Ruby Fuzzybrush’s Star Dance

Chapter Five The Midnight Market

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 together, 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...”