Sirocco had stunned the fillies several times that day. But none more than now.
“You’re saying you need … us?” Brisa asked incredulously.
“Yup,” Sirocco said.
“To do what?” Sumatra asked.
“What you’ve been doing all day,” Sirocco replied. “Having fun cooking together while I…”
Sirocco paused to squirm. And Kona filled in his thought for him.
“While you spent your day being brilliant, but … lonely?”
Sirocco cringed. He didn’t want to admit it. Lonely? Yes. Brilliant? Not so much!
So, he skirted Kona’s question and simply said, “Who’s ready to cook up a little surprise?”
Sumatra, Kona, and Brisa shot each other sidelong looks and tried to hide their teasing smiles.
Then Kona put on an earnest face and said, “I’m ready. I couldn’t be more ready!”
“Me, too!” Sumatra agreed, cheerfully clearing the fillies’ cook-off dishes from the table so the horses would have room to work.
Brisa tied an apron around her neck to protect her pretty mane and said slyly, “Just tell us what to do, Chef Sirocco!”
The tiny colt trotted over to his pile of ingredients.
“Kona, why don’t you combine some raisins, rutabaga, and maple syrup,” Sirocco instructed.
Then he turned to Sumatra.
“Please mix up some molasses, cornmeal, and carrots,” he requested.
“That’s … different,” Sumatra said skeptically as she gathered the ingredients.
“That’s the point!” Sirocco said proudly. “Favorite ingredients, new combinations of them.”
He scanned the remaining ingredients and gave Brisa parsnips, apples, honey, and bran.
And for himself, he chose oats, dates, sweet potatoes—and sugar cubes!
The four horses chuckled and chatted as they bustled around the kitchen. Brisa playfully flicked parsnip peels at Sirocco, and Sirocco beaned each of the fillies with raisins when they weren’t looking. By the time everyone had finished mixing up their ingredients, they were all laughing.
But with the fillies’ work finished, it was time for Sirocco to go solo again. Grinning, he banished his fellow cooks from the kitchen.
A short (and very clattery) while later, Sirocco called to his friends: “Supper’s on!”
The pretty fillies peeked curiously into the kitchen and saw that Sirocco had reset the table and laid out Kona’s parsnip pie, Brisa’s apple soufflé, and Sumatra’s corn.
But there was no sign of Sirocco’s dish other than a delicious smell coming from the oven.
“Let’s eat!” Sirocco said. “I’m starving!”
Sirocco enjoyed the fillies’ food so much, the other Wind Dancers could barely get a fork in edgewise!
As the horses feasted, they chattered happily.
“My pie is totally going to win the cook-off!” Kona announced confidently.
“What about the soufflé that I made?” Brisa retorted with a grin. “It was so pretty, I could hardly bear to de-puff it.”
“Luckily, Sirocco did that for you,” Sumatra said wryly. “Anyway, we all know that the roasted corn is the best—because it’s the dish I cooked!”
To each of these boasts, Sirocco nodded happily.
“Your food is fabulous,” he agreed, before adding, “but nothing’s as good as dessert!”
Sirocco leapt up from the table and trotted to the oven. Carefully blocking the fillies’ view, he pulled something out, then got busy putting some finishing touches on top of it.
“What are you up to?” Sumatra asked impatiently.
“Ooh, I can’t wait to see!” Brisa added.
“Hold your horses, horses,” Sirocco said. “It’s a surprise. Specifically…”
Sirocco stepped aside to reveal a round, towering dish that looked just like a cake!
“… the Sirocco Surprise!” the colt announced proudly.
The “cake” had four different layers—each made from the ingredients each horse had whipped together.
On top of the dessert was a puff of honeyed frosting. And this was dotted with ribbons, jewels, flowers, and butterflies—all carved from sparkling sugar cubes!
“It’s beauuuutiful,” Brisa breathed.
“And it actually smells good!” Sumatra noted with more than a little surprise.
“It’ll taste even better,” Sirocco assured her. “What with my natural talent and all!”
Sirocco hoped his filly friends couldn’t tell that he was holding his breath as Kona gripped a knife in her teeth and cut a nice large wedge out of the Sirocco Surprise.
Each of the Wind Dancers took a bite.
Initially, Sirocco tasted each lovely layer individually: first, the maple syrup/raisin/rutabaga combo; next, the crispy cornmeal/carrot/molasses layer; then, the taste of parsnip/apple/honey and bran; and finally, the mixture of oats/dates/sweet potatoes and sugar cubes.
But then, all those flavors melded into one.
And Sirocco’s whole mouth exploded with deliciousness!
One look at the fillies’ stunned, blissful faces convinced the colt that they felt the same way about the Sirocco Surprise!
Sirocco’s feet started tapping.
His wings started flapping.
And he launched into the victory dance he’d been dreaming about all day!
“I’m the winner!” he neighed. “I, Sirocco, have won the Great Wind Dancer Cook-Off! I’m the most brilliant chef in the dandelion meadow!”
“Wait a minute!” Sumatra protested (though she was licking frosting off her nose as she did). “Who declared you the winner?”
“All of us!” Sirocco said. “Our faces say it all. The Sirocco Surprise is the most delectable dish of the night!”
“It is dreamy,” Brisa admitted.
“Brilliant, even,” Sumatra grudgingly added.
“And it’s so different,” Kona pointed out, “even though it’s full of all our usual favorite foods.”
Sirocco was just about to whinny in victory, again, when Kona added, “But…”
“But?” Sirocco sputtered. “But what?!”
“But truthfully, Sirocco,” Kona said gently, “we all made this cake together.”
“So, how about a four-way tie?” Sumatra proposed, whipping one of her magic ribbons into a pretty bow.
“Or how about we just forget about winning and losing,” Kona went on, “and finish our lovely meal?”
“Together!” Brisa declared.
Wearing serene smiles, the fillies looked to Sirocco, certain that he would agree.
“Sure, we made the Sirocco Surprise together, but it was my idea!” Sirocco burst out. “And you don’t know what I went through to get there! I escaped vicious geese and poisonous mushrooms. I got lost in the woods and almost didn’t make it out alive! Believe me—I have suffered for my art! I deserve to win.”
Kona stifled a snort before getting serious and gazing at Sumatra and Brisa.
“He has a point,” she said to them.
“He does?!” Sumatra gasped, while Sirocco grinned and resumed his victory dance.
“Sirocco is indeed a brilliant chef,” Kona continued seriously. “And as our Cook-Off winner, he gets the privilege of making all our meals for, oh, at least the next week!”
“Um, what?” Sirocco said, putting his dance on pause to stare at Kona.
“Now, for breakfast tomorrow,” Kona ordered the stunned colt, “I’d like some oatmeal pancakes.”
“Oooh,” Sumatra added with a grin, “and I’ll take some fresh-pressed apple cider!”
“And for lunch,” Brisa ordered with a giggle, “I’d love some carrot pasta.”
“N-n-now hold on!” Sirocco stammered. “We never talked about this prize.”
“I know!” Kona said with a mischievous grin. “This is so much better than a trophy, don’t you think?”
“So, how about it?” Sumatra challenged the colt with a grin. “You ready to
get busy in the kitchen?”
“But,” Sirocco protested, “cooking with you guys was the whole point of the Sirocco Surprise. It was way more fun than cooking all by myself!”
Now it was the fillies who paused. Immediately, they shifted from teasing—to touched. Brisa rushed to give Sirocco a nose nuzzle.
“We missed cooking with you today, too!” she declared. “It just wasn’t the same without you making a big mess in the kitchen!”
“Exactly!” Sirocco replied, returning the nuzzle and grinning—a bit slyly. “I mean, what’s not to love about cooking together? In the end, there’s less work for everyone and more food! Especially for me!”
“Sirocco!” Sumatra scolded.
Sirocco cackled. But then he got (slightly) serious.
“Tell you what,” he offered his friends, feeling only a little pang as he did. “How about we agree to share the work in the kitchen and the win for the Great Wind Dancer Cook-Off?”
Brisa, Kona, and Sumatra looked at each other and grinned. Then Kona turned to the colt and declared, “Deal!”
“And now,” Sirocco said, happily trotting back to the table, “let’s seal that deal with another piece of Sirocco Surprise!”
And a Tasty Good Night!
Later that evening, Sirocco once again found himself zipping through the air, thinking of food.
But this time, he wasn’t alone.
Kona, Brisa, and Sumatra were with him. And so was a basket looped around his neck.
As the horses headed to Leanna and Sara’s pretty yellow farmhouse, Sirocco pulled back the napkin covering the basket, and he and his friends peered inside one last time.
Nested inside were two fat slices of the Sirocco Surprise.
“They look so pretty!” Brisa said with satisfaction.
“And,” Sirocco said smacking his lips, “they’re made with ingredients both horses and little girls love!”
Reaching the farmhouse, Sirocco and the fillies landed on the kitchen windowsill. Then Sirocco carefully flew inside. He placed the basket with the two bedtime snacks—one each for Leanna and Sara—on the counter-top. Then the happy horse rejoined his friends on the windowsill.
“I only wish I could be here,” Sirocco said to the fillies, “when Leanna and Sara discover their treat and taste my brilliant cooking!”
“Not again!” Sumatra sputtered. “We all made the Sirocco Surprise together, you know that! Remember our deal?”
“Oh, right!” Sirocco said breezily. “Our deal. Okay, I suppose you can share the credit with me.”
“Sirocco!” Now, it was Kona who was sending a warning the colt’s way.
“Hello!” Sirocco burst out with a belly laugh. “I’m kidding!”
“Oh!” Brisa said, blinking in surprise.
And to Sirocco’s surprise, the fillies started giggling.
“C’mon, fellow chefs,” Sirocco declared, fluttering off the windowsill. “Let’s go home and have our leftover cake as a midnight snack. Because everybody knows that dessert shared with friends tastes the sweetest of all!”
Here’s a sneak preview of Wind Dancers Book 9:
A Horse’s Best Friend
CHAPTER 1
Puppy Love
“Heads up, Brisa!” the leader of the Wind Dancers called to the coral-pink filly as the tiny winged horses flew above their dandelion meadow. “Let’s play ABC ball. Catch!”
Kona was holding a bright red Jolly ball between her front hooves.
“Tra, la, la,” Brisa warbled, as she bobbed with her head in the clouds.
“Come on!” Kona called to Brisa again.
“Why don’t you throw the ball to me instead?” suggested Sirocco, the lone colt in the Wind Dancer foursome, as the sun glowed on his golden coat.
“ABC ball?” piped up sea-green Sumatra, the last of the Wind Dancers. “What’s that?”
“We throw the ball to each other in alphabetical order, of course,” Kona said primly. “Brisa goes first. She throws it to me, because K for Kona comes after B for Brisa. Then I’ll throw the ball to Sirocco. And Sumatra, you get the ball last.”
“What if I want to be first?” Sumatra demanded huffily.
“You can’t,” Kona said bossily. “SU-matra comes after SI-rocco. That’s just the way it is!”
“Yeah, in your world, Miss Bossy-hooves!” Sumatra grumbled.
Kona frowned.
“I am—”
“—not bossy!”
Brisa and Sirocco had jumped in to finish Kona’s sentence. Then they dissolved into giggles.
“Hey!” Kona said. She looked hurt, until Brisa swooped down to give her a nose nuzzle.
“Oh, don’t feel bad,” Brisa said. “We love you even if you are bossy!”
“And even if I don’t necessarily want to play ABC ball,” Sumatra added with a mischievous grin.
Kona was just about to say again how not bossy she was, when she heard something that stopped her.
It was a rustling, scampering sound.
Which was followed by a yap-yap-yapping sound.
And then by a round, furry critter bursting out of a thick clump of yellow dandelions!
The creature gazed up at the Wind Dancers with bright, brown eyes. He reared up on his hind legs and waved his front paws at the tiny flying horses. Then he lost his balance, and fell over in a heap.
“Oh!” Kona exclaimed, instantly forgetting her budding argument with her friends. “Look! It’s a puppy dog!”
A FEIWEL AND FRIENDS BOOK
An Imprint of Macmillan
WIND DANCERS: HUNGRY AS A HORSE. Copyright © 2009 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 [email protected].
Series editor, Susan Bishansky
Feiwel and Friends logo designed by Filomena Tuosto
First Edition: 2009
www.feiwelandfriends.com
eISBN 9781466890725
First eBook edition: January 2015
Hungry as a Horse Page 3