“Do you mind if I make it so dark your special glasses won’t work?” Moon asked.
“No problem,” Cressida said. She wasn’t usually afraid of the dark.
“I can’t wait to show you Midnight Stars,” Moon said. “Their magic only works when it’s pitch black.”
Moon pointed her horn toward the sky. The opal on her ribbon necklace twinkled. Sparkling light poured from her horn. Suddenly, it was so dark that Cressida couldn’t even see her hands when she held them in front of her face. Though she wasn’t afraid, she had to admit she felt a little nervous. She reached for Moon’s back. When her fingers touched her friend’s soft coat, she took a deep breath.
Just then, the stars on the trees began to glow. At first, their light was faint. But after a few seconds, they brightened and began to change color: from white to yellow to orange and, finally, to a vibrant red. Soon, the forest glowed a spectacular shade of scarlet.
“Wow!” Cressida said. “The Midnight Stars are beautiful.”
“I thought you’d like them,” said Moon. “And that’s not all they can do.” She cleared her throat and called out, “Midnight Stars, please take us to the raccoons!”
The stars began to wiggle, jiggle, and swing on the branches. Then they lifted off the trees, swirled in circles above Cressida and Moon’s heads, and dropped to the forest floor in the shape of a long, glowing trail. “This way we don’t have to walk on all those roots and vines,” Moon said as she stepped onto the pathway of stars. They sparkled like rubies as her hooves touched them.
Cressida stepped onto the glowing pathway, and the stars shimmered. She took another step, and noticed that the stars were quite smooth. They weren’t slippery, like ice, but they were perfect for spinning and twirling, even in sneakers. Cressida turned and jumped as she walked, giggling.
Moon watched her and laughed, and then they both sashayed forward.
Soon Cressida and Moon were leaping and twirling together along a path of stars that led through groves of towering pine trees, beds of giant ferns, clusters of flowering vines, and marshes full of reeds and pussy willows. Then the trail of stars made a sharp right and ended in a sea of darkness that Cressida guessed was a meadow, though with all the stars’ red light behind her, she couldn’t see well enough to be sure.
“We’d better tidy up the Midnight Stars before we go see the raccoons,” Moon said. She shrugged and added, “Though I have to admit that I love it when it’s pitch black.” She pointed her horn to the sky. Her opal shimmered, and sparkling light poured from her horn. The Night Forest grew lighter, and immediately the stars began to wiggle and jiggle. Then they lifted into the air and flew in circles as they turned from bright red to orange to yellow to white and, finally, to a lightless gray. Then, like a school of fish, they bolted back into the woods.
“Thanks so much for showing me the Midnight Stars,” Cressida said.
“My pleasure,” Moon said. “Are you ready to listen to the raccoons’ practice session?”
“Yes,” Cressida said. She turned to see that they were, in fact, standing in front of a meadow. And among the grass and wild-flowers were the biggest oak trees Cressida had ever seen—they were much bigger than the one with the magic keyhole in the woods behind her house!
As Cressida and Moon walked into the meadow, Cressida noticed that spiral staircases, made of thousands of twigs fastened together with pine needles, wound around the trees and ended at oval-shaped doors midway up the trunks.
Moon paused in front of the biggest tree and stepped onto the stairs. “The raccoons built these staircases just for me,” Moon said. “Otherwise, it’s not really possible to climb a tree if you have hooves. Want to come up?”
“Yes, please!” Cressida said, grinning. She had always, ever since she was a little girl, wanted to visit a raccoon in a hollow tree. Now she was going to get to do just that! She followed Moon up the stairs, holding up her ball gown.
At the top, with Cressida right behind her, Moon knocked on the door with her hoof. “Hello?” she called out. “It’s me, Princess Moon.”
“Princess Moon! Come on in,” said a voice from inside the tree. “Did you bring Cressida?”
“I sure did!” Moon said, nudging the door open with her nose. Then, she and Cressida walked inside.
The first thing Cressida noticed inside the hollow tree was that nearly everywhere she looked—hanging on the walls, lined up on shelves, even stacked on the floor—were musical instruments. Some looked like instruments she recognized from the human world: there were guitars, banjos, violins, flutes, clarinets, trumpets, trombones, saxophones, drums, xylophones, and triangles. But there were also instruments Cressida had never seen before, with curly pipes, strings at odd angles, many-sided drums, and spiraling keyboards.
In the center of the room four raccoons, each with lime-green stripes and mask, sat in a circle holding their instruments.
“Cressida, these are my good friends,” Moon said, nodding toward the raccoons. “You’ve already met Ringo.” He smiled and waved at Cressida. “And here are Renee, Roland, and Rita. In addition to playing traditional unicorn music on harps and drums, the Night Forest raccoons invent and build new instruments and write their own songs.”
“Wow!” Cressida said. “It’s wonderful to meet you. Thank you for letting me visit your hollow tree.”
“The pleasure is ours,” Ringo said.
“We’ve always wanted to meet a human girl,” Renee explained, twitching her whiskers.
“We’ve heard the human world has wonderful music,” Roland said. “I’ve wanted to visit, but I have a feeling someone might think a green raccoon listening to music was just a little odd.”
Cressida giggled. “Probably,” she said. “But you could all come listen to music with me in my room anytime! I wouldn’t think that was odd at all.”
“That
