Let’s begin.
Gigi the giraffe and Starlight the unicorn had a very exciting plan. They were making a clubhouse in Mushroom Grove.
Their little friend Luma was coming to help. She was a small, soft-furred creature with round ears and a blue light at the end of her tail.
“It needs a secret door,” Starlight said.
“And a place for snacks,” Gigi said.
Luma popped out from under a fern. “And a place for me.”
“Of course!” Starlight said.
The grove had tall trees, bright mushrooms and a wide patch of soft ground. Starlight's family had said the friends could play beneath the big arching tree. They would use fallen leaves and twigs, leaving the living plants where they grew.
Gigi walked around the tree. One low branch curved down toward the ground, leaving a space beneath it.
“Here's a roof already!”
Starlight stepped into the shade.
“Here's our room.”
Luma slipped under the branch. “Here's a very good floor.”
They set to work.
Gigi gathered broad fallen leaves in a little heap. Starlight brought light twigs. Luma found a smooth stone that looked like an egg.
“For decoration,” she said.
Starlight placed twigs around the edge of their room. Gigi spread leaves between them to make little walls along the ground.
“Everybody will know this is a clubhouse,” Gigi said.
“How?” Luma asked.
Gigi looked at the leaf walls.
“We can tell them.”
Starlight laughed. “Welcome to our clubhouse!”
“Thank you,” Luma said. “Do you have snacks?”
“Not yet.”
“Then I'd better keep helping.”
Soon the clubhouse had three leafy walls, a flat stone for a snack table, and a little opening at the front.
Starlight went through the opening first. Her mane brushed the arching branch.
“Perfect!” she said.
Gigi lowered her head and tried to follow.
Her ossicones bumped a cluster of leaves.
She ducked lower.
Her neck pushed the twig wall sideways.
Luma's egg-shaped stone rolled out the door.
“Our decoration is leaving!” Luma called.
Gigi backed up carefully.
“Sorry.”
Starlight looked at the opening. Then she looked up Gigi's long neck.
“It might need to be bigger.”
“A little,” Gigi said.
They moved the front wall farther along the tree, where there was no branch overhead. Gigi could stand in the room with her head above the leaves.
“Now you have your own skylight,” Starlight told her.
Gigi smiled. “Excellent view.”
They rebuilt the doorway. This time, Starlight made it wide enough for both of them to walk through together.
“The biggest door in Mushroom Grove!” she announced.
Luma watched from beside a fern.
“Can I try it?”
“Come in!” Gigi said.
Luma hurried toward them. Then she stopped at the little row of twigs across the ground.
“Where do I go?”
“Through the door,” Starlight said. “This big space.”
“There's a branch at the bottom.”
Gigi looked down. One twig, easy for her to step over, lay across Luma's whole path.
“Oh. We can move it.”
Starlight nudged it aside. Luma stepped through.
At that moment, a breeze came between the trees.
The broad leaves fluttered. One lifted into the air, sailed across the room, and settled over Luma like a blanket.
A small blue glow shone through it.
“I found the curtains,” Luma said.
Gigi lifted the leaf gently with her lips. Luma's ears popped out.
Everyone laughed. But Starlight looked at the walls. Half the leaves were moving.
“We need to keep them down.”
Gigi brought a few small stones. Starlight put one on the edge of each leaf. Luma chose the spots where the wind lifted them most.
When the next breeze came, the walls stayed put.
“Now we're finished,” Starlight said.
But Luma was looking through a little gap at the back.
Outside, a line of beetles marched along the ground. They came to the clubhouse wall, stopped, and turned. One tried to climb a leaf. It slid back down.
“We put our wall on their path,” Luma said.
Starlight bent close.
“They could go around.”
Gigi followed the beetles' trail with her eyes. It ran from an old tree root to a patch of tiny flowers.
The clubhouse sat right in the middle.
“That's quite a long way around for them,” she said.
Luma nodded. “It's a long way for me too.”
Starlight looked at the big front door. She had worked hard to make it fit Gigi. She hadn't thought about anyone who came from the other side.
“What if we made another door?”
Luma's tail brightened.
“A small one?”
“A very good small one.”
They moved one leaf and two twigs. The opening beneath the low branch was just right for Luma. Beside it, they left a clear strip for the beetles.
Luma walked out and came back in.
“Welcome to our clubhouse,” she said to the beetles.
The beetles kept going. They seemed very busy.
Gigi watched the little line pass through.
“I don't think they're staying for snacks.”
“More for us,” Luma said.
Starlight brought the leaf basket her mother had packed. They set it on the flat stone. Gigi and Starlight could reach easily, but Luma had to stand on her back feet to see inside.
Starlight stopped before handing out the fruit.
“Wait. This table is tall for you.”
Luma nodded. “I can smell the berries. I can't see them.”
Gigi found a broad clean leaf and put some berries on it beside the stone. Now Luma could choose for herself.
“The little table,” Luma said happily. “Right by my door.”
Starlight sat close enough for all three friends to see one another. Gigi had sweet leaves. Starlight had little pieces of fruit. Luma chose a berry.
For a while, they simply enjoyed their room.
The tree made shade. The breeze made a quiet rustling sound. Gigi could see the sky. Luma could see her own doorway.
“I thought one big door would be enough,” Starlight said.
Luma took another bite of berry.
“I like having two.”
Gigi nodded. “One for long necks. One for little feet.”
A beetle marched past the snack stone.
“And busy visitors,” Starlight added.
Before they went home, they gathered the loose leaves and left the beetle path clear. Their clubhouse walls were only a few twigs and stones, but now they knew how to put them back.
Luma took one last trip through her small door.
“Tomorrow?” she asked.
“Tomorrow,” Gigi and Starlight said together.