It was a spring morning in the royal garden, and tiny clouds floated in the sky like threads of cotton candy. A warm little breeze made the lavender beds sway, and the air smelled of wet grass and fresh flowers.

Ziggy, Lily, Skye, and Dash were playing the statue game among the flowers. They laughed, they ran, and then at "one, two, three, freeze!" they all stopped, still as little stones.

"I'm a cat statue!" said Ziggy, with his arms bent like paws.
"I'm a princess sleeping standing up!" said Lily, with her eyes closed.
"I'm... a cloud statue," whispered Skye, spreading her hands wide.
"And I'm a fast statue!" shouted Dash, but then he remembered statues don't move, and he stayed still, bursting out laughing.

They stayed like that for a moment, in silence. But it was a strange silence. Almost too quiet.

Lily opened her eyes and looked around. The lavender beds were there, blooming and fragrant. The sun was shining. The wind was playing with the leaves. But something was missing.

"Wait," said Lily. "Where are the butterflies?"

Everyone looked. Usually the royal garden was full of butterflies: yellow, orange, blue, spotted, striped. They flew above the lavender like little colorful kites. Today, instead, nothing. Not even one.

"It's true," said Skye in a low voice. "There aren't any at all."

"Maybe they're having a snack somewhere else," said Ziggy.
"Or maybe they went on vacation," said Dash, who always thought about vacations.

But Lily had a strange tug in her chest. The butterflies of the royal garden never went away. Not like this, all together.

Right at that moment, from far away, came a sound the children knew very well.

CHOO CHOO... CHOO CHOO...

"Toby!" they all shouted together.

Out of the bushes came Toby the Magic Train, with his smoke shaped like little curls and his windows sparkling. He stopped in front of the children, whistled twice, and sang:

"Choo choo my friends, come ride with me,
a star fell down tonight, plain to see.
Under a big tree so silent and tall,
a curious mystery is calling us all."

The children looked at each other. A fallen star? A silent tree? A mystery?

"Let's go!" said Lily, decisively.

They climbed into the cars and Toby left slowly, then faster. But just as they were leaving, above Lily's head a very light frrr-frrr was heard, like the soft beat of tiny wings.

"What is it?" said Lily.

It was a little bird. But not just any little bird. He flew in zig-zags, as if straight lines tickled him. He had feathers the color of twilight and a small rolled-up envelope, made of leaf, tied to his tiny leg. He smelled of dew and freshly cut hay.

His name was Pippi-Whisper.

Pippi made three loops around Lily's head, one, two, three, and then he settled near her ear. When he opened his beak, he spoke so quietly that Lily had to hold her breath to hear him.

"For you... a missive," whispered Pippi. And he placed the small leaf envelope into her hands.

"A... missive?" said Lily, puzzled.

Skye, who was always calm and attentive, came closer.

"A missive is a little letter," she explained gently. "A written message, to deliver to someone. My mom says so when the mail arrives."

"Ah!" said Dash. "Then open it!"

Lily unrolled the leaf carefully. On it were written two thin lines:
"The butterflies have run away. There is a rock that grumbles and is scary."

The children looked at each other in silence.

"A grumbling rock?" said Ziggy.
"And the butterflies ran away because of it?" asked Dash.

Pippi-Whisper said nothing more. He flew in zig-zags up to the top of Toby and rested on the train's whistle.

"Hold on tight, Lily!" said Skye.

Toby started off. CHOO CHOO. The little train ran past the flower beds, past the wall of the royal garden, past the woods. The sky grew darker, and then darker still. One star lit up. Then another. Then a thousand.

When Toby stopped, in front of the children stood a tree like they had never seen.

It was very tall, with a trunk as big as a house. The branches were long and soft, and among the leaves twinkled little dots of light, as if someone had hung tiny fireflies.

"They're stars," whispered Pippi-Whisper into Lily's ear. "Sometimes they fall... and they get caught here. This is the Great Tree of Fallen Stars."

Lily felt a shiver of wonder. Skye put a hand over her heart. Dash opened his mouth wide. Ziggy gave a soft whistle.

Then, suddenly, from under the roots of the tree, came a sound.

BRRRR...

The children froze.

BOOM!

Dash gave a little jump.

BRRRR... BOOM!

The leaves trembled. A star slipped from a branch and went out on the grass.

"It's... it's the grumbling rock!" whispered Ziggy.

The four children hid behind the trunk. Lily's heart was beating very fast, like a crazy little drum. Skye was trembling too. Dash had put his finger in his mouth. Ziggy stared with wide-open eyes.

BRRRR... BOOM!

"Maybe we should go away," whispered Dash.
"Yes, let's go home," said Ziggy.

But Lily, behind the trunk, stayed still. Her heart was still beating very fast. She was scared, really very scared. And yet, inside herself, she heard a little voice that said: "Come closer. Just one step."

She clenched her fists. She breathed. And, slowly, she peeked out from behind the trunk.

Under the roots of the tree, in the middle of a kind of room dug into the earth, there was a big round rock. It was the rock that was making BRRRR... BOOM!

Lily took one step. Then another. Then another.

"Lily, where are you going?" said Skye in a low voice.
"I have to... I just have to listen," answered Lily.

And she went up to the rock. She felt her heart in her throat. The "BRRRR" sounded long, and the "BOOM" made the leaves tremble. Lily pressed her ear against the cold stone.

And she listened.

And her mouth fell wide open.

She turned to her friends, with shining eyes.

"Come!" she shouted softly. "It's not a monster! It's... someone snoring!"

Ziggy came out from behind the trunk. Then Skye. Then Dash too, even though he still took one step back for every two forward. All four of them came up to the rock.

"Really?" said Dash.
"Listen," said Lily.

Dash pressed his ear against it.

BRRRR...
"Breathing in," said Dash, surprised.

BOOM!
"And puffing out!" laughed Ziggy.

Skye listened too. "It's true! Someone is sleeping!" she said, and it was the first time she raised her voice a little.

"But then," said Lily, "if it's just someone sleeping... can we help them? Or at least look?"

"We'd have to move the rock," said Ziggy. "But it's too big for one person."

"All of us together, though..." said Skye.

They lined up. Lily in front, Ziggy behind her, then Skye, then Dash. They placed their hands on the rock. The rock was cool, rough, and trembled every time it went BOOM!

"One..." said Lily.
"Two..." said Ziggy.
"Threee!" they shouted together.

They pushed. They pushed again. The rock didn't move. They pushed again, with all the strength they had in their little arms. And then, slowly, the stone began to slide. SCRRR... SCRRR... THUMP!

The rock rolled to the side. And in front of the children, lying happily on the grass, was... a cricket. But not just any cricket: he was as big as a pillow. He had long, curly antennae, his little legs folded just like when you go nighty-night, and his tummy went up and down slowly. BRRRR... BOOM!

The children burst out laughing.

The cricket opened one eye. Then the other. He looked around, saw the children, saw the moved rock, saw himself snoring in the middle of the grass. He turned as red as a strawberry.

"Oh dear!" said the cricket. "Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! I'm so sorry! I was just taking a little nap under the roots, I didn't mean to wake anyone, and apparently I woke up half the woods! The butterflies... is that why they're gone, isn't it?"

"Yes," said Lily sweetly. "They ran away because of the noise."

The cricket lowered his head, mortified. "I didn't know. I snore so loudly and I don't even notice!"

At that moment, above their heads, the sky began to change color. The stars stepped aside, and green and purple clouds started to dance slowly, like ribbons of silk.

"Look!" whispered Skye.

It was the colored aurora.

The cricket looked at it, and his eyes lit up. "Oh," he said in a low voice. "It's so beautiful it makes me want to sing."

And so he did.

He opened his mouth, and out came a very sweet little song, that went almost like this: "lulla la la, lulla la la, the flowers are sleeping, the dreams are sleeping, even my BRRRR... is just sleepy time."

It was a lullaby. The cricket's voice was no longer noisy: it was soft, warm, like a blanket.

And while he sang, from the valley came a soft rustling. Frrr-frrr.

One butterfly. Then two. Then ten. Then a hundred. Swarms of butterflies, yellow, orange, blue, spotted, striped, came flying back over the Great Tree of Fallen Stars, dancing in a circle around the aurora.

A little butterfly landed on the cricket's nose and tickled him. He laughed.

"Can we be friends?" asked the cricket shyly.
"Only if you sing the lullaby for us too, sometimes," said a butterfly with a tiny voice.
"I will!" promised the cricket. And the butterflies, happy, settled on his antennae like a little crown.

Pippi-Whisper made three loops around Lily's head and whispered to her: "Well done. It was you who was needed."

Lily smiled.

They went back to Toby. The butterflies flew with them all the way back to the royal garden, and when they arrived they started dancing again over the lavender beds, like before. Maybe even more than before.

Toby whistled gently, and then sang:

"Choo choo dear children, let's go home to play,
brave hearts can still tremble along the way.
But one little step, taken with love and care,
turns a loud scary noise into friends to share."

Lily looked at Toby. Then she looked at her friends. Then at the butterflies. And she felt, deep in her chest, something warm. It was no longer fear. It was something else. Something that looked very, very much like happiness.