//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4- Journey to the River 
// Story: The History of the Alicorn Amulet 
// by Old Ben Kenobi 
//------------------------------//

The Cockatrice flew silently through the forest. He was hungry;the last thing he had eaten was a manticore cub, and they were mostly armour and fur. He was just about to give up and roost for the night, when something caught his eye, moving in the forest floor below.It was a quadrupedal animal, and was moving at a walking pace. At last, the Cockatrice thought, dinner! Keeping himself as silent as a whisper, he folded his bat-like wings against his body, and dive bombed from above.
The Cockatrice did not know what hit him. At first, he thought it was a branch, but no branch could have been propelled that powerfully unless it was in a hurricane, and there was only a light breeze in the midnight air. He fell to the ground, stunned.
"Thought you could creep up on old Starswirl, eh?" Came a gruff, ancient voice. "Well, I'm not quite that deaf yet!"
The unicorn put down the Staff he had just whacked the Cockatrice with on the ground.
The Cockatrice was levitated by magic-a curious feeling, like the butterflies in your stomach are flying so vigourosly that you are actually being lifted upwards by them. The creature felt himself being lifted into a blue bag at the end of a Staff. The bag was empty, unlike the red one on the floor, which the Cockatrice thought looked as though it had more things inside it than it should be able to hold. Everything went dark as the bag was folded on top over him. Suddenly, he felt the whole world was swirling around him, when it suddenly stopped, catapulting the dragon-like bird into the air. After what seemed like a million years, he finally landed about half a kilometre away, with a soft thump in a tree. Dazed, the animal vaguely thought that he shouldn't try to attack seemingly unarmed unicorns in the future, before falling straight to sleep.

Starswirl the Bearded took out the map from his red bag. He worked out that if he kept heading North, he would eventually find the rambling Rock Ridge. The creatures from the Everfree Forest would usually avoid that area: they preferred sneaking up on their prey rather than a full on confrontation without the element of surprise. Since there was no cover in Rambling Rock Ridge, Starswirl knew he would be much safer there than in the Forest. 
As Starswirl battered his way through the thick foliage with his Staff, he finally came to a clearing. In the distance, Rambiling Rock Ridge rose overhead like a storm cloud. The only thing between it and Starswirl was the river.
Starswirl trotted over the grass and away from the darkness of the Everfree. He looked over the river. It was far too rapid to swim across, and besides, Starswirl had heard tales of Sea Serpents living in this river.It was wide; too wide to teleport across, and there didn't seem to be any means of crossing. Starswirl stared in frustration at the other side. He would not let this get in the way of his quest. He was just about to turn around and look for a way to cross, when he noticed that there was somepony behind him. She was a young, Amaranth pink unicorn mare with a long, blonde mane and blue eyes. Her cutie mark took the form of a tree rising from the waves. The most striking thing about her, though, was that she was wearing a bridle. This was not just any bridle-it glittered as golden as a flame seen burning through water. Starswirl looked at her in awe.
After a few moments, Starswirl decided to say, tentatively; "Hello?"
The mare said nothing, but she looked away from Starswirl and instead looked to the forest. Starswirl decided to ask her a question which he was desperate to know.
"Do you know if there is any way to cross?"
Her head snapped back to face him. She nodded, slowly.
"Well, where is it?" Asked Starswirl, impatiently. "I haven't got all day!"
She walked over to the side of the river and beckoned a hoof at him. Starswirl approached with caution. The mare turned around and walked directly into the water. Starswirl glimpsed down into the river, when suddenly, two hooves grabbed him like seaweed, and pulled him down into the cold, dark water.