“Ooh, remember the rock?” Mei asked excitedly. “When it cracked open, we found a map inside!”
“And the map helped us find our way to the unicorn,” Elvis added. “I bet our next clue is inside the piñata!”
A slight frown flickered across Amirah’s face. Everything her friends said made sense. But breaking open this piñata felt wrong somehow, in ways she couldn’t quite explain. The piñata shimmered as it swayed gently in the breeze. Amirah already knew she couldn’t bear to watch something so beautiful be destroyed.
As Amirah thought about what to do next, her hand still resting on the piñata’s side, a silvery mist swirled around their ankles.
“Where’s this misty stuff coming from?” Mei wondered, trying to wave it away. It continued to fill the clearing, snaking around their legs, their knees, their waists . . .
“That party, I bet,” Elvis replied. He raised the silver stick above his head. “Let’s break open the piñata while we can still see it.”
Suddenly, Amirah felt it again—a tremble deep within the piñata.
“Wait,” Amirah said. She was more convinced than ever that this was no ordinary piñata. But how could she convince her friends? She had no proof.
Amirah held out her hand. “Can I have the tube?” she asked.
“Sure,” Elvis said with a shrug. “Give it a good whack! It should be easy without a blindfold. I can’t wait to find out what’s inside!”
As Elvis placed the stick in her hand, Amirah was surprised to find that it felt strangely warm for a piece of metal. Then she felt something else—the faintest pulse, the slightest quiver.
Just like when she had touched the piñata.
Amirah lifted the stick high into the air. Instead of hitting the piñata, though, she gently touched the stick to the silver string from which it hung.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
The sound of sparks crackling filled the clearing, but Amirah barely noticed. She was too busy shielding her eyes from the startling light, so warm, so bright, so beautiful that it was almost blinding.
Almost.
Amirah couldn’t help but watch through her fingers. The shimmering light was devouring the string like a sparkling candle on a birthday cake. Not just the string, though. It crackled over the unicorn piñata, until the whole thing blazed with such brightness that Amirah really did have to look away.
Within seconds, the warmth faded away, and it grew quiet enough in the clearing that Amirah could hear a soft thud. Then another, and another, and another.
It almost sounded like hoofbeats.
She opened her eyes.
Across the clearing stood Cara the Unicorn.
Not a piñata, not a stuffed animal, but real in every way, from her flowing mane to her eyes, which were as dark and shimmery as a lake reflecting a full moon at midnight. All the parts of Cara that had once been silver were now gold, beaming with a warmth and brightness that filled Amirah’s heart with happiness.
Cara bobbed her head, making her mane cascade like a rainbow-tinged waterfall, and pawed at the ground with her shimmery hooves. She was so lovely, so magical, so majestic that Amirah almost wanted to bow to her.
Instead, Amirah nodded her head at Cara.
Then, to her astonishment, Cara nodded back!
“I’m Amirah,” Amirah said, even though she had a funny feeling that Cara already knew that. She held out her hand, palm up, and waited, barely daring to breathe.
Cara took a few steps toward Amirah and gently nuzzled her hand. Just standing near the unicorn made Amirah feel a little dizzy. Meeting a real unicorn had always seemed like a daydream, a fantasy that could only occur in her imagination. But in the Magical Land of Birthdays, anything could happen.
Amirah closed her eyes from pure joy and imagined how incredible it would be to explore this wild, wonderful world with Cara by her side. Cara, she knew, could show her everything. Cara could help her find her way. They’d roam the rocky roads, skip through the field of cake ball flowers, climb the craggy mountains, and finally, explore Sparkle City at the tippy-top of the island—
“Amirah!”
The urgency in Mei’s voice pierced Amirah’s daydream. In all the excitement, she’d almost forgotten about her B-Buds.
“The mist,” Mei continued. “It’s getting thicker. How are we going to get out of the forest?”
Amirah had been so captivated by Cara the Unicorn’s appearance that she had failed to notice the rising mist. It was thicker than before, thick enough to cut through with a swipe of her hand. Yet there seemed to be no way to clear it. No matter how much Amirah, Mei, and Elvis tried to wave the mist away, it grew thicker and thicker. Soon, Amirah knew, the B-Buds wouldn’t even be able to see across the clearing.
They wouldn’t even be able to see each other.
Suddenly, Amirah gasped.
“What’s wrong?” Elvis asked. She could hear him, but could barely make out his silhouette among the swirling mist.
“My dream,” Amirah cried. “It ended in clouds of mist—just like this!”
“Is that happening again?” Mei said urgently. “Is our adventure almost over?”
“It can’t end like this,” Amirah exclaimed. “It just can’t. We haven’t found the girl—we haven’t figured out how to help her—”
Amirah spun around. She could still see Cara, glimmering at the edge of the clearing. The unicorn seemed to emit a sense of calm; if she was concerned about the rising mist, she didn’t show it.
“If this is just a dream—if we all wake up at our homes—how will we find each other again?” Elvis asked.
“No,” Amirah said, shaking her head. “It doesn’t end yet. Not now. Not like this. I won’t let it.”
Amirah’s emotions swirled almost as wildly as the mist. Her hands were trembling a little as she unscrewed the cap on her container of sprinkles and popped a few in her mouth.
Think, she ordered herself. Think, think, think. Everyone is counting on you.
It wouldn’t help to panic or freak out. Besides, that wasn’t Amirah’s style. She snacked on a few more
