The Party for Nothing

Berry was always the first one awake at the Heart Tree.

Ever since the morning the five of them had arrived - a bunny with glowing berries, a red panda soaking wet, a dog covered in syrup, a lion covered in mud, and a kitten wearing a pumpkin - they had made their homes among its roots. And ever since that morning, the Heart Tree had glowed warm and steady: a soft hum that came up through the ground and into their paws.

Berry liked to say good morning to the tree. This morning, she put her paw on the bark and stopped.

The tree wasn't dim. Not exactly. The leaves were still green and the bark was still warm. But the leaves weren't moving, even though there was a breeze. And the hum was so faint she had to stand very still to feel it at all.

She looked toward the far corner of the Grove - past the old roots, where the moss grew thickest and the sunlight came down soft and slanted.

It was quietest there. No birds. No buzzing. No rustle in the ferns. Nothing was broken. It was just... still. Like a room after everyone has gone home.

Berry went to wake the others. This took a while, because one of them was Waffles.

They had breakfast on the big flat rock by the stream. They were all still eating except Waffles, who had scarfed his down so fast he had accidentally tossed a pancake onto his back. It was still there.

"The Heart Tree is very quiet today," Berry said.

"Quiet how?" Tango asked.

"Not sick. Just still. The meadow, too." Berry looked toward the moss. "Especially the far corner."

Mochi thought about it for a long moment. "The first time we were all here," he said slowly, "what made it light up?"

They all remembered. A kitten covered in pumpkin. A lion covered in mud. A dog covered in syrup. All five of them laughing until they couldn't breathe.

"We should throw it a party," Taffy said.

"A party for what?" Tango asked. "Is it the tree's birthday?"

"I don't think trees have birthdays," Mochi said.

"Then it's a party for nothing," Taffy said. "Just... because."

Tango grinned. "I love parties for nothing."

Waffles sat straight up. "I'll organize it! We will call it The First Annual Grand Celebration of Absolutely Nothing."

"That's a long name for a party about nothing," Mochi said.

"Then it'll be a long party!" Waffles said.

"Are you sure you're up for organizing the whole thing?" asked Taffy.

"I'm very organized," Waffles said.

"You have a pancake on your back," Mochi replied.

Waffles swung his head around, finally noticing the pancake on his back. "I'm saving it for later."

Waffles took organizing very seriously.

He found a big flat leaf to write on and a twig to write with. He found an acorn cap that made an excellent whistle. He blew it.

FWEEEEET.

Everybody jumped. Taffy fell off the root.

"Party meeting!" Waffles announced.

"We're all right here," Tango said.

"Party meeting has begun!" he said.

First, Waffles made name tags. For everyone. He stuck them on with maple syrup. BERRY. MOCHI. TANGO. TAFY.

"There are two F's in Taffy," said Taffy.

Waffles looked at the tag. He looked at Taffy. He added a very small F, squeezed in sideways.

His own tag said WAFFLES (IN CHARGE).

Then he made one more and stuck it on the trunk of the Heart Tree. It said TREE.

"So the guests know who the party is for," he explained.

"There aren't any guests," Mochi said.

"There won't be with that attitude!"

Next came the invitations. Waffles wrote four of them, very carefully, and handed them out one at a time to the four friends standing directly in front of him.

"You're invited," he told Tango.

"I'm already here," Tango said.

"Then you're early. Very good."

Mochi read his invitation twice. "It says the party is at the Heart Tree."

"Yes."

"We live at the Heart Tree."

"Then you should be early too," Waffles said, and blew his whistle to show the meeting was over.

They all started walking away and Waffles blew his whistle again.

"Party meeting!" he said.

"Didn't we just finish the meeting?" Berry replied.

"That was the invitations meeting. This is the meeting about what we're going to do!"

They all sat back down.

Waffles had a list and read it out loud, very proudly. "Step one: eat the buns."

"I haven't baked them yet," Mochi said.

"Step zero. Make the buns!" Waffles scribbled on his leaf. "Step two: dance to the music."

"We need some instruments," Tango said.

Waffles thought a moment. "Step zero. Make buns and drums! Step three: admire the decorations."

"I haven't made the decorations yet," Taffy said.

"Step zero!" he started.

"I think we get it," Taffy said.

Waffles moved on. "Step four: Have fun."

"That one's good," Berry said. "Let's get started."

Waffles held up a paw. "I'm not done. Step five: have more fun."

They all looked at him a moment, making sure the list was done. He nodded and they all started to get up.

"Wait, wait!" he said, madly scribbling a new step on his leaf. "Step six: nap."

"Why is there a nap in the middle of the party?" Tango asked.

"It's not in the middle. It's at the end!" Waffles said, which nobody could argue with.

Mochi baked, humming the whole time. Berry gave him a pawful of glowing berries, Waffles gave him a jar of maple, and Mochi folded them into little round buns and set them in the warm stones. Some came out round. Most came out lumpy. One came out shaped a bit like a duck. Mochi decided that one was his favorite.

Waffles appointed himself Quality Control.

He tasted the first bun. "Hmm," he said. "Needs more testing."

He tasted the second bun. And the third. And the fourth.

Mochi watched him, very calmly. "That's nine."

"They're very consistent," Waffles said, crumbs on his nose.

Mochi quietly hid the duck behind his back.

Tango found a hollow log and drummed on it with both paws. Then he found a second hollow log. And a third, which had a big booming sound.

Taffy made decorations. She strung lavender into long garlands, and Waffles offered to hold one end. Taffy ran around the Heart Tree with the other end. Then around again. And again. And again.

When she finally stopped, Waffles was gone.

"Waffles?" Taffy said. "Where did you go?"

A muffled voice came from the trunk of the tree. "I'm decorating."

He was wrapped from his nose to his tail in lavender, tied to the Heart Tree like a very fluffy present. Only his ears were sticking out. They wiggled.

Berry laughed so hard she had to sit down. Then she got up and unwound him - which took a while, because she kept starting to laugh again. When he was finally free, Waffles shook himself off and said, "Decorations: done." He smelled faintly of lavender for the rest of the day,  Lavender and maple.

Taffy carved faces into little pumpkins and Berry dropped glowing berries inside so they lit up like lanterns. Somewhere in the middle of all this, Taffy ended up with a pumpkin on her head again. She had no idea how that kept happening.

By the time everything was ready, every step on the list had happened in the wrong order, and two of them had happened twice.

Tango started drumming. Taffy started clapping. Mochi hummed a melody. Waffles added random barks to the song.

And then Berry danced. She had started all of this. She had noticed the quiet, and now she was going to do something about it - with her whole self.

Nobody had ever seen Berry dance. Berry had never seen Berry dance. But she hopped. Then she hopped higher. Then she did a wiggle with her ears.

Everyone stopped and stared.

Waffles looked at his list. "Is dancing on the list?" He found his twig and wrote something at the bottom. "It is now!"

Then everyone was dancing. Tango whooped and leapt. Taffy spun until she fell over, got up, and spun again. Mochi swayed slowly and gently, like bamboo in the wind, which turned out to be exactly the right kind of dancing for Mochi. And Waffles danced like a dog who had only just found out that dancing existed - which mostly meant chasing his tail. He caught the pancake that had been stuck to his back all day.

"Oh I forgot about that!" he said, and ate it.

It was loud and silly and a little bit chaotic. Nobody was doing it right, because there was no right way to do it.

The ground began to hum.

They didn't notice at first. They were too busy. But it came up through their paws, soft and warm. The leaves of the Heart Tree began to move. The lavender garlands swayed. Light gathered in the branches, gold and warm, a little brighter with every beat. The bark grew so warm that the TREE name tag slid right off and landed in the moss.

It was Mochi who stopped first.

He stopped humming. He stopped swaying. He was looking past all of them, toward the far corner of the Grove, where the moss grew thickest.

One by one, the others turned to look.

At the edge of the trees, standing in the soft slanted light, was a unicorn.

It was not running. It was not doing anything at all. It was just standing there - white as morning mist, with a light around it that wasn't coming from the sun. It was watching them. Watching the lopsided buns and the tangled garlands and the bucket drums and the five friends standing in the middle of all of it, out of breath.

It looked at them for a long moment.

And then it wasn't there anymore. It didn't gallop away. It didn't fade. It was just... gone, the way a dream is gone when you open your eyes.

Nobody moved.  Nobody spoke.

Tango's paws hovered over the drum. Taffy had both paws over her mouth. Mochi didn't even blink. Waffles' list slipped out of his paw and floated to the ground.

They just looked at each other.

"Was that..." Berry started.

No one answered. They all just nodded.

Behind them, the Heart Tree hummed, warm and bright and wide awake. And over in the far corner of the Grove, the moss had turned the softest, greenest green any of them had ever seen.

The End