Kona waited for her friends to whinny in excitement. But instead, Brisa had an announcement of her own!
“I know what that game reminds me of,” she cried. “Andy!”
“Andy?” Kona said. “You mean Thelma’s new foal?”
Thelma was one of the giant, non-flying, un-magical horses the Wind Dancers had met on their very first day in the dandelion meadow. The chestnut mare lived in a paddock with two friends—Benny, a haughty black gelding, and Fluff, a little filly with a dappled gray coat. Now that Thelma had a baby colt, Andy, the big horses were a crew of four.
Unlike the Wind Dancers, the big horses had human owners, who brushed them and fed them and took them out for rides. And they weren’t, of course, invisible to people the way the Wind Dancers were.
The Wind Dancers thought it was all a bit strange.
The big horses thought the Wind Dancers were a bit strange, too.
But, the Wind Dancers and the big horses were all, well, horses. And they all lived in the same dandelion meadow. So, they were friends. Especially since baby Andy had arrived—and Brisa had fallen head over hooves for him.
“Why don’t we go visit?” Brisa proposed with a grin. “Unlike people, Andy can see us. And he’s sooooo cute!”
“Here Brisa goes again,” Sumatra giggled.
“I love his little knock-knees,” Brisa said with a happy sigh. “And the way his forelock flops into his eyes. And—”
“—and what about soccer?” Kona interrupted Brisa eagerly. “Don’t you think it would be so much fun to play?”
“I don’t know,” Brisa crooned. “That black-and-white ball isn’t nearly as cute as baby Annnnndy.”
Kona felt a little desperate. How could she get the Wind Dancers to play soccer if Brisa was so busy cooing over Thelma’s little colt?!
“Brisa,” Kona cautioned, “I don’t know if Thelma’s going to want us hanging around Andy. You know how tough she can be!”
“Oh, please!” Brisa scoffed, her eyes still dreamy. “A mommy just loves it when other horses fuss over her cute little baaaaby!”
“He is adorable,” Sumatra admitted.
“I wonder if he’s old enough to talk about guy stuff,” Sirocco chimed in.
“Okay, okay,” Kona grumbled. “Let’s go visit the big horses.”
The Wind Dancers fluttered in the air and headed for the big horses’ paddock.
“You know what’s neat about soccer?” Kona said as they flew. “It’s just like kicking, but better! Because it’s got other players. Teams! Isn’t that great?”
“Sure, I guess,” Sumatra said as she flapped her green wings evenly. “I don’t get the point, though. Why does one team want to score goals against the other?”
Kona gaped at Sumatra.
“Hello?” she exclaimed. “To win!”
“Well, what do you win?” asked Sirocco. “A pie? If there’s food, I’ll sign up for soccer!”
“You don’t win something,” Kona said with a frown. “At least, I don’t think so. The point is just to know that you’re the best!”
“Uh-huh,” Sumatra yawned.
“When you think about it,” Kona pressed on slyly, “a game where you don’t use your hands is perfect for us. We’ve got nothing but feet! In fact, I think we’d be soccer stars. After we visit Andy, why don’t we divide up into teams of two and play soccer against each other!”
Sumatra stopped yawning and neighed in alarm!
“Divide up?” she said. “Play against each other? Kona, ‘divide’ and ‘against’ aren’t very Wind Dancery words. The four of us are a team. You don’t want to break us up, do you?”
Kona snorted dismissively.
“Oh, Sumatra,” she said. “It’s just a fun game. Don’t you want to play? And win?”
“Well, I’m not sure,” Sumatra countered. “If it’s just a game, winning shouldn’t be important, right?”
“No, you don’t get it!” Kona insisted, shaking her head. “Winning is what makes playing a game fun!”
Sumatra just looked at her blankly.
Sirocco did another loop-de-loop.
And Brisa zipped ahead, singing, “La, la, la! I can’t wait to play with the baaaaaby!”
“Fine,” Kona said with a frown. “I guess soccer is just a game I won’t get to play.”
* * *
“Wheeeee!”
Andy whinnied playfully from the big horses’ paddock when he saw the Wind Dancers approaching. He hopped up on his hind legs, pawing at the air.
“Oh, Andy,” Kona said with a laugh, as she fluttered up to the colt. “You can’t fly!”
“But you’re adorable, anyway,” Brisa quickly assured the foal, stroking his silky ears with her nose. “Even without wings.”
Thelma trotted up, her nostrils flaring!
“Even without wings?!” she repeated indignantly. She turned to her little colt.
“Andy, trust me, you don’t want wings,” Thelma told him. “Galloping on the ground is much more dignified than whizzing through the air like tiny horseflies. Using your hooves is just more … horsey. You’ll understand when you’re older.”
“Well, I’m older and I still don’t understand,” said a quiet, raspy voice from behind Thelma. All the horses turned and saw Fluff, the dappled gray filly.
“I wish I could fly, too!” Fluff added with a shy smile.
Thelma rolled her eyes and neighed over to the last of the big horses, the gelding, who was on the other side of the paddock, pointedly ignoring the group.
“Benny,” she called. “Will you talk some sense into Fluff? She’s filling Andy’s head with silly Wind Dancer dreams.”
The Wind Dancers looked at each other and rolled their eyes, too.
Oh, Thelma! Kona thought with a smug grin. She doesn’t understand how amazing it is to be magic.
Then her smile dimmed as she added to herself, Just like Sirocco, Sumatra, and Brisa don’t understand how magical it can be to play soccer!
Meanwhile, Benny trotted up. He tossed his black mane proudly.
“Ah, Fluff,” he scoffed. “Why would you want to be a puny little Wind Dancer when you’re a big, beautiful horse?!”
“Maybe because we have magic halos, for one!” Sumatra suggested.
“And we’re beautiful!” Brisa added, spinning so her magic jewels sparkled in the sunshine.
“And … and … we know about a sport called soccer!” Kona burst out.
Benny snorted. “Whatever—hey, wait a minute, what was that last one?”
For the first time since the Wind Dancers had arrived, Benny looked at them with more than a little interest.
Kona felt a glimmer of hope. Benny was always looking for a way to prove that the big horses were better than the little Wind Dancers. Maybe she could get him to agree to play soccer! (And by the time he realized Kona was a champion kicker, it would be too late!)
“Soccer,” Kona explained, “is the best game ever!”
“Hmmm,” Benny said thoughtfully. He sounded intrigued.
“You see,” Kona went on excitedly, “you make a line down the center of the field. Each team starts on opposite sides of the line. But once you kick off, you can run anywhere you want! Then you use your hooves or your head to pass a ball to your teammates and try to score goals!”
As Kona continued to explain soccer to Benny, the bouncy foal began to play with a big, red Jolly Ball.
“See?” Kona said with a grin. “Andy is showing us his toy ball! He gets it! The only other things you need to get a soccer game started are two goals.”
Excitedly, Kona flew to one end of the oval paddock. There was a nearly empty water trough next to the fence.
“One goal,” she announced, pointing to the trough with her nose. On the other side of the paddock was a hay manger. She winged over to it and declared, “Two goals!”
“But Kona,” Sumatra protested, sounding hurt, “remember what we said about dividing and conquering before?”
“I do remember,” Kona replied, her eyes gleaming. “But I’ve just realized how we can play soccer and still be a team. We can play against the big horses!”
Sumatra’s mouth dropped open. Brisa’s wide, sparkly eyes got wider and even more sparkly. And Sirocco did a back-flip in the air (which Andy, clumsily, tried to imitate).
“I guess I can’t argue with that,” Sumatra admitted.
“Four against four!” Sirocco declared. “That’s perfect!”
Then he looked at Benny and Thelma and said, “That is, if you big horses are up for the challenge!”
“Oh,” Thelma began haughtily, “I don’t think so—”
But Benny cut her off with a competitive neigh.
“We are so ready,” he neighed at Sirocco. He pawed at the dirt with his hoof while Andy kicked at the Jolly Ball with a giggly whinny.
Eyeing her happy foal, Thelma rolled her eyes once more.
“Oh, well,” she blustered. “If Andy wants to play this silly game, I suppose I’ll go along with it. For now.”
“Hooray!” Kona cried. Grinning, she flew over to Brisa.
“Like you said, Brisa, moms can’t resist it when their babies want something!” she whispered.
“Especially when their babies are as cute as Annnnndy,” Brisa replied.
“Uh-huh,” Kona said absentmindedly. “The important thing is, now we get to play soccer! This is my first victory of the day!”
Brisa frowned in confusion.
“Victory?” she said. “I don’t get it. Is the point of this whole soccer thing to play or to win?”
“Do you even have to ask?” Kona whinnied. “Both!”
She began doing practice kicks in the air with all four legs.
“OKAY, EVERYONE,” she shouted, “LET’S PLAY BALL!”
