whisper advanced and, with a final hiss, the snake sank to the floor and slithered quickly away. Matilda whooped. "Way to go, Ariana! That was a seriously scary snake. You were really brave." Ariana glowed. Matilda shot a grin at her. "Lucky it wasn't a butterfly!" Ariana smiled back, for once not bothered by

the teasing. "That was awesome, Ariana," said Rosa warmly. "Come on, everyone!" She urged Crystal on and they cantered away down the path. The others charged after her. Ariana's heart was beating fast, but although she still felt nervous she also felt fired-up and excited. She'd got rid of a snake! The others thought she was brave! "Isn't this fun?" said Whisper happily to her as his hooves pounded on the track. Ariana hesitated. "It is," she said cautiously. "But I don't think we should go too much further in." She raised her voice. "Rosa! Remember we're supposed to stay near the edge of the woods." Rosa slowed down to a walk. "I guess," she said reluctantly. "We could stop here," said Violet, looking around. They were on a wide path with a thick canopy of branches overhead. "We could get