It was a cool, clear morning, the kind where the sky looks freshly washed. Ziggy, Lily, Skye, and Dash were lying on the garden grass, hands behind their heads, looking up.

"That cloud is a rabbit!" said Ziggy, pointing with his finger. "Do you see the long ears?"

"No, it's an elephant," Dash shot back, laughing. "It has a trunk!"

"To me it's a sleeping cat," whispered Skye, in her calm little voice. Skye was the quietest of the four: she spoke softly, looked for a long time, and always noticed the things the others didn't see.

Lily narrowed her blue eyes. "Let's have a contest to see who can guess the most!"

They were all laughing together when the grass began to tremble. A light breeze carried a familiar sound, a sound that made their hearts pound with joy.

"CHOO CHOO! CHOO CHOO!"

"Toby!" the four children shouted, jumping to their feet.

From behind the hedge came Toby the Magic Train, all shiny, with smoke rising in round little puffs. He stopped in front of them, whistled happily, and said:

"Good morning, children, what a beautiful day,
into the clouds I'll carry you away!
Up in the sky there's someone to find,
all aboard, let's go — leave no one behind!"

The four friends climbed aboard, laughing. Toby whistled again, the wheels turned, and slowly the little train lifted off the ground. Up, up, higher and higher, over the rooftops, over the trees, straight into the sky.

They stopped above the softest cloud they had ever seen. It was Feather Cloud, soft as whipped cream: when they stepped down onto it, their little feet sank up to the ankles.

"It bounces!" squealed Dash, giving a little hop. "It's like a giant mattress!"

Ziggy did a somersault, Lily ran from one edge to the other, and for a while it was all laughing and jumping. But Skye stopped. She had heard something. A tiny whimper, ever so faint, like the peeping of a little bird.

"Quiet for a moment," she said softly. "Do you hear it too?"

The friends stopped. And then they all heard it: a thin little sob, coming from a fold in the cloud.

Skye crept closer on tiptoe. There, curled up in a soft hollow, was a little star. She was as small as a tiny hand, but her light was out, almost gray. She was trembling.

"Oh," said Skye, and she knelt down beside her. "Little one, what happened to you?"

"I fell," the little star peeped, in a thread of a voice. "Last night I lost my balance and slipped down from the sky. Now I'm too weak to climb back up. And if I don't get back up there, tonight I'll be missing from the sky, and a child won't have their star to look at before falling asleep."

Skye felt a sweet ache in her chest. Gently she brought her hands close to the little star, without touching her. "Don't worry," she said. "We'll help you. Right, friends?"

"Of course!" said Lily, resolutely.

"We've got this!" added Ziggy.

But at that very moment something changed. A light fog settled around Feather Cloud, and the sky grew dark, like when evening comes. Everything turned gray and blurry.

And out of the gray came a flutter of wings. A trembling flutter.

"Wh-who goes there?" said a frightened little voice.

Out of the fog came a tiny, tiny little bat. He had pointy ears, big round eyes, and little wings that trembled like two little leaves in the wind. He clung to a wisp of cloud and covered half his face with one wing.

"Hello," said Skye, sweetly. "What's your name?"

"My name is Nino," said the bat, trembling. "And please, don't laugh at me. I know it's strange. I'm a bat, I should love the night... but I'm afraid of the dark."

Dash was about to laugh, but Skye put a hand on his arm, and he understood.

"It's not strange," said Skye. "We all feel a little afraid sometimes."

"I only fly when the moon is out," Nino explained, his little voice breaking. "Its light gives me courage. But tonight the moon is hidden behind the fog, and I... I can't move anymore. I'm too afraid."

Skye looked at the darkened little star, then looked at the trembling Nino. And all at once she understood something important.

"Wait," she said softly, and her eyes lit up. "Nino, you're afraid of the dark and you need light. And you, little star, you are light, but you fell and you have to get back up high. Don't you see? The two of you can help each other!"

Nino uncovered his eyes. "R-really?"

"Really," said Skye. "If the little star shines, you won't be afraid anymore. And if you fly up high, you can carry her back into the sky, where she's too weak to reach on her own."

The little star tried to shine. She made a small effort, and her light flickered for an instant... but then it went out again. "I can't do it," she sighed. "I'm too tired. And I'm afraid too."

"Then," said Lily, looking into the distance, "we have to carry her to where the sky can take her back. Look over there."

Everyone looked. Beyond Feather Cloud, inside the fog, a bridge could be seen. It was the Dew Bridge: thin, shimmering, made of water droplets and threads of light, and it crossed a soft, misty emptiness. On the other side, up high, was the spot where the sky could take back its little star.

But the bridge was narrow. Narrow and wobbly. And below there was nothing to see, only white fog.

Nino began to tremble even harder. "I... I can't cross over there. It's too high. It's too dark. I'll cover my eyes and I'll fall."

Skye took the little star in her hands, gently, and held her out to Nino. "You hold her, against your heart," she said. "That way you keep her warm, and she keeps you company."

Nino, all trembling, held the little star against his chest. And something small happened: feeling herself held safe, the little star warmed up just a little, and gave off a faint but real glimmer.

"Let's go," said Lily. "One at a time. Slowly."

Ziggy went first, arms spread wide like a tightrope walker. Then Dash, who for once didn't clown around and walked carefully. Then Lily, sure as always. The bridge swayed, the dewdrops trembled, but it held.

Skye and Nino were left. The little bat put one paw on the bridge and pulled it right back. "I can't do it," he wept. "I look down and everything spins. I'm too afraid."

Skye came closer. She didn't tell him to be brave. She didn't tell him he was being silly. She stood in front of him, took his little wing in her hand, and looked into his big eyes.

"Nino," she whispered. "Don't look down. Look at me. Keep your eyes on my eyes, and walk together with me. I won't let go of you. One step at a time."

Nino looked at her. And he began to walk. He didn't look at the emptiness, he didn't look at the fog. He looked only at Skye, her calm and gentle eyes. One step. Then another. Then another one still.

And as he walked, holding the little star against his heart and his eyes on Skye's eyes, the most beautiful thing happened. The little star, feeling for the first time that she was safe, that she was important, that she was loved, lit up again. Not a glimmer: a real light, golden, warm, that spread across the whole bridge.

The fog parted. The dark vanished. And Nino, wrapped in that light, stopped trembling.

"I... I can see!" said Nino, amazed. "I'm not afraid anymore!"

"Because now you have your own light," said Skye, her eyes shining with joy. "And she has you."

They reached the other side all together. And there, where the sky was close, Nino opened his little wings, those same wings that had trembled before, and with a little leap he took flight. Up he climbed, up and up, with the little star held close to his heart, all the way to the right spot in the sky.

"Thank you," said the little star, now radiant. And she let herself settle into her place up there, where she shone bright once more, brighter than ever.

But she did one more thing. She shifted just a little, ever so slightly, to place herself right above Nino's head. "From tonight on," she said, "I'll always shine above you. So you'll never be afraid of the dark again."

Nino came back down slowly, his big eyes full of happy tears. He landed on Skye's shoulder and hugged her with his soft little wings.

"I was afraid I was all wrong," he said. "A bat who's afraid of the dark. And she was afraid because she had fallen. We were different, both of us a little broken in our own way. But it's my very difference that helped her, and hers that helped me."

"That's the wonderful part," said Skye, stroking him. "Being different isn't a flaw. It's what lets us help each other. If we were all the same, we'd have nothing to give one another."

The fog had cleared completely, and the sky was full of stars. Among them all, one shone brighter, right above Feather Cloud.

It was then that, from far away, the most beautiful sound returned.

"CHOO CHOO! CHOO CHOO!"

Toby the Magic Train appeared among the clouds, sparkling like never before. He stopped beside the children, looked at the little star in the sky and the smiling little bat, and said:

"What a kind story, what hearts you have shown,
two different friends, together they've grown!
They helped one another and set the dark right,
all aboard, let's go home in the warm starry light!"

The children waved goodbye to Nino, and he fluttered off happily beneath his little star. Then they climbed onto the little train, which slowly came down from the sky, among the rabbit-shaped and elephant-shaped clouds, all the way to the garden at home.

That evening, when Skye fell asleep in the arms of her daddy Andrew, she looked at the last star from the window. It was shining bright, so bright. And it seemed to her that it winked at her.