“Are you ready, Camira?” Tallulah asked, swishing her shimmery blue dress in anticipation. Camira laced up her silky pink petal slippers. She was ready. Giving herself a little pep talk, she slowly started to make her way to the edge of the cliff.

“Hold my hand?” she smiled at her big sister.

“Of course,” Tallulah responded, squeezing their hands together. Then, without another second of hesitation, they leaped gracefully off the hot black surface and into the breezy summer air.

Just before hitting the ground, Tallulah and Camira spread their dazzling colored wings in sync, as if they had practiced this stunning feat many times. Their dive turned upwards into a spiraling launch, and they landed lightly on the rough branch of a cherry tree.

They ate the sweet fruit and laughed happily. Their lives were happy and easy, and their laughs sounded like tinkling bells.

“Stupid garden sprites,” Garrick muttered from down below, flicking his frizzed out tail at passing flies. “Always eating my food and messing with the master. If only I could snatch ‘em right out of the air.” He proceeded to prance around the base of the tree, swatting clumsily at butterflies and sprites.

On a branch opposite the sisters, Kalidas and Kipp guffawed at the plump feline.

“Look at him trying to dance,” Kipp exclaimed, bouncing excitedly between the leafy greens and blossoming fruits.

“Cut him some slack, at least he’s artful,” Kalidas noted, strumming on his makeshift acoustic guitar of reeds and a taut fishing line. Kalidas and Kipp were creatures who looked like tiny people, but had the spirit of eternal youth and the wisdom that can only come from a thousand years of healthy living. For every full moon they became the ultimate keepers of the white fenced garden. Kalidas, also, was head musician and in charge of keeping the crickets in line. (But his title of maestro was many times overlooked due to his rambunctious behavior.)

Wiser than the wise was the large brown eyed one, the keeper of the stars. He was always questioning them, always seeking the one who would meet their destiny and who would fulfill another promise and who must wait their turn. He turned his head at a crooked angle to match his strange grin, and chortled at the squirrels, who chattered incessantly, waiting to snatch the luscious tomatoes from the sacred white fenced garden.

They turned their noses up at nuts and acorns; the true way to these furry rodents’ hearts was through the succulence of homegrown produce. They tried to wait patiently for the right opportunity to snag a snack, but alas, patience is not in a squirrel’s nature. They ran rampant, whirling and jumping and spinning about each other, in and out and around the erect fence posts and vigilant vegetable stalks, forever standing tall over their home.

In the midst of the hustle and bustle a bright orb appeared in the sky, followed by a crystal clear pattern of far off diamonds. This was the garden world’s symbol for not silence, but celebration.

A more rhythmic buzz of movement commenced under the sparkling night sky that night than ever before. Kalidas quickly gathered together the chirpers, buzzers, and swishers for the night’s performance. He raised his stout cherry stem, and the music began.

Camira followed the suit of her sister and the other graceful flyers and draped decorations all over the grass; water, in its tiniest beaded form, made the perfect sparkling backdrop under a wide eyed moon. As they flew in tandem, crisscrossing the dew along every patch of their beautiful Earth, Garrick grew impatient. He leaped at the sprites and fairies, creating splotches of fallen grass and squashed cherries.

In one final attempt to smite his pesky enemies, Garrick took a running start off the back porch, colliding into not one but three of Kalidas’ melodious creepy-crawlies. The girls were set into equally harmonious peals of laughter as Kalidas and Kipp tried to wrestle the angry cat away from the sprawling crickets.

Before chaos could call on the heated summer storms, the great wise owl appeared like a phantom in the shadows. One low hoot was enough to silence the rambunctious crowd. It sent Garrick slinking away and Camira and Tallulah dashing off behind a bush, scared to make a move.

Out of nowhere a deep, booming laugh came from the belly of the great wise owl. He laughed like no creature had ever heard before, and continued to chuckle until the whole garden was dancing and singing again, celebrating the joys of a fresh night coming to a close once more.

The crickets and other musically clad insects finally quieted down for the evening. The dew was set, and the garden had remained faithfully protected throughout the night. Even the squirrels had let Mother Nature make her magic on the ripening produce.

Gradually, the sky became pale pink. Camira and Tallulah, holding hands, fluttered back inside their cozy hole in the tree. Lured by their trailing glitter, Garrick pounced on the tree, only to fall on his back and have Kipp and Kalidas laugh themselves onto the ground at him for the second time. Yowling unhappily, he retreated inside through the flap in the door.

The wise owl hooted once more, softly, and nestled his head, brimming with intelligence, into his downy white and brown speckled feathers. The squirrels would not stop chattering, and a certain musician was wise enough to chase them back into their holes, lest they make a disturbance on the hour of Truth.

As the pink exploded into bright orange and then faded into baby blue, and night at last became dawn, a small girl awoke in her bedroom. She threw open her window, smelling the sweet, summer morning air. Garrick jumped up on her bed and purred while she laughed, because she knew that somehow, the source of tinkling laughter and resonant magic from her dreams… was just outside her bedroom window.