He didn’t know which window was Luna’s!  He didn’t want to bark for her because that would wake everybody up.  He didn’t want to walk inside, because that would be intruding.  ‘Well,’ he decided, ‘Nothing to do but sneak around and see what I can find.’

He managed to get up onto the shed, and from there to the roof of the porch.  He peeked in one window, struggling to see in the dim light.  After a moment’s thought he made his way back down and borrowed a lantern from the front of someone’s house.  Armed with the lantern, he made his way up to the roof again.  Looking into the window he saw only two humans in bed, fast asleep.  From having seen Luna with her owner, Toby guessed that these were the parents of Luna’s girl, Connie.  The next window revealed a young boy, also in bed asleep.  ‘That must be Connie’s brother, Eugene,’ he decided.

The third window revealed Connie, asleep like everyone else.  Lying on the girl’s bed, curled up like a cat, was a female dog.  ‘But that can’t be Luna!’ thought Toby as he stared in disbelief.  This dog looked like Luna, but her fur was neatly brushed!  Luna despised having her fur brushed, and hid her brushes whenever she got the chance.  Toby knew this first paw, having helped her bury several of them.

‘Well,’ Toby decided at last, ‘Whoever she is, she might know where Luna is.’  He scratched the window and whispered, “Hey!  Whoever you are in there, wake up!”

The dog raised her head and blinked.  Seeing Toby, she started and jumped off the bed, hurrying over to the window.  “Toby?” she asked, opening the window with her nose.

Toby shook his head in disbelief.  This dog even sounded like Luna!  “I’m looking for Luna,” he said.  “Do you know where she is?”

The girl dog laughed softly and jumped out onto the roof.  “Silly,” she said, “It’s me.”

Toby’s eyes were as wide as dining room plates.  “What happened to you?” he asked.  “You look like you’ve been dressed up for a dog show!”  Just then he remembered his dad’s advice.  Normally talking about a dog show would be taken as a complement, but with a girl like Luna, who knew?

Luna shrugged.  “Well, I felt like a change, so I let them brush me.  In fact, I practically made them brush me.”  She turned around in a circle.  “How do I look?”

Toby was relieved that Luna hadn’t been bothered by the dog show comment.  ‘I guess even tough girls like to look nice,’ he decided.  “Well, at this hour of the morning I guess I sort of expected something along the line of curlers and a mud mask,” he joked.  He laughed at the shocked expression on Luna’s face.  “Just kidding.  You look great.”

“You always say that.  But do I look great great, or just normal great?” asked Luna.

Toby started to panic.  ‘Uh-oh.  Sounds like one of those unanswerable questions Dad warned me about.’  “Uh, great great,” he said nervously.

Luna looked like she was stuck somewhere between being pleased and being annoyed.  “Well don’t get used to it,” she remarked, “Because right now I feel like a sissy.”

“So shake it out,” said Toby.  “I don’t mind.”

“No thanks,” she said, although she did give herself a quick shake once his back was turned.  ‘First rule of dating,’ she remembered someone telling her.  ‘Always keep them guessing.’

“Come on,” said Toby, returning the lantern to its place.  “We can’t be late.”

“Late for what?” asked Luna.

Toby just grinned.  “You’ll see.”

Luna was confused when Toby led her out to the hills on the east of town and stopped there, not doing or saying anything.  The stars were still out, making Luna wish she were back in bed.  “What are we doing out here?” she yawned.

“Just wait,” said Toby.

Soon the sky began to grow brighter.  The stars blinked out one by one as the light increased, and then with a surprisingly sudden burst of light, the sun rose up in front of them.  Unfortunately, the light from the sun itself and the light it reflected off the snow bounced straight into the dogs’ eyes.  “Ow!” Luna protested.

“Okay,” Toby observed, covering his eyes with a paw to shut out the harsh radiance.  “I guess that wasn’t such a bright idea.”

“Oh, real funny, Toby,” complained Luna as they turned back toward town.

“Sorry,” Toby apologized.  ‘Man, this is not going well,’ he mentally scolded himself.  “No pun intended.  I guess watching the sunrise wasn’t so great.”

“No, it was beautiful,” Luna reassured him.  “It’s just a little…”  She paused to rub her eyes.  “Bright,” she finished.

“Well,” Toby decided, “Let’s try something else.”

Luna nodded, still blinking as her eyes readjusted.  “Sounds good.  Any plans?”

Toby thought over the ideas he’d been planning.  “Yeah, I got a few.  Come on.”

As he was leading her to the next destination, they happened to pass his house.  “Toby!” called a voice from the door.  “Breakfast!”

‘Oh drat,’ Toby winced.  ‘There goes…’ but his thoughts were interrupted by Luna pushing him in the direction of the house with her paw.

“You didn’t tell me you skipped breakfast,” she said reproachfully.  “You go ahead.”

“Care to join me?”

“No, Connie’s probably wondering where I am by now.  I’ll have breakfast at home and be back here in half an hour.”

Toby nodded, then received a jolt of inspiration.  “On second thought, meet me on the south side of town.  I’ll have a surprise for you.”

Luna rolled her eyes.  “That’s something to live for.”

Meanwhile, in another part of town, Pete woke up and realized he had slept in.  ‘Aw, nuts,’ he grumbled.  ‘The princess and the pea-brain must have been up for hours.’  Sparing only a moment to eat, he hurried out the door.  ‘Time to teach those two a lesson.’

Toby arrived at the rendezvous point to find Luna waiting for him.  “So what’s next?” Luna greeted him, eager as ever to get going.

Toby reached into his collar and pulled out a piece of cloth.  “First I want you to put this over your eyes,” he instructed her.

“What?  Toby, what are you…”

“Just cover your eyes and follow me.”

“How?  I won’t know where you’re going.”

Toby grinned and extracted a short piece of rope from his collar.  “Here.  Hold the rope, and I’ll guide you.”

Luna reluctantly covered her eyes with the cloth and took the rope in her teeth.  “Okay,” she mumbled through the rope.  “I’m ready when you are.”

Toby nodded.  “Then let’s go.” And with that, he took the rope and led Luna away.

‘Darn it,’ thought Pete as he followed at a distance.  ‘If I’d known he was planning to do that blindfold thing, I could’ve done all sorts of things to mess it up.’  He growled in frustration.  ‘Well, I might as well follow and see what they’re up to.’

Luna was going crazy wondering the same thing.  She followed blindly for what felt like an eternity.  ‘Where is he taking me?’ she wondered.  At some point she noticed it was growing colder and there was less light filtering through the cloth.  “Toby, where are we?”

“Don’t worry.  We’re almost there.  You’re doing fine.”

“You realize that with any other guy, what I’m doing right now would be incredibly stupid.”  She paused.  “Come to think of it, trusting you to keep me from bumping into things isn’t very smart either.”

“Thanks,” Toby grinned.  “Well, you can stop being stupid now, because here we are.”  He whisked the blindfold off her face and watched with pleasure as she stared around in wonder.  “You like it?”

“Like it?  Toby, it’s-it’s beautiful,” Luna breathed.  Toby had led her to an icy cavern.  A narrow beam of sunlight came in through a hole in the ceiling, striking a small heap of crystals on the floor.  The crystals scattered the light into dozens of colorful beams, which bounced and glittered off the icy walls, flowing all over the cavern.  “It’s like being inside the Northern Lights.”

“I know.  Isn’t it great?  Somebody told me about this place, and I knew right away that you’d like it.  Come on.  There are other chambers.”

Toby led Luna through several chambers of the cave, each with its own formations created by the dripping ice.  In one cave, they found a flat patch of wall and pressed their paws into it until the warmth melted indentations in the wall shaped like their paws.

“Well, I guess we’d better get go-”

At that moment the cave resonated with a terrible, wailing yowl.  Like the lights in the crystal chamber, it bounced off the walls, echoing all around them.  But the noise was as awful as the light was beautiful.  “What is that?” asked Luna, putting her head down and pulling her paws over her ears.

“I don’t know,” Toby replied.  “It’s not like anything I’ve ever heard!  I just hope it doesn’t cause a cave-in!”

Meanwhile, Pete was at the entrance of the cave, howling and bellowing his lungs out.  ‘I’ll bet they’re scared right out of their skins,’ he thought gleefully.  The thought that his howling might cause a dangerous accident had never occurred to him.  In fact, he was so focused on the racket he was making and how scared