Laura Ellen Anderson - Amelia Fang and the Unicorn Lords

First published in Great Britain 2018

by Egmont UK Limited

The Yellow Building, 1 Nicholas Road, London W11 4AN

Text and illustrations copyright © 2018 Laura Ellen Anderson

The moral rights of the author and illustrator have been asserted

First e-book edition 2018

ISBN 978 1 4052 8706 7

Ebook ISBN 978 1 7803 1831 8

www.egmont.co.uk

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Stay safe online. Any website addresses listed in this book are correct at the time of going to print. However, Egmont is not responsible for content hosted by third parties. Please be aware that online content can be subject to change and websites can contain content that is unsuitable for children. We advise that all children are supervised when using the internet.

FOR GRANDAD JOHN

The cheekiest most brilliant nine-fingered musician around.

‘About as handy as a frog on a bike!’

Love you always.

Twiglett xxx

CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Copyright First published in Great Britain 2018 by Egmont UK Limited The Yellow Building, 1 Nicholas Road, London W11 4AN Text and illustrations copyright © 2018 Laura Ellen Anderson The moral rights of the author and illustrator have been asserted First e-book edition 2018 ISBN 978 1 4052 8706 7 Ebook ISBN 978 1 7803 1831 8 www.egmont.co.uk A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Stay safe online. Any website addresses listed in this book are correct at the time of going to print. However, Egmont is not responsible for content hosted by third parties. Please be aware that online content can be subject to change and websites can contain content that is unsuitable for children. We advise that all children are supervised when using the internet.

Dedication FOR GRANDAD JOHN The cheekiest most brilliant nine-fingered musician around. ‘About as handy as a frog on a bike!’ Love you always. Twiglett xxx

MAP OF NOCTURNIA

MEET THE NOCTURNIANS AND GLITTEROPOLANS

1. WHY DO I ‘AVE TO BE THE UNICORN?

2. THE WISHING WELL OF WELL WISHES

3. PUMPKIN POO

4. McSPARKLE

5. THE ETERNAL HUG

6. RAINBOOOOW!

7. FABIO

8. GLITTEROPOLIS

9. COLLAR DUSTER

10. THE HAUNTED HOUSE RIDE

11. STRONG INDEPENDENT UNICORN

12. THE UNICORN BANQUET

13. FLORENCE’S UNIQUE TALENT

14. THE CANDY CHAMBERS

15. FLORENCE IS NOT A BEAST

16. A TICKLE BEHIND THE EAR

17. LEPRECHAUNS ASSEMBLE

18. LIGHT AND DARK

Back series promotional page

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! squeeed the pumpkin alarm clock at first light.

Amelia Fang stretched and scrambled out of her coffin. Her pet pumpkin Squashy was bouncing around licking everyone excitedly.

‘Oh, Squashy,’ Amelia said through a yawn, ‘how are you so wide awake?’

‘SQUISH EVERYTHING!’ moaned Florence Spudwick, rolling over. Florence was a huge, rare breed of yeti, not to be confused with a beast. She was also one of Amelia’s best friends.

‘It can’t be time already?’ Grimaldi groaned, pulling his hood over his face. Grimaldi Reaperton was Death himself. But until he was older, he only dealt with the deaths of small creatures in Nocturnia, leaving the bigger creatures to his grimpapa.

It was the Halloween holidays and the sun had risen in the Kingdom of the Dark, which meant that every creature in Nocturnia and the scary suburbs would be going to bed – apart from Amelia Fang and her friends. They were about to embark on a very big quest to the Kingdom of the Light.

‘FLORENCE!’ said Prince Tangine La Floofle the First, clapping his hands twice. ‘I demand breakfast!’

‘DON’T CLAP ME!’ said Florence, clenching her big hairy fists.

‘Tangine,’ Amelia said with a sigh, ‘remember what we discussed. Try not to be so bossy.’

‘I keep forgetting,’ said Tangine sheepishly. ‘Can’t I be a leeeettle bit bossy?’

‘No!’ Amelia laughed. ‘We’re your friends .’

‘Maids.’ Tangine smiled.

‘ Fur-riends ,’ said Amelia.

Tangine took a deep breath. ‘Fuuur . . .’ He wiped his forehead. ‘Fuuur . . .’ he tried again. ‘ Fuuurmaids? ’ He looked proud of himself.

‘That’s . . . progress,’ Amelia said.

When Amelia had first met Tangine, he had been quite mean to her and had stolen her pet pumpkin, Squashy. But it had turned out that Prince Tangine had been lonely and just wanted a friend. Tangine had grown up all alone in the palace with only Mummy Maids for company. He did have a mother – she was a fairy named Fairyweather. Tragically, Fairyweather had mysteriously disappeared when Tangine was just a baby. Prince Tangine’s father, King Vladimir, had been so sad about his wife’s disappearance that he had neglected his kingdom and Tangine, spending years searching in vain for her. This meant that not only had Tangine grown into rather a spoilt sprout (which was why he thought that it was perfectly OK to steal poor Squashy) but also that he was half-vampire, half-fairy. This big secret of Tangine’s was something that would have terrified most Creatures of the Dark. But Amelia had discovered that Creatures of the Light weren’t as scary as they had all been told. It turns out that fairies did not steal your fangs and unicorns did not shoot killer rainbows from their bottoms.

‘I’m so tired, I’m not sure I can cope with being awake during the day,’ said Grimaldi.