“Wooooow!” I exclaim as I jump off my bed-sled. “A castle made completely of ice!” It has crystal ice towers, ice-brick walls, and an ice drawbridge. It is magical.
Suddenly the snow around me starts to move. That’s weird. The white ground wiggles and rolls into snowballs. Then they each roll toward me. They look like fluffy white bowling balls. I back away a little, and when I do, the snowballs begin to pop.
Each snowball turns into a tiny snow animal! A snow bunny! A snow polar bear! A snow fox! A snow raccoon! And what else can I say? “Hello! You are So. Mega. Cute!”
“Shhhhhhh!” they say.
Hmm, that’s rude. I have no idea why these snow creatures are shushing me! I can’t stand being shushed.
“You must be quiet!” whispers the polar bear.
I frown because now I’m a little annoyed. “Why? And who are you?”
The snow penguin shuffles closer. “We’re Snow-nimals,” he says in a soft voice. “Our job is to make sure the only sound near the Ice Castle is the sound of falling snow.”
That makes me wonder, What does falling snow sound like? So I stand really still and listen. And guess what? Falling snow has no sound at all! It’s like having on earmuffs.
“It is a beautiful, deep quiet,” I whisper.
The Snow-nimals all nod at the same time, and they look like snowy bobbleheads. I try not to giggle, but a little snort slips out. “Honka!”
The Snow-nimals shush me again. Obviously.
“Does anyone live in there?” I ask.
But before I get an answer, Posey slides beside me.
“Um, you were supposed to stay away from the Ice Castle!” he whispers loudly.
I point to my bed-sled. “Tell that to this thing,” I say. It is definitely the bed-sled’s fault, and it’s also a little Posey’s fault for not giving me a bed-sledding lesson. “And why didn’t you warn me?”
“Everyone knows about the Ice Castle,” says Posey.
“Not me!” I say a little too loud. The Snow-nimals all flinch.
“Oh, never mind,” Posey whispers. “Let’s just move a safe distance away.” He points to a field.
We leave our bed-sleds behind by the castle and head for the clear, white meadow.
The Snow-nimals pop back into balls and roll beside us.
Posey gives me a sly smile on the way. “Do you know how to make a snow-berang?”
“A what?” I ask as we trudge along.
“You’ll see,” Posey whispers.
Then I look back over my shoulder. What I really want to see is the inside of that Ice Castle, I think.