Hanazuki: An Egg to Crack

by Stacy Davidowitz

  Sleepy Unicorn fired at the roots, and they twisted into the moon earth. One at a time. Super slowly. Chicken Plant squawked, “OW! YOW! FASTER! ENERGIZED MY BUM, YOU NAP ADDICT! ZAP ME HARDER!” But this was as fast, as hard, and as energized as Sleepy could go.

  Five screaming minutes later, Chicken Plant’s roots were securely screwed into the ground. Red had shoveled dirt back over the roots, while Sleepy had collapsed beside him, fast asleep.

  “Yay! Great work, team!” Hanazuki cheered.

  Red clapped himself on the back. Sleepy let out a snore. Chicken Plant huffed. “Do I look like a mushroom to you, Unicorn?” Then she turned to Hanazuki. “This will not be his new sleeping quarters.”

  “Copy that.” Hanazuki sat down beside Chicken Plant and stared up at her chicks, slowly making their way through the galaxy. All ten chicks had delivered their mama back to her moon, and now all ten were returning to Chicken Moon, mama-free.

  Hanazuki glanced at Chicken Plant. Her chin was quivering. “So,” Hanazuki began gently. “Wanna talk about it?”

  “About what?” Chicken Plant asked.

  “Chicken Moon?”

  “Oh. That.” Chicken Plant exhaled. “It was exhausting. What a clutch of pains!”

  “What do you mean? What happened?”

  “Well, for starters, Tenders wanted to be rooted even closer to me than he was before. Junior wanted braces for his overbite. Chicklet wanted growth hormones. Burger had me enroll him in a hockey league. Parmigiana wanted pasta-making classes. Salad wanted contacts. Drumstick led drum circles right next to me. Skewer tattooed ‘I heart Mama’ on his neck, and then had the nerve to ask me to apply ointment to it twice a day. Duck stole Drumstick’s tie-dye kit and bleached his feathers pink!” She sighed, throwing her wings up. “Can you believe my luck? How is it that I birthed such a high-maintenance clutch of fools?”

  “I dunno,” Hanazuki said. “I mean, high-maintenance? Where could they have possibly gotten that from?”

  “Beats me.”

  Hanazuki laughed. “How was your revenge? Did Chicken Brain learn his lesson?”

  “Don’t get me started. I was so consumed with my chicks, I didn’t even have the chance to give him a piece of my mind! Next time.”

  “So, there’s a next time?”

  “Duh. It would be irresponsible for me to stay here forever. Chicken Plant rights are a major issue. The chickens and Chicken Plants of Chicken Moon have a right to know their history. I am their history!”

  “That makes sense.” Hanazuki nudged her playfully. “But I bet it’ll also be nice to see Tenders and the rest of your chicks again, right?”

  “Oh, you think I’d go all the way back to Chicken Moon for THEM? I just told you what PAINS they were. WERE YOU EVEN LISTENING?!”

  Hanazuki shrugged. “Hey, you are a mama after all.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Going nuts, getting gruff, feeling feisty—it’s all part of the experience.”

  Just then, Little Dreamer flew down and dropped Hanazuki a treasure shaped like a smiling Hemka. “Awwww! Thanks, snoozy dude. This is the cutest treasure you’ve ever given me!”

  “Shee-la-la.”

  “Totally, though the chicken treasure was pretty cute, too. Right, CP?”

  “Please don’t,” Chicken Plant said.

  Hanazuki giggled, then kissed the top of Red’s head. He wiped her red fruit lip stain away, then hugged her back.

  “Well, I’m looking forward to a nice, long, peaceful nap,” Chicken Plant said. “I’m an empty nester now, and I’m gonna live my full empty-nester life.”

  “Sounds like a plan well-deserved.”

  Chicken Plant closed her eyes, and Hanazuki took Red’s ear in her hand and began to walk away, but after only a few steps they were stopped in their tracks by Chicken Plant’s scream. It was so loud the red Treasure Trees started bending. It was so loud their fruit started dropping. It was so loud that Sleepy Unicorn almost woke up!

  “AHHHH!” Chicken Plant cried. “Help! Egg! Inside! Coming out! HEEEEEELP!”

  Hanazuki’s heart began to flutter. Here we go again. She and Red stared at Chicken Plant as she popped another egg out. It dropped to her nest, quaking. And then it started to hatch . . .

  Hanazuki and her moon crew are always up for an out-of-this-world adventure! Don’t miss a single one!

  © 2018 Hasbro

  Text by Stacy Davidowitz. Illustrations by Victoria Ying.

  Published in 2018 by Amulet Books, an imprint of ABRAMS.

  All rights reserved.

  CHAPTER ONE

  OF CHAOS AND COMETS

  Clack, clack, clack! Hanazuki abruptly awoke to the clapping of moon rocks. She opened her eyes, and bouncing in a frenzy were her ten squishy friends, the Hemka. “Is there a snooze option around here?” she asked, exploding into a Moonflower yawn.

  “Ya, ya, ya, yee-yoo,” they replied.

  “OK, great, clap me up in five.”

  Just as Hanazuki collapsed back into her sleeping bag, Red Hemka and Yellow Hemka pulled her out by her arms. Blue Hemka clung to her left leg. Pink Hemka clung to her right leg. Lavender Hemka screamed, “YEEEEEEE!” into her left ear. Teal Hemka screamed, “YOOOOOOO!” into her right ear. Orange Hemka, Green Hemka, and Purple Hemka stared at her like nervous spaceballs.

  “And . . . I’m up! At the crack of moon! One of you please explain why you’re all freaking out!”

  Lime Green Hemka leaped into her lap, cowered in the crook of her armpit, and answered, “YAYA-YEE-YEE-YOO-YOO-YAAAAA!”

  “Aw, Lime Green, did you have a nightmare?”

  He shook his head.

  “A morningmare?”

  Another no.

  Hanazuki smiled and tickled him until he shouted, “Ya-ya-ya-ya-ya!” which sounded like laughter but was actually just the noise he made when he was having a panic attack.

  “Well, whatever woke you all up—it wasn’t a realmare. There’s nothing to be afraid of. Look around!” Hanazuki swept her arm across the beautiful moon. To her left was the Rainbow Swirl Lake. To her right was a garden of Treasure Trees. Up above were floating marshmallow clouds. “We are on the Light Side of the Moon, aka the bright side of the moon, remember? Here the rainbow waterfalls sparkle, and the Treasure Trees protect us, and there’s no reason to be hiding in my armpit. Deep breaths!”

  Lime Green stuck his head out from underneath Hanazuki’s armpit and began to wheeze.

  “That doesn’t sound promising. Hold on.” Hanazuki quickly gathered two giant Treasure Tree leaves and glued their edges together with goop. “Voila! It’s a breathing bag! Breathe in and the leaves press together; breathe out and it blows up like a balloon. Helps steady your breath.”

  Hanazuki tried to pass the breathing bag to Lime Green, but Orange Hemka snatched it away.

  “Very funny, Orange. Always a fan of your wackiness, but—”

  Orange hopped away, the breathing bag clutched between his floppy ears.

  “Oh, come on, Orange! It’s way too early for running!”

  Hanazuki leaped from her sleeping nook with Lime Green on her back and attempted to chase Orange down. They ran past a sleeping Talking Pyramid.

  “Morning, Hana Z,” he blurted, startled awake. “With the new day comes fresh problems, I see.”

  “Yup!” Hanazuki shouted behind her. “A small dose of morning chaos, though, usually makes for a chill-tastic afternoon.”

  “The storm before the calm.”

  “Ha, exactly!”

  Orange slid down a crater, entering the moon’s most lush and colorful Treasure Tree garden. Hanazuki followed. When she was finally at Orange’s heels, he stopped short. Hanazuki crashed into him, and the breathing bag flew from his ears, catching on a red Treasure Tree branch totally out of reach. “Oh, moonshakes!” she cried, then shook a fist at Orange. “Now see what you’ve done!”

  Lime Green slid from Hanazuki’s back and practically melted to the gr
ound.

  “Orange, why in the moon would you steal Lime Green’s breathing bag?” she asked. “Don’t you want to help? He’s majorly freaked out. Over, um, something.”

  “Yoo-gee-yee!” Orange screeched, pointing his ears up to the bag.

  “Yup, that’s the bag.”

  “Yoo-gee-yee-cha,” Orange screeched louder.

  “Yup, it’s stuck.”

  By now all the Hemka had arrived at the crime scene and were pointing their ears at the bag, too. What was this—early morning recess?! “Not. A. Toy,” Hanazuki told them. “But hey, if you all want to play with the bag, then why don’t you shapeshift into a ladder and grab it yourselves? You guys do shapeshift, right?”

  All of a sudden, the red Treasure Tree let out a low, rumbling “Mmmooooaaan.”

  “Oh, no! What’s wrong?” Hanazuki asked the tree, laying a gentle hand on its trembling trunk. The breathing bag was shaken free. It floated onto Lime Green’s head. He did nothing but wear it as a hat.

  “Buddy, use it,” Hanazuki urged. “I did not just chase down Orange for nothing.” But Lime Green didn’t use the bag. He sat as still as a moon rock, his eyes halfway out of their sockets, looking at the branch where the breathing bag had just been. Same with the other Hemka. They couldn’t keep their eyes from the shaking tree.

  Just as Hanazuki began to follow their gaze, a treasure fruit smacked her on the forehead and knocked her flat on her back. “OW! What the—?” Red fruit of all sizes began dropping from the tree’s branches onto her body. Plop! Plop! Plop! Before she could investigate the tree’s health—Treasure Trees don’t just shed their fruit!—she was buried under a fruit-salad avalanche.

  Once the fruit stopped falling, Hanazuki shook her head and the treasure berries fell from her eyes. Through the barren branches she could see the sky, and in it were two fiery comets! They were about to collide! Dangerously close to her moon! So that’s why Lime Green was freaking out! That’s why all the Hemka were freaking out! “That’s real. That’s really real. And bad. Really, really real and bad.”

  Lime Green wriggled his way through the fruit to get back beneath her armpit. “Yo-yo-yee-yee,” he whimpered.

  Hanazuki’s heart pounded with the fervor of a zillion exploding stars. A puddle of nerves, she couldn’t move. “Do something,” she uttered, trying to get herself to take action.

  But Lime Green must have thought Hanazuki was insisting that he do something, since he obeyed by screaming “YAHHHHHH!” at the top of his little lungs.

  Well, that worked, Hanazuki thought, climbing out from beneath most of the fruit so she could cover her ears, if nothing else.

  In a flash, Dazzlessence Jones was racing toward them. He was so shiny, it was blinding. Like a diamond skier, he dug the edges of his cowboy boots into the moon’s surface to skid to a stop, clouding Hanazuki and Lime Green in moon soot. When the air cleared, he had his badge out. It read: MOON SHERIFF, CRIME HATER AKA CRATER, AND THE MOON’S MOST SHINY. “Hey yo! Did someone say, ‘YAHHHHHH?’”

  Hanazuki, in no mood for small talk, just pointed up.

  Dazzlessence glanced at the sky and gasped. “Goodness gracious, great balls of fire! What’re you doing comet-gazing, Hanazuki? There’s no time for that! This is a disaster waiting to happen.”

  “I don’t think the disaster’s waiting,” she said flatly.

  “You’re right. Let’s stop those great balls of fire before they make one great ball of fire that destroys us all. You in?”

  “Inner than in!” Hanazuki stood up with so much oomph that the rest of the fruit flew from her body. “What’s the plan, Sheriff?”

  “To the Safety Cave! Woooo-eeeee! This is NOT A DRILL!”

  About the Author

  Stacy Davidowitz is an author, playwright, and screenwriter based in Manhattan. Her book babies include Camp Rolling Hills, Crossing Over, Breakout! and Freefall. When she’s not writing, you can find her teaching creative writing and theater, running long distances, and singing show tunes. Visit her at stacydavidowitz.com.

  About the Illustrator

  Victoria Ying is a rare native Angeleno. She started her career in the arts by falling in love with comic books. This eventually turned into a career working in animation. She loves Japanese curry, putting things in her online shopping cart and taking them out again, and hanging out with her dopey dog. Her book credits include Meow!; Not Quite Black and White; Lost and Found, What’s That Sound?; and Unicorn Magic.

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