Let’s begin.
Starlight the unicorn had planned a small winter party.
Small meant three friends, three places for snacks and a clubhouse roof that kept the snow off their noses.
GiGi the giraffe was carrying a basket of sweet leaves. Starlight had a folded picnic cloth. Their little friend Luma would meet them at the clubhouse in Mushroom Grove.
Luma was a tiny woodland creature with round brown ears and a little blue light at the end of her tail. She could fit into places neither of the bigger friends could reach.
Their clubhouse had two doors. One was broad and tall enough for GiGi to lower her head inside. The other was a little opening close to the ground.
Today, the little door had disappeared.
Snow lay against it in a deep white heap.
Starlight stopped. “Oh.”
GiGi set down the basket. “We can move that.”
She pushed a wide sweep of snow away with her nose. Starlight gathered little clumps with loops of horn light and set them beside the clubhouse wall.
Soon the opening showed again.
“Perfect,” Starlight said.
A tiny voice answered from the path.
“Not quite.”
Luma stood beyond their new snow pile. Her blue tail light glimmered through the bare stems.
“You cleared the door,” she said. “But now I can't get to it.”
GiGi looked down. They had pushed the snow into a ridge across Luma's approach.
From above, the ridge hardly looked like anything. Beside Luma, it was nearly a wall.
“I'll move it again,” GiGi said.
She began pushing the nearest part toward the low opening.
Starlight stopped her.
“Wait. That's where we just cleared.”
GiGi lifted her snowy nose.
This was becoming a rather silly circle.
“Where do you usually come from?” she asked Luma.
Luma pointed with her tail toward a gap between two roots.
“I follow that path, go around this stone and turn into my door.”
GiGi lowered her head close to the ground. From Luma's height, she could see the route clearly. The snow ridge blocked the turn, not just the last few steps.
Starlight set the cloth on a dry root.
“We should clear the whole way she uses.”
That sounded better. They moved snow away from the roots, around the stone and past the little door.
Starlight worked carefully, placing each clump behind the clubhouse, where it didn't block either entrance. GiGi carried the bigger loose heaps with broad, steady pushes.
Luma watched. Her whiskers twitched.
“Would you like to try it now?” Starlight asked.
Luma stepped onto the cleared ground. She followed the roots, came to the stone and began her turn.
Then she stopped.
“Too narrow,” she said.
GiGi looked at the little path. It seemed quite wide to her.
Luma tried turning her tail. Its blue light bumped a twig on one side.
“I can go straight,” she explained. “But I need room to turn around.”
Starlight glanced at GiGi.
“We made a path shaped like our idea of Luma.”
“Instead of asking the actual Luma,” GiGi said.
Luma's ears lifted. “The actual Luma would like this corner bigger.”
So they made the corner bigger.
This time, Starlight asked Luma to show where she wanted to stand. GiGi moved the loose snow beyond that spot. They left room for her tail as well as her feet.
Luma walked through the turn, circled the stone and reached her door.
Her light blinked twice.
“Good.”
Then she looked inside.
The snack basket was on a high shelf.
She looked up at GiGi.
GiGi looked at the basket. She had put it in exactly the easiest place for a giraffe.
“I have done it again,” she said.
Starlight laughed softly. “At least this time the snack hasn't turned into a snowdrift.”
They brought the basket down to a flat stone inside the clubhouse. Luma could reach it. So could Starlight. GiGi could bend her long neck without bumping the roof.
Now it really was a party for three.
Outside, a gust shook the branches. A little snow fell beside the cleared turn.
Luma peered through her door.
“If we sit in here for a long time, it might cover the path again.”
GiGi looked at the sky. Starlight's ears tipped toward the wind.
“We could keep going out to clear it,” GiGi suggested.
“Then somebody would miss the party,” Starlight said.
They examined the approach together. The snow was falling from one low branch above the stone.
GiGi could hold the branch aside. But she couldn't stand there all afternoon either.
Starlight looked at two forked sticks beside the clubhouse. They had saved them when they built the big door.
“What if those held the branch up?”
GiGi lifted it gently. Starlight placed the sticks on firm ground, outside Luma's path. A soft loop of horn light held them while GiGi eased the branch into place.
The branch stayed lifted. The turn stayed clear.
Luma tested it once more, walking out, circling and coming back in.
“Still good.”
GiGi settled beside the broad doorway. Starlight spread the picnic cloth. Luma chose the place nearest the little door, where she could look out at the snow.
They ate sweet leaves and watched flakes drift past the opening.
After a while, GiGi noticed that Luma kept leaning over the cloth.
“Is something else too high?” she asked.
“No,” Luma said. “I'm looking for my leaf.”
It was tucked beneath a fold. Starlight lifted the corner and slid it out.
The three friends looked at one another.
Then they laughed.
“Sometimes,” GiGi said, “it really is just a lost leaf.”
When the party ended, Luma walked out along her wide, clear turn. Her blue tail light moved easily between the roots.
GiGi and Starlight followed by the big door.
“Next party,” Starlight said, “we should ask everyone where they'd like to sit before we put the food down.”
“Especially me,” GiGi said. “Some of us need a lot of room for our knees.”
“What do you think our next adventure will be?” GiGi asked.
Starlight glanced back at the two different doors.
“I don’t know… but whatever happens, I’m ready!”