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lick the melting chocolate ice cream.
    ‘I don’t know if you should be eating that,’ Emily warned. ‘Chocolate isn’t good for dogs, maybe it’s the same for horses.’
    Pegasus stopped and looked at Emily. The expression on his face gave her the impression that he didn’t much care for being called a horse.
    ‘Well, I’m sorry,’ Emily said. ‘I just don’t want you to get sick. You’ve got enough problems already.’
    Pegasus stared at her a moment longer before going back to the ice cream.
    ‘Fine, suit yourself,’ she said as she unfolded a deck chair and sat down to eat the fruit and vegetables that Pegasus had refused.

    As the morning passed, Emily did her best to clean and treat Pegasus’s many wounds. While working on his neck, her cellphone went off.
    ‘Hi Dad,’ she said, reading his name on the screen.
    ‘Hey Kiddo, you all right?’
    Emily looked at the cuts on her arms, then over to Pegasus. ‘Sure, everything’s fine. You wouldn’t believe what happened last night! There was this big crash on our roof—’
    Before Emily could say more, Pegasus nudged her and pounded the floor with his hoof. He shook his head and snorted. Emily looked at him and knew he didn’t want her to tell her dad about him.
    ‘What happened?’ her father repeated. ‘Emily, did something happen?’
    ‘Um, no Dad. It was just the garden shed. The wind blew it over. But there are no problems here at all apart from the power being out. What about you?’
    Her father sighed. ‘I’ve been held up a bit, so I’m going to be late getting home. I’m at Belleview Hospital at the moment, trying to do a report on this kid that fell out a window. Things have gone from weird to really, really weird.’
    Emily was looking at Pegasus. He was still staring at her intently, as though he was listening to her every word.
    ‘Em, you still there?’ her father called.
    ‘Sure, Dad,’ she answered quickly. ‘Sorry. What’s so weird about the kid?’
    ‘I can’t get into it right now. I’ll tell you when I get home later. Should be sometime before dinner. Just take it easy today.’
    ‘I will,’ she promised.
    After she hung up, Emily looked at the stallion. ‘You didn’t want me to tell my father about you, did you?’
    Pegasus shook his head and snorted. Again, Emily had the strange feeling he knew exactly what she meant.
    ‘I don’t understand. My dad’s a good man. He’s a police officer and would help you. He’d never hurt you or turn you in.’
    Pegasus shook his head and stomped his hoof.
    ‘I sure wish you could tell me what’s wrong.’ Emily sighed. ‘Well, if you don’t want my dad to know, I’ll do as you wish. But I need help. I can’t get that spear out of you on my own and your wing needs to be set properly. I’m not strong enough to do it all alone.’
    Pegasus moved his head closer to Emily and gently nuzzled her hand. She leaned against his thick neck as she tried to think.
    Finally someone else came to mind. Someone from her school who would be strong enough to pull out the spear. Someone who was always sketching pictures of winged horses on his textbooks. The trouble was he was the meanest boy in Emily’s class. He was probably the meanest boy in the whole school.
    Joel DeSilva had only joined Emily’s class a couple of months ago, but he’d already been in several fights. He never talked to anyone and didn’t have any friends. Most of the kids in her class were terrified of him and left him alone. Joel DeSilva was the last person in the world Emily wanted to talk to. But he was the only person she could think of.
    ‘Pegs, I think I know one boy you might let me ask,’ Emily said. ‘He’s from my school. His name is Joel. He’s a bit older than me, but really big and strong. And I know he already loves you because he’s always drawing your picture on all his books. The teachers yell at him about it, but he doesn’t care. He lives across the street from the school, so I could