Ruby Fuzzybrush's Star Dance Read online

  Ruby wiped her eyes with her tail. “And then we’ll bring out the stars again,” she said firmly.

  Jess tickled the cub’s fluffy ears. “You’re a very brave little fox,” she said.

  Goldie had been thinking. “I wonder,” she said, “if any of the nighttime animals are in Toadstool Glade. Maybe someone saw where Smudge went.”

  “We have to hurry,” Lily said. As she stared up at the sky, one star blinked out, then another.

  The forest was so much quieter than when all the animals were awake. A few of the little cottages they passed still had lights on in the windows, but most of them were dark.

  “Look!” Lily pointed to the Toadstool Café. A light was shining from the window. Lily, Jess, Goldie, and Ruby rushed over to peek inside. Lucy Longwhiskers the rabbit and her dad waved to them from the window, then came out to see them. Lucy was wearing spotty pink pajamas and fluffy rabbit slippers.

  “Lucy couldn’t sleep, so I was just making her some hot chocolate,” Mr. Longwhiskers explained. “Would you like some, too?”

  “I’m afraid we don’t have time,” said Goldie. She quickly explained what had happened.

  The rabbits were shocked.

  “Poor you,” Lucy said, hugging Ruby. “You must be so worried.”

  “I am,” said the fox cub. “We have to find Smudge. Have you seen him?”

  The rabbits sadly shook their heads. But then Mr. Longwhiskers hopped up and down excitedly. “You could go to the Midnight Market,” he suggested.

  “What’s the Midnight Market?” asked Jess curiously.

  “I know!” Ruby scampered off. “I’ll tell you on the way!”

  “Thank you!” the girls and Goldie called to the Longwhiskers as they raced after Ruby.

  “The Midnight Market is where all the nighttime animals buy things,” Goldie explained. “I don’t know why we didn’t think of it before!”

  “Rusty and I always buy star cookies at the market,” said Ruby as they passed the Friendship Tree. “We could get some for him. Star cookies are his favorite treat,” she added sadly.

  Goldie hugged her. “That’s a great idea,” she said.

  As they passed the Friendship Tree, Lily caught sight of a silver pile on the ground. “What’s that?” she wondered out loud.

  Goldie gave a gasp. “Leaves!”

  Lily and Jess glanced at each other in dismay. The Friendship Tree’s lower branches were already drooping, and the silver leaves were fading to a pale, ghostly gray. As they watched, another one fluttered down to the ground.

  Lily shuddered. “Come on,” she said bravely. “We have to hurry! If we don’t find that dragon soon, the Friendship Tree will lose its magic forever!”

  Ruby bounded through the dark forest and stopped at a tall oak tree. “We’re here!” the fox cub said happily. “The Midnight Market!”

  “But where is it?” Lily asked, looking around in amazement. She could hear lots of voices, but she couldn’t see anyone!

  “Look up!” Ruby pointed her paw. Way above them, high in the trees, was a huge circular platform.

  Jess peered around the tree trunks. It was getting darker and darker as one by one the stars faded. Suddenly she remembered her flashlight. She pulled it out of her pocket and switched it on. “How do we get up there?” she asked, swinging her flashlight around. “I can’t see a staircase or a ladder.”

  Ruby grinned. “I’ll show you!” She led them to a wooden platform on the ground beneath the middle tree. It had a fence around the edge with a gate. A thick loop of vine hung beside it.

  “It’s an elevator!” said Jess.

  Ruby opened the gate and they all got onto the elevator. Then Ruby darted over to the vine, tugged it, and up they went! Up and up, until the elevator stopped at a wide wooden walkway that stretched across the treetops.

  The Midnight Market!

  In the middle of the platform there were tables laden with fruit tarts, strawberry toffees, hats, mossy headbands, and necklaces made of nuts and seeds. The market was decorated with vines covered in berries that hung on the edges of the tables and around tree branches. But instead of enjoying themselves, the animals at the market were huddled together, talking in worried voices.

  “We’re too frightened to fly high,” trilled a nightingale, “ever since we heard that there’s a shadow dragon nearby.”

  “Everybody must leap a cookout,” said a familiar voice. “I mean, keep a lookout.” It was their friend Mr. Cleverfeather the owl, getting his words muddled as usual!

  The girls hurried over to him. All the other animals clustered around.

  “Hello, Goldie. Hello, Jess and Lily,” said Mr. Silverback the badger. “And who’s that? Oh, it’s little Ruby Fuzzybrush!”

  Mr. Cleverfeather introduced the girls to the animals they hadn’t met before. The nightingale, who was called Melody Sweetsong, trilled a musical greeting. A little pair of bats called Luna and Dusky Longears fluttered around them with their soft, velvety wings, squeaking, “Helloelloello!”

  Mr. Cleverfeather waved a wing at a family of brown owls. “These are my cousins, the Wisefeathers.”

  “Hoo hoo,” they said. “We’ve heard about yoohoo!”

  “And this,” Mr. Cleverfeather said, “is Dora Tinytail.”

  At first, Jess and Lily couldn’t see Dora, but they lowered their flashlights and, in the yellow glow, saw the most adorable little golden dormouse.

  When Jess put her hand down, Dora climbed onto it and curled up, with her fluffy tail wrapped around her. She yawned and immediately fell asleep.

  “She’s so cute!” said Lily.

  “She should try to stay awake,” said Mr. Silverback, “in case that dragon appears.”

  “And what has happened to the light-night and the tars—I mean, the night-light and the stars?” Mr. Cleverfeather asked.

  Goldie explained about the poor Fuzzybrushes and the star dance, and how they badly needed to make Smudge reverse his spell. “Have any of you seen him?” she asked.

  Everyone shook their heads. “The problem is,” said Mr. Silverback, “that even us nighttime animals would have trouble spotting Smudge when it’s this dark.”

  “I’m not surprised,” said Jess, glancing up at the sky. There were only a few stars left. “I can barely see a thing now, even with a flashlight. How can we search the whole forest?”

  All the animals looked at each other anxiously.

  “What about fireflies?” Jess exclaimed. “They helped us before.”

  “They live too far away,” Goldie said.

  “I think I’ve got just the thing,” Mr. Cleverfeather told them. “Some lightbites I was making for a party.”

  “Lightbites?” Jess said in confusion.

  “I mean bright lights,” Mr. Cleverfeather said, shaking his head.

  “Those sound perfect!” Lily gasped.

  “But they’re all the way over at my workshop.” Mr. Cleverfeather sighed.

  “Yoohoo start looking, and we’ll fly and get them,” Mrs. Wisefeather volunteered. “Then we’ll come and find yoohoo!” The brown owls flapped their wings and sped off.

  “They won’t be back soon enough.” Goldie looked worried as another star disappeared.

  “But we have to find Smudge!” Ruby cried, leaning against a tree trunk and cuddling her tail sadly.

  As she looked at the tiny fox, Jess gave a cry. “Ruby, look at your tail!”

  The fox cub shook her tail. Black dust came off.

  Lily put her hand against the tree trunk. It was covered in soot!

  “Look!” Lily cried. “I know how to find Smudge! All we have to do is follow the trail of soot!”

  “There’s more over hereherehere!” called Luna Longears.

  Mr. Cleverfeather pointed a wing. “Wish they, everyone—I mean, this way! Keep looking for the soot!”

  Lily and Jess shone their flashlights ahead. The narrow beams didn’t show much, but with all the nighttime animals working togeth
er, they were finding the trail.

  Jess could hear Ruby’s footsteps as the little cub scampered along beside them.

  “We don’t want anyone to let gost—I mean, get lost,” said Mr. Cleverfeather. “Goldie, hold my wing tip. Jess, you hold her paw, and Lily can hold Jess’s arm. Ruby, you hold on to Lily.”

  All the nighttime animals held on to one another as they walked carefully through the forest.

  Occasionally one of the animals called out as they spotted some soot on a tree branch or bush where Smudge had bumped his way along.

  It got darker and darker as the stars went out one by one. The animals huddled together, trying to search by the light of the girls’ flashlights.

  Finally they spotted a faint glow ahead. “Is it the Wisefeathers with the lights?” Goldie asked.

  “No! That’s the moonstone!” Ruby cried, racing forward.

  “Quick!” cried Lily.

  The girls rushed after her, into the shadowy darkness of the forest. Jess’s foot caught a fallen branch, and she tripped.

  “Ow!” she cried.

  “Are you OK?” asked Lily, stopping to help her up.

  “I’m fine,” Jess said.

  Suddenly there was a chuckle in the tree next to them. The girls swung around, shining their flashlights toward the noise. There, wrapped around the trunk, was Smudge the dragon!

  Smudge gave another laugh. “Hee, hee! Nice darkness makes everyone else fall over, too!” Then he scrambled inside a hollow in a tree trunk, taking the moonstone with him.

  Lily turned to Jess in excitement. “So that’s why Smudge likes the dark so much,” she said. “In the dark, he’s not the only one who’s clumsy!”

  “If we can show him how to stop tripping over all the time, maybe he’ll lift the spell on the Fuzzybrushes,” Jess said.

  “Great idea!” said Lily. “The stars will come back and the Friendship Tree will be safe. We just need to figure out how to teach a dragon not to be clumsy . . .”

  After Lily and Jess had told the others their idea, Goldie’s whiskers drooped. “It’s a great plan, girls,” she said, “but how will we stop Smudge tripping over? I can’t think of anything.”

  Ruby jumped up and down excitedly. “But I can!” she cried.

  “What’s your plan, Ruby?” asked Lily.

  Ruby swished her tail. “Remember the star dance we showed you?”

  The girls and Goldie nodded.

  “When Rusty and I first started learning it, our tails got in the way,” Ruby said. “But once we’d learned some dance moves, we stopped tripping over them. Dancing’s really good for learning how to keep your balance, you see,” she added.

  Jess grinned—she’d guessed what Ruby was thinking. “So if you teach Smudge some dance moves, he’ll be less clumsy!”

  “And then he won’t want to be in the dark anymore, since he won’t be tripping all the time,” Goldie finished. She reached over and hugged the little cub. “That’s brilliant, Ruby!”

  “Smudge!” Lily called up at the tree where the dragon was hiding.

  Smudge’s voice echoed from inside the tree. “Go away!” he grumbled.

  “Ruby’s going to teach us how to dance,” Jess called back. “Why don’t you come and join us?”

  “No!” Smudge. “I’m staying in here.”

  Ruby looked disappointed, and Lily felt a nervous swirling in her tummy. They had to make Smudge reverse his spell, or the Friendship Tree would lose its magic and the Fuzzybrushes would be shadows forever!

  Just then there was a flapping sound and the Wisefeather owls appeared, carrying a long string of beautiful lights in their beaks. The owls perched on the nearby trees and Lily and Jess blinked up at them happily. The golden bright lights twinkled above them like tiny chandeliers.

  “Come on, let’s make Smudge change his mind!” Jess said determinedly. “Everyone, make some music!”

  The nighttime animals gathered in a circle, lit by the golden lights. Melody Sweetsong the nightingale started to sing. Mr. Silverback clapped his paws while the Longears bat family whistled.

  Ruby’s pointy ears pricked up happily. She held on to her tail with one paw and skipped in a circle. Goldie held her tail and followed after her, while the girls pretended to hold tails, too, and skipped along after them.

  “Now hop like this!” Ruby called. She jumped from right to left, waving her tail in the opposite direction. Goldie and the girls copied her, the girls waving a hand instead of a tail. They were all grinning.

  “This is so much fun!” cried Jess.

  Lily giggled as Ruby started shuffling backward, wiggling her paws in front of her. As she copied the fox cub, she saw Smudge peeking out of the hollow in his tree. He was bobbing his head in time to the music.

  “Let’s keep going,” Lily whispered. “I think it’s working!”

  Ruby led them in a waltz around Smudge’s tree. Every few beats, she paused to kick out a paw and shimmy her tail.

  Jess was last in line, and a movement from behind caught her eye.

  It was Smudge! He was skipping after them, flapping his wings and dancing!

  “Hee!” laughed Smudge, clapping his scaly paws. “Look at me!”

  “Hooray!” cried Lily.

  They all gathered around the dancing dragon. Ruby took his paw in hers. “Hold your tail in your other paw, like this,” she said, showing him, “then hop from foot to foot!”

  “Whee!” said Smudge, doing as Ruby said. He finished the move with a flap of his wings and a wiggle of his head.

  Goldie clapped. “That’s great, Smudge! You’re a really good dancer!”

  Just then Smudge tripped over his tail. Jess held her breath. If Smudge didn’t manage to dance, he might not help the Fuzzybrushes!

  But to their relief the dragon wobbled, then turned it into a twirling dance move!

  “Good job, Smudge!” Ruby cried.

  Jess pointed up at the glittering lights. “We couldn’t dance without Mr. Cleverfeather’s bright lights, though,” she said. “We wouldn’t be able to see what we’re doing. Smudge, will you lift the spell you put on the Fuzzybrushes? Then you can dance under the stars every night.”

  Smudge nodded his scaly head. “I want everyone to see me now,” he said. “Yes, I’ll take away the spell!”

  Ruby gave a cry of delight. “I’ll get my family back!” she cried.

  “And the Friendship Tree will be safe,” said Jess, smiling. “Lily and I can keep coming to the forest!”

  The Wisefeathers flapped through the forest, holding the bright lights to guide the way. Smudge flew along beside them, carrying the magical moonstone. When his tail got in the way of his legs, he turned his stumble into a dance move, hopping and waving his paws.

  “Go, Smudge!” cheered Jess.

  But a terrible surprise awaited the group as they passed the Friendship Tree.

  “There are hardly any leaves left!” Jess gasped. “We’re running out of time!”

  They raced to the lighthouse, where three fox shadows stood waiting.

  “Don’t worry, Mom, we’re going to take the spell off you,” Ruby said.

  The two big shadows reached out to the little cub, but stopped when Smudge skipped toward them.

  “It’s okay,” Lily told them. “Smudge is going to free you.”

  With a final hop, Smudge huffed a dark sooty cloud over the three shadows. It swirled around them, and then, with a puff, it was gone, and there stood Mr. and Mrs. Fuzzybrush and Rusty!

  The whole fox family hugged one another, rolling over and over in a jumble of legs and fluffy tails.

  Finally, they got to their feet. Their ears pricked up as Goldie told them about their adventure.

  “Thank you for saving us,” said Mrs. Fuzzybrush, “and for looking after Ruby.”

  “She’s a very good dance teacher,” said Jess. “We couldn’t have done it without her!”

  Ruby hugged the girls and Goldie. “It was a wonderful adventure,” she
said, “but I was a little scared.”

  Mr. Fuzzybrush kissed her nose. “Scared? You?” he said. “No other fox cub has ever been brave enough to teach a dragon how to dance!”

  “Speaking of dancing, can you do your star dance, please?” Jess said, looking up at the sky. There was just one little star left.

  “Hurry,” begged Lily, thinking of the leaves on the Friendship Tree.

  Everyone ran into the clearing. Smudge put the moonstone in the middle and as the girls and Goldie watched, the foxes began their stepping, gliding, twirling dance. Smudge sat nearby, swishing his tail in time. As the tips of the foxes’ bushy tails touched, the moonstone began to glow.

  “There!” said Jess, pointing up at the inky sky. A star was twinkling. More and more appeared, and soon the sky was dusted with sparkling starlight.

  “Perfect for dancing under!” said Smudge, clapping his paws as he gazed up at the twinkling stars.

  As the moonstone shone brighter than ever before, the Fuzzybrushes finished and took a bow. The star dance was complete.

  “That looked so magical!” said Jess.

  “It was magical!” said Lily. “Now the Friendship Tree will be safe.”

  Ruby was whispering to her parents. They nodded, and she went to stand close to where the black shadow dragon was perched.

  “Smudge, would you like to learn some more dance moves?” she asked.

  “Oh, yes!” Smudge cried.

  “Then my mom and dad say that you can come and stay at the lighthouse with us,” Ruby said, “as long as you promise not to make everything too sooty.”

  Smudge flew in a big loop-the-loop, got tangled in his tail, turned it into a hop through the air, and landed in front of the Fuzzybrushes. “Thank you!” he said happily. “I’ll be good, I promise!”

  Ruby, Rusty, and Smudge held paws and twirled around the moonstone.

  Lily and Jess grinned at each other, then ran to join in, followed by the other nighttime animals. They all danced happily under the twinkling stars.