Toby woke up bright and early the following morning, had a quick drink from his water bowl, and headed out the door. The sun's first light was creeping over the horizon, and the cool morning air filled his nostrils with a crisp, clean smell. I should do this more often, he thought, taking a deep breath.

He ran all the way to Luna's house, breathless with excitement. Skidding to a stop outside, he realized that he had a problem: 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 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 being pampered, 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's at. 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 dinner plates. "What happened to you?" he asked. "You look like you've been dressed up for a dog show!" Just then he remembered his father's advice. Normally, telling someone that they looked like they were going to be presented in a dog show would be taken as a complement, but with a girl like Luna, one could never tell.

Luna shrugged. "Well, I felt like a change, so I let them brush me. Actually, I 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 great?" asked Luna.

Toby started to panic. This was one of the questions that his father had warned him about. "Uh, great-great," he said nervously.

Luna looked like she was stuck somewhere between pleased and 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. "Meet me by the front door and I'll show you."

Luna nodded and headed for the hallway. Toby jumped down to the front porch and waited patiently until she poked her head out a moment later. She looked around curiously. "So what is it you want to show me?" she asked.

"It's not here yet," Toby replied calmly. "But it will be soon."

Luna was confused when Toby led her out to the hills on the east side of town and stopped there, not doing or saying anything. The stars were still out, and Luna wished she was 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 that 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."

ACare 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've got another 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'd slept in. Aw crap, he grumbled. The princess and the pea brain must have been up for hours. Sparing only a moment to grab a few quick bites of food, 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 can I follow you when 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 any number of things to mess it up. He growled in frustration. I might as well follow and see what they're up to.

Luna was wondering what Toby had in mind. She'd been following him blindly for several minutes and was starting to get irritated. 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. "Where are we going, Toby?"

"Almost there," Toby replied mysteriously.

"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, we're here now, so you can stop being stupid." 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 beautiful," Luna breathed. Toby had led her to an icy cavern. A narrow beam of sunlight came in through a hole in the ceiling and struck 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 came to check it out, and 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. In another, there were flat sheets of ice that were so perfectly smooth that they reflected their images, but were skewed at strange angles that made their reflections bend and curve wildly. In one of the side chambers was a little pool with icicles above it. Tiny beads of water fell off of them and dropped into the pool, the drips echoing hollowly around the chamber, and they had some fun trying to catch the drips on their tongues.

"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!"

At the entrance of the cave, Pete was 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 Toby and Luna probably were…that he never noticed a different sound from above him.

Deep in the recesses of the cave, Toby and Luna heard a deep rumbling sound, accompanied by an abrupt end to the howling. "What was that?" asked Luna.

Toby shrugged, rising from the floor. He hadn't realized until then that he and Luna were huddled up right against each other. Luna realized it at the same moment he did, and both of them blushed, awkwardly inching away from each other. "I don't know," Toby stammered. "But it sounds like it's gone now. Come on, let's get out of here."

Luna nodded, and the two of them hurried to the exit. AYou know," she remarked when they got there, "I don't remember the snow being that high outside before."

She was right. Outside the cave there was a pile of snow. It didn't block the exit, but it was easily as tall as Toby. "Whatever was making that noise must have caused a small avalanche," Toby deduced.

"You think it's still around?" asked Luna. She seemed to be somewhere between worrying that whoever or whatever it was might come back and hoping it would so she could teach it a lesson.

Toby climbed to the top of the pile and sat, staring in all directions. "Don't see anything," he reported.

Luna came up and joined him, looking in every direction before satisfying herself that the coast was clear. "It's strange," she remarked. "For some reason I feel like there's someone close by."

You don't know the half of it, Pete thought with frustration from inside the pile. He was paralyzed by the weight of the snow, but otherwise unhurt. Although most of his body was deep in the pile, his head was just close enough to the surface that he could hear most of what they were saying…and he could feel that either Toby or Luna was sitting directly on top of his head.