Let’s begin.
Starlight the unicorn remembered the perfect picnic place.
“There was shade,” she told GiGi. “There was a flat patch of grass. There was even a stone that looked like a sleeping rabbit.”
GiGi the giraffe carried their rolled mat in her mouth. A basket of food rested against its middle, held by a gentle curl of Starlight's horn light.
Their families were coming to meet them after the friends chose a spot. It was their first spring picnic, and Starlight wanted to use the same clearing they had loved last summer.
They passed Lantern Meadow and followed a path between the trees.
“There,” Starlight said.
The sleeping rabbit stone was still there.
So was the shade.
The grass was gone beneath a carpet of tiny spring flowers.
“Oh,” said GiGi around the mat.
Starlight stared. Pale purple flowers nodded where she had pictured everyone sitting. More were opening between the rabbit stone and the tree.
“They weren't here before.”
“It was summer before,” GiGi said, putting down the mat on the path.
Starlight looked at the basket. She could almost see her lovely picnic fading away.
“Perhaps we could put the mat between them.”
GiGi studied the clearing from above. There were little spaces between the flower clumps. She lowered one corner of the mat toward a bare-looking patch.
A purple head bent under it.
GiGi lifted the corner again.
“That isn't a space. It's a very small flower.”
Starlight moved to the other side. More tiny heads were opening there too.
She sighed.
They had brought everything. Their families were on the way. She had told everyone she knew exactly where to go.
GiGi looked at her friend.
“We can find another spot.”
“But I liked this one.”
“So did the flowers.”
Starlight glanced at the little purple heads. She laughed a little, even though she still felt disappointed.
“Apparently they came early.”
They left the mat on the clear path and inspected a patch beneath the next tree. It had plenty of room and no flowers.
Starlight stepped onto it.
Squish.
She looked at her muddy hoof.
“The ground has brought its own drink.”
GiGi pressed the edge with one hoof. Water glimmered between the leaves. Morning rain had collected in the hollow.
“That mat would become a boat,” she said.
They returned to the path.
Farther along, a thick roof of branches made a lovely shady corner. Starlight walked underneath easily.
“Here!”
GiGi tried lowering her head into the opening. One ear brushed a branch. Her neck couldn't follow the turn without pushing through new shoots.
Starlight looked back.
“Oh. I checked my door again.”
GiGi smiled. They had learned about different doors when they built their clubhouse. It was easy to forget when a place looked perfect at first.
“We need a picnic place for all of us,” she said.
Starlight stood beside her. “Dry ground. Enough shade. Room for your head. No flowers under the mat.”
“And a way for Pip to arrive without inventing a shortcut.”
That was quite a list.
GiGi raised her long neck. Above the lower branches, she could see a patch of open sky near an old fallen beech.
“I remember a wide path going that way.”
They took their mat and followed it. Starlight watched the ground. GiGi watched the space above them.
At the fallen tree, the path opened into a broad clearing. A few flowers grew along its edge. The middle was firm grass beneath the shade of a tall tree.
GiGi could turn her head. Starlight could walk around the mat. There was a low stone where Pip could sit close to the food.
Starlight pressed one hoof into the ground.
No squish.
She looked at GiGi.
“Could you test the shade?”
GiGi stepped into the clearing and slowly stretched her neck.
“No ceiling trouble,” she reported.
They unrolled the mat on the open grass. It fitted without touching a single flower.
Starlight grinned.
Then she remembered their families.
“They're going to the rabbit stone.”
GiGi could see the old path through a gap in the trees. Aster, Starlight's older sister, was already coming along it.
“I'll call.”
A breeze moved the branches, hiding the gap. Aster didn't hear.
Starlight looked back at the turn they had taken.
“I can leave a light to show the way. But we should meet them too, so nobody follows it without knowing.”
She touched her horn to a flat fallen leaf beside the turn. A soft golden arrow shone across it.
“This will stay bright until our picnic is done,” she said.
GiGi carried the food to the new mat while Starlight returned to the old path. She found Aster beside the rabbit stone, admiring the purple flowers.
“We moved,” Starlight told her. “This clearing already had plans.”
Aster looked at the flower carpet and smiled.
Together they met the rest of the family. Starlight explained the changed route. GiGi stood at the next turn, tall enough to be seen over the bushes.
Pip spotted her first.
“A giraffe sign!”
GiGi waved her head.
“A very good one. I can even explain the directions.”
Soon everyone was seated beneath the tall tree. The ground stayed dry. The mat lay flat. GiGi could lift her head without wearing a branch.
Starlight passed the fruit around.
“This wasn't my perfect picnic place,” she said.
Her mother Selene looked around the clearing.
“How is it working?”
Pip held up a slice of apple.
“Extremely well.”
After they ate, the friends took everyone to see the flowers near the rabbit stone. They watched from the clear path. A tiny butterfly settled on one purple blossom.
Starlight looked back toward their new picnic clearing.
“We can visit both places,” she said.
“One for sitting,” GiGi answered. “One for looking.”
On the way home, they collected Starlight's light-leaf. Its golden arrow faded as she lifted it.
“What do you think our next adventure will be?” Starlight asked.
GiGi glanced at the spring buds opening overhead.
“I don’t know… but whatever happens, I’m ready!”