Merry-Go-Horses

by Sibley Miller

  With an excited whinny, Brisa began flying toward the colorful horses, with her friends on her tail.

  As the foursome got closer to the other Wind Dancers, the distant horses began to look bigger.

  Much bigger.

  “Wait a minute!” Sumatra said. “Those horses aren’t tiny like us. There are people riding them! They look almost as huge as Gemma and all our big horse friends back home.”

  “Goody!” Brisa cried. “That means there’s more of their beauty to enjoy.”

  “Wait another minute,” Kona blurted. “If there are people riding those Wind Dancers, that means they’re not invisible!”

  “And look!” Sirocco observed as the tiny horses flew closer still. “They don’t have wings!”

  “Maybe they’re not magic,” Sumatra replied, confusion in her voice.

  “But they’re flying!” Brisa protested. “So maybe they’re even more magic than us. You’d have to be to fly without wings, don’t you think?”

  Her friends couldn’t deny that the beautiful, glossy horses were indeed flying. They floated one after another in a perfect circle beneath a round, light-filled canopy that looked like a spinning top. They seemed to be dancing to some pretty music.

  Finally, the Wind Dancers arrived at their destination, just as the big, colorful horses drifted slowly to a stop. All the children who’d been riding them clambered down, only to be replaced by a new bunch of laughing, happy riders.

  And through it all, the big, pretty-colored horses never moved a muscle.

  Sirocco gasped as he realized that each horse was attached to a tall, brass pole!

  Sumatra’s face fell as she noted that the horses were absolutely still. Their legs were stuck in mid-gallop; their heads frozen in mid-toss.

  Kona went so far as to fly up to one horse’s expressionless face. She tapped the creature’s nose with one hoof.

  Thunk, thunk, thunk.

  “It’s made of wood!” Kona neighed.

  “Awww,” Sirocco sighed disappointedly.

  “I had a feeling these ‘Wind Dancers’ were too good to be true,” Sumatra complained.

  And what did Brisa have to say about all this?

  “Hello! My name’s Brisa. It’s so nice to meet you!”

  Brisa hadn’t heard a word her friends had said! Instead, she’d whizzed around the carousel and found the prettiest horse of all. (It happened to be coral-pink with a blonde mane.)

  And now Brisa was blinking expectantly, waiting for the wooden horse to answer her!

  “Um, Brisa?” Kona called gently.

  But Brisa wasn’t listening. She was too busy pricking her pretty ears at the fake horse, waiting for a response.

  Of course, no response came.

  “Oh, I understand,” Brisa said to the wooden horse sweetly. “You’re feeling shy. That’s okay! I’ll talk to some of your friends and come back.”

  Sumatra and Sirocco gaped at each other and tried not to laugh. Meanwhile, Brisa fluttered over to an ice blue horse, who gave her the cold shoulder.

  From there, Brisa tried to introduce herself to yet another wooden horse. It, of course, ignored her as well!

  Sumatra flicked her tail in agitation.

  “How long do we have to wait before Brisa realizes that these horses aren’t really Wind Dancers?!”

  Chimey, chimey, chime …

  Sumatra was interrupted by the carousel music. It was cranking up for another ride. The children sitting astride the wooden horses laughed with excitement.

  Sirocco laughed, too. Then he flew around the merry-go-round. When he found a riderless wooden horse, he plunked himself down in its shiny saddle.

  “Let’s not just wait for Brisa to get wise,” he declared to Sumatra and Kona. “Let’s ride the ride!”

  Kona grinned, nodded, and plunked herself down on a horse nearby.

  A moment later, their horses began floating forward, as well as up and down!

  “Whoo hoo!” Sirocco whooped while Kona whinnied in agreement.

  Not wanting to miss the fun, Sumatra found a horse on the carousel’s outer rim. Around her wooden horse went. Around, and around, and around!

  “Well this is sort of fun,” Sumatra murmured. But when you’re accustomed to doing loop-de-loops among the clouds, tooling around in a circle can get a little old fast.

  Then, Sumatra noticed something!

  Many of the children riding on the merry-go-round were standing up in their stirrups. They were making a grab for a wooden arm hovering above the spinning carousel.

  Something seemed to be sticking out of the arm’s end, but Sumatra couldn’t tell what it was—until a little girl on a nearby horse snagged it.

  “Yay!” the child cried, waving her prize in the air. It was a small, bright red plastic ring.

  “Oh! It’s not a brass ring,” the girl complained to herself as she inspected her prize. “That’s the grand prize! Oh well, I’ll try for that the next go-round.”

  A brass ring? Sumatra thought. How neat!

  Suddenly, this carousel ride seemed more exciting.

  The next time Sumatra’s wooden horse looped past the wooden arm, she lunged out for it. But she missed the arm by a long shot.

  “Where’s the brass ring? Where’s the brass ring?” several of the laughing children called.

  Where indeed? Sumatra wondered. The ride’s going to end soon and I really want to snag the grand prize!

  Sumatra hung her head. The ribbons in her magic halo sagged, too. One of them hung so low, it tickled Sumatra’s nose.

  Sumatra eyed her ribbon for a moment, then neighed exultantly.

  “I know how to get myself a ring!” she cried.

  Using her magic, she whipped up a super-long ribbon from her ribbony halo.

  Then at just the right moment, Sumatra whipped her ribbon outward.

  It coiled through the air.

  It twirled around the wooden arm.

  And on its way back to Sumatra, the ribbon hooked a ring and brought it back to her!

  Whinnying in triumph, Sumatra looked at her prize. She saw it was a pretty brass ring. Sumatra had hit the jackpot!

  CHAPTER 6

  Eye on the Prize

  Sumatra poked her head through her prize brass ring so it fit like a necklace. Then she fluttered over to Kona and Sirocco on their carousel horses.

  “Look what I won!” the sea-green filly neighed.

  “We saw!” Kona replied proudly.

  “Yeah, that was awesome!” Sirocco added.

  “Now we all have a prize!” Sumatra said, pointing to Kona’s blue ribbon and Sirocco’s apple tart.

  “Well,” Kona said with a cringe, “almost all of us. But not quite.”

  The three Wind Dancers gazed out of the merry-go-round and quickly spotted Brisa. She was perched on the roof of a nearby tent, looking despondent. When they flew over to her, the pink filly looked up at them sadly.

  “Did you know,” she said soothingly, “those ‘other Wind Dancers’ aren’t Wind Dancers after all? They’re not even real!”

  “We know,” Kona said. “But it doesn’t really matter, does it? We had so much fun on the merry-go-round anyway.”

  “Fun?” Brisa muttered.

  “It was fun for Kona, Sirocco, and me,” Sumatra said. “We rode the wooden horses, just like the children.”

  “We were all laughing and yelling!” Sirocco added.

  “Speaking of,” Kona warned, squinting into the sky, “we better blast back to Leanna’s pickup truck. The sun is looking awfully slanty, and we can’t miss our ride home.”

  “Home!” Brisa cried as she followed her friends into the air. “But what about going to the funhouse? Or seeing the diving pigs? We also didn’t get to taste the funnel cakes or hear a concert. And I didn’t get a chance to win a prize!”

  Sirocco, Sumatra, and Kona looked at each other guiltily as they flew toward the parking lot, toting their apple tart, brass ring, and blue ribbon.

&nb
sp; “Well,” Kona said, “instead of thinking about what we didn’t do, let’s think about what we did do. I mean, I didn’t get to see the biggest pumpkin in the county, but I did get to learn how to be an English pleasure horse. I’ll never forget that—or Gemma.”

  Sumatra fluttered her wings happily.

  “And I’ll always remember the merry-go-round,” she said. “With the help of my brass ring!”

  “I almost ate my weight in apple pie!” Sirocco joined in. “So what if I didn’t get to gorge myself on funnel cakes, too!”

  “Now you tell us,” Kona prompted Brisa as they flew along. “Of all the things you did at the fair, what will you remember most?”

  Brisa frowned and thought hard. But instead of being able to focus on only one wonderful thing, her memories were a blur.

  Just like her entire day.

  Brisa hung her head as she and her friends reached the bed of Leanna’s truck. They were followed almost immediately by Leanna and her family.

  “We timed it just right!” Kona said proudly. “Now we’ll be able to make our way home.”

  Brisa nodded, but gazed wistfully back at the fair.

  “If only I could do it all over again,” she whispered to herself regretfully. “I would have done less and enjoyed more!”

  She perked up, though, when Leanna and her family loaded their things into the truck bed. Leanna’s tomato box had a fluffy red ribbon pinned on it, and one of Sara’s painted horses wore a white ribbon that read, “Honorable Mention.” Their mother’s rose bush was ribbonless, but she didn’t seem to mind.

  “I can’t believe I had the second biggest tomato at the fair!” Leanna was saying. “I guess all that weeding and watering was worth it!”

  “I’m glad I won, too,” Sara said, holding her painted horses. “I only wish I’d also had one of those red velvet cupcakes we saw.”

  “Me, too!” Sirocco piped up with a grin.

  As the fillies gaped at him, Leanna said, “There’s always next year!”

  “Next year?” Brisa said. “Next year?”

  She whirled around to face her friends.

  “We can come back next year?”

  “Definitely!” Sirocco said.

  “When we come back,” Kona added sweetly, “you can enjoy things that you missed today.”

  “Yay!” Brisa neighed. She fluttered over to Leanna’s mother’s rose bush and gave one of the blooms a sniff.

  “Next year,” she said, “maybe I’ll spend all day in just the flower exhibit alone!”

  “Wow, that’s really stopping to smell the roses!” Sumatra said, her eyes twinkling.

  “Right,” Brisa said happily. “I’ll check out the supersized sunflowers and the prize peonies. And I wouldn’t want to miss the cut-flower arrangements and the perfume-making demonstrations! And—”

  Kona, Sumatra, and Sirocco smiled and rolled their eyes as Brisa chattered on.

  “That’s our Brisa!” Kona laughed, flying over to give the still-chattering pink filly a nose nuzzle. “And, she added, “we love her just the way she is!”

  You Say Tomato …

  As the Wind Dancers flew over the dandelion meadow the next night, Sumatra’s brass ring glinted in the light of the setting sun.

  The blue ribbon around Kona’s neck rustled in the breeze.

  Sirocco’s muzzle was dusted with crumbs from his prize dessert of apple tart.

  And Brisa was still without her own prize.

  But she was far from sad about it. Because she was free to carry something else!

  Slung around her neck was a loop of ribbon (made from Sumatra’s halo) sized to fit a child’s wrist. And dangling from this bracelet was a single ruby-red jewel charm.

  The charm was round and sparkly. It was in the shape of a tomato! One that would last long after Leanna’s real prize-winning tomato was gone.

  When the Wind Dancers arrived at the farmhouse, Brisa whizzed through Leanna’s bedroom window.

  The girl was fast asleep. On the night-stand, next to her bed, a small diary lay open. Brisa couldn’t help but read the latest entry.

  The county fair yesterday was the best! Not only did my tomato win second place, thank you very much, but I got to watch some show horses jumping. I bet the Wind Dancers would have loved it!

  Brisa’s ears perked up. Even at the fair, Leanna had been thinking of them!

  “We were thinking of you, too,” Brisa whispered. “We always are!”

  To prove it, the tiny filly shimmied the charm bracelet off her neck. She gently laid it on Leanna’s pillow, along with a note she’d scratched out herself on a piece of bark:

  After your “charmed” day at the fair, here’s one perfect memory to keep and treasure. Come next year, we’ll add another!

  Before she rejoined her friends, Brisa hovered above the sleeping girl. She smiled down at her with all the fondness in her heart, and whispered, “I’ll always have my memories of yesterday, too. See you again soon, Leanna!”

  Here’s a sneak preview of Wind Dancers Book 11:

  Horsey Trails

  CHAPTER 1

  Fly Away Home

  One bright summer morning, as they flew across the dandelion meadow, the tiny Wind Dancers were especially bubbly.

  Being near the girl who had brought the Wind Dancers to life with one puff on a dandelion always made the magical little horses happy. Today was no different—until the four friends landed on the windowsill of Leanna’s room.

  And their faces fell.

  “What—what’s this?” Brisa gasped.

  “A big mess is what it is!” Sirocco exclaimed. Normally, Sirocco liked all things messy, but he knew Leanna, and she was a neat-as-a-freshly-combed-mane sort of girl. So he knew that something was up!

  “There are shorts and T-shirts and riding breeches everywhere!” Sumatra agreed. “And what are all those tubes and bottles?”

  Kona flew in for a closer look.

  “Shampoo, sunscreen, bug spray, and a travel-size tube of toothpaste,” she reported.

  The Wind Dancers also spotted a small, pink diary and stationary with stamped, addressed envelopes.

  And all of this stuff was piled around a big, army-green duffel bag.

  “Leanna’s going away!” Brisa exclaimed.

  “Where to?” Sumatra gasped.

  Before the horses could speculate, Leanna herself tromped into the room with her little sister, Sara, on her heels. “Help me out, won’t you?” she said. “Mom wrote my name in most of my clothes already, but there are a few extra things I have to pack before tomorrow. Everything has to be labeled!”

  “Why should I help you,” Sara said, jutting out her lower lip, “when you’re about to leave me for a week at horse camp? It’s no fair!”

  The Wind Dancers gasped, then gazed at each other.

  “Horse camp!” Brisa breathed.

  “Wait a minute,” Sumatra gasped. “A sleepaway camp with horses? That’s like a dream come true!”

  “Especially for Leanna. She thinks horses are the best!” Sirocco crowed. “Because we are, of course!”

  The Wind Dancers exchanged excited looks.

  Then suddenly, an idea occurred to Sumatra.

  A FEIWEL AND FRIENDS BOOK

  An Imprint of Macmillan

  WIND DANCERS: MERRY-GO-HORSES. Copyright © 2011 by Reeves International, Inc. All rights reserved. For information, address Feiwel and Friends, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

  eBooks may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases, please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department by writing to MacmillanSpecialMarkets@macmillan.com.

  Series editor: Susan Bishansky

  Feiwel and Friends logo designed by Filomena Tuosto

  First Edition: 2011

  www.feiwelandfriends.com

  eISBN 9781466890749

  First eBook edition: January 2015

  ; Sibley Miller, Merry-Go-Horses