3 HELP!

HELP! CHAPTER 3 Sassafras and I looked at each other, and then we launched off the couch and ran for the kitchen door. I tossed on my boots and hollered, "I'll be right back, Dad! Just going out to the barn to play!" My dad called back an OK as I opened the door and plunged into the sparkling snow. Right on my heels, Sassafras took two big steps into the snow. Then he froze. And hissed. And then

bolted back into the house, wiggling and bouncing and shaking each paw in disgust. "Oh, Sassafras!" I sighed. "Why don't you sit this one out? I'll be right back." I gave him a quick hug and dashed to the barn. I was buzzing with excitement. What kind of magical animal would be here this time? Maybe a fweep? Or another baby dragon? I ran through the barn and quickly opened the back door. Nothing. Could it have been a false alarm? Sometimes magical animals are really small. Maybe I could see it if I got closer? I bent down, but all I saw was white snow. Except that some of the snow had something on it. What were those pink dots? I reached out and poked them with my finger. "Whoa!" I yelped as I jumped backward. Umm, did that pile of snow just hiss at me? The little hill of snow bloomed right before my eyes. At the center were two tiny, fuzzy green bodies with white wings—and their little faces were looking up at me. I rubbed my eyes. Whoooooaa. They looked like

miniature six-legged green cats, with big butterfly wings as white as snow... and with tiny pink dots! "Are you... butterflies?" I whispered. The two winged creatures looked at each other and then up at me. "No. Do we look like butterflies?" one asked, and then uncurled a long tongue and cleaned one of its furry paws. "We are caterflies, obviously," added the second creature as it shook its furry body, "and we are very wet and very c-c-c-cold! Do you have someplace

warm and dry for us?" I nodded and carefully moved the tiny, furry caterflies to a desk in the barn. I brought back a little space heater and turned it on. The caterflies closed their eyes and looked as if they were smiling. They even started... purring? Then one caterfly popped up and bopped the other caterfly on the head with its paw. "Heyyyy!" growled the bopped caterfly. The first caterfly put four of its six paws on its hips. "We can't forget why we are here!" At this, both caterflies stood and faced me. "This is the barn where we come for help, yes? And you are the human that helps us?" one of them asked. I nodded. I thought they'd just needed my help getting warm. But apparently they had a bigger

problem! "My name is Zoey, and I'm happy to help you. Why don't you start by telling me what's wrong?" "It's this awful cold." The first caterfly paced back and forth on the desk. "We laid our eggs on our host plants like we do every spring. We busied ourselves tending to the plants and getting ready for our eggs to hatch. And then instead of getting warmer like it always does, it got colder! And this horrid snow started falling!" The second caterfly jumped in. "Our eggs aren't

supposed to be in snow. We panicked. Our host plants grow by the entrance to a small cave not far from here. We decided to move the eggs into the cave to keep them warm." A small cave not far from here? Ohhhh. I was pretty sure I knew what cave they were talking about. I looked more closely at the colors of their bodies and the patterns on their wings and realized something. "Is your host plant catnip?" I asked. "But of course," replied the second caterfly. The caterflies looked like the catnip plants and flowers so they could easily hide from predators! What great camouflage. They really did look like the catnip that grew by that cave. Every time we walked past there, Sassafras became a purring, drooling mess from all the wild catnip. We hadn't been since summer because it can get a bit muddy, and mud is slippery! I'd often wished the cave was big enough for me to go inside, but it was small... about the size of Sassafras. I worried that if I poked my arm inside, I'd scare something that might bite me!