The Game Behind the Gate — Before breakfast, under a sun that smelled of warm straw, Pippa the chick scratched circles in the dust with a twig. Read the full story →
Before breakfast, under a sun that smelled of warm straw, Pippa the chick scratched circles in the dust with a twig. She wanted her new game, Shadow Gate, to lead her friends from clue to clue without anyone saying a word. A curled shaving of fence wood became a moon mark, three pebbles became hoof steps, and a daisy stem made the final arrow. “No peeking until the shadow points,” Pippa whispered.
But when the lamb and piglet arrived, the first shadow slid the wrong way. The barn boards creaked, the fence gave a soft tick-tick, and every secret mark looked ordinary. Pippa’s beak pinched tight. She had made the game herself; it should have worked. Then a cloud moved. Sunlight poured through the uneven fence slats, and each handmade mark threw a tiny dark shape onto the grass: moon, hoof, arrow.
The friends followed in silence to the flowers, where Pippa had hidden three seed cakes under a leaf. Ever since that morning, farm animals leave little signs by gates and fences when they want friends to find a secret. If you spot the fence posts and flowers, can you guess where Pippa would hide the next clue under the warm-straw sun?
