It was a golden afternoon, and a playful little breeze blew through the yard, spinning the leaves round and round. Dash, Ziggy, Lily, and Skye had drawn a long hopscotch on the ground with colored chalk.

"Watch how I jump!" said Dash, and off he went like a rocket on one foot. He jumped square one, square two, square three... and then, PLOP, he landed sitting inside a bush.

"You're fast as the wind!" laughed Lily.

"And you fall like a ripe pear!" added Ziggy, and everyone burst out laughing.

Skye was about to pick up a piece of chalk when the little breeze carried it away. "Hey! Come back here!" she said, running after it.

That was when they heard it. "CHUFF CHUFF!"

From behind the hedge came Toby the Magic Train, shiny and cheerful, with smoke that made lots of little white hearts. He stopped and said:

"Climb aboard, little feet that love to run,
today we race and trip for fun!
A fluffy garden waits up high,
where soft clouds bounce you to the sky!"

The children shouted with joy and hurried aboard. Dash was first, of course.

Toby puffed, whistled, and flew straight up to the sky. The houses grew as small as little bricks, then vanished into the clouds. When the train stopped, the children stepped off with wide-open eyes.

They were in a garden floating among the clouds. What a funny garden it was! The grass was made of clouds as soft as mattresses, the flowers went "SPROING" if you touched them, and the cottony paths sank under your feet. High above them shone a great big rainbow.

"You can bounce!" shrieked Dash, and he took a jump. He bounced too high and got his head stuck inside a cloud, with only his legs kicking out. "Help, I can't see anything!"

Ziggy and Lily pulled him down, laughing.

Then they saw something sparkle among the flowers. It was a big golden bird, bright as the sun. It spread its wings gracefully... and right away tripped on its own tail, rolled off a flower, and landed on its bottom. "PARP!" went a trumpet, as if by magic, when its wings flung open.

The children burst out laughing.

"Good morning, little champions!" said the bird, picking itself up with a crooked smile. "I am Twirl, the golden Phoenix. A phoenix is a magic bird that sings a different way every single time!"

And indeed, every time it opened its wings by mistake, out came some crazy music: a little march, some jingle bells, or a funny raspberry.

"You've arrived just in time for the Great Cloud-Bounce Race!" said Twirl, waving a wing. From the feathers came the sound of jingle bells. "I will be the referee. When I say GO, you start!"

Dash got into position, tight as a spring. "I'm ready! I'm super ready!"

"Ready... set... G-G-G..." Twirl got so excited that it opened its wings, tripped, and fell forward. "GOOO!" it cried as it tumbled, and ended up crossing the finish line itself, but backwards, walking in reverse. "Did I win?" it asked, all confused.

The children laughed until their tummies hurt.

But this was no ordinary race. The garden had a funny rule: as petals fell from the sky, they made an obstacle track that kept changing all the time. Soft bushes popped up, cloud puddles, bouncing logs. It was never the same.

Dash took off like lightning. He jumped a bush, dodged a puddle... and then stepped on a slippery petal. WHOOSH! He flew forward, did three spins, and landed upside down in a pile of fluff, with his feet sticking out.

"Again?" giggled Lily, pulling him out by the ankles.

Ziggy ran his own way, but a trampoline-flower launched him into the air and made him do a somersault without meaning to. "Look, I'm flying!" he shouted, before landing in a soft bush. Skye, on the other hand, walked calmly, and every now and then a petal tickled her nose and made her sneeze. "ACHOO!" And the sneeze pushed her forward three steps, like a gentle rocket.

Lily, though, did not want to lose for anything in the world. She ran hard, jumped two bushes in a row, and shouted: "I never give up!" But a bouncing log sent her flying backward like a spring, and she landed sitting right next to Dash. "Here we go again," he said. And they hugged, laughing, buried in the petals.

While they were running and laughing, Skye stopped and looked up. "Friends... look at the rainbow."

Everyone raised their eyes. One stripe of the rainbow did not shine like the others. It was almost white, with no color.

"That color has faded," said Twirl with a sigh.

"Fay... what?" asked Dash, scratching his head.

"Faded," explained the phoenix. "It means it has hardly any color, almost white. Like a drawing left too long in the sun, that loses its colors."

"Ah!" the children said together.

"The rainbow will shine again," Twirl went on, "only when someone can cross the whole track all the way to the end, without stopping because of fear. But no one ever manages to..."

"Why not?" asked Lily, hands on her hips.

Twirl pointed a wing at a big rock right in the middle of the path. "Because of him."

On that rock sat a tiny little bunny, made of cloud, soft and gray. He trembled like a little leaf in the wind. He was Skittish.

"Hi!" Dash called to him, hopping. "Come and run with us?"

The little bunny hid his nose between his ears. "N-no thank you," he said in a tiny voice. "I'm scared to come down. And... and I don't know you."

Dash came closer, but Skittish trembled even more. And the rock was right at the spot where the track passed. Without crossing that spot, no one could reach the end. Lily tried, but in front of the rock the track ended in a wall of cloud. Ziggy tried too, and bounced back like a little ball. And so the rainbow stayed faded.

Dash was the fastest of them all. He wanted to run, to win, to cross the finish line first. He took a few running steps... then he turned to look at the little bunny trembling all alone up there.

And he stopped.

"Wait," Dash said to his friends. "First let's help him."

He walked back to the rock, moving slowly so he wouldn't scare Skittish. He sat down on the fluff, right below him.

"You know what?" said Dash. "I get scared too, sometimes. I get scared when I fall head-first into the clouds and can't see anything anymore!"

Skittish peeked out from behind his ears. "Really?"

"Really. Watch!" And Dash pretended to trip, rolled on the fluff, and ended up with his feet in the air. "OOPS!"

Skittish giggled. Just a little.

Then Twirl, to help, tried to make an elegant bow, opened its wings and... PARP! Out came the longest raspberry ever. Skittish laughed out loud.

"See?" said Dash in a sweet voice. "Everyone falls here, but no one gets hurt, because everything is soft. You don't have to run alone. Let's run together. I'll stay right beside you, one step at a time. Will you?"

Skittish looked at Dash. He looked at the other children, who smiled kindly at him. Then he said a small, shy "yes".

The little bunny climbed down from the rock. His paws still trembled, but Dash stayed close.

"Let's go slowly," said Dash. "I'll go at your speed."

And Dash, who was the fastest of them all, walked at a calm pace beside his new friend. One step. Then another. A soft bush popped up in front of them, and they jumped it together. A cloud puddle appeared, and they went around it, paw in hand. Lily, Ziggy, and Skye followed them, cheering.

"Go Skittish! Go Dash!" they shouted.

Skittish began to smile. His fear grew smaller and smaller. Then a bouncing log suddenly appeared in front of them. "Let's jump on three," said Dash in a calm voice. "One... two... THREE!" And they leaped over it, landing softly on the clouds. They did a jump, then a bounce, then another jump. And they were almost at the end.

"We're here!" said Dash. "The last step we take TOGETHER!"

And together, paw in hand, they crossed the finish line.

BOOM! A wave of colorful petals sprayed into the air. The faded stripe of the rainbow filled with color, bright and alive, more beautiful than all the others. The whole garden lit up.

Twirl spread its wings for joy and, for the first time, out came triumphant music, just right and wonderful, like a hundred happy trumpets.

"You did it!" cried the phoenix, and out of happiness it tripped again, falling on its bottom. "PARP!" But this time it laughed too.

Skittish hopped about happily, and he wasn't trembling anymore. "I ran! I really ran!" he said. "And now I have four new friends!"

"Five!" said Twirl, hugging them all with its golden wings.

Dash smiled. He hadn't won the race first. But he had won something more beautiful: a friend who used to be scared, and who now laughed along with them.

The sun began to set, and the sky turned pink. And there came the familiar "CHUFF CHUFF": Toby the Magic Train had come back for them.

The children said goodbye to Twirl and Skittish with a big hug, promising to come back soon. Then they climbed onto the train.

As the sky filled with shooting stars, leaving golden trails like glowing goodbyes, Toby said:

"Who runs all alone wins no prize at all,
but who waits for a friend grows strong and tall!
With a kind little heart, the fear melts away,
and the rainbow will carry you home, hooray!"

The children fell asleep happy, rocked by the swaying of the train, dreaming of bouncing clouds and new friends still to meet.