A snippet from the Princess Penelope series.

Note for readers who haven’t read the first 3 stories: Poppy is a cat, Feathers is a flamingo, Primrose is a horse and Penelope is a princess.

The weather was changing, and the nights were drawing in. Summer had waved goodbye and Autumn was taking her turn at weather control.  ‘Oh dear oh dear, I’m not used to this weather’ grumbled Feathers. ‘I can only dream of the days in Peru when I used to dip my flippers in the cool lake, while the hot sunshine would warm my neck,’ Feathers sighed.  ‘Cheer up Feathers, there’s lots of fun in autumn! We could try dancing outside!’ ‘Dancing!? You must be joking. We can’t dance when it’s blustering and howling with wind!’ mumbled Feathers.‘We need to change your mind about autumn! Come on, let’s go outside and we’ll show you how exciting fall can be. It’s my favourite season’ smiled Penelope. The group got ready by putting on their raincoats and wellies. The dark clouds looked as if they could burst with rain. Feathers was not very happy with the idea, she didn’t see how they could have any dancing fun.

She shuffled and scuffled behind the others, who were chatting happily.  ‘Look, this is the perfect place for stamping and dancing.’ They called to him to hurry up. Then Feathers spotted the giant pile of colorful leaves. Her face lit up. Primrose was first to jump in and kick all of the leaves up. Under her hooves the leaves went crunch, crackle, scrunch.  As the leaves fluttered down, Feathers shook her legs one by one, then wiggled her feathered body. She even got down and rolled around in the leaves! This tropical bird was a comical bird.  Suddenly, a gust of wind came along and swooped Poppy and her umbrella up into the air for a few seconds. When the same gust of wind reached Feathers, her hat blew off! “Humph!” Feathers remembered why she didn’t like the wind. Princess was twirling as the wind blew towards her. Here comes the rain. The friends huddled under Poppy’s umbrella. Linking arms they skipped along and splashed in the puddles which were getting bigger as the rain came down! When they got home, Feathers sat in the armchair as she drank a large cup of cucumber tea. 

‘Fall is fun after all! Remind me to leave my hat at home next time!