CHAPTER ONE
Parade Day!
Winter had come to Misty Wood, and the fairy animals were very excited—today was the day of the Christmas Parade!
Hailey, a tiny hedgehog, lay in her cozy bed of moss, listening to the wind outside singing through the trees. She pulled her blanket of velvety dock leaves up to her nose.
“I do love winter,” Hailey said with a sigh. As she pictured the wind blowing the last of the golden leaves from the branches and the woods twinkling with frost, she started to smile.
“Are you up, Hailey?” her dad called from the far end of their burrow.
“Nearly,” Hailey called back. She jumped out of bed, licked her tiny pink paws, and gave her face a quick wash. Then she checked her dandelion clock. “Yay!” she cried. “It’s breakfast time!”
When she got to the other end of the burrow, her dad was busy chopping acorns. “Morning, Hailey,” he said. “I’m making you some acorn porridge to keep you nice and warm out there. The woods are going to need a lot of tidying up before the parade.”
“Great!” Hailey exclaimed. “I love having lots of leaves to collect.” She fluttered her silver-and-red wings excitedly, sending sparkles of glittering light around the burrow.
Hailey was a Hedgerow Hedgehog. Like all the other fairy animals, she had a special job to do to help make Misty Wood a wonderful place to live. The Hedgerow Hedgehogs’ job was to collect fallen leaves on their prickly spines, to keep the woods neat and tidy. That was why Hailey loved winter so much. There were so many colorful leaves to gather, especially on a windy day like this.
Dad finished making the porridge and poured it into three nutshell bowls. Hailey took hers and went to sit on a pebble stool in the corner. Just as she ate her first mouthful, a gust of cold air came whisking through the burrow.
“It’s only me,” a voice called. Hailey’s mom hurried inside. Her paws were full of mistletoe sprigs. “Goodness!” she exclaimed. “What a wind!” Laying the mistletoe on the conker table, she smoothed down the ruffled fur on her face and legs.
“Ooh, is the mistletoe for the Christmas Parade?” Hailey asked. She could hardly wait for the parade to start. It took place every year. All the fairy animals dressed up in beautiful leaves and berries and marched through Misty Wood behind the Moss Mouse pipe-and-drum band. Afterward, everyone visited the nests and burrows of their friends to admire their decorations and to share a tasty nibble or an acorn cup of warm cranberry juice.
“Yes,” her mom replied. “I’m using mistletoe and holly this year.” She turned around, and Hailey saw that her mom’s prickles were stuck all over with shiny red holly berries.
“I’ll string them together to make garlands,” her mom continued. She shook the berries from her spines and pushed them into a tidy pile beside the fire.
Hailey couldn’t stop smiling as she pictured herself wearing a beautiful red-and-white garland. In fact, she was grinning so much that some porridge trickled out of the corner of her mouth! Hailey quickly licked it up with her velvety pink tongue.
“Here’s your breakfast,” said Hailey’s dad, passing her mom a bowl of porridge. “And I’m making my special chestnut pudding for after the parade.”
“Yippee!” Hailey cheered. That was another good thing about winter—there were always chestnuts to be found, and Dad’s chestnut pudding was delicious!
Hailey ate her porridge quickly. Every day she made sure that Misty Wood was spick-and-span, but today—parade day—she was determined to be extra careful. Today, she wouldn’t leave a single leaf out of place. And she had to make sure she got home earlier than usual, too, so she’d have time to dress up.
“I’m off, then,” she said as soon as her bowl was empty.
“Don’t forget that the parade begins at one o’clock, Hailey,” her mom reminded her.
“I won’t,” Hailey said with a smile. There was no way she was going to miss her favorite event!
Spreading her wings, she fluttered up the long passageway that led out of her warm burrow and into Hawthorn Hedgerows, which grew at the very edge of Misty Wood.
As soon as Hailey got above ground she could see that the wind had been busy. Only a few leaves still clung to the twigs above her head. They fluttered as the wind danced around them, whistling its winter tune.
They’ll be off soon, too, thought Hailey, smiling. And then I’ll have even more leaves to tidy.
She flitted out from under the hedgerow and gasped in delight. Jack Frost had been at work during the night, sprinkling his glittering ice crystals across the grass. The crystals shimmered pink, blue, and silver in the wintry sunshine, and each blade of grass stood up stiff and straight no matter how hard the wind blew.
Hailey gazed around. “Beautiful,” she breathed. She fluttered up into the air and spread her wings wide so the wind would lift her high. She wanted to look at the grassy spaces between the hedgerows. “I’ll start collecting leaves in the messiest patch,” she said to herself.
Up, up, up she soared into the clear blue sky. Soon, Misty Wood was spread out beneath her like a colorful patchwork quilt. The frosted grass glinted silver. Dewdrop Spring was the same bright blue as the sky, with spots of shiny ice here and there. And the patch of snowdrops beside it looked as clean and white as a fluffy cloud.
Farther on still, Moonshine Pond shone pearly blue, full of glowing moonbeams, and beyond that was the pretty, vivid purple of Heather Hill.
Right in the center of it all was a patch of deep, dark green—the mysterious Heart of Misty Wood, where the Wise Wishing Owl lived. Hailey had never seen the Wise Wishing Owl, but she had heard lots of stories about her wisdom. And everyone said that she had the power to grant wishes.
As Hailey looked around, she spotted a patch of leaf-strewn grass not far from her burrow. She quickly fluttered down. “Perfect!” she cried happily, puffing out her spikes. “Now I’m ready to start work!”
Text copyright © 2013 by Houthouse Fiction Ltd.
Illustrations copyright © 2013 by Kirsteen Harris Jones.
