The Sphinx's Secret Friend

Barnaby was a small golden dog with floppy ears and a very big nose for adventure. One sunny afternoon, he chased a blue butterfly through the park until he found himself in a hidden garden he had never seen before.

In the middle of the garden sat an enormous stone sphinx. She had the body of a lion and the face of a wise woman, with big stone wings folded at her sides. Most people would have been scared, but Barnaby just wagged his tail.

"Hello there!" he barked happily.

The sphinx's stone eyes blinked. "You can see me?"

"Of course I can!" Barnaby sat down and scratched his ear. "You're quite hard to miss."

The sphinx smiled, and her stony face softened. "I have been sitting here for three hundred years, and you are the first to say hello. Everyone else runs away."

"That's because they don't know you like I do," said Barnaby wisely. "I'm Barnaby. What's your name?"

"Saphira," the sphinx replied. "Would you like to see my secret?"

She led Barnaby behind her stone wings to a crystal-clear pond. In the middle swam the most beautiful goldfish, with scales that sparkled like tiny stars.

"This is Glitter," Saphira said. "She is my only friend. But she's very lonely because she can never leave the water."

Barnaby had an idea. "What if I swim with her? I'm a good swimmer!"

For the rest of the afternoon, the dog paddled in the pond while the goldfish swam circles around him, and the sphinx told wonderful stories about ancient times. When Barnaby finally went home, he promised to visit every day.

And he did. Soon other animals came too—rabbits, birds, even curious children. They discovered that Saphira wasn't scary at all. She was just lonely.

The sphinx wasn't cursed anymore, because friendship had broken the spell of solitude. And Glitter the goldfish finally had lots of friends to swim with.

Barnaby learned that sometimes the scariest things are just the loneliest ones—and all it takes is a friendly "hello" to make magic happen.