Mila and her dog Tofi follow a missing green sock into the Forest of Whispers, where the trees murmur, strange sounds rustle in the bushes, and a tiny voice waits with a riddle.
Mila was seven, and her favourite things in the world were her bright socks. This morning, just as she was hurrying to get ready for kindergarten, she froze. One of her green socks with the little white polka dots was gone.
She peered into her wardrobe, felt under her pillow, and even checked inside one shoe. Nothing. Then Tofi, her dog, gave a sharp bark and trotted to the door, tail twitching. Something pale-green dangled from his mouth.
Mila gasped. It was a tiny thread from her missing sock.
"Tofi! Where did you find that?" she whispered.
Tofi was already moving, nosing the gate open and leading her across the garden. Mila followed him past the fence and into the big old forest at the edge of the path. The trees stood close together there, and their leaves hummed softly, as if they were sharing secrets.
Inside the Forest of Whispers, everything felt different. Patches of colour flickered on the trunks. Birds called out strange, silvery tunes. Now and then Mila heard a tiny shur-shur sound, and something small darted between the bushes before she could see it clearly.
Tofi stopped at a hollow tree and sniffed hard at the bark. Hanging from a crack in the wood was another green thread, just like the one he had found before. Mila reached out to take it.
Then, from behind the tree, a very small voice said, "If you want your sock back, you must solve my riddle."