Let’s begin.
The wind stole GiGi's leaf.
It had been an excellent leaf. Wide, red and exactly the shape of a little boat. Now it tumbled across the Enchanted Glade with GiGi the giraffe following it.
“Come back,” she called. “You haven't sailed yet!”
Her unicorn friend Starlight caught it with a small loop of horn light.
“Perhaps it wants to be a kite.”
GiGi laughed. Then she stopped.
Under the wind's whooshing came another sound.
“Help!”
The friends looked toward the rocky slope beyond the trees.
“Did you hear that?” GiGi asked.
Starlight's ears pointed forward. “Someone's calling from the Crystal Caves.”
They were supposed to meet Starlight's father Rowan at the caves' broad entrance. He was helping repair a trail nearby. Today, their visit had turned into something quite different.
They hurried toward the slope.
At the little stream below it, a hedgehog stood on a flat rock with three babies. A branch had fallen across their narrow path to the bank.
“Could you move that?” the mother called. “We can't climb over it.”
GiGi glanced toward the caves. The little voice called again.
Starlight looked from the hedgehogs to GiGi.
“If we clear their path, they can come this way while we keep going.”
GiGi planted her strong legs and lifted the branch with her mouth. Starlight checked the ground beneath it, moving a loose twig from the babies' way.
The hedgehogs hurried onto the bank.
The smallest baby stopped to sniff GiGi's hoof.
“Enormous,” he whispered.
“Quite useful,” GiGi answered around her branch.
Once everyone had passed, she set it down beside the path.
The mother hedgehog offered them a small acorn.
“A guide acorn,” she said. “Touch it to the ground where your journey begins. If you lose your way back, plant it. Its light will grow toward that place.”
Starlight touched the acorn to a patch of earth beside the stream. One tiny golden line shone across its shell.
“Thank you,” she said.
They tucked it into their leaf pouch and continued up the familiar trail.
At the cave entrance, Rowan stood beside a pile of sticks.
“There's someone inside,” GiGi said. “We heard them calling.”
He listened. The little voice came again, this time quite clearly.
“I'm here! Behind the round rock!”
Rowan called back. “Stay where you are. We're coming to look.”
The outer chamber was wide and full of crystals. Starlight touched her horn to a clear crystal near the entrance. Soft light spread to the next one, then the next.
GiGi could see a little bronze dragon peering around a round stone.
His wings were folded tightly against his back.
“Hello,” Starlight said. “What's your name?”
“Ember.” His nose trembled. “I was chasing a light. Then that stone rolled into the little passage.”
“Can you move your feet?” GiGi asked.
Ember nodded. “I can move everything. I just can't get out.”
He demonstrated by wiggling his nose.
“That is a very good wiggle,” Starlight told him. “Keep it ready.”
The stone blocked most of the opening. Beside it lay a long, fallen root, a few loose pebbles and a patch of firm ground.
Starlight tried lifting the stone with a curl of magic. It shivered, rose a tiny bit, then settled.
“Too much for me,” she said.
GiGi lowered her shoulder and pushed gently. The stone moved half a hoof's width before rolling back into its hollow.
Ember's ears drooped.
“It keeps doing that.”
GiGi stepped back. Pushing harder might move it farther, but it would still roll back.
“We need it to stay moved,” she said.
Starlight studied the fallen root.
“I can hold light around something small,” she said. “What if I held these pebbles together while you moved the stone?”
Rowan checked the gap beside the rock. He cleared the little loose pieces from Ember's way and stood where he could watch both sides.
“Tell Ember before you begin,” he said.
GiGi lowered her head toward the opening.
“When I say stop, stay still. When Starlight says come, follow her light.”
Ember nodded hard enough to wobble his ears.
Starlight touched the pebbles. Golden loops held them in a firm little bundle.
GiGi pressed her shoulder to the stone.
“One,” she said.
Starlight moved the bundle close.
“Two.”
Ember tucked his wings tighter.
“Three.”
GiGi pushed. Her strong legs held steady as the stone rolled out of its hollow.
“Stop, Ember.”
He froze.
Starlight guided the pebbles into the space behind the stone. Rowan checked that the rock had settled against them. GiGi eased away.
The stone stayed where it was.
A clear gap opened beside it.
“Come toward my light,” Starlight said.
Ember squeezed through, one wing, one foot and one excellent nose wiggle at a time.
Then he was out.
He wrapped both little wings around GiGi's front leg.
“Thank you.”
GiGi bent to touch her nose to his head. “You did exactly what we needed.”
A low rumble rolled through the chamber.
Ember lifted his head.
“Mama!”
He started toward a side passage, then stopped at its fork.
Both ways looked alike.
“That might be where I got mixed up,” he said.
Rowan called into the passage. A deeper voice answered, but its echo seemed to come from everywhere.
Starlight looked toward the entrance. From this corner, even their own way back was difficult to pick out among the sparkling walls.
“The acorn,” she said.
She set it in a little patch of earth. A golden shoot curled up. It bent toward the stream where they had first touched the acorn to the ground.
GiGi could see the shoot's light over a low rock.
“That way takes us outside,” she said. “His mother can meet us at the entrance.”
Rowan called the plan into the caves. A relieved rumble answered.
The friends followed the little growing light. At the entrance, a large green dragon waited with her wings wide open.
Ember ran straight into them.
His mother held him close. Then she thanked the friends.
“I thought being brave meant going farther by myself,” Ember admitted.
GiGi looked at Starlight. “We needed quite a few different kinds of help today.”
“And one very good nose wiggle,” Starlight added.
Ember demonstrated it again.
Everyone laughed.
Before leaving, his mother showed them how the crystals caught evening light. Pink and gold sparkled across the entrance walls. The guide shoot rested beside the path like a tiny shining sign.
GiGi's red leaf was still tucked safely in their pouch.
“I think,” she said, “my boat can wait until tomorrow.”
“What do you think our next adventure will be?” Starlight asked.
GiGi watched Ember curl under his mother's warm wing.
“I don’t know… but whatever happens, I’m ready!”