Winter Wonderland #5 Read Free Page B

complained moodily. “I bet you wanted tostay there with Comet, so you had him all to yourself. He’s mine, too, you know!”
    “Actually, I was cleaning up the mess
you
made!” Preeti exclaimed. She bit back an even ruder reply as she silently counted to ten. “Never mind. Let’s build this snowman,” she said more calmly, bending down to scoop up some snow.
    Thump!
A snowball hit her on the arm.
    “What a shot!” Viren crowed.
    “Hey!” Grinning, Preeti threw one back at him.

    Suddenly, they were pelting each other with snowballs. In all the fun of the fight, Preeti forgot for a while to be mad at her brother. Her breath was steaming out in the cold air, and her cheeks began to glow.
    “Truce!” she gasped finally as another snowball hit her on the head, and powdery snow dribbled inside her coat collar. “We’d better stop now or we’ll never finish this snowman!”
    “Okay,” Viren agreed. “But I won!” His cheeks were flushed, too, and his dark eyes shone mischievously.
    “If you say so,” Preeti said.
    “I do!” he shot back, having the last word.
    They made a big pile of snow and patted it into shape. Soon they had the snowman’s body. Preeti showed her littlebrother how to roll a snowball around so that it gathered snow, and it soon grew to the right shape and size for a head.
    “Should we give him a face?” she asked.
    “Not yet,” Viren said, his eyes sparkling. “We have to make some legs.”
    “Legs?” Preeti raised her eyebrows; then she remembered his earlier plan to make a snow dinosaur.
    They made four stumpy legs and put them on so they stuck straight out from the snowman’s body. They looked a little weird, but Viren nodded in satisfaction. He began forming two small triangular ears on the top of the head and shaping the face into a longish muzzle.
    “That’s the funniest-looking dinosaur I’ve ever seen!” Preeti said, starting to laugh.

    Viren frowned. “It’s not a dinosaur. Can’t you tell what it is?”
    “Give me a clue!” Preeti said, putting her head to one side.
    “Just a minute.” Viren went and scrabbled in the snow beneath a small tree and then returned with a handful of twigs. He jabbed a clump of them between the lumpy ears and placed therest of them in a line that marched down the back of the neck.
    “Now can you tell what it is?” he asked.
    “A snow alien?” Preeti spluttered.
    Viren scowled with annoyance. He put his hands on his hips. “No, you dummy. It’s a snow pony!
Obviously
!”
    “
Obviously
—not!” Preeti replied—it looked like a very odd pony to her.
    “I’ve made a friend for Comet. I’m going to tell him,” Viren said, heading back toward the barn.
    “I’ll come with you,” Preeti said, breathing on her gloves to warm her cold fingers. “Then I think we should go and get some hot chocolate. I’m freezing.”
    “Okay. Maybe Comet’s cold, too. We could bring him some hot chocolate.”
    “Ponies only drink water,” she told him,not really concentrating. “And he’ll be fine in the barn. He said that he likes it there, because it’s cozy and warm.”
    “How did Comet tell you that?” Viren scoffed. “Ponies can’t talk!”
    “Um . . . no, of course they can’t. I was . . . er, just thinking that’s what he’d say if he
could
talk,” Preeti said hastily, realizing that she was going to have be more careful about keeping Comet’s secret.
    “It’s so cool having a pony to look after,” Viren declared excitedly. “I’m going to spend every moment I can out here with Comet. I might bring my sleeping bag out so I can sit and read to him. And I could . . .”
    Preeti’s heart sank as Viren chattered on. The way her little brother was taking over completely was really annoying andpresented her with a big problem.
    “I can’t see how I’m going to slip away by myself so we can search for Destiny,” she whispered to Comet. “He’s even talking about camping out in the barn!”
    Comet’s