Let’s begin.
Gigi the giraffe had found a leaf almost as big as Starlight's face.
“It's a very good leaf,” she said.
Starlight, her unicorn friend, peered around it. “It has a very good giraffe behind it.”
Autumn had come to Sunmeadow Valley. Yellow leaves drifted over the meadows, and red ones shone among the green acacias. Across the brook, the Enchanted Glade was changing too.
The friends were taking their favorite fallen leaves to Luma, a tiny woodland creature with round ears and a blue light on her tail. Her family lived beside a little stream in the Glade.
They had arranged to meet outside her burrow before lunch. Starlight's father, Rowan, was working at a nearby hollow tree.
Gigi put the big leaf in their basket.
“Luma could use that for a picnic mat.”
“Or a roof,” Starlight said.
“Or a very large hat.”
They followed the familiar path between silver trunks. Rain from the night before glittered on the grass.
Then Starlight stopped.
A thin ribbon of water was creeping across the path.
“That wasn't here yesterday.”
Gigi stepped back onto dry ground. Water slipped between two roots and spread toward the hollow where Luma lived.
“Luma?” she called.
A blue light bobbed above a root. Luma appeared beside her mother on a dry grassy rise.
“We're up here!”
The friends went around by the higher path.
“Is everyone out?” Starlight asked.
“Yes,” Luma's mother said. “We've brought our things up too. But the water keeps coming closer to our door.”
Luma pointed with her nose. A puddle lay below the rise. At its edge stood the root arch that sheltered her burrow entrance.
“My doorstep is getting a bath,” she said. “It didn't ask for one.”
Starlight looked toward the path they had used. Its lowest part was already wet.
“If that fills up, your little walking route will be underwater too.”
Gigi stretched her neck, looking along the stream without moving down the slope.
Water ran freely above a narrow gap between two stones. Below the gap, the stream was barely moving.
Across the opening lay a fallen stick. Wet leaves had gathered against it in a thick brown bundle.
“I can see what's caught,” Gigi said. “Maybe I can pull it out.”
She looked for a place to stand. The ground near the gap was dark and soft. Reaching would mean leaning over it.
Gigi kept her feet where they were.
“I can't reach from here.”
“Then let's get Dad,” Starlight said.
Luma's mother stayed on the rise with her family. Gigi and Starlight took the high path to Rowan's hollow tree.
They told him about the stick, the packed leaves and the water approaching Luma's door.
Rowan set down his basket.
“Show me from the dry side.”
Back at the stream, he checked the ground before approaching the gap. The friends waited beside the basket.
“Could we put stones across the puddle?” Gigi asked.
Rowan looked at the spreading water.
“It would keep rising around them. First we need to free the opening the stream already uses.”
“Can we help?” Starlight asked.
“Yes. I can move the caught stick. You can carry the loose leaves I bring back. We'll keep them away from the water.”
Gigi glanced at their beautiful leaf collection. They had planned to spend the morning choosing the very best colors.
Starlight followed her gaze.
“Let's go where we can help the most,” she said.
Gigi nodded. “This basket can carry brown leaves too.”
They set their special leaves on the dry rise. Luma sat beside them while her mother helped choose a place for the wet heap.
“Not beside our door,” Luma said.
“Definitely not,” Gigi agreed.
Rowan chose a broad patch well above the stream. Then he worked from firm ground, using a forked stick held in his mouth to draw loose leaves toward the bank.
Gigi picked up a small mouthful from the pile he set on dry ground. Starlight took another.
The wet leaves made a soft, squelchy sound when they dropped them.
“Our collection has become very noisy,” Starlight said.
Gigi tried to answer with a leaf stuck to her chin.
Luma giggled.
“You're wearing one.”
Gigi shook it off onto the heap.
A little water slipped through the opening.
“It's working!” Starlight called.
Then a clump of leaves slid down and covered the gap again.
“Oh.”
Gigi wanted to hurry. The puddle below Luma's door had spread another hoof's width.
“Should we pull faster?”
Rowan shook his head.
“That clump is still resting on the stick. I'll free it a little at a time.”
Starlight looked closely from the dry rise.
“There's another bunch caught behind it. I can see a red leaf sticking up.”
Gigi's higher view found the same spot.
“Behind the fork, Rowan. On the far side.”
Rowan nodded. He eased the loose bunch back toward himself and placed it beside the basket.
The friends carried it away together.
This time the opening stayed clear.
Water began to trickle between the stones. Rowan worked the fallen stick free and drew it onto the firm bank.
The trickle became a little stream again.
Everyone watched.
No spell flashed. Nothing leaped into the air. The water simply went where it had been trying to go all morning.
Starlight checked the puddle.
“It's stopped getting bigger.”
Luma's mother nodded. “We'll wait here while it drains.”
“How will we know?” Luma asked.
Starlight pointed to a pale stone at the puddle's edge.
“The water was touching its top. Now I can see a dry stripe.”
Gigi watched the narrow gap. Another leaf sailed toward it.
Everyone went quiet.
The leaf turned sideways and slipped through.
“There's room,” Gigi said.
“And the stripe is wider,” Luma reported.
Rowan came back along the firm path.
“Good watching. We'll check again after lunch. Your mother will decide when the little route is ready.”
Luma looked down at her short legs.
“I would like a very dry stripe to walk on.”
Rowan checked downstream. No loose heap blocked the next bend. Gigi and Starlight finished moving the small piles from the bank.
By lunchtime, the water had slipped back from Luma's doorstep. Her mother inspected the entrance while everyone else stayed on the rise.
“The doorway is dry inside,” she called. “The low path needs longer.”
“Then we'll picnic up here,” Luma decided.
Gigi spread the enormous leaf beside their basket. Starlight set a few berries on it for Luma.
“It really is a mat,” Gigi said.
Luma climbed onto one corner.
“And it has excellent seats.”
They ate with Rowan and Luma's family. Below them, the small stream made its familiar chuckling sound.
When it was time to go, Starlight looked up at Gigi.
“What do you think our next adventure will be?” Starlight asked.
Gigi smiled.
“I don’t know… but whatever happens, I’m ready!”