Let’s begin.
GiGi the giraffe took one step out of her family's shelter.
Crunch.
She took another.
Crunch.
Snow covered Sunmeadow Valley. It rested on the meadow grass, filled the little spaces between branches and made every familiar path look new.
GiGi lifted one long leg and inspected her hoof.
“Cold,” she announced.
Her little brother Pip pushed his nose into a heap of snow. He came up wearing a white mustache.
“Wonderful,” he announced.
GiGi was not convinced.
Then Starlight arrived at the edge of the clearing. Her gray-purple coat sparkled, and a few soft snowflakes rested in her rainbow mane.
“Come and see!” the little unicorn called. “There's a winter festival on Cloudberry Hill.”
“Does it have a warm festival?” GiGi asked.
“Warm drinks, a sheltered clearing and lots of games. My mother is helping set it up.”
Pip shook snow from his whiskers. “Does it have snow?”
“A little,” Starlight said, looking around at the very snowy valley.
GiGi's mother Mara laughed. She would walk with them to meet Starlight's family at the foot of the hill.
GiGi agreed to go. She liked festivals. She wasn't yet sure she liked winter.
At the foot of Cloudberry Hill, the path divided. One way rose between two rocks. The other curved through the trees.
Starlight pointed uphill.
“That way takes us straight there.”
GiGi could see little pennants above the ridge. The festival was close.
“Then let's take it.”
Her first steps were easy. Snow squeaked under her hooves. Starlight bounded ahead and left four neat prints.
GiGi tried a quicker step.
Her front hoof slipped on a smooth patch beneath the snow.
She sat down with a soft, surprised whump.
Starlight turned. For a second, she nearly laughed. GiGi looked like a very tall snow statue that had been assembled in the wrong order.
Then she saw her friend's face.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.” GiGi lifted her chin. “Only very snowy.”
Mara helped her find a firm place to stand. Starlight brushed loose snow away with her tail.
GiGi looked at the hill above them.
“I don't think I can do this part.”
The words came out smaller than she meant them to.
Starlight looked at her own little hoofprints. She had crossed the patch easily. GiGi's long legs and much bigger body made it a different problem for her.
“I should have asked,” Starlight said. “I thought because it was easy for me, it would be easy for you.”
GiGi shook a snowflake from her ear.
“Can we find another way?”
They returned to the fork. This time they examined the curving path beneath the trees.
It was longer. It was also flatter, with rough earth showing beneath the branches. Starlight's father Rowan had marked the route with broad blue ribbons.
“We can see where this one goes,” GiGi said from her height. “It comes around the back of the clearing.”
Mara tested the first stretch. The friends followed the marked path together.
At a low branch, Starlight ducked straight underneath.
GiGi stopped.
“Another part designed for unicorns.”
Starlight came back. “What would make it work for giraffes?”
“A higher branch.”
GiGi used her strong neck to lift it gently while Mara and Starlight passed. Rowan, waiting near the clearing, secured it out of the route.
Now the way worked for everyone.
The festival smelled of warm apples. Starlight's mother Selene greeted them beside a sheltered stone wall, where steam rose from small cups.
“Apple drink,” she said. “Warm enough for cold noses.”
GiGi took a careful sip.
Her nose approved immediately.
Across the clearing, families were building snow animals. There was a crooked fox, a round rabbit and something with six sticks sticking out of it.
“What is that?” GiGi asked.
“A deer,” said Starlight's older sister Aster.
GiGi looked at the sticks.
“A very prepared deer.”
Aster laughed and took two sticks away.
Starlight wanted to build a snow unicorn. GiGi wanted to watch from beside the warm drinks.
“You can tell me if it looks right,” Starlight offered.
She pushed together a small body and added a head. Then she tried to balance a snowy horn on top.
The horn fell off.
She tried again.
It fell into her hoofprints.
GiGi forgot about her drink.
“The head needs to be a little flatter,” she said.
Starlight stepped back. “Would you show me?”
GiGi bent her long neck and pressed a small place into the top of the snowy head. Starlight set the horn there.
It stayed.
Pip, who had arrived with the other families, inspected their work.
“Needs a giraffe.”
GiGi looked at the snow.
A very tall snow neck would fall over. She knew that before trying. But a sitting snow giraffe could lean against the broad wall, and everyone could reach a different part.
She described her idea. Starlight brightened.
“I can do the little patches.”
GiGi pushed two large balls of snow into place. Pip made the smallest one for the head. Aster helped shape the ears. Starlight added brown leaves for patches.
Their giraffe sat beside the unicorn, leaning comfortably against the wall.
Pip stood back.
“It looks like you after you slipped.”
GiGi inspected it carefully.
“It does need a more surprised face.”
She made two round eyes and a very round mouth. Everyone laughed, including GiGi.
As the afternoon grew dim, Selene invited Starlight to help light the little crystal lanterns around the clearing. Starlight touched the first with her horn. Its soft glow passed to the next.
GiGi reached the highest lantern that nobody else could lift into place. Together, they hung it beneath the shelter.
Gold, pink and blue shone over the snow animals.
The friends stood beside their snowy twins.
“I still don't like slipping,” GiGi said.
“Neither do I,” Starlight answered. “Or dropping my own horn.”
“But I like this part.”
On the way home, they chose the longer marked path. Starlight matched GiGi's slower steps. GiGi lifted a low branch so her friend could see the last lantern shining behind them.
At the foot of the hill, she looked back.
“Tomorrow, can we build a snow bridge?”
“For our leaf boats?”
“For Pip. He'll probably turn it into a mustache.”
“What do you think our next adventure will be?” GiGi asked.
Starlight smiled as their hoofprints curved home together.
“I don’t know… but whatever happens, I’m ready!”