Score groaned and rolled over in his bed as he heard the door to his room slam open noisily. 

            “Score, come on, get up!” he heard Pixel’s boyish voice yelling, practically in his ear.

            Score squeezed his eyes tightly shut and pulled his pillow over his head.  What was it this time?  He could still hear Pixel yelling at him to get moving, even through his pillow, so he threw it at the other boy.

            “Alright,” Pixel said, throwing his hands up in frustration.  “But you’re going to be sorry you missed this.”

            Pixel began to exit Score’s room, but paused at the door.  “And by the way,” he said.  “Helaine’s going to be in here next to wake you up, and I doubt she’ll be as gentle as I have been.”  Then he grinned and shut the door.

            After hearing that, Score quickly sat up.  He wasn’t about to get on Helaine’s bad side.  Still, he didn’t know what they were doing getting him up this early. 

            Helaine pushed open his door.  “Do you guys have any idea what time it is?” Score whined.

            Helaine grinned and jumped on Score’s bed, pinning him down by his shoulders.  Wow, Score thought.  She’s in a good mood today.

            “Come on, Score,” she said, still holding him down.  “The unicorns want us to meet them outside, and you won’t believe what it’s for!”

            Score was curious but decided to hide it.  He winked at Helaine, and said, “Wow, Helaine, you look great from this angle.”

            Helaine looked about ready to punch him in the nose, but then looked at her hands, holding down Score’s bare shoulders while sitting on his bed.  He smiled and winked again, and she blushed, quickly moving off of him.

            Score frowned.  He had been sure that would start an argument, and he always had fun arguing with Helaine.  It was one of his favorite things to do, which, when he thought about it, was kind of pathetic.  But lately, whenever he joked around with her, she only seemed to get embarrassed.  Oh well, he thought.  It’s probably just a girl thing.

            Score got out of bed and walked over to his dresser, quickly pulling out a t-shirt and slipping it on.  He looked over at Helaine who was looking back at him critically and tapping her foot. 

            “Can we go now?” she asked.

            “I’m not stopping you,” he said, and she pulled him out the door.

            They ran through their castle, quickly joined by Pixel.  The trio had acquired this castle after destroying an evil magician who had been terrorizing the local inhabitants of this planet.  He had wanted to kill the unicorns who lived nearby and take their horns.  Unfortunately for him, the unicorns had drained all of his power until he turned to dust.  Score, Helaine, and Pixel then decided to use the castle as their own residence.  After all, most magicians seemed to live in castles, though everyone agreed that these three young magic users were nothing like most magicians.

            When Score, Helaine, and Pixel had first come to this world known as Dondar, they had found it a little difficult to gain the trust of the local creatures.  This was mostly due to the fact that nearly everyone magician in existence seemed to be a power hungry maniac.  But Score, Helaine, and Pixel hadn’t at first known that they were magicians.  They found out because for hundreds of years, the Diadem (the rings of planets that magicians and other strange creatures could be found on) had been ruled by three tyrants known as the Triad.  But another evil magician named Sarman had defeated the Triad, supposedly killing them.  But what he didn’t know was that the Triad had used magic to make themselves reborn on other planets on the outer rim of the Diadem.  It turned out that the Triad reborn were Score, Pixel, and Helaine.  During the time that the three of them were growing up, Sarman began building a device so that he wouldn’t have to stay on the ruling planet of Jewel like the Triad had, and he could roam about freely throughout the Diadem, undoubtedly spreading mayhem through the various worlds.  The only downside was that he needed the souls of magic users from every planet in the Diadem to activate the device.  So, he pulled Score, Helaine, and Pixel off of their planets and brought them through many trials and dangers to finally end up on the planet of Jewel.  They had to face him and eventually killed him, and then destroyed the Triad, who had intended to put their souls into the three kid’s bodies.  Then Score, Helaine, and Pixel used the Triad’s souls in Sarman’s device, and therefore made it so that there was no true ruler of the Diadem, meaning there would no longer be any evil tyrants running everything. 

            After that, they had gone back to Dondar, and though they had had several more adventures over the past five years, they had mostly enjoyed living out their lives with the unicorns, and the occasional visit from Oracle.  They also often went to see Shanara, another peaceful magic user, though she could not come visit them, because her powers were not strong enough to go past her own world.

            Score was jerked out of his thoughts as Helaine lowered the drawbridge, and they ran across.  The unicorns were waiting at the edge of the woods.  It appeared to be the entire herd, with Thunder, Flame, and Nova standing at the front.

            Score walked directly toward Thunder, Helaine to Flame, and Pixel to Nova.  Over the years, they had realized that each human naturally bonded to a certain unicorn, and had come to accept it.  Even the unicorns had, surprisingly including Thunder.  Though Thunder had a quick temper and always seemed to be in a bad mood, everyone knew that it was really just him trying to cover up his good nature.  Score knew Thunder just liked to act tough.

            As Score reached Thunder, he stood beside the large black unicorn, casually laying his hand on Thunder’s back.  Thunder pretended to barely tolerate this, but Score knew he didn’t mind.

            “So, what’s this about?” Score asked, knowing from the grins on Pixel and Helaine’s faces that he was the only one not in on this.

            Thunder sort of mentally cleared his throat, as if he was slightly embarrassed.  * Well… * he said slowly.  * You have aided our herd many times in the past five years.  Saving us from various power hungry magicians and so on.  Therefore… we wanted to… well… *

            Nova broke in, trying to hide her laugh at Thunder’s discomfort. 

*What he’s trying to say,* she said.  * Is that we wanted to show you our gratitude. *

      At that, Flame eagerly stepped forward.  She turned to two younger male unicorns behind her and nodded.  The two unicorns stepped aside, and behind them was a beautiful statue.  It looked to be carved out of solid crystal.  Score could see that it was the three of them, standing side by side.  At the bottom was a small inscription, and he bent down to read it.  It said:

Dedicated to the amazing heroism of three great magicians, and great friends.

      Pixel smiled as he read it, too.  “Short, but sweet,” he said, quietly.  He turned and nodded at Helaine and Score, who grinned.

      “Well,” Score began, standing between Helaine and Pixel and placing a hand on each one’s shoulder.  He subconsciously noted that Helaine gave a little twinge when he touched her.  Wow, Score thought.  She must really hate me.  I wonder what I did this time.    

      “We want to thank the entire herd for this amazing gift,” Score said.  Helaine and Pixel nodded.  Score looked at Helaine and thought he could almost see a tear in her eye.

      “We don’t know how to ever repay you for this,” Helaine said, addressing all of the gathered unicorns.

      Thunder shook his head.  * There is no need to repay us.  This was our way of repaying you. *

      “I don’t mean to ruin the moment or anything,” Pixel began.  “But how did you guys make this?  I mean, considering your complete lack of hands and all.”

      Flame giggled in their heads.  “Well if we told you that, we’d have to kill you,” she said, quoting a statement she had learned from Score.

      Everyone laughed, and Nova added, * In other words, it’s our little secret. *

*Well…* Thunder began, once more looking intensely embarrassed.

*We’ll, um, be getting back to the herd lands, now. *

      Flame and Nova gave a very familiar look to Score, Helaine, and Pixel, who all tried not to laugh, unfortunately without much success.  Luckily, Thunder didn’t notice.

      With a command Thunder, the entire herd turned and ran off into the woods.  Flame stayed behind an extra second to nuzzle Helaine, and then she ran off, too.

      Helaine, Score, and Pixel just stood, staring at the statue.  None of them knew what to say.

      “I have to tell you guys,” Pixel said.  “It’s hard to believe how good it feels to finally be appreciated.”

      Helaine and Score nodded.  “Of course, that feeling will disappear the next time another insane magician or radioactive flying warthog attacks us.”

      Helaine rolled her eyes.  “Radioactive flying warthog?” Pixel asked.  “Um, I don’t remember that one.”

      Score grinned.  “Hey, it could happen.”  Then he and Helaine walked back toward the castle.

      Helaine stopped for a moment and turned around.  “Pixel, are you coming?” she asked.

      “No,” he replied.  “I’m just going to stay out here for a little while.  I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

      Helaine nodded and ran to catch up with Score.

      When they got back into the castle they both headed to the kitchen for breakfast.  “So, after you stuff your face are you headed back to bed?” Helaine asked as she spread jelly on a piece of toast.

      “Nah,” Score said, turning his toast into a McDonald’s breakfast biscuit.  “I’m awake, now.  Anyway, there’s something I wanted to show you.”

      “Oh no,” she said, looking like she was ready to pull her sword on him.  “I’m not getting on another one of those bicycle things ever again.  I told you that.”

      Score shook his head, rolling his eyes.  “No, it’s not that.  I gave up on the bikes a long time ago.  Just wait until you see this one.”

      He grabbed Helaine by the arm and started hauling her into what they considered like a living room.  Helaine blushed a deep scarlet, but Score didn’t notice.

      In the room was a large television set.  Helaine looked at it, not sure what to think.  “What is that thing?” she asked.

      “It’s called a TV,” Score said, proudly.  “I made a quick trip to Earth and picked one up.  They’re normally very expensive, but I turned a bunch of one dollar bills into hundreds.”

      “What does it do?”

      Score smiled.  “I’m going to show you.”  He picked up the remote control and turned the television on.  Helaine’s eyes widened as the huge TV lit up and a Bugs Bunny cartoon appeared on the screen.

      Helaine sat down on the couch and watched the screen, looking amazed.  After a while, she asked, “Who is that man with the speech impediment hunting the talking rabbit?”

      Score laughed and flopped down on the couch beside Helaine, who promptly began edging slowly away from him.  “That’s Elmer Fudd,” Score said. 

      Helaine’s attention returned to the glowing television.  “You have very strange things on your planet, Score.  I assume this is a form of entertainment?”

      Score nodded.  “Yeah, and now that we’ve got one, we can all become couch potatoes, my lifelong dream.”

      Helaine looked confused.  “Um, Score?  No matter how long we stare at this thing, I doubt we’ll ever become potatoes.”

      Score laughed again, and they spent the next few hours watching cartoons.

      Pixel spent a long time sitting out there looking at the statue.  After all the things they had done, all the times they had nearly lost their lives helping people, it felt so good to finally be shown that they were appreciated.  He didn’t realize how much it had been hurting him that no one had even really bothered to say thank you.  But now that the unicorns had given them this gift, he felt like a big weight had been lifted off of him, and everything was okay again.

      Pixel realized that while he had been thinking, it had gotten dark.  He stood up, about to go back inside the castle.  Score and Helaine might be getting worried.  But as he was about to turn to go back in, he noticed that the statue was glowing strangely.  He slowly walked over to it, suddenly getting a little nervous.  He reached a slightly shaking hand out, and the second his fingers touched the smooth crystal, he felt something like an electric shock go through his body.  He jerked his hand back quickly.  Something was definitely wrong with that statue. 

Pixel began to turn around and head back to the castle, intending to inform Score and Helaine of what was going on, but he suddenly felt his toes sort of tingle.  He stopped, and realized that the tingle was moving up his legs now. 

Okay, Pixel thought.  Something is definitely wrong here.  I’m going to get Score and Helaine.  But when he tried to go, he realized that he could no longer move his legs.  That tingling feeling was paralyzing him or something!

And now it was moving all over his body.  It was up at his chest, then down his arms.  Everything was frozen!  But when it reached his head, he had the strangest feeling.  It was like somebody was reading his mind or something.  And then he heard a voice in his head laughing.  It was almost like when he talked to the unicorns, only this time the voice sounded so much closer.  And then he realized it.  The voice really was inside his head.

The laughing stopped, and the thing began to speak.  Ah, so you’ve finally figured it out?  I was wondering how long it was going to take you.  Yes, I really am inside you now.  You no longer have control of your own body, I do.  And don’t bother fighting it, because you can’t overcome this spell.  It is extremely powerful.

Pixel could feel himself begin to panic.  He was beginning to feel more and more like a prisoner inside his own body.  He was trapped!  But how?  Of course, the statue.  This must be a magician who had used a spell to bind himself to the statue somehow, and when Pixel touched it, the magician was able to transfer himself into Pixel. 

That’s exactly right.  I’m surprised you figured it out, you pathetic child.  My name is Dironal, and you’d better get used to me.  I’m going to be here for a while.

Pixel felt like screaming.  Only, he couldn’t.