Introducing Peanut

If you’re a toadaphobe, look away now.

Peanut isn’t a toad but he has toad eyes that he can put to good use if the gang need to have someone distracted. And the gang often want to distract someone, especially if the someone is guarding a stash of food.

Peanut creeps up on people and peers at them through some handy obstacle like a hedge, then he opens his eyes W-I-D-E. For a second, they think they’ve seen this:

And if they are bufonophobic, they will run away and leave their picnic unattended.

Introducing Spice

Spice is friendly and loves chatting with people and ponies. He’s very discreet, though, and you won’t learn any secrets from him, which is a pity as he’s one of the ones with a BIG secret to share.

Unfortunately, Spice doesn’t like being photographed, but here he is just after he was talking to a person and a pony.

The arrow shows where Spice just vanished to.

Introducing Custard

Custard has a key role to play in the secret of the unicorn but his efficiency is sometimes blighted by his overwhelming desire for crisps. His dive-and-grab manoeuvre has been perfected after much practice and, if Custard is near, a heap of crisps can go from this:

to this:

in the blink of an eye.

Introducing Koby Blue

Koby Blue is a member of a very secret society – so secret that I’m not allowed to say, but everything will be revealed in the book (that’s a clue, by the way).

Koby’s special trick involves the colour of iron and a swishing tail. He learnt it from his parents. In fact, Koby is one in a long line of Blues who have been perfecting this particular trick for generations. 

With a single flick of a tail, this cupcake will fly from its owner’s hand and vanish into the mouths of the waiting Blues as if by magic.

Introducing Tristan

We have already met Tristan briefly. He’s a good friend of Solo. 

Tristan’s love of sticky circumstances (lakes of honey, bags of sweets, pots of treacle) gets him into sticky situations with certain types, such as angry bees, indignant cooks, and people who aren’t keen on sticky footprints everywhere.

As soon as Tristan goes by, this will become an empty hand, and Tristan will find himself in yet another sticky situation. 

Introducing Solo

Solo is quite a character who loves nothing better than a good scrap. 

He is definitely the one to have on your side in a sticky situation, as his friends can tell you. 

When Solo's good friend, Tristan, stepped in a fruit pie, things got very sticky very quickly - in more ways than one; the owner of the fruit pie wasn't pleased. It was lucky all round that Solo was on hand to get his friend out of trouble.

Introducing Fmelodie

Fmelodie is the one that the Prof said sounded Fmiliar. Ha ha. See what he did there?

Fmelodie is quite a character but her real accomplishment is something you’ll never see, because she’s a masterof disguise. Here is a cat wondering what woke it up. Of course it was Fmelodie but she’s so fast that the cat is looking in the wrong direction.

Fmelodie’s skill is really useful in certain circumstances to do with unicorns, but that’s all I’m allowed to say about that because the secret of the unicorn has to remain secret (it’s what Amy would call a Top Priority secret) until it gets revealed by Fmelodie and the gang in the book.