It was a winter morning, and the sky had a belly full of snow. Ziggy, Lily, and Skye had been in Dash's garden for only a little while. They had a big secret in their pocket.

"Sssh," said Lily, putting her finger to her mouth. "Dash is still sleeping."

"The curtains are closed too," whispered Skye, standing on tiptoe to peek at the window.

Ziggy was laughing in secret. In his hands he held a colorful ribbon as long as a scarf. It was orange, red, green, and blue, and it shone like a tiny rolled-up rainbow.

"Okay, here we go," said Ziggy. "I'll hang the ribbon on the tree. Lily, you put the cookies on the table. Skye, you get the crown ready."

The three friends had woken up very, very early. They had walked on the frozen grass on tiptoe, and now they were setting up the most important surprise of the year. Because today was not just any day. Today was Dash's birthday.

Ziggy tied the ribbon to the lowest branch of the apple tree. The ribbon swayed in the wind like a happy flag. Lily pulled out a little bag, and inside there were four star-shaped cookies, each with a tiny dot of sugar in the middle. She placed them on the wooden table, one for each. Meanwhile, Skye was folding a piece of golden card to make a crown.

"It's ready," said Skye. "It has five points."

"He has five fingers on each hand too," said Lily. "So it's perfect."

Ziggy laughed. "It would be fine even if he had seven. It's his birthday, and that's all that matters."

Just at that moment, the door of Dash's house opened with a little creak. Dash came out in his pajamas, with messy hair and one slipper on the wrong foot.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAAAY!" they all shouted together.

Dash stopped, his mouth wide open. He looked around. He saw the ribbon, he saw the star-shaped cookies, he saw the golden crown that Skye was placing on his head.

"Is it really for me?" he asked softly.

"For you, for you, only for you!" said Ziggy.

Dash smiled so much that his eyes became two tiny happy commas. The crown slipped down a little, but he held it steady with his hands.

And right then, from the far end of the garden, came a sound they all knew very well.

"CHUFF CHUFF CHUFF!"

It was Toby, the Magic Train. He had a blue locomotive, red wheels, and a chimney that puffed out little round clouds like cotton balls. He stopped right in front of the children, and from his chimney came a tiny heart-shaped cloud.

Toby opened his mouth into a smile and spoke:

"CHUFF, CHUFF, dear children all,
today we fly where mountains call!
A party glows in Dash's heart,
through thousand colors we depart!"

The children clapped their hands. Toby always spoke in rhyme — that was his little magic. And when he rhymed, his wheels made a tiny trill, like a little bell.

"Let's hop on!" shouted Dash.

They all jumped onto the little train. Dash's window had a red bow. On Dash's seat there was a small cloth flag with big letters that read: BIRTHDAY CAPTAIN.

Toby whistled softly. "Toot toot!"

"Dash," said Lily, "today you are the captain. The little flag says so."

"It means," explained Skye, "that you decide when we leave, when the whistle blows, and where to look."

Dash had never been captain of anything before. He sat up straight on the seat, fixed the paper crown on his head, and said, with a voice bigger than himself: "Then… off we go!"

"CHUFF CHUFF!" answered Toby, and the little train set off.

He flew over the rooftops, over the fields, over a river that sparkled like a silver puddle. Then the landscape changed. Mountains appeared. But not ordinary mountains: they were all white with snow, and the trees on their branches looked covered in whipped cream, as if someone had spread fresh cream over every little twig.

"Oooh!" said Skye, who loved everything that was white.

The little train stopped gently at the start of a path. A wooden sign read: "Path of the Sleeping Echoes."

"Echoes?" asked Dash. "What does that mean?"

"The echo," explained Lily, "is when you shout loud toward a mountain, and the mountain shouts the same thing back at you. Like a little joke."

"Try it," said Ziggy.

Dash cupped his hands around his mouth, took a deep breath, and shouted: "HEYYY!"

Silence.

The children looked at each other. Strange. Ziggy tried too: "HEYYY!"

Nothing. Skye even whispered a tiny tender "hey." Nothing.

"The mountains are sleeping," said Lily. "We have to wake them up."

They walked a few steps on the fresh snow. The snow crunched under their shoes, like when you bite into crispy cookies. From a white bush, something small and colorful jumped out. It was a salamander: a creature like a little lizard, with soft, wet skin, but much cuter.

And she was laughing. She was laughing with delight, with tiny "hee, hee, hee" sounds that made her tail wiggle.

When she laughed, she changed color. She turned pink, then blue, then yellow, and then pink again. She looked like a tiny happy traffic light.

"Good morning," said Dash, who was the captain. "Who are you?"

"My name is Tilly," said the salamander, and then she laughed because a pinecone had fallen right next to her. "Hee, hee! You know what? Today the mountains aren't answering. They've fallen asleep."

"Why?" asked Dash.

"Because," said Tilly, laughing because a snowflake had landed on her little nose, "they have forgotten how to be cheerful. And without cheer, the echo can't come out."

The children looked at each other. Skye hugged Lily. Dash touched the paper crown on his head.

"Then," said Dash, "we'll wake them up with a great big cheer."

Tilly clapped with her tiny paws, and from her tail came a soft tinkling. On the tip of her tail she had a little ice bell, as tiny as a crumb, but with a sound as sweet as the evening wind.

"I'll go with you all the way to the top," said Tilly. "Up there is the best spot for talking to the mountains."

And off they went.

The path zigzagged upward. The snow was soft. Everything was bright and white. But at a certain point, something began to change. A tiny cloud fell from the sky, settled on the path, and grew. In just a few moments, everything filled with a fog as light as a feather.

"I can't see my feet anymore," said Skye, her voice a little shaky.

"I can't even see my own nose," said Ziggy, laughing.

Lily was serious. "And what if we get lost?"

Dash felt his heart beating just a little faster. He stopped. He was the captain, and he had to think.

"Wait," he said. "Let's do this: each of us puts a hand on the shoulder of the one in front. I'll stay in front, because I know my own hand. Tilly comes at the back and rings her little bell, so we know we're all in the line."

"That's a real captain's idea," said Lily, and she placed her hand on Dash's shoulder. Skye placed her hand on Lily's shoulder. Ziggy placed his hand on Skye's shoulder. Tilly trotted along at the back and made her tail tinkle with a sweet glassy sound.

They walked along like that, like a tiny train of wool and snow. When the path dipped down a little, Dash felt it with his feet. When the path climbed up, he understood it with his knees. When a rock stuck out at the side, he touched it with his free hand and said: "There's a rock here, careful."

"Now I know how the little mice do it inside their tunnels," said Skye. "They see with their hands."

After they had walked for a while, the fog began to thin out — to grow lighter and lighter. They could see their feet again, then the trees, then the sky. They had reached the top.

At the top of the path there was a big rock as flat as a table. From there you could see the whole valley, white with snow and silent.

"Captain," said Ziggy, "I have a surprise."

He opened his little backpack. From inside, as if by magic, he pulled out a cake. A round cake of white cream, with sugar-snow on top and four little red candles stuck in the middle.

Dash put a hand over his mouth in surprise. The paper crown slid down over his ear again.

"Is it… for me?"

"For you, for you, only for you!" said Skye.

Lily lit the candles with a tiny magic match that put itself out after just a moment. The four candles flickered in the wind, but they did not go out.

"Now the wish," said Tilly. "But make it in the special way. Whisper it in my ear. Mountain salamanders know how to keep secrets."

Dash bent down. Tilly brought her small colorful head closer. And Dash whispered his wish into the salamander's ear. No one heard it. Only she did.

Then Dash took a breath. He blew on the four candles. All four together.

At that moment, Tilly burst into colors. Not one color at a time, but all of them. Pink, blue, yellow, green, purple, gold, orange. She rolled onto her back with laughter: "Hee, hee, heee!" Her little ice bell tinkled like never before.

And then it happened.

The mountains, hearing that colorful laugh, opened their eyes. One of them made a small "OH!" and another answered "OH!" and yet another "OH!" Then someone, from who knows where, shouted:

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAAASH!"

And all the mountains together bounced that voice from wall to wall:

"DAAASH… AAASH… AAASH… ash… ash…"

It was the echo. It had come back.

Dash burst into a huge laugh, and so did Skye, and so did Lily, and so did Ziggy, and so did Tilly, who had become all the colors at the same time, and so did the mountains, which now would not stop answering.

They sat down on the flat rock. Ziggy cut the cake with a little wooden knife. Four slices for the children, and a tiny crumb of cream for Tilly. Tilly tasted it and turned white, then pink, then white again, like a flower that changes its season twice a second.

When the last crumb was gone, the sun was turning orange. It was time to go back.

"Tilly," said Dash, "will you come with us?"

"No," said Tilly. "I live here. But I want to give you something."

She touched her tail. The little ice bell gently came off, and Tilly placed it in Dash's hand.

"You keep it," said Tilly. "When you ring it, the echo will know that we are friends. And it will think of us."

Dash closed his hand around the little bell. It was cold, but it didn't bother him.

They climbed onto the little train. Toby welcomed them with his chimney puffing out little hearts. He knew it had been a very special day. He moved his wheels and began to sing his new rhyme:

"CHUFF, CHUFF, the birthday's here,
four little candles, one more year!
Captain Dash, our treasure dear,
home we go with golden cheer!"

The children laughed and clapped their hands. The little train set off toward home, while the mountains behind them kept whispering "dash… dash… dash…" as if they did not want to stop.

When Dash got home, he put the little ice bell on his bedside table, near the warm light of the lamp. He thought it would melt in just a few minutes.

But that little bell never melted. Not that evening, not the next day, not the next week. It stayed there, cold and perfect, like a tiny promise.

And every now and then, when Dash rang it, he could almost hear, deep in his heart, a light little laugh that said "hee, hee, hee." And he smiled, because he knew who it was. She was the smallest friend in the whole mountain. The salamander who had woken up an entire valley.