Chapter Five: The Address the Wind Blew Apart

The wind beyond the gate loved reading other people’s letters, though it never washed its hands first.

The moment Milo took out the envelope, the wind slipped beneath her elbow. It blew away the mist on the back—and blew the address into a string of runaway words. The first word hid among dandelions, the second caught on a treetop, and the third rode a leaf toward the stream.

“After them!” Milo flattened her ears and ran.

Mallow had always feared the wind. But when one word was about to tumble into the water, the cloud stretched into a long white scarf and caught the leaf. Then Mallow puffed into a round ball and gently bounced the treetop word down. Finally, the cloud plunged into the dandelions and recovered the first word with a face full of white seeds.

They arranged the words beside the road and discovered that one direction was missing.

The address now read: Empty Teacup Valley. Travel—

“Travel where?” Mallow asked.

Milo looked at the darkening sky. In the distance, one star had appeared early, like a pinprick lamp lit at dusk.

“We will ask someone who knows how to mend things.”