It was a cloudy morning and the sky looked like a big gray blanket over the garden. Ale was trying to build a bridge with wooden sticks over a puddle, together with Viola, Eletta, and Lori. The sticks kept falling into the water and everyone laughed.

"We need a bigger stick!" said Ale, looking around with his bright eyes.

"I found one!" shouted Lori, running very fast toward a bush.

Viola looked at him with her blue eyes and said: "Be careful, it's wet!"

Eletta was sitting near the puddle and watched everything calmly. She was a bit tired because she had woken up early, but she wanted to stay with her friends.

Just as Lori was coming back with the bigger stick, they heard a sound that everyone knew well.

"CHOO CHOO!"

From the back of the garden, between the rose bushes, a cloud of colorful smoke appeared. And then, as always, he arrived: Toby the Magic Train! He was small and shiny, with wheels that turned happily and a big smile painted on the locomotive.

Toby stopped in front of the children and whistled happily. Then he spoke with his funny voice, as he always did, in rhyme:

"Hello friends, what a beautiful morning,
today I'll take you to a land without warning!
Among giant leaves a cry can be heard,
a friend needs help, don't wait for a word!"

"Where are we going today?" asked Ale, jumping up and down with excitement.

"Let's get on, let's get on!" said Lori, who was already halfway into the little car.

Viola helped Eletta climb up, because the step was a bit high. Ale's four cats also decided to come: Sofia, the black kitten, jumped first onto the car. Dora, the brave tabby, followed right away. Poldo, big and sturdy, climbed up with a bit of effort. And finally Milo, tall and agile, made a big leap and landed with elegance.

Toby the Magic Train whistled again: "CHOO CHOO!" and off they went. The garden disappeared in a flash, and everything around became green, very green. The leaves were enormous, big as umbrellas. The flowers had colors that the children had never seen before: bright orange, vivid purple, yellow like the sun. And from everywhere came a wonderful fragrance, carried by a light breeze that caressed their cheeks.

"What a wonderful smell!" said Eletta, who was now fully awake. "It feels like being inside a bouquet of flowers!"

They had arrived in a jungle. But it wasn't a scary jungle: it was full of light, with sunbeams passing through the giant leaves and creating golden circles on the ground. Colorful butterflies flew everywhere, and they could hear songs of birds that no one had ever heard before.

Toby the Magic Train stopped in a clearing and opened the doors.

"Here we are, my friends," he said. "This jungle needs you. Listen carefully and look closely."

The children got off and looked around with their mouths open. Ale was the first to notice something strange: on the ground there were round and small footprints, like those of a cub.

"Look here!" said Ale, kneeling down. "Someone passed by recently."

Sofia, the black kitten, sniffed the footprints and meowed softly, as if to say she sensed something.

The children followed the tracks along a narrow path, surrounded by very tall bamboo plants. The footprints went right, then left, then went around in circles.

"This cub was confused," said Viola, observing the tracks carefully. "It was going in circles."

"Maybe it was scared," whispered Eletta.

Suddenly, behind a big bush with heart-shaped leaves, they heard a small sound: "Ooooh... ooooh..."

Ale approached slowly and moved the leaves aside. And there, curled up like a little black and white ball, was a panda cub. It was small, with round eyes shiny with tears, and a little snout dirty with earth.

"Oh!" said Ale with a gentle voice. "Hello little one. What's your name?"

The panda cub raised its snout and with a trembling little voice said: "My name is Bao. I can't find my mommy anymore."

Eletta sat down next to Bao and patted his head. "Don't worry, we'll help you."

"How long have you been here alone?" asked Viola.

Bao lowered his gaze. "Since this morning. Mommy told me to stay near the big bamboo tree, the one with the crooked trunk. But I saw a beautiful butterfly and I followed it. And then... I didn't know how to get back."

"So you went where you shouldn't have gone," said Lori.

Bao nodded sadly. "And when I got lost, I was scared. I thought about telling Mommy, when I find her again, that the wind had carried me away. That way she won't be angry."

Ale sat down in front of Bao and looked him in the eyes. "But it's not true that it was the wind, right?"

Bao shook his head slowly. "No. It was me. I chose to follow the butterfly."

"You know," said Ale, "once I broke my Mom Grace's favorite vase. And I was very scared. I thought about saying it was Poldo." The big tabby cat, hearing his name, raised one ear. "But then I understood it wasn't right. I told Mom the truth, and do you know what happened?"

"Did she get angry?" asked Bao with wide eyes.

"A little bit," admitted Ale. "But then she hugged me very tight and told me she was proud of me because I had told the truth. And the next day the vase didn't seem so important anymore. But if I had told a lie, I would have felt bad in my tummy for a long time."

Bao seemed to think about it. Meanwhile Dora, the brave cat, had sniffed something and started walking decisively toward a path on the right.

"Dora found a trail!" said Ale. "Come on, let's follow her!"

The children and Bao followed Dora through the enormous plants of the jungle. The path became narrower and the leaves formed a green tunnel above their heads. The breeze now carried a different scent: the smell of fresh bamboo.

"We're on the right track," said Viola. "Pandas eat bamboo, so Bao's mommy might be near an area full of bamboo."

But right at that moment the path split in two. On the left there was a wide and comfortable path, full of flowers. On the right, a narrow and dark passage, covered with branches.

Milo, the agile cat, sniffed both paths. Then he sat in front of the one on the right and meowed loudly.

"Milo says to go right," said Ale.

"But the one on the left looks nicer and easier," said Lori, looking at the flowers.

Bao looked at the ground. Near the right path there were small footprints, larger than his. "Those... those look like my mommy's paws!" he said with an excited voice.

The children looked at each other and nodded. They took the right path, the narrow one full of branches. They had to duck, climb over roots and push through the leaves. Poldo, the big cat, struggled a bit, but kept going bravely.

After a while, the path opened into a large clearing lit by the sun. And there, in the middle, was a huge bamboo tree with a crooked trunk. And next to the tree, a big and beautiful panda was walking back and forth, looking around with worried eyes.

"MOMMY!" shouted Bao, and ran toward her.

The mother panda saw him and her eyes filled with joy. She hugged him tight with her big soft paws and gave him lots of kisses on the head.

"Bao! Where were you? I looked for you everywhere!" said Mommy.

Bao looked at the children. Ale gave him a small smile and nodded slowly, as if to say: go ahead, you can do it.

Bao took a deep breath and said: "Mommy, I have to tell you the truth. It wasn't the wind that carried me away. I saw a beautiful butterfly and I followed it, even though you told me to stay here. I got lost because of me. I'm so sorry."

The mother panda looked at him for a long moment. Then she held him even tighter. "Thank you for telling me, my little one. You were brave to tell the truth. What you did wasn't right, and tomorrow we'll talk about it. But right now I'm so happy to have found you. And I'm proud that you were honest."

Bao smiled and the tears in his eyes became tears of happiness.

The mother panda turned to the children and the cats. "Thank you, little heroes. You brought my Bao home, and you taught him something very important."

"The truth is a bit scary," said Eletta with her calm little voice, "but after you tell it you feel light as a feather."

"Exactly," said the mother panda, and she patted Eletta too.

Bao ran to Ale and hugged him tight. "Thank you, Ale. You were right. Telling the truth is better, even if it's a little scary."

"Always," said Ale, returning the hug.

Sofia rubbed against Bao's paw, purring, and the panda cub laughed for the first time that day.

In the sky, the moon had risen early, thin like a little boat. It was a crescent moon, that seemed to sail among the jungle leaves like a small silver boat.

"Look at the moon!" said Viola, pointing up. "It looks like it's smiling at us."

Right at that moment, from the path came a familiar sound.

"CHOO CHOO!"

Toby the Magic Train emerged from the jungle, with his colorful smoke that smelled like candy. He stopped in the clearing and spoke in rhyme:

"What a lovely adventure, what a wonderful day,
a lost little cub, found mommy today!
But the greatest gift on this journey so fine,
is the honest heart of a panda so kind!
The truth shines brighter than the sun above,
and warms every heart with its gentle love!"

The children said goodbye to Bao and his mommy with lots of hugs. Bao waved his paw and shouted: "Come back to visit me! I'll wait for you here, near the crooked tree! And this time, I promise, I won't follow any butterfly!"

Everyone laughed. The children and the cats climbed onto the little train, and Toby the Magic Train left with a big "CHOO CHOO!"

The enormous leaves, the colorful flowers and the sweet fragrance of the jungle slowly disappeared. And in an instant, the children were back in the garden, with the puddle and the sticks for the bridge.

"What an adventure!" said Lori, still all excited.

"The most beautiful thing," said Ale, sitting on the grass, "is that Bao told the truth to his mommy. It takes courage to do that."

Viola nodded with her blue eyes: "A lie seems easy, but it makes you feel bad inside. The truth sets you free instead."

Eletta yawned a little and leaned on Ale's shoulder. "Telling the truth is always the right choice," she murmured, "even when it seems the hardest."

And the four cats curled up around the children, purring. Sofia next to Ale, Dora at his feet, Poldo like a big warm cushion, and Milo stretched out elegantly in the grass.

And as the crescent moon slowly rose in the sky like a little silver boat, the children smiled, knowing that the truth is like that moon: even when it's small, it always makes a little light in the darkness.