Creature Catchers

Excerpted from Chapter 1: Kenneth glanced around. No one was looking. His twin sister, Candace, was roller skating in circles over by the unicorn pen, her curly blonde hair fluttering out behind her. Near her, a zookeeper was busy pitchforking flowers into the pen. Uncle Nigel had gone to buy a packet of charcoal to feed to the fire salamanders. Thanks to the commotion Candace was making, the metal wheels of her skates clattering on the cobblestones, none of the people strolling along the zoo's winding paths on this bright summer day would notice Kenneth scraping. That was perfect, since he didn't want to get caught. He flicked open the pocketknife he'd gotten for his eleventh birthday and scratched at the black paint that covered the front window of the exhibit. Slowly, the glass behind it was exposed. Their uncle had brought them to the Londinium Zoo to see some of the creatures he'd captured for the 1893 World Exposition in Chicago. The creatures were temporarily on display here, in the zoo's exotics section, before being shipped out next week. Uncle Nigel had shown them a hippogriff, and a Japanese kirin, and an African intulo-something that looked half man, half lizard-but what Kenneth really wanted to see was the cockatrice. He'd viewed a zoetrope of it, of course, but looking through the slits of a spinning cylinder at painted pictures wasn't Kenneth's idea of excitement. The cockatrice sounded savage-something like a fighting cock, except with lizard scales instead of feathers, a long forked tongue, and an enormous hooked claw on the tip of each of its leathery wings. Uncle Nigel had described its eyes as "green as demon ichor and equally venomous." There were only a handful of people in the world who had looked upon one of these fierce animals and lived. One glance from their eyes, and a person would be petrified-frozen stiff! Just wait until the boys at school heard that Kenneth had actually seen one. That would shut them up. Surely they'd stop teasing him about being so short and listen to him, for a change. The hole was big enough now. He glanced around -- no one was looking -- and squatted next to the glass, ready to peer inside. -- Her arms held out like wings, Candace did a wobbly turn on the roller skates she'd gotten for her birthday. She imagined herself on the back of a pegasus, taking a graceful soar above the beautiful flower gardens below. Some day, in the Lady Candace Owen's Public Gardens, there would be a stable filled with pegasi and unicorns, and sea-foam steeds, and all manner of beautiful horses. Rides would be free for the children who lived in the Poor House. It was just a dream, of course, but one day that dream would come true. Skating to a halt at the unicorn pen, she leaned on the wooden rail and stared at the magnificent beast. The unicorn was white as an Arabian steed, but small, like a pony, with a spiral horn and crystal hooves that flashed like diamonds in the sun. It looked at her with soft round eyes while munching on the flowers the zookeeper had provided. Candace leaned over the rail and extended a hand. The unicorn lifted its head, then took a step toward her. Its breath whuffled softly against her palm as it nuzzled her hand. "I wish I had an apple for you, dear heart," she told it. The unicorn snorted and tossed its long white mane. "Here now!" the zookeeper admonished. "Get your hand out of there, Miss. That beast bites." Candace did as she was told, though knew that she needn't have bothered. The unicorn wasn't about to bite her; it knew she was its friend. Every animal she'd ever met trusted her. She could even get Mrs. Soames's mean little dog to lick her hand -- something Kenneth could never hope to do. She would have loved to inform the zookeeper that there was no danger -- that the unicorn would just nuzzle her hand -- but she didn't. Correcting an aSmedman, Lisa is the author of 'Creature Catchers ', published 2007 under ISBN 9781554510573 and ISBN 1554510570.