“He’s doing a pretty good job of hiding, isn’t he?” she said to her friends, sounding a bit worried.
“Relax,” Sirocco said. “Zephyr just zipped into that patch of weeds over there.”
But as the Wind Dancers flew over to the weeds, Sumatra couldn’t help but feel as uneasy as Kona did.
“Come out, come out wherever you are!” Brisa burbled.
The Wind Dancers waited for the weeds to rustle, for the puppy to come tumbling out into the meadow and toss the Jolly Ball.
But he didn’t.
“Come on, Zephyr!” Sirocco said playfully. He dove down into the weeds and thrashed around to root out the puppy.
But when he poked his golden head back out and looked up at Kona, Sumatra, and Brisa, this is what he said:
“He’s not here. Zephyr’s gone!”
CHAPTER 5
Hide and Seek (the Puppy)
Kona felt panicky as the four horses fanned out across the meadow in search of the puppy.
“Zephyr,” she called as loudly as she could. “Ze-phyrrrrrr!”
Not so much as a yap in response.
“Where could he be?” she asked her friends.
“I don’t know!” Brisa cried. “And if a dog is a horse’s best friend, shouldn’t we know?”
I don’t know where Zephyr went, but I think I know why he ran away from us, Sumatra thought to herself sadly. As much as we love him, Zephyr doesn’t belong with us!
But she didn’t have the heart to tell her friends her thoughts while they were all so worried about their puppy.
Besides, Kona wouldn’t have given her the chance. She was back in bossyhooves mode!
“We’re going to search the woods,” Kona ordered her wide-eyed friends. “There are lots of places for a puppy to hide there.”
The Wind Dancers zipped over to the edge of the woods, searching for any sign of their black-and-white friend.
But they saw nothing.
Then Kona spotted a flash of red. It was next to a tree trunk nearby.
“Let’s see!” Kona said, zipping over to investigate. A moment later, she neighed.
The good news? The color Kona had seen was a scrap of red rubber. Kona was certain it was part of the Jolly Ball Zephyr had been carrying when he made his escape.
The bad news? There was still no sign of Zephyr!
But then Kona spotted another bit of red rubber in a nearby pond and zipped over to it.
As Kona arrived, with the other Wind Dancers on her tail, the rubber scrap rose out of the water like magic!
Kona gasped—until she saw that magic had nothing to do with the levitating Jolly Ball scrap. It was a frog! The rubber sat atop his head like a little cap.
“Oh, how stylish!” Brisa giggled.
Ribbit! The frog scowled. Clearly, he wasn’t feeling fashionable!
“Whoops,” the pink filly gulped. “Sorry, sorry!”
And the horses flew on.
They found a bit of red rubber in a nest full of squawking baby birds.
A moment later, Kona spotted still another Jolly Ball scrap. This one was plugging up a mouse hole beneath a tree!
By then, the Wind Dancers had found so many rubber scraps, Kona couldn’t imagine what was left of the Jolly Ball except—
“—the handle!” Kona cried, spotting the U-shaped tube of red rubber beneath a tree.
She swooped down to nip up the final Jolly Ball piece. Then she looked around hopefully for Zephyr.
She almost cried when she saw nothing. But before she could utter her first sob, she heard something off in the distance.
“Arf, arf, ARF!”
Kona perked up and pointed her nose toward the sound.
“I think that’s Zephyr!” she said.
The Wind Dancers raced toward Zephyr’s arfs. As they emerged from the woods, they saw their puppy bounding through the middle of the meadow.
“Zephyrrrrrr!” Kona neighed as loudly as she could.
The puppy stopped in his tracks!
Kona held her breath as her fluffy little pup looked back at her.
“Come here, boy!” Kona called.
Zephyr took a step or two in the Wind Dancers’ direction.
“Yay!” Brisa whinnied.
But then Zephyr stopped and looked back over his shoulder.
“Boo!” Sirocco rumbled.
Kona saw Zephyr’s floppy ears perk up.
“He hears something!” she said. “But what?”
“Well, you know dogs’ ears are super-strong,” Sumatra noted wisely. “It must be something we can’t hear.”
“And something intriguing, from the looks of it,” Sirocco added.
“Maybe it’s something pretty!” Brisa cooed.
“Um, Brisa?” Sumatra said. “You can’t hear beauty.”
“Oh, I can!” Brisa said earnestly. Sirocco rolled his eyes and laughed.
But laughing was the last thing Kona felt like doing. She was too nervous about her, that is, their puppy.
“We have to follow Zephyr!”
Kona started flying after the swiftly departing puppy.
Sumatra felt yet another pang as she, Brisa, and Sirocco trailed the violet-black horse.
“Hey,” Brisa called, “it looks like Zephyr’s running to the horse paddock.”
As the puppy reached the paddock at the edge of the meadow, he seemed to grow even more excited. His stumpy tail wagged so hard, it blurred, and his arfs were louder than ever.
“Wow, listen to Zephyr,” Sirocco said. “He sounds like a pack of puppies!”
Kona cocked her head. Sirocco was right. Zephyr was making a whole lot of arfs for just one little dog.
As the group made its way toward the big open doors of the paddock’s barn, the arfs grew even louder!
Then out of the barn scampered a crowd of five little dogs—all of whom looked very familiar! They had sleek black-and-white coats and squat legs. And as they scrambled into the hay-strewn dirt of the paddock, they wiggled their stumpy tails. They looked exactly like Zephyr!
“It was a pack of puppies!” Brisa cried. “Look at them all!”
Kona gaped.
“They are who Zephyr heard,” she said, “long before we could.”
Trotting with the pack of puppies were two full-grown dogs.
One was Daisy, the big horses’ Jack Russell terrier!
The other was Leanna’s black-and-white border collie, Hugo!
And just behind him was Leanna herself, holding her dog’s leash.
Daisy barked. Hugo barked. And all five puppies barked, too. Then they pounced on Zephyr, showering him with welcoming licks and tail-wags.
Kona was stunned.
“So those are…” she said with a quaver in her voice.
“Zephyr’s brothers and sisters!” Brisa said.
Kona’s eyes widened in shock.
Sumatra snuggled up to Kona in the air.
“It looks like Zephyr got his black-and-white coloring from his border collie dad,” she said, “and his short hair, tail, and legs … from his Jack Russell mom. We hadn’t thought about that. But he’s a mutt!”
“He’s their mutt,” Kona said, watching Zephyr yip with joy as he was reunited with his family.
“And not just theirs…” Sirocco said, pointing with his nose to the far side of the paddock. The big horses—Thelma, Benny, Fluff, and Andy—were peering over at the commotion. When they spied the missing puppy among the throng of dogs, they cantered over.
“Puppy number three!” Thelma neighed at Zephyr triumphantly. “You’re back!”
“Oh…” Kona said, as her lower lip trembled. “I guess Zephyr’s really home now, home where he belongs.”
On cue, the Wind Dancers winged down to give Zephyr good-bye nose nuzzles.
Kona gave Zephyr the biggest nose nuzzle of all.
The puppy arfed happily at his little horsey friends, then went back to frolicking with his doggy family.
For the fi
rst time that day, Sumatra’s belly felt pang-less.
But Kona felt only sad.
“My guess,” Sumatra suggested gently to Kona, “is that Leanna and Hugo come to visit the puppies every day. We could visit Zephyr a lot, too.”
“And if he’s sleeping here,” Brisa noted sweetly, “then you don’t have to camp outside with Zephyr at our tree house. You’ll get your beauty rest back!”
“I know you’ll miss Zephyr,” Sumatra added, “we all will, but we’ve missed you, too! Your nose nuzzles…”
“Your amazing cooking…” Sirocco said.
“Even your … bossiness!” Sumatra continued, with a sly grin.
Kona shook her head. “I am—”
“—not bossy!” Sumatra, Sirocco, and Brisa chorused. They grinned at Kona.
And despite the pangs in her belly, Kona couldn’t help smiling back.
“Okay, fine,” she agreed. “Maybe I am a bossyhooves sometimes. For instance, right now, I order you all to come over here!”
Sirocco, Sumatra, and Brisa fluttered close to the violet-black filly.
And that’s when Kona gave her friends, all at once, a big, sweet—and most mom-like—nose nuzzle.
A Puppy by Another Name
The next afternoon, the Wind Dancers were back, perched on the paddock fence where the big horses (and dogs) lived. They grinned as they watched Zephyr frolic with his puppy siblings.
They weren’t the only ones enjoying the puppy action. Doggy mom Daisy was eyeing the little pooches with maternal watchfulness. Leanna and Hugo were there, too. And so were the big horses.
“Now don’t be too rough, Puppies 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6,” Thelma admonished. “And Puppy 3, make sure you don’t wander off again!”
Almost as if she could understand what the horses were saying, Leanna suddenly said to herself, “I think these puppies could really use some names. I wonder what we should call them.”
Sumatra gasped.
“This is the perfect moment to give Leanna our present!” she exclaimed.
Kona smiled and nodded.
She looked down at the six ribbons looped around her neck. Then, giving her friends a nod, she launched off the fence and zipped over to the little doggy food bowls lined up against the barn wall. She laid one of her presents in front of each bowl, then darted back to her friends.
Soon enough, Leanna ambled over to a bin near the fence. Using a scoop, she dug some brown pellets out of the bin.
“Okay,” she called, “who wants kibble?”
“Kibble?” Sirocco said, sticking out his tongue. “Dogs sure have strange tastes!”
“Well, Zephyr thought the same thing about horse food,” Sumatra reminded him.
“Shhh!” Kona chimed in. “Leanna’s about to find our present!”
And that’s when, over by the puppies’ food bowls, Leanna discovered … six puppy-sized collars! They were made from Sumatra’s colorful magic halo ribbons.
Dangling from each one was a little oval carved from a piece of wood. Five of the dog tags were blank—awaiting perfect puppy names. But in front of the third bowl—the one meant for Puppy 3—was a tag etched with the name Zephyr.
“Zephyr!” Leanna read with wide eyes. “What a lovely name!”
Suddenly, her eyes sparkled.
“It’s a very Wind Dancery name, too.”
Leanna gazed upward, her brown eyes looking just above the very fence where the Wind Dancers were resting!
“She knows!” Brisa exclaimed joyfully.
Leanna strode over to Zephyr and tied the pretty dog collar around his silky neck.
“This one’s for you, Zephyr,” Leanna said with a smile. “Now I know who kept you safe and well-loved while you were gone!”
Kona thought she would burst with pride.
“It can’t get better than this,” she said to her friends. “So, let’s go.”
“Yay!” Sumatra replied.
Laughing and tossing their manes about, the happy little horses took flight, ready to look for their next adventure.
Here’s a sneak preview of Wind Dancers Book 10:
Merry-Go-Horses
CHAPTER 1
Drive-by Brisa
One sparkling morning, high above their dandelion meadow, the four colorful Wind Dancers took flight.
Kona, Sirocco, and Sumatra followed Brisa’s gaze and gasped. Leanna was indeed tromping toward her family’s red pickup truck. Her parents and her little sister, Sara, were with her. And each of them was weighed down with stuff.
Leanna carried an open cardboard box with the biggest, most beautiful tomato Brisa had ever seen.
Sara had two painted model horses in her arms.
The family packed everything in their truck.
“We better get going!” Leanna said to her family as the Wind Dancers hovered invisibly nearby. “My tomato has to be in place for judging before ten!”
“I wonder where they’re going?” Sumatra mused.
“Wherever it is, it’s too bad for us,” Kona said. “I was looking forward to a little Leanna time today. Oh well, what do you horses want to do instead?”
“Wind sprints?” Sirocco proposed.
“What’s your vote?” Kona asked Brisa.
When Brisa didn’t answer, Kona looked around.
“Brisa? Where did you disappear to?”
“Look!” Sumatra gasped.
A FEIWEL AND FRIENDS BOOK
An Imprint of Macmillan
WIND DANCERS: A HORSE’S BEST FRIEND. 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 [email protected].
Series editor: Susan Bishansky
Feiwel and Friends logo designed by Filomena Tuosto
First Edition: 2011
www.feiwelandfriends.com
eISBN 9781466890732
First eBook edition: January 2015
A Horse's Best Friend Page 3
