Kona stared at her friends.
“Wrong, wrong, and wrong!” she neighed. “Baxter’s better than all of those.”
She closed her eyes again and pictured her plump little puppy bounding through the dandelion meadow. She imagined him leaping after the Jolly Ball. She saw his silky ears blowing in the breeze.
“Zephyr!” Kona finally blurted.
Her eyes popped open, and she said the name again.
“Zephyr!”
The adorable puppy panted and wagged his tail in approval.
The other Wind Dancers grinned, too!
“It’s pretty!” Brisa voted.
“And windy,” Sumatra agreed.
“And boyish!” Sirocco whinnied.
Kona smiled as the puppy—Zephyr—bounded over to her and gave her a big, wet kiss.
“It’s the perfect name,” she proudly said. And then, just to herself because she didn’t want Brisa, Sumatra, and Sirocco to call her a bossyhooves again, she added: And I gave it to Zephyr, just like a mama should!
CHAPTER 3
Early to Bed, Early to Rise
At dinner at the bottom of the tree that night, Kona proudly presented Zephyr with a plate of steamed parsnips.
He sniffed at the fragrant veggies.
“Arf?” he barked curiously.
“Try them,” Sirocco encouraged the puppy. “They’re great. See?”
The colt nibbled at the parsnips for Zephyr’s benefit. When the puppy didn’t immediately follow suit, Sirocco took another, slightly bigger bite. And another, and another—
“Si-RO-cco!” Kona neighed. “That’s Zephyr’s dinner!”
“Well, maybe our puppy just doesn’t like parsnips,” Sumatra said between bites of the oat cake she was eating. “Because Zephyr doesn’t seem to be eating his.”
“Maybe he’d prefer an oat cake,” Kona said. With her teeth, she swiped away Sumatra’s food and plopped it in front of the puppy.
“Hey!” Sumatra complained.
But Kona didn’t seem to hear her. She was smiling at Zephyr, encouraging him to eat.
The puppy pounced on the oat cake with a happy yip! But after gnawing away on it for a moment, he left the other (slobbery, chewed-on) half untouched.
Kona shrugged and returned the oat cake to Sumatra.
“I guess he’s not that hungry,” Kona said.
“Now I’m not either!” Sumatra said, sticking her tongue out at the slimy oat cake. Once again, Kona didn’t seem to notice.
Sumatra tried to put the slight (and her hunger) out of her mind.
After all, she thought with a sweet gaze at the puppy, it’s not Zephyr’s fault if Kona is a little … distracted.
After dinner, the Wind Dancers snuggled with Zephyr in a bed of soft leaves under the tree. Each horse told Zephyr a bedtime story.
Sumatra wove a tale about a magic carpet of ribbons.
Brisa’s story was all about a day of pampering at a beauty spa for horses, complete with carrot slices on her eyes and a mane-and-tail treatment!
And Sirocco read Zephyr his favorite recipe for Sirocco Surprise Cake.
Kona told the last story.
“Once upon a time, there were four magical horses, four big horses, and a Jolly Ball…” she began.
As she told Zephyr about the soccer game that the eight horses had played with that Jolly Ball, she tied one of Sumatra’s silky magic ribbons around the puppy’s downy neck. She attached the other end of the ribbon to the trunk of the apple tree.
“… and that,” she said in a soothing voice, “is how the great soccer match was won! The End.”
Zephyr panted contentedly, then sniffed curiously at his ribbon leash.
“That’s to keep you nice and safe while you sleep in your cozy bed,” Kona said, fluffing up Zephyr’s leaf pile with her nose. “Nighty-night, now!”
She gave Zephyr a quick nose nuzzle, then whispered to the others, “Let’s hit the hay.”
Together, the Wind Dancers flew up to the apple tree house and clopped downstairs to their sleeping stalls.
“I think it’s going all right,” Sumatra declared between big yawns, “having Zephyr live with us.”
“It’s going better than all right!” Sirocco whinnied. “Tomorrow I’m going to teach our boy puppy how to do backflips!”
“I bet Zephyr will be even more cute tomorrow than he was today,” Brisa sighed.
“I told you he belongs here!” Kona said to her friends as they settled into their stalls. “I, I mean we are taking such good care of him.”
Kona stretched and yawned.
“It’s hard work, though,” she admitted. “I’m beat.”
The other Wind Dancers agreed. They fluffed the straw mats on the floors of their stalls, nestled beneath their ribbon-y horse blankets, and snuggled up with their sleep buddies. It was only a minute or two before each of the Wind Dancers began to fall sound asleep—
“Hooowwwwllllll!”
Sirocco awoke with a snort. So did the fillies.
“What a dream I just had,” Sirocco said through a yawn. “There was a puppy in it. A very loud puppy…”
“Hooowwwwllllll!”
Kona burst out of her stall.
“That’s no dream,” she whinnied. “It’s Zephyr! Let’s go see what’s wrong with him!”
By the time the Wind Dancers landed in a circle around Zephyr, he was howling his head off! But when the puppy saw them, his yowls turned into mere whimpers.
“I bet he’s hungry!” Sirocco piped up. He zipped back up to their apple tree house and returned with a big, moist apple muffin.
But the sad puppy didn’t touch it.
“I guess I’ll just have to eat it myself, then,” Sirocco said with a big shrug. As he gobbled up the muffin, Brisa cocked her head at their sleepless puppy.
“Maybe he just needs soothing,” Brisa whispered to her friends.
She stroked Zephyr’s nose and told him, “You’re the most adorable puppy I ever saw. Why, you’re almost as pretty as me!”
Zephyr looked at Brisa blankly, then whimpered some more.
“I think he’s cold,” Sumatra declared. She quickly wove up a pretty blanket of her magic ribbons and draped it over Zephyr’s back. But with one agitated shimmy, the puppy shook the blanket off.
Kona hesitated. Her friends were full of ideas about what to do for Zephyr—and she had none. Except for one thing!
“Come here, Zephyr,” she said softly, cozying up to the puppy. “I’ll stay with you until you fall asleep.”
Zephyr immediately curled up against Kona and gave a shuddery sigh. His whimpers turned into drowsy snuffles.
Kona had (somehow) given Zephyr just what he wanted. She couldn’t help but beam with triumph as she waved her friends away with her hoof.
“You all go on back to bed,” she said. “I’ll stay with Zephyr until he’s asleep.”
“Are you sure?” Brisa asked, even as she cast a longing, sleepy look up at the tree house.
“Of course!” Kona said. “It’s a mama’s job to comfort her young.”
“Right,” Sumatra agreed with a nod.
And Sumatra did agree. She wanted Zephyr to be happy. But at the same time, she realized, her voice sounded quite wistful.
Zephyr’s getting the most of Kona, Sumatra found herself thinking. Then she shook her head in confusion.
Isn’t that what we all want? she asked herself. For Zephyr to be happy? And, for that matter, for Kona to be the bossyhooves of someone else, for a change?
Sumatra nodded her head in answer to her own question. But deep down, she wondered if she really wanted to let go of Kona—bossyhooves and all!
* * *
After lots of cooing and petting, Zephyr finally drifted off to sleep. Kona grinned proudly.
What a feat! she thought, as she carefully pulled away from the puppy and fluttered up to the tree house door. I was able to get Zephyr to sleep—
“Hooowwwwllllll!”
“Oh, noooo!” Kona cringed. She glanced down to see Zephyr awake and looking up at her with the loneliest brown eyes she’d ever seen.
With a sigh, Kona rejoined the puppy on his leafy bed and soothed him to sleep again. But when she, once more, tried to slip away—
“Hooowwwwllllll!”
And that’s how Kona spent the longest night of her life!
* * *
When Brisa, Sumatra, and Sirocco emerged from their tree house the next morning—bright-eyed and ready for the day’s adventure—Kona was still outside with Zephyr and fast asleep!
“Good morning?” Sumatra neighed, landing on the ground next to Kona and the puppy. She was shocked! Kona was usually the first Wind Dancer up in the morning—getting breakfast ready for her three friends.
Zephyr, who’d been snoozing happily by Kona’s side, popped up and arfed hello.
“Oooh!” Brisa cooed at the puppy. “You are even cuter than you were yesterday!”
But when she glanced at Kona, she gulped. The violet-black filly was stumbling to her hooves. Leaves were tangled up in her mane, and her eyelashes were clumped and heavy.
“Oh, Kona!” Brisa whinnied, her eyes wide. “Clearly you didn’t get much beauty sleep last night!”
“But she’s still up in time to make us breakfast!” Sirocco said cheerfully. He flew down and landed next to Kona. “So, what are we having?”
“Breakfast?” Kona said dully.
“You know,” Sirocco prompted her. “Apple pancakes or apple muffins? I’d even be happy with a simple baked apple—with lots of cinnamon and sugar, of course.”
“How about just apples,” Kona muttered, pointing with her nose at their tree’s rosy fruits.
“Just … apples? Plain apples?” Sirocco neighed. “Sure, that makes a yummy snack. But we’re talking breakfast here. Breakfast needs to be cooked! I think that’s a rule or something.”
The butterflies in his magic halo agreed, sagging disappointedly.
Sumatra shook her head in bewilderment as she flew up to pluck an apple from a nearby branch.
“I wonder what Zephyr’s going to get for his breakfast,” she said. Once again she felt a pang in her belly.
But Kona didn’t seem to notice. She only yawned and slumped back onto Zephyr’s leafy bed. Meanwhile, the puppy bounded out into the dandelion meadow, then ran back to the horses, then dashed back into the meadow again.
“All that running back and forth means Zephyr wants to play,” Kona said sleepily, her eyes closing.
“Well, that’s not hard to figure out,” Sumatra said through a noisy bite of apple. “Dogs always want to play!”
“So do horses!” Sirocco neighed through his own bite of plain old apple.
“Well,” Kona said sleepily, “have a go at it then. I’m just going to rest my eyes … for a minute.…”
Before the other Wind Dancers could protest, the violet horse had fallen back asleep!
CHAPTER 4
A Doggy Discovery
“We should be planning our day’s adventure right now,” Sumatra complained to Brisa and Sirocco, “instead of waiting for Kona to catch her Zs.”
“Arf, arf, ARF,” Zephyr barked, jumping up on Sumatra and giving her a sloppy lick that also caught a good bit of her apple. Intrigued, the puppy took a nibble of Sumatra’s breakfast—then spit it out.
“I guess you’re not crazy about plain apples for breakfast either,” Sumatra said to the puppy, sighing as she gently rubbed him behind the ears with her muzzle.
After a moment, Zephyr trotted away, sniffing at the ground.
“Maybe he’s looking for a breakfast he finds more tasty,” Sumatra muttered to herself. “In fact, maybe I should do that, too!”
She turned to invite Brisa and Sirocco along, but they were absorbed in a game of Bonk the Apple.
Or at least Sirocco was.
Bonk!
Sirocco head-butted his breakfast toward the pink filly and called, “C’mon, Brisa. Now you bonk it back to me!”
“Sirocco!” Brisa squeaked, letting the apple fall to the ground. “Don’t bonk apples at me—you’ll get my mane all juicy! I’m not going to bonk any to you, either. But, hmmm, I could use the apple seeds to buff up my hooves. They look a tiny bit dull.”
“Bo-ring!” Sirocco argued as he bonked another apple at her.
Sumatra sighed.
“Looks like everyone’s doing their own thing this morning,” she said to herself. So she drifted off on an air current, wondering if some blackberries might make her belly feel less pangy.
When Sumatra arrived at some berry bushes near the big horses’ paddock on the edge of the dandelion meadow, she plucked a big juicy berry and ate it.
She ate a few more berries. They were delicious—but they didn’t exactly make her happy.
She didn’t bother to pick some extra blackberries for Kona to cook with, either, as she usually would do.
Clearly, Kona’s not in a cooking mood today, she thought sadly. The ribbons in her magic halo went limp in agreement.
But as Sumatra flew over the big horses’ paddock on her way back to the apple tree, she heard a familiar sound.
“Arf!”
The bark sounded just like Zephyr’s, only louder and lower!
Sumatra paused in the air and looked down to see the big horses’ Jack Russell terrier, Daisy. She was lying just inside the door of the barn next to the paddock. Her chin was plopped onto her front paws.
“She looks sort of sad, too,” Sumatra noted, swooping down for a closer look. Sumatra wasn’t the only one paying attention to Daisy.
Thelma and Fluff, the mare and filly who lived in the paddock, were nickering at the dog.
“Arf! Arf!” Daisy answered the horses.
Sumatra smiled.
“If I spoke arf, I’d bet you that Daisy was saying, ‘Leave me alone!’”
But Thelma and Fluff didn’t leave the pooch alone. Thelma gave Daisy’s nose a lick, then Fluff nudged Daisy so forcefully that the Jack Russell had to get to her feet.
And once Daisy was up, Thelma began to playfully chase her. Despite herself, the dog began to trot. Then she started to run. And before long, Daisy was romping and leaping all over the paddock. She even dragged a green Jolly Ball out of the barn and nosed it to Thelma for a game of catch.
“Wow!” Sumatra whispered in awe. “Thelma and Fluff totally cheered that dog up! They’re so big and strong, they sort of gave Daisy no choice. She had to get up and play with them.”
As Sumatra continued to watch Daisy, Thelma, and Fluff play together, she was struck by how easy everything seemed to be. There was no hoisting Daisy into a high-up tree house (and no rushing her back out again when nature called!).
There was no coaxing her to eat horsey foods like apples and parsnips that she didn’t seem to like.
Even the big horses’ big size seemed more suited to doggy friendship.
There’s no way we could horse-handle Zephyr into playing the way Thelma and Fluff just did with Daisy, Sumatra added to herself.
As she flew back to the dandelion meadow, all these thoughts made Sumatra’s belly feel pangier than ever.
When Sumatra arrived back home, Kona was still snoozing beneath the apple tree, and Brisa and Sirocco were playing with Zephyr.
Or rather, Zephyr was trying to play with them!
“Arf, arf, ARF!”
Zephyr jumped up on his hind legs and waved his paws at the flying colt and the coral filly. He ran in circles, and as he did, he motioned at the horses with his nose.
“What’s he up to?” Sirocco asked Brisa, his ears pricked forward inquisitively.
Brisa eyed the still-scampering puppy.
“Maybe he wants to dance!” the filly chirped. “Come on, Zephyr. I’ll teach you some dressage moves. They’re sooooo pretty!”
Brisa began to wave her front hooves daintily and bob her head so her mane flowed in the breeze.
“Arf, arf, ARF!”
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Zephyr shook his head and continued to run in circles.
“I don’t think dressage is Zephyr’s thing,” Sirocco pointed out.
While Brisa and Sirocco bickered about beauty, Sumatra cocked her head and stared at Zephyr. Something about the puppy’s motions looked familiar.…
“Hey, I know what Zephyr’s doing!” she blurted suddenly.
Sirocco and Brisa jumped and looked over at her.
“Oh, you’re back!” Brisa said, giving Sumatra a happy nuzzle.
“So, tell!” Sirocco demanded. “What’s our dog up to?”
“He’s trying to herd you!” Sumatra declared. “Remember when I met Sassafras, the cow-horse, out on the range? That circle-y thing is just what she did to round up her cattle.”
“Herding, huh?” Sirocco said. “I forgot that some dogs are bred to herd sheep or cows.”
Then he looked down at Zephyr and laughed.
“Sorry, buddy,” he said to the puppy. “I guess it’s kind of hard to herd a horse who can just fly out of your reach!”
Sirocco darted playfully above Zephyr’s head, and nickered teasingly at the pup.
But if Sirocco expected Zephyr to giggle along with him, the colt was disappointed.
“Arf, arf, ARF!” Zephyr barked indignantly. He ran to the base of the apple tree and grabbed the Wind Dancers’ Jolly Ball from its spot among the tree roots. Then Zephyr began to race across the meadow with the ball.
He wasn’t scampering.
And he wasn’t arfing playfully.
He was simply sprinting away!
Before anyone knew it, Zephyr and his Jolly Ball had disappeared into a tall thatch of weeds.
“Ooh,” Brisa burbled. “Zephyr wants to play hide and seek!”
“Ready or not, here we come!” Sirocco neighed loudly. So loudly, that Kona—who had still been snoring away under the apple tree—jolted awake.
“We’re playing hide and seek with Zephyr,” Brisa reported to Kona.
“Hide and seek?” Kona said, suddenly aloft. She scanned the meadow for a glimpse of Zephyr’s bobbing tail or flopping ears. Seeing none, her eyes went wide.
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