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Listen instead! (Special guest narrator!!!)
“Stripes! We’ve got them! We’ve got the whiskers!!”
All four excited elves came bursting into the cottage, knocking a peppermint lamp down and shattering a lightbulb full of sprinkles. Glitter, followed behind at a more dignified pace, her eyes bright and shining.
“Well done!” Stripes held out his paw. “Let me see them, please.”
Stripes examined the whiskers closely. “Hmm. Very strange.”
“What’s strange?” asked Nim excitedly.
“Yes, that is odd as well,” continued Stripes, turning the whiskers in the light.
“What’s odd?” demanded Figgy.
“And this…this here, very interesting.”
“Stripes!” cried Pixie and Lil as one.
“Look closely” Stripes waved his paw over the whiskers.
The elves bent their heads to get a better look and noticed the whiskers were shimmering slightly.
“What is that?” asked Lil.
“It’s the Northern Lights.”
“Er…come again?” asked Nim.
“The swirling lights represent the Northern Lights, and you know what that means.”
Nim and Pixie shrugged while Figgy and Lil shook their heads. Glitter remained curiously silent as Stripes’ sharp green gaze bored into her.
“What’s he talking about, Glitter?” asked Lil with a frown.
As Glitter took the whiskers, she let out a resigned huff. “It means I have to go home.”
“Oh that will be fun! We’ll get to meet your folks and —”. Figgy stopped short at the expression on Glitter’s face and decided to drop it or risk being incinerated by her glare.
“Alright,” said Glitter as she turned to leave. “Let’s get this over with.”
“A note of warning before you go.” Stripes’ ominous tone stopped Nim and Lil in their tracks. “Sparkly Sprinkles knows you are in search of this mailbox. I sent her on a decoy path, but she’s clever and won’t be fooled for long. Be careful.”
Nim and Lil nodded their thank you and followed the others down the path that would lead them to the missing mailbox and the lost letters it contained.
a pinch of homestead 