Let’s begin.
Gigi the giraffe had made a new friend: Starlight, a unicorn from the forest across the river. Today, Starlight was coming to meet Gigi's family. Both girls had asked at home, and their families had agreed.
Gigi waited at Reed Bend, where stepping stones crossed a shallow brook beside the river. Soon, Starlight appeared with a leaf caught in her rainbow mane again.
Gigi saw it before Starlight did.
“You brought your friend,” Gigi said.
“Which friend?”
“The green one.”
Starlight shook her head. The leaf landed at her feet. “It keeps inviting itself.”
She crossed the stones carefully, avoiding the one that rocked. Gigi waited on the Savannah bank. Today they had a plan: Gigi would show Starlight Acacia Circle, where her family gathered beneath three wide trees in the afternoon.
“Is it far?” Starlight asked.
“Far enough to see something new. Close enough to be home before supper.”
Starlight looked over the gold grass. Without the Glade's trees around her, the sky seemed enormous. She turned once in a slow circle and nearly stepped on a small white flower.
“Excuse me,” she told it. “Which way is Acacia Circle?”
The flower moved in the breeze. It did not answer.
Starlight waited. “Perhaps it didn't hear.”
“Flowers here don't talk,” Gigi said. “They just grow.”
Starlight bent close to inspect it. “Does it sing?”
“Only when you do.”
Starlight hummed two notes. The flower stayed where it was.
“That is a very quiet audience,” she said.
Gigi laughed. “We can find the way ourselves.”
She raised her head above the grass. An acacia tree stood ahead, its branches spreading like an umbrella. “There. Follow me.”
They walked past a low mound, then across a strip of hard ground where many hooves had made a path. Starlight noticed beetles pushing a round ball through the dust. Gigi showed her how the acacia's thin leaves gave shade without hiding the sky. Every few steps, Starlight stopped to ask about something ordinary.
“What made that little hole?”
“Probably a beetle.”
“What made that big one?”
“Probably someone bigger.”
“What made that sound?”
“I don't know. Let's listen.”
They stood still until a bird called again from the tree above them.
“Oh,” Starlight said. “I like that we didn't have to guess.”
Gigi remembered those words a little later.
The path led them to the acacia she had seen. It was a fine tree with a broad patch of shade. But there were no other acacias beside it. There was no family gathering. Only a tall termite mound and a family of small birds who did not seem to be expecting anyone.
“Is this the circle?” Starlight asked.
“It might be the first tree of it,” Gigi said.
She walked around the trunk. More grass. Another mound. No other trees.
Starlight looked at the sun, then back the way they had come. “Your family said three trees, didn't they?”
“Yes.”
“I can count only one.”
“I can too.” Gigi stretched up for another look. The Savannah rolled away in every direction. Many acacias had the same wide tops. From up high, this one had looked exactly right.
“Maybe the others are hidden,” Gigi said, though she did not believe it.
Starlight heard the uncertainty in her voice. “We can ask someone. It worked with the bird.”
“We listened for the bird,” Gigi said.
“Then we can listen for your family.”
They did. Wind whispered through the grass. The birds above the mound chattered. Far away, a young giraffe called, “Gigi!”
Gigi knew that voice. “Pip?”
Her younger brother came out from behind the mound, looking pleased to have found her. He had been collecting fallen acacia pods for a game and had seen Gigi's head above the grass.
“Why are you at the old mound?” Pip asked.
Gigi glanced at Starlight. “I thought this was Acacia Circle.”
Pip looked at the single tree. He looked at his sister. “Where are the other two?”
“That's what I'm wondering,” Gigi said. “I should have looked more carefully.”
“Mama and Papa are at the three trees,” Pip said. “The real circle. I can show you.”
“Please do,” said Starlight.
Pip started down the narrow path, then turned back. “I know another way to tell the trees apart. The circle has pods all over the ground. This one doesn't.”
Starlight looked around the old mound. A few dry leaves rested in the grass, but no pods. “So you can find your way by looking down.”
“Of course,” Pip said. “I can't see over the trees.”
Gigi had looked over the trees. Pip had looked under them. He had spotted a clue she missed. She lowered her head and looked at the path the way he did. Small hoofprints ran between the grasses. The earth was darker where many animals had walked. She could follow those signs too.
They followed Pip along a narrower path that bent around the mound and climbed a small rise. From there, the three acacias came into view. Their trunks stood apart, but their branches met overhead to make one great patch of shade.
“Oh,” Gigi said. “From this side, you can see all three.”
“From my side,” Pip said, “you can see the pods on the ground. That's how I know it.”
“And from my side,” Starlight said, “I would have asked the wrong flower.”
Under the trees, Gigi introduced her new friend to her mother Mara and her father Tavi. Mara shifted to make room in the shade. Tavi greeted Starlight as if they had been expecting her all morning.
Mara asked how they had found their way.
“Pip showed us,” Gigi said. “I led us to the wrong tree first.”
Pip began to grin, but Gigi went on. “I saw one wide top and thought I knew. Starlight reminded me to ask.”
“I asked a flower first,” Starlight said. “It was no help at all.”
Even Pip laughed at that. Starlight laughed with him.
Before they left, Gigi scratched a little map in the dust with a twig held in her mouth. She marked the brook, the old mound, and three dots for the real circle. Starlight added a small flower beside the brook.
“Why mark that?” Gigi asked.
“Because it was the first thing I noticed here.”
“It still won't tell you the way.”
“It doesn't have to. It reminds me to look.”
They followed their new map back toward Reed Bend. The little white flower was still there, nodding in the breeze. This time Starlight did not ask it a question. She simply waved.