If Wishes Were Horses Read online

“Just like my magic ribbons tangled me up,” Sumatra said.

  Sirocco untied the last ribbon, setting Sumatra free.

  “What would you damsels in distress do without me?” Sirocco teased.

  “Okay, I’m going to choose to ignore that,” Sumatra said, as she stretched out her wings, “only because I saw about fifty of your magic butterflies fly by before you arrived.”

  She and Brisa giggled while Sirocco hung his head.

  “What am I going to do?” he moaned.

  “Maybe we should go find Kona,” Sumatra suggested. Idly, she shook away something tickling her ear. “I bet she’ll know what to do.”

  “Yeah,” Sirocco complained. “She’ll give me a big long lecture, that’s what she’ll do.”

  “Oh, Sirocco,” Sumatra said, shaking the tickle off her other ear now. “Kona’s not that bossy.”

  “Hey!” she said. “Why am I so ticklish?”

  Brisa and Sirocco glanced at Sumatra, then gasped in disbelief.

  “My butterflies!” Sirocco whispered.

  Dozens of butterflies were lined up on Sumatra’s fluttery ribbons.

  “Hey!” Brisa whispered suddenly. Butterflies were poking at her gems, too, as if they thought they were delicious flowers. Within minutes, at least a hundred butterflies had flocked to Sumatra’s and Brisa’s pretty halos.

  Sirocco gulped. Now was his chance to get his butterflies back. But to do so, he’d have to act very un-Sirocco-like.

  He nickered softly and whispered, “Here, guys. C’mon home.”

  And just like that, the butterflies flew from the ribbons and jewels into Sirocco’s halo.

  Fizz, fizz, fizz, fizz!

  In an instant, Sirocco’s halo was packed.

  “Better to have my butterflies crowding me,” he told Brisa and Sumatra with a big grin, “than crowding the real butterflies off the flowers.”

  “And more good news,” Sumatra said, also grinning. “I think you’ve saved yourself from a lecture from Kona!”

  “Let’s go find her!” Brisa declared. “I think we’ve explored enough for one day.”

  “Yeah!” Sirocco agreed.

  The three horses zipped out of the forest and winged their way toward the farm where they’d last seen Kona.

  As she flew, Sumatra was careful not to go too fast, and her ribbons stayed untangled.

  Brisa flew (pretty much) in a straight line. And her jewels didn’t snag on anything.

  Sirocco kicked and bucked a little more carefully than usual—and none of his butterflies popped out of his halo.

  Now, if only he’d also remembered to watch where he was going.…

  Thump!

  “Ow!” Sirocco cried. He’d crashed right into another flying creature!

  A creature covered in purple, pink, and blue flowers.

  The creature shook its head hard.

  Pop, pop, pop, pop!

  Flowers went flying, revealing …

  “Kona!” Sirocco, Sumatra, and Brisa gasped together.

  Kona looked at her three friends with wide, startled eyes. Then she peered down to see where her flowers were landing.

  “Oh, no!” she cried. Some of the flowers landed on the front windshield of a truck in the farmhouse’s driveway. They attached themselves to the window with a sucking sound. Other flowers twined themselves around a few tree trunks.

  “First, I mess up a beautiful carrot cake inside the farmhouse, now this!” Kona cried. “I just can’t control these magical flowers!”

  Her friends exchanged a quick glance, then ducked their heads to keep themselves from laughing.

  Unfortunately, they failed miserably.

  “I don’t think it’s very funny,” Kona said, looking hurt. “I’ve got too much magic!”

  “That’s what’s so funny,” Brisa explained. “Our magic got all of us into jams today. We were sure you were going to lecture us!”

  Kona looked shocked. And then she began shaking with laughter, too!

  “And here I thought being magic was going to be so awesome,” Sirocco said.

  Kona gazed down at all her misplaced flowers. Then she said, “Hold on, I want to try something.”

  She flew down to a nearby wooden fence and galloped along its top rail. When she reached the end, there wasn’t one misplaced flower on the rail. Her flowers had stayed where they were supposed to—in her halo.

  “How’d you do that?” Sirocco breathed.

  “The same way I knew my name,” Kona said. “I just concentrated on what I wanted to do. When I control my flowers in my mind, it seems I control them for real, too!”

  “Wow!” Sumatra said. “I’m going to try that, too.”

  “Me, too!” Brisa and Sirocco said at the same time.

  Kona rose up and called her fellow horses together. “Group nose nuzzle, everyone,” she said.

  Then Kona whinnied and said, “Our magic is awesome. I have a feeling it’s going to take us on a lot more adventures!”

  The End—of the Day

  The sun was setting and the tiny, winged horses were tired. Sure that they were still invisible to people, they flew to the cozy porch of the yellow farmhouse, with the big red barn, to take a rest. They landed on the porch swing and made themselves comfy.

  “It’s been the busiest day ever,” Sumatra said with a yawn.

  “What do you mean?” Sirocco said. “It’s been our only day ever!”

  “I wonder what will happen tomorrow,” Brisa said dreamily.

  Kona gazed out at the darkening horizon.

  “And I wonder…” But Kona stopped herself before she could finish her thought. “Oh, never mind. I don’t want to be serious when you’re all so happy.”

  “No,” Sumatra said. “All of us should say what we think. Go ahead, Kona.”

  “Well,” Kona began, “we figured out how to control our magic today. But we still didn’t learn what we’re supposed to do with it.”

  “You’re right,” Sirocco said. “But can’t we deal with that question tomorrow?”

  But before Kona could say anything else, the porch’s screen door opened. The winged horses fell silent as a young girl stepped out of the house and headed for the porch swing!

  “Eeek!” Brisa squeaked.

  The horses darted away from the swing seconds before the girl sat down. They flew up to hover beneath the porch ceiling.

  “Hey!” Sirocco said. “That’s the little girl that we saw in the meadow this morning!”

  “You’re right,” Kona said. “She must live here! And the lady who made the carrot cake must be her mother.”

  “Look at her,” Sumatra said softly. “She still looks sad and lonely.”

  “Poor thing,” Brisa sighed.

  Suddenly, Kona gasped. “Wait a minute,” she said. “I know the answer!”

  “The answer to what?” Sirocco asked.

  “To why we’re here!” Kona said. “Maybe it’s to make people like her feel better.”

  She pointed at the girl.

  “But how?” Brisa wondered.

  “With our magic, of course,” Kona said.

  The four horses looked at each other. Without saying another word, they knew just what to do.

  * * *

  A few minutes later, a woman’s voice rang out from inside the house.

  “Leanna! It’s almost time for bed.”

  The girl, now kneeling on the porch swing, looked sadly at the sky. And the horses, hovering nearby, looked at each other.

  “The little girl is named Leanna,” Brisa said. “Oh, what a pretty name.”

  “Leanna!” Leanna’s mother called again. “If you come inside lickety-split, you can have carrot cake before you go to bed. I made it today. Somehow some tiny little flowers got stuck in it—”

  Kona cringed!

  “—but it still tastes yummy,” Leanna’s mother added.

  “Whew!” Kona whispered in relief.

  “Well … okay,” Leanna called back.
>
  She stood up and started for the porch door. Right before she opened it, she saw a reflection of herself in one of the windows.

  “What’s this?” she gasped as her hands flew up to her neck.

  The horses tried not to make a sound.

  “It’s the prettiest necklace ever!” Leanna cried. She stood on her tiptoes to get a better look at herself in the window’s reflection. Then she fingered her new necklace: three charms strung on a shimmery silver ribbon. One of the charms was a pink jewel. Another was a shiny butterfly. And the last was a sweet purple flower.

  “I bet I know who gave me this necklace,” Leanna whispered happily. “Those little winged horses! The ones I blew out of the dandelion!”

  “She blew us out of a dandelion?!” Sirocco whispered to Kona, Sumatra, and Brisa. “So that’s where we came from!”

  “Ooh, how nice!” Brisa said. “Dandelions are so soft and pretty.”

  “Shhh,” Kona cautioned, though she was smiling as much as the rest of them. “Leanna’s still talking.”

  “I bet the flying horses are still nearby,” Leanna said. “My little Wind Dancers.”

  “Wind Dancers?” Sumatra said. “Oh, I like that name!”

  “It’s perfect!” Kona breathed.

  “Because we dance on the wind!” Brisa cried, spinning through the air.

  “Leanna!”

  “Coming!” Leanna called as she ran inside. “Mom! You’ll never guess what I just got…”

  As Leanna’s voice trailed off, the horses smiled at each other.

  “We used our magic to make a lonely girl happy,” Kona said proudly.

  “I wish we could do that again,” Brisa replied with a happy sigh.

  “I bet we’ll get our chance,” Kona added, with one last glance through the porch door.

  Here’s a sneak preview of Wind Dancers Book 2:

  Horse Happy

  CHAPTER 1

  Home, Apple-Sweet Home

  The Wind Dancers couldn’t believe it—their first magical day on earth was coming to a close. And they had been busy.

  They’d explored the meadows, forests, and farms of their new world.…

  … Now the horses were flying into the darkening sky, enjoying their first sunset, and feeling their wings get heavy.

  “I can’t wait to get to bed,” Brisa said, her pretty brown eyes looking sleepy.

  “Me, too,” Sumatra added. She stretched her front hooves and yawned a big yawn.

  “Some shut-eye sounds awesome,” Sirocco agreed. “There’s just one problem: We have no beds!”

  This stopped Brisa in mid-flight.

  “Oh, no! I never thought about that!” she cried. “We don’t have a home!”

  Kona, of course, was quick to comfort everyone.

  “There are plenty of cozy places we can stay,” she assured her friends. “We can go back to Leanna’s farmhouse and sleep on the porch. Or we can nest in the barn. Or we can make beds out of soft leaves in the garden. We’ll be fine for tonight.”

  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

  A Doozy of a Dandelion

  CHAPTER 1: Dancing on the Wind

  CHAPTER 2: A Big Surprise

  CHAPTER 3: Magic in the Air

  CHAPTER 4: Bunches of Butterflies

  CHAPTER 5: Up, Up, and Away

  CHAPTER 6: All Tied Up

  CHAPTER 7: Flower Power

  CHAPTER 8: Mastering Magic

  The End—of the Day

  Teaser

  About the Author and Illustrator

  Copyright

  A FEIWEL AND FRIENDS BOOK

  An Imprint of Macmillan

  WIND DANCERS: IF WISHES WERE HORSES. 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 [email protected].

  Feiwel and Friends logo designed by Filomena Tuosto

  First Edition: November 2008

  mackids.com

  eISBN 9781250120212

  First eBook edition: March 2016