Horses' Night Out Page 3

  At this, Sirocco snorted—but he also followed the filly’s advice. He squinted into the blackness.

  “Nothing here,” he declared. He turned slowly. “And … nothing there.”

  His voice began to shake again as he continued to spin around. “I see nothing, nothing, noth—hey!”

  Sirocco gasped.

  Because he’d suddenly seen … something!

  It was a light! And it was (Sirocco was pretty sure) too low and steady to be a star.

  “Yaaaaay,” Sirocco neighed and began flying as fast as he could toward the comforting glimmer of gold.

  In only a minute, he arrived at the light and discovered that it was coming from the front porch of a house! In its glow, he could see that the house was yellow and that it had a screen door and big windows next to it.

  Sirocco recognized this place.

  “This is Leanna’s house!” he cried happily. “Which means I’m still in the dandelion meadow. I thought I’d flown miles away!”

  Sirocco darted around to the side of the house and smiled as he peered inside Leanna’s open bedroom window. There, he saw a soft glow coming from a night-light, and Leanna fast asleep.

  Then, his happiness vanished.

  Because Sirocco’s friend looked almost as unhappy as he felt—even though she was sleeping. The slumbering girl tossed and turned, and rubbed her closed eyes.

  “She must be having a bad dream,” Sirocco said to himself. “Too bad she doesn’t have a sleep buddy to keep her company.”

  Jeepers’ fuzzy face appeared in Sirocco’s mind.

  “I know just how that feels,” he added with a sigh.

  After a few minutes of gazing at Leanna, Sirocco cocked his head thoughtfully.

  Huh! he realized. I kind of feel not so awful anymore.

  Maybe it was being near Leanna that had comforted him.

  Or maybe it was imagining his buddy Jeepers.

  Or maybe, Sirocco thought, turning to gaze out at the dark dandelion meadow, it’s knowing that I’m not really all alone. Kona, Sumatra, and Brisa are out there. Waiting for me.

  Sirocco straightened up suddenly.

  And not just waiting. They’re probably worrying, too! Unlike me, I bet they’re still lost in the dark.

  Sirocco pictured them.

  Sumatra, who liked everything neat and tidy, surely hated not knowing where she was.

  And Kona was probably struggling to comfort everyone, despite her jitters.

  And what about Brisa? Sirocco wondered. In the dark, she can’t look at her pretty magic jewels or her long blond mane. Brisa without her beauty? She’ll go crazy!

  Sirocco reared back on his hind legs and kicked at the air with his forelegs. Once again, he’d shaken off his shivers and forgotten his night fright.

  “My friends need me!” he whinnied.

  Sirocco pictured himself flying to the fillies’ rescue.

  He imagined them crying with relief as he guided them back to the safety of Leanna’s night-light.

  And then, he imagined Sumatra saying, “Sirocco, I never knew you could be so brave!”

  Sirocco grinned.

  “Forget being a scaredy-horse,” he declared triumphantly. “I’m going to be a hero!”

  Then, he dashed from the comforting glow of Leanna’s bedroom window—and was quickly swallowed back up by the dark!

  CHAPTER 6

  A Bump in the Night

  The only glitch in Sirocco’s plan to rescue his scared friends was this: They weren’t so scared.

  In fact, while Sirocco was dashing to the fillies’ “rescue,” Sumatra, Kona, and Brisa were passing their time in the dark giggling and telling stories!

  “So, then,” Sumatra said, grinning into the darkness and stroking her ribbon blanket as she finished a funny tale she’d been telling Kona and Brisa, “I said to the bee, ‘Hey, I don’t even know you. And you call me honey?’”

  Kona burst out laughing in great, wheezy neighs, while Brisa giggled with staccato whinnies.

  “Sumatra,” Brisa said, “you should really take your show on the road! Don’t you think, Siroc— Oh! I almost forgot. Sirocco isn’t here with us.”

  “I sure hope he’s okay,” Kona said, her laughter dying quickly. “I don’t think this adventure is turning out the way he expected.”

  “Please,” Sumatra scoffed. “If I know him, he’s flown up above the clouds to zip around in the moonlight.”

  “Ooh, I don’t think so,” Brisa said. Her voice sounded as concerned as Kona’s now. “We all know that Sirocco’s been acting sort of funny tonight.”

  “Yes, and not funny as in ha-ha,” Kona noted. “But funny as in scared—OW!”

  Kona had been interrupted by something that hit her with a giant whomp!

  And at exactly the same time as the whomp, the cloud that had been covering up the moon (or the moon that had been hiding behind the cloud, depending on which Wind Dancer you agree with) shifted. Sumatra and Brisa blinked in the sudden burst of moonlight. Kona was nowhere to be seen!

  But in her place was—

  “Sirocco!” Brisa burst out. “You’re back!”

  “I’m back!” Sirocco replied, looking around blearily. He seemed just as surprised as Brisa. “But where’s Kona?”

  The leaves of a nearby maple tree rustled.

  “Over here,” came Kona’s muffled voice.

  A moment later, the violet filly emerged from the tree, looking a little woozy but uninjured. She grinned at Sirocco. “I know you wanted some sweet shoofly pie, but tossing me hard enough to knock maple syrup out of that tree is going a little too far, don’t you think?”

  “Sorry,” Sirocco muttered. “That wasn’t part of my plan.”

  “So, where were you all this time?” Kona asked him as she rejoined the group.

  “Were you lost in the dark?” Brisa asked Sirocco sympathetically.

  “And scared witless?” Sumatra added kindly.

  “Lost?” Sirocco cried indignantly. “Scared? No, I was flying around looking for you guys!”

  Sirocco’s eyes looked shifty.

  “You know,” he added, “to rescue you!”

  Then he puffed out his chest a bit.

  “And I was definitely NOT scared,” he continued.

  “Oh, no?” Sumatra said skeptically.

  “No way!” Sirocco said with a grin. He held out his front hooves to the fillies. “You girls are sure lucky I kept my cool in the dark.”

  While Sumatra stifled a snort, Kona and Brisa exchanged a playful look.

  “Speaking of keeping cool in the dark,” Kona said to the colt, “I bet there are a lot more things you’d like to do before the sun comes up, huh? You know, like explore the darkest corners of the barn at Leanna’s farm.”

  Sirocco looked a little uncomfortable.

  “Or go for a midnight swim in the pond,” Brisa suggested with a glint in her eye. “You know, the deep one in the middle of the woods.”

  Now, the colt squirmed.

  “Or,” Sumatra added with her own grin, “we could go dig in that big hollow log near our apple tree. It’d be real fun in the dark, don’t you think?”

  “No, no, and NO!” Sirocco burst out.

  When the fillies looked at him in mock surprise, Sirocco quickly added, “I mean … that’s a nice offer and all. But I dragged you out of your sleeping stalls for this. I’d understand if you wanted to go home, to our nice, warm, cozy stalls instead.”

  The fillies exchanged one more secret smile. Then Sumatra stretched and yawned loudly.

  “You know,” she sighed, “I am actually pretty tired.”

  “And I didn’t realize I’m hungry,” Brisa said.

  “And carrying Charles around all night has made my neck sore,” Kona added, glancing over her shoulder at her teddy bear. Then she cocked her head and looked at Sirocco.

  “I don’t suppose you’d carry Charles home for me, would you?” she asked.

  Kona turned her head an
d nipped her teddy bear out from under her flower necklace.

  Sirocco didn’t hesitate. He grabbed the teddy bear with his teeth, then placed Charles between his front hooves.

  As Sirocco gazed down at Charles, he didn’t notice Kona, Sumatra, and Brisa exchanging one more playful grin.

  “So home, then?” Kona said soothingly. “Maybe we can even make you shoofly pie when we get there.”

  This time, it was Sirocco who answered with a glint in his eye.

  “Oh, I don’t know,” he said, noticing that the sky started turning toward dawn. “I’ve suddenly got a second wind. Care to go on one more adventure?”

  The three fillies gaped at the colt.

  “Sirocco, you can’t be serious?” Kona said.

  In response, Sirocco burst out laughing. And he laughed—loudly and confidently—the rest of the way home.

  Good Night, Sleep Tight!

  You’d think after their all-nighter, the Wind Dancers would have stayed home the next night.

  But instead, at bedtime, they were once again flying across the dark dandelion meadow.

  Back to Leanna’s house.

  The four Wind Dancers fluttered to their friend’s bedroom window and landed on the windowsill. They peeked in. Once again, Leanna was tossing and turning in her sleep.

  “See,” Sirocco said to the fillies. “It’s like I told you—Leanna could really use a sleep buddy.”

  With a grin, Sirocco turned his head and peeked at the fuzzy green and orange frog perched on his back.

  “Isn’t that right, Jeepers?”

  “Brisina certainly agrees,” Brisa said, gazing fondly at the toy horse dangling from her magic jewel.

  “So does Charles,” Kona said, giving her own sleep buddy a nose nuzzle.

  “So do I,” Sumatra added, snuggling under her ribbon-y blanket buddy.

  The Wind Dancers returned their gazes to Leanna, and then Sirocco looked downward. Tucked between his forelegs was one more sleep buddy.

  It was a fuzzy, winged horse.

  The toy horse was made of Wind Dancer magic. Its reins were crafted from Sumatra’s magical ribbons, and it wore a necklace of Brisa’s sparkly jewels. The horse also had a mane made of Kona’s magic flowers, and a tail just like Sirocco’s beautiful butterflies.

  Sirocco landed on the edge of Leanna’s bed and tiptoed across her pillow. Then, ever so gently, he slipped the soft toy next to her.

  Holding his breath, Sirocco flew back to his friends on the windowsill.

  “Look!” Sumatra noted. “It’s working already!”

  It was true. Leanna’s furrowed forehead had smoothed out. And now, she was sleeping with her arms around her own little Wind Dancer sleep buddy.

  Sirocco grinned at his friends.

  “And now…” he said excitedly.

  “Shh!” the fillies all said together. Even though they knew they were invisible to Leanna, they wanted to be sure they didn’t wake her.

  “… let’s go hit the hay, too!” Sirocco finished, changing his voice to a whisper.

  Here’s a sneak preview of Wind Dancers Book 5:

  Heads Up, Horses!

  CHAPTER 1

  Kick Off!

  It was a bright day in the dandelion meadow, but Kona’s mood wasn’t nearly as sunny as the weather. In fact, as the Wind Dancers flew over the field of dandelions, soaking up the first minutes of morning, she was feeling as blue as the sky.

  “I don’t know what we should do today,” she sighed, flying over to a branch of a big oak tree and kicking an acorn. It sailed through the air and landed with a neat plunk in an abandoned bird’s nest in a neighboring tree.

  “Looks to me like you’re doing something already!” Sumatra said, impressed.

  “What do you mean?” Kona asked.

  “Hello? You just made a nest-in-one!” Sirocco pointed out. He kicked at the air, only to send himself into a wobbly double backflip. “Whoa!”

  “As you can see,” Sumatra said dryly as the Wind Dancers flew on, “not everyone has your kicking talent, Kona.”

  “That’s why you were such a star in Sumatra’s talent show!” Brisa added sweetly.

  “That’s nice of you to say,” Kona said, sighing again, “but lately—what can I say?—my kicking has kind of … lost its kick for me.”

  The horses had arrived over the tall, wooden fence that surrounded the elementary school. Idly, Kona reached out and tapped her front hoof against a pinecone dangling from a nearby tree branch. The cone landed in a knot in the fence and stuck fast!

  Sirocco gaped at Kona’s bull’s-eye.

  “You’re such a kicker!” he sputtered.

  Kona tried to smile at Sirocco, but she feared it came out as more of a frown.

  “Here’s the thing,” Kona said to her friends. “Sumatra’s talent show is so last month. Now, I’ve got nobody to entertain with my kicking.”

  “That doesn’t mean you have to stop practicing,” Sumatra encouraged Kona. “With every kick, you’re getting better and better at hitting targets!”

  “But I think I’ve kicked every acorn, rock, and apple in this meadow,” Kona answered. She swooped down and kicked up a pebble on the ground with her front hoof. Then she rose back into the air, casually juggling the stone from hoof to hoof. “And I’ve kicked them at every tree knot, branch, and bird’s nest I could possibly find.”

  * * *

  “Over here! Kick it!”

  “Who said that?” Kona exclaimed. She was so stunned, she fumbled her pebble and dropped it!

  About the Author and Illustrator

  Sibley Miller, author of the Wind Dancers series, is the pseudonym for an author of novels for teens. You can sign up for email updates here.

  Tara Larsen Chang is the illustrator of The Fairy Chronicles and The Wind Dancers. You can sign up for email updates here.

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  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Notice

  Dedication

  Meet the Wind Dancers

  CHAPTER 1: Rise and … Shine?

  CHAPTER 2: Ghost Story

  CHAPTER 3: A Little Night Music

  CHAPTER 4: Star Light, Star Bright?

  CHAPTER 5: A Horsey Hero

  CHAPTER 6: A Bump in the Night

  Good Night, Sleep Tight!

  Teaser

  About the Author and Illustrator

  Copyright

  A FEIWEL AND FRIENDS BOOK

  An Imprint of Macmillan

  WIND DANCERS: HORSES’ NIGHT OUT Copyright © 2008 by Reeves International, Inc. All rights reserved. BREYER, WIND DANCERS, and BREYER logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Reeves International, Inc.

  For information, address Feiwel and Friends, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

  Our e-books may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at (800) 221-7945, extension 5442, or by e-mail at MacmillanSpecialMarkets@macmillan.com.

  Feiwel and Friends logo designed by Filomena Tuosto

  First Edition: November 2008

  www.feiwelandfriends.com

  eISBN 9781250120298

  First eBook edition: March 2016

 

 

 
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