“Those are the hedgehogs,” Mist said. “They’re awake all night, and they sleep here all day.”

  Mist walked over to a hammock on the lowest branch. In a soft voice, she whispered, “Hannah?”

  The hedgehog stirred and made a snoring noise.

  “Hannah? It’s Princess Mist. I’m here to get the potion. I finally found a human girl,” Mist whispered again, but this time a little louder.

  Hannah sat up in her hammock. She opened one bright purple eye and then the other. She yawned and smiled. “The potion is all ready for you. I followed the recipe exactly and left it on the patch of moss on the other side of our tree.”

  “Thank you so much,” Mist said. “I really appreciate it.”

  “It was a lot of fun to help you,” Hannah said, yawning. “And now, I’d really better go back to sleep. We’re having a hedgehog dance party tonight in the ballroom under our tree, and I don’t want to be tired and cranky the whole time.”

  “Of course,” Mist said, smiling. “Sleep well, and thanks again.”

  Hannah yawned. She curled up in a ball in her hammock and began to snore.

  “Let’s go get the potion,” Mist said. She and Clara walked together around the tree, careful not to bump into any of the hedgehogs’ hammocks. Sure enough, on a patch of silver moss stood a glass bottle full of a swirling, glittery yellow liquid.

  Mist looked at Clara with wide, excited eyes. “Want to go pick it up?” she asked.

  “Yes!” Clara said.

  But before Clara could walk over to the bottle, a voice purred, “Wait for me! Princess Mist! Clara! Wait!”

  Clara giggled. She and Mist turned around. There was Lucinda, grinning and bouncing along the path. “Sorry I’m late,” she said, rubbing against Clara’s and Mist’s ankles. “My guessing game with Princess Snow took much longer than I expected. She told me I could have as many guesses as I wanted. I guessed Summer and then Spring and then Fall. Then I guessed Sprummer, which is my name for the time right between Spring and Summer. And then I guessed Sull, which is my name for the time right between Summer and Fall. Finally, I guessed the right answer.”

  “Was it winter?” Clara asked.

  “How did you know?” Lucinda asked, looking shocked.

  “Just a lucky guess,” Clara said gently.

  Lucinda shrugged. Then she noticed the potion bottle. She twitched her tail and bounded over to it. She sniffed the top. She crouched in front of it and watched the glittery liquid swirl. She walked in three excited circles around it. And then, all of a sudden, she yawned five times in a row. Her eyelids fluttered. She swayed back and forth. “I feel an emergency catnap coming on,” she said, as her eyelids drooped. “Don’t mind me.” And then, as she curled up at the bottom of the tree, her tail knocked over the bottle of cloud maze potion. Clara rushed forward to pick up the bottle. But before she could turn it upright, all of the potion had spilled out into a puddle on the moss.

  “Oh no!” Mist gasped, watching as the moss absorbed more and more of the potion.

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t get to the bottle in time,” Clara said. She felt her heart sink.

  “You don’t need to apologize,” Mist said, as tears formed in her eyes. “It’s not your fault.” She paused. “It’s not even really Lucinda’s fault. She didn’t do it on purpose.”

  Clara looked at her new pegasus friend and said, “Would it be okay if I gave you a hug?”

  Mist nodded. Clara wrapped her arms around Mist’s shoulders and said, “I bet you feel really disappointed.”

  “What will we do?” Mist sniffled as tears streamed down her face. “I guess we’ll just have to cancel the cloud maze party.”

  Clara took a step back and kept a hand on Mist to comfort her. “Couldn’t we just make another bottle of potion now?” Clara asked. “I’d be glad to help in any way I can.”

  Mist looked down at her hooves and shook her head. “I don’t think so. The potion sounds easy to make because it only has two ingredients, ear-flower pollen and sky-stream water. The water would be easy to get. There’s a sky stream just a little further down this path. But I can’t think of any way for either of us to get the ear-flower pollen. The ear-flowers have to be open to collect the pollen. But if we get anywhere near them, the two-lips will start singing and the ear-flowers will close.”

  “How did Hannah the hedgehog get the pollen?” Clara asked.

  “The two-lips close their flowers when it’s dark,” Mist said. “Hannah collected the pollen in the middle of the night.”

  Clara nodded. “Could you make yourself invisible, so the two-lips don’t see you, and collect the pollen?” she asked.

  “My magic power would actually be useful for once if I could do that,” Mist said, laughing through her tears. “The problem is my hooves. I could probably hold the potion bottle in my mouth, but there’s no way I could get the pollen from the flowers without fingers.”

  Clara looked down at Mist’s shiny silver hooves. She could see that Mist was right.

  Just then, Clara turned and saw a green blur jumping toward them along the path in the distance. Soon Clara could make out two green wings, a green mane, and a long green tail. It was Stitch bounding toward them.

  “Hello,” Stitch sang out, grinning. But then she saw Mist’s face. “What’s wrong?” Stitch asked.

  “Look,” Mist said, nodding toward the sleeping Lucinda and the overturned bottle.

  “Oh dear,” Stitch said. “I think I know exactly what happened.” Tears welled up in Stitch’s eyes. “I guess we’ll have to cancel the cloud maze party. Should I fly back to Feather Palace and tell the others not to meet us here?”

  Mist looked at Clara. “You don’t have any other ideas for how we could make more cloud maze party potion, do you? I wish I could somehow make you turn invisible along with me. Then you could ride on my back and collect the pollen. But,” she sighed, “that’s not possible.”

  Clara paused. “Let me think for just a minute longer,” she said. She looked at the swirls on Mist’s tiara and the scissors, needle, and thread design on Stitch’s tiara. She watched several balls of tangled mist float between the branches of the hedgehogs’ tree. And then she suddenly had an idea.

  Clara smiled and hopped up and down with excitement. “I may not be able to be invisible with you,” she said, “but what you said just made me think of a plan to get the ear-flower pollen right now, during the day.”

  “I will do anything to help,” Mist said.

  “Me too,” Stitch said, nodding.

  “I’m not completely sure it will work,” Clara said. “But we won’t know unless we try.” She looked at Stitch. “Mist told me your magic power is that you can sew, knit, or crochet almost anything. Do you think you could use threads of mist to knit me a mist costume?”

  Stitch cocked her head to the side. She furrowed her brow in confusion. “But Princess Mist isn’t pink, and she isn’t actually made of mist,” Stitch said. “Do you want me to go get some silver, furry fabric and some feathers to make you a pegasus costume?”

  Clara laughed and shook her head. “Thank you for the offer,” she said. “What I meant is I want a costume that will make me look like a cloud of mist.”

  Stitch’s eyes widened and she grinned. “Well, there is nothing I love more than a craft challenge. I’ve never knitted with threads of mist. It may not work. But I’ll give it my best shot.”

  Stitch looked for a moment at all the threads of mist spiraling around the trunk and sliding along the branches of the hedgehogs’ tree. She took a long deep breath. Then, the scissors, needle, and thread design on her tiara sparkled. In the air in front of them appeared a gold tape measure. For a moment it spun in the air. Then, it danced over to Clara, and it began measuring her. Clara giggled at the tickling feeling of the tape measure under her armpits, on the back of her head, and along her legs.

  The tape measure vanished, and Stitch’s tiara sparkled again. Two giant gold knitting needles appeared in front of them and twirled in the air. As the needles spun, the strands of mist peeled off the hedgehogs’ tree and drifted toward each other until they formed one long thread. Golden light swirled around the mist as it rolled into a large ball. The knitting needles spun faster and faster, and then they began to knit the mist so quickly that they looked like a blur of gold. After just a few seconds, a pink, shimmering dress with long, loose sleeves and a large hood hung in the air. The knitting needles spun for a second and then vanished.

  “Wow,” Clara whispered, staring at the mist costume as it fluttered in the breeze.

  “That was easier than I thought it would be,” Stitch said, looking pleased. “Do you want to try it on?”

  “Yes please,” Clara said.

  “Lift up your arms,” Stitch said with an excited smile.

  Clara raised her arms. Stitch’s tiara sparkled for a moment, and then the mist costume floated to Clara and drifted downward, right over her head.

  The costume felt cool, silky, and light. The sleeves hung over her hands, the bottom covered her feet, and the hood was so big it flopped down over her face. Clara couldn’t see perfectly through the hood, but she could definitely see well enough. She sat down and curled up in a ball. “Do I look like a mist cloud?” she asked.

  “You look exactly like a mist cloud,” Mist and Stitch said at exactly the same time.

  “Perfect,” Clara said. She stood up and jumped over to the potion bottle, which still lay on its side next to a snoring Lucinda. Clara picked it up and looked at Mist. “Might I get onto your back?” she asked.

  “Of course,” Mist said. She kneeled, and Clara, careful not to rip her costume or drop the bottle, climbed between Mist’s wings.

  “This is when your magic power will be extremely useful,” Clara said to Mist. “If you make yourself invisible and fly with me on your back over to the ear-flower tree, I’m hoping the two-lips will just think I’m a cloud of mist drifting by and they won’t start singing. If you hover by the ear-flowers for a few seconds, I’ll quickly collect the pollen.”

  “That is an amazing plan,” Mist said. “Let’s do it!” The swirl design on Mist’s tiara sparkled and, in an instant, she disappeared.

  “Good luck,” Stitch said. “I’m crossing my hooves for you.” She winked and put one shiny green front hoof over the other. “I’ll meet you at the sky stream in just a few minutes.”

  “See you soon,” Mist said, flying up into the air and back toward the ear-flowers and the two-lips. When they could see the ear-flower tree in the distance, Mist slowed down to a gentle drift. Slowly they drew closer and closer, until they were flying right over the two-lips. Clara sucked in her breath as the two-lips turned their mouth-shaped flowers upward. And then she exhaled with relief when they didn’t start singing.

  Mist hovered next to an ear-flower tree branch.

  “Are you close enough to collect some pollen?” she whispered.

  “Yes,” Clara whispered. “How much do I need?”

  “The recipe said to get pollen from four ear-flowers,” Mist whispered.

  Moving her arms and hands slowly, so they would look like drifting ribbons of mist, Clara used her fingers to pinch yellowy-silver dust from inside an ear-flower. She dropped the pollen into the potion bottle and reached toward a second ear-flower. Again, she pinched out the pollen and dropped it into the bottle. Then, she collected pollen from a third and then a fourth flower.

  “I’m all finished,” Clara whispered excitedly.

  “Hooray,” Mist sang out, and she reappeared.

  The two-lips immediately began to sing. The ear-flowers curled up into tight balls. And Mist soared up into the sky. Clara pushed the hood off her face and head and called out, “We did it!”

  Mist flew in an excited circle above the treetops. “That was an amazing plan,” she said. “Thank you so much for thinking of it and for collecting the pollen.”

  “You’re welcome,” Clara said. “I am so very glad to help.”

  Mist swooped downward, wove around some silver willow trees, and landed on the bank of a stream, right next to Stitch. “Did it work?” Stitch asked, hopping from side to side.

  “It sure did,” Clara said, holding up the bottle with the pollen in the bottom.

  Stitch reared up and whinnied with excitement as Mist kneeled and Clara slid off her back.

  “The next step is to collect four seconds’ worth of sky-stream water,” Mist said. She looked at Clara. “Would you be willing to do it? I think it’s probably easier with hands than hooves.”

  “Absolutely,” Clara said. She walked over to the edge of the silvery-blue water. She dipped the bottle into the current and counted slowly to four. Then she pulled the bottle out of the stream.

  Clara, Mist, and Stitch all stared at the potion. Glittery yellow liquid swirled and bubbled. The bottle felt warm in Clara’s hands.

  Mist smiled excitedly at Clara and said, “Now, as our human guest of honor, please cover the top of the bottle with your thumb and shake it four times.”

  Clara sucked in her breath. She put her thumb over the top. And then she shook the bottle four times. The potion began to shine and shimmer. It turned scarlet, then bright orange, fluorescent yellow, lime green, robin’s-egg blue, and finally a glittery swirling purple.

  “Wow,” Stitch whispered.

  “Let’s go make the cloud maze party!” Mist said, and she kneeled so Clara could climb onto her back. Clara held onto the potion and Mist’s mane as Mist and Stitch flew high up into the sky. When they were far from the treetops, the two pegasus princesses looked at each other. And then Mist said, “Go ahead and pour it out.”

  Clara lifted the bottle of warm purple bubbling potion. She held her breath. Then she turned the bottle upside down.

  The purple potion floated in the air for a few seconds. The liquid bubbled and foamed until it looked like a purple fluffy ball. The ball grew and grew, until it was the size of Clara’s bedroom and then the size of Clara’s house. A heart-shaped opening appeared on the ball with a sign that read, in glittery purple writing, Cloud Maze Party Entrance.

  “We did it!” Mist said, laughing with joy. “We saved the cloud maze party! Thank you so much to both of you for all your help.”

  “We all worked together,” Clara said. “We couldn’t have done it without both of your amazing and unique magic powers.” She winked at Mist. And Mist winked back.

  Just then, Clara heard the sound of wings flapping. She looked behind her as Aqua, Snow, Rosie, Flip, Star, and Dash flew right up to Clara, Mist, and Stitch.

  “Wow,” Star said, “I can’t wait to go inside.”

  “This looks amazing,” Flip said.

  “It looks incredible,” Rosie said.

  “I promise not to cheat by using my magic to dash to the center,” Dash said with a playful grin.

  “It’s even bigger than I imagined,” Snow said.

  “We’re so glad you’re joining us,” Aqua said, looking at Clara.

  “I’m so glad I’m here,” Clara replied.

  “Should one of us go wake up Lucinda?” Stitch asked. “She’ll be so disappointed if she doesn’t get to join us.”

  But before anyone could respond, a voice purred, “Wait! Wait for me!”

  Clara turned, and there was Lucinda zooming toward them.

  “You’re here just in time,” Mist said, smiling at the silver cat.

  “Sorry about that emergency catnap,” Lucinda said. “I hope it didn’t cause any trouble.”

  Clara, Mist, and Stitch all looked at each other and giggled.

  Then Mist said, “Thank you so much to all of you for coming. At the count of three, let’s all fly into the cloud maze. The goal is to get to the center, where we’ll have a party. But just one thing. Would it be okay with all of you if we agreed that it’s not a race to see who can get to the center first?”

  Aqua, Snow, Dash, Star, Flip, Rosie, Stitch, Clara, and Lucinda all nodded.

  “Good thinking,” Aqua said. “It doesn’t matter who’s first or last.”

  “Let’s just have fun,” Snow said.

  “Great,” Mist said. “Let’s go! One. Two. Three!”

  Mist, with Clara on her back, flew into the cloud maze with Lucinda and the other seven pegasus princesses right behind her. They entered a small room made entirely of purple clouds with the entrances to six different tunnels. Aqua paused and then disappeared into a tunnel to the right. Flip and Rosie turned left to dive down a tunnel slide. Dash flew into a tunnel that jutted upward and to the right. Star barreled down a tunnel that went straight down. Stitch flew into a tunnel to the right, and Lucinda followed her. “Which way shall we go?” Mist asked Clara.

  “Let’s go straight up,” Clara suggested.

  “Sounds good,” Mist said, and she flew directly upward until they came to another tiny room with six more tunnel entrances. “Want to take turns choosing which way we go?” Mist asked.

  “That’s a great idea,” Clara said. “Now it’s your turn.”

  “Let’s see where this slide goes,” Mist said, looking down and to the left. She turned and jumped onto the soft cloud slide. “Whee!” Clara shrieked as they curved down and around and landed in a place with five more tunnel entrances.

  “How about this way,” Clara said, pointing toward a tunnel to her right.

  “Sure thing,” Mist said, and she flew through the tunnel.

  Mist and Clara took turns choosing tunnels until they took a slide that landed in a big purple room. Balloons and streamers covered the ceiling. Music played. On a table in the center of the room were heart-shaped purple cupcakes and a heart-shaped trough of bubbly purple juice. Stitch, Aqua, and Lucinda were already there, dancing to the music. Flip and Rosie arrived on two different slides at the same time. They laughed, galloped over to the cupcakes, and started eating. Snow, Dash, and Star landed in the room from another slide and rushed to drink from the trough.

  “I’m getting hungry,” Mist said, kneeling as Clara slid off her back. “Let’s have cupcakes.”

 

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