Cala’s Unseen Gift — Under the biggest lily pad, Cala kept a private wish: the sweet black mulberry that had plopped beyond the ring of flowers. Read the full story →
Under the biggest lily pad, Cala kept a private wish: the sweet black mulberry that had plopped beyond the ring of flowers. Its smell drifted through the pond like jam on warm bread. She flicked her whiskers and slipped from her cool green roof into the open water, where the current tugged at her long fins and the lily stems brushed her sides with scratchy threads.
Halfway there, a voice clicked from a curled leaf. “Don’t splash,” it whispered. A dragonfly nymph, brown as a twig, was caught in a loop of pond grass. The mulberry bobbed past Cala’s nose. She could have snapped it up. Instead, she bit the grass, pulled once, twice, and tore it free. The nymph vanished under the leaf without a thank-you, leaving only a fizz of tiny bubbles.
Cala found the mulberry later, bumped against a stone and bruised purple. She nudged it into the shadow below the curled leaf, then swam home with empty lips and a lighter tail. By morning, a blue dragonfly rested above her lily pad, its wings shining like secret glass. If you follow the swirl around the koi, can you guess where Cala hid the sweet black mulberry?
