Pip and the Wishing Dandelion

The sun was going to bed. It slid down behind the round green hills, slow and golden. All the meadow turned warm and soft. Little Pip the bunny hopped through the tall grass. Hop… hop… hop. The grass tickled his ears. It smelled of honey, and warm hay, and evening. Somewhere behind him, a bee went home.

Then Pip stopped. Right in front of his nose stood something round and white. A dandelion! Fluffy as a tiny cloud. Soft as Mama's ear. It stood very still on its thin green stem. And when the breeze came by… it glowed. Just a little. Like a small star that had sat down in the grass to rest. Pip held his breath so he would not blow it away by mistake.

Pip leaned close. His whiskers wobbled. The dandelion smelled green and sweet, like rain on leaves. Every tiny seed had its own little feather. Pip counted them. One… two… three… and then he lost count, because there were so many. He wiggled his nose. And the seeds wiggled back at him. They shivered, just a tiny bit, like something waking up.

Then a voice came from somewhere small. “Hello, little bunny,” it said. Pip looked up — and up. And there she was. A fairy, no bigger than a buttercup, sitting on a blade of grass. Her wings were thin as soap bubbles. She swung her feet. “My name is Tweela,” the little voice said. “And that is a wishing dandelion.” She smelled faintly of clover and warm rain.

Pip's ears went straight up. A wishing dandelion? Tweela nodded, and her wings made a tiny silver sound. “Blow on it — softly,” she said, “and it will give you one wish. Only one. So it must be the wish your heart truly wants.” Pip looked at the fluffy white head. His paws felt all fluttery. His whiskers trembled. His toes curled in the cool soft grass.

The meadow hummed its evening hum. Somewhere a cricket began to sing. The sky above went from gold… to pink… to a soft, sleepy blue. Pip sat down in the grass beside the dandelion. He had one wish. One whole wish, just for him. Now he only had to know what it was. A very big question, for such a small bunny.