Moon's Dance Read online

  Just then, Cressida turned around and spotted Ringo, Renee, Roland, and Rita walking toward them. The raccoons, wearing their tuxedos, carried harps, drums, flarpophones, quadruple-duple-banjinanos, trumpledumpledordions, and octogolocto-horns. “We love the new ballroom!” Ringo said as he and his friends walked through the entrance and began to set up their instruments.

  “I’m so excited, I can’t stand it!” Moon said. “And I’d better go tell the raccoons about our music compromise.” She galloped into the ballroom and then leaped and spun across the floor toward the raccoons. Cressida and the other unicorns followed her into the ballroom. The stars sparkled like rubies as Cressida stepped on them, and she spun and twirled on the new dance floor. It was absolutely perfect for dancing.

  Suddenly, Ernest skipped into the ballroom in his tuxedo, which now had tails instead of kale. And right behind him filed in more different creatures than Cressida could count, all wearing tuxedos and ball gowns. There were dragons, foxes, rabbits, gnomes, elves, mini-dragons, fairies, cats, butterflies, wolves, turtles, and birds. Cressida even noticed a red bird with messy feathers in the brightest, reddest ball gown she could imagine.

  Cressida heard Ringo counting out loud, just the way he had in the hollow tree, and then the raccoons began to play the song they had played for Moon and Cressida. At first, all the unicorn princesses except Moon froze, unsure of how to dance.

  Moon trotted up to her sisters and said, “Magic Princess Cressida taught me that this is a kind of music that you can dance to in any way you want. There are no rules or steps or right ways or wrong ways. Just close your eyes and move in whatever way feels best.”

  Sunbeam and Prism grinned, closed their eyes, and immediately began to twirl, jump, and spin. Bloom and Flash watched for several seconds, shrugged, and shut their eyes. At first they just swayed to the beat, but soon they were doing what looked like a square dance. Breeze and Firefly stood stiffly, looking uncomfortable. Moon smiled reassuringly and said, “I think I felt exactly the same way you do now when I first tried to dance to this song. Just close your eyes and give it a try!”

  “Do you promise not to laugh at us?” Breeze asked.

  “Absolutely,” Moon said. “I promise.”

  Breeze and Firefly closed their eyes. They shuffled back and forth for several seconds. And then they began to tap their hooves. “That’s right,” Cressida said encouragingly. She tapped her unicorn sneakers along with them.

  Next, Breeze began to swish her tail and shake her head. And Firefly nodded with the beat and shuffled her front feet. “Excellent,” Moon said.

  And then, to Cressida’s delight, Breeze and Firefly began to dance along with everyone else. Soon, Cressida, Flash, Sunbeam, Bloom, Prism, Breeze, and Firefly were leaping, kicking, spinning, swaying, shimmying, and twirling.

  At the end of the song, Moon, breathless from dancing, exclaimed, “This is the best Starlight Ball we’ve ever had! Thank you, Magic Princess Cressida!”

  “Yes,” agreed Breeze and Firefly. “Thank you.”

  Before Cressida could respond, the raccoons launched into a traditional unicorn song. Again, all the unicorns began to dance. The song reminded Cressida of the music for her dance recital that weekend, and she used some of the steps she had been practicing at home that afternoon.

  Cressida and the unicorns danced to song after song, until Ringo announced, “This will be our last song!”

  Cressida felt disappointed—she could have danced for at least two more hours—but she was also hungry and thirsty. As the band started to play one of their new songs, the unicorns rushed over to Cressida and formed a circle around her.

  “Thank you so much for saving the Starlight Ball,” Flash said.

  “We’re going to name this the Magic Princess Cressida Ballroom in honor of you,” Moon said.

  “I’m so glad I could help,” Cressida said.

  As the raccoons played the final notes of the last song, Cressida said, “Thank you for inviting me to your ball. I’ve had a wonderful time, but I think I’d better return to the human world now.”

  “See you soon!” Moon said.

  “We had so much fun dancing with you!” Sunbeam said.

  “We can’t wait for your next visit!” Flash said.

  Bloom, Prism, and Breeze said, “Goodbye, Magic Princess Cressida!”

  And Firefly nodded and winked.

  Cressida pulled her key from her pocket. She wrapped both hands around the crystal-ball handle and closed her eyes. “Take me home, please,” she said.

  Immediately, the ballroom began to spin into a pink blur, and then everything went pitch black. Cressida felt as though she were lifting off from the ground and soaring through the sky. And then she landed on something wet. At first, all she could see was a swirl of gray, green, and brown. But soon the woods stopped spinning, and she found herself sitting on the soggy ground, right beneath the giant oak tree.

  Next to her, the yellow-and-black-striped umbrella leaned against the tree trunk. She was wearing her rainbow leggings, her T-shirt with the star design, her green raccoon sweatshirt, and her silver unicorn sneakers. She touched her head, hoping her crown might still somehow be there. She felt her hair, tangled from Breeze’s gust of wind and all her enthusiastic dancing. Though the crown was gone, she felt something small and metal in her hair. She pulled it out to discover a gold barrette dotted with pink sapphires. Cressida grinned and put it back in her hair. She picked up and opened the umbrella. And then she skipped home as her unicorn sneakers blinked.

  In the top tower of Spiral Palace, Ernest, a wizard-lizard, sat at his desk. He adjusted his pointy purple hat. He straightened his cloak. And then he picked up a large black book with the title Spells for Fruitmobiles: From Grape Go-Carts to Mango Motorcycles. He flipped to the last page, where he found a spell that began, “Extremely Advanced (Only for Very Experienced and Very Skilled Wizard-Lizards): Transforming Household Hooks into Plum Cars.” Next to the spell was a picture of a grinning wizard-lizard speeding along in a six-wheeled sports car made out of three giant plums.

  “Well,” he said to himself, “Mother Lizard did always encourage me to challenge myself.”

  He studied the spell, whispering the words, “Vroomity Proomity Verity Prive! Make these Hooks into Plums that Drive!” over and over again. Then, he pulled a screwdriver from his desk drawer and marched across the room to where three spare wizard’s cloaks hung on three gold hooks.

  With his scaly green fingers, Ernest unscrewed the hooks from the wall, leaving the cloaks in a heap on the floor. He lined up the hooks on his desktop, glanced at the spell one last time, and pulled his wand from his cloak pocket. As he waved his wand above the hooks, he chanted, “Vroomity Proomity Verity Prive! Make Firefly’s Books Come Alive!”

  Ernest waited for a flash of light or a swirl of wind. He watched the hooks for any sign that they were turning purple or growing wheels. But instead, thunder rumbled in the distance and the palace lights flickered. Ernest nervously glanced out the window just in time to see three bolts of orange lightning tear across the sky.

  “Oh dear! Oh dear!” Ernest said. “I’ve done it again!” He reread the spell and grimaced. “I must have been so excited for Firefly’s new library that I said the wrong thing. Hopefully she won’t notice anything amiss.” He sighed. And then he smiled to himself and added, “But I still really do want to drive a plum car!”

  He read through the spell again. He lifted his wand. He opened his mouth. But before he could say, “Vroomity,” six more orange lightning bolts flashed and thunder boomed so loudly the hooks rattled against his desktop.

  Ernest paused. He grimaced. “On second thought, maybe I’d better try something else,” he said.

  Emily Bliss lives just down the street from a forest. From her living room window, she can see a big oak tree with a magic keyhole. Like Cressida Jenkins, she knows that unicorns are real.

  Sydney Hanson was raised in Minnesota alongside numerous pet
s and brothers. She has worked for several animation shops, including Nickelodeon and Disney Interactive. In her spare time she enjoys traveling and spending time outside with her adopted brother, a Labrador retriever named Cash. She lives in Los Angeles.

  www.sydwiki.tumblr.com

  Text copyright © 2018 by Emily Bliss

  Illustrations copyright © 2018 by Sydney Hanson

  All rights reserved

  You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

  First published in the United States of America in April 2018 by Bloomsbury Children’s Books

  www.bloomsbury.com

  This electronic edition published in 2018 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Bliss, Emily, author. | Hanson, Sydney, illustrator.

  Title: Moon’s dance / by Emily Bliss ; illustrated by Sydney Hanson.

  Description: New York : Bloomsbury, 2018. | Series: Unicorn princesses ; 6

  Summary: Cressida eagerly accepts Princess Moon’s invitation to attend the annual Starlight Ball, but when Ernest the wizard-lizard causes the ballroom to disappear, the unicorn princesses must magically prepare another space.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2017020573 (print) | LCCN 2017036916 (e-book)

  ISBN: 978-1-6811-9653-4 (HB)

  ISBN: 978-1-6811-9652-7 (PB)

  ISBN: 978-1-6811-9654-1 (eBook)

  Subjects: | CYAC: Balls (Parties)—Fiction. | Unicorns—Fiction. | Princesses—Fiction. | Magic—Fiction. | Fantasy.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.1.B633 Moo 2018 (print) | LCC PZ7.1.B633 (e-book) | DDC [Fic]—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017020573

  Book design by Jessie Gang and John Candell

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