Lulu the Llama and the Whispering Hill

Chapter 1: Listening

In a breezy mountain pasture called Woolgather Hill, there lived a young llama named Lulu. Lulu had a fluffy cream coat, long curling eyelashes, and a head full of thoughts she couldn't wait to share.

"Guess what I saw today!" she would begin. "A cloud shaped like a sock! And my cousin has a new hat! And I think it might rain, or maybe not, and..."

Her friends loved her bright spirit, but they could rarely finish a sentence around her.

When Mama Llama said, "Lulu, please bring in the washing before the storm," Lulu was too busy chattering about clouds to hear. The washing got soaked.

When her teacher explained how to cross the stream safely, Lulu was whispering to her neighbor. At the stream, she stepped on a slippery stone and splashed into the water.

And when her friend Dilly the goat said, "Lulu, I need to tell you something," Lulu was already halfway through a story about her hat. Dilly sighed and wandered away.

"Why does everything go wrong?" Lulu grumbled that evening, sitting at the top of the hill. "Nobody ever tells me anything important!"

"Perhaps," said a soft voice, "they do. Perhaps it's hard to hear over so many words."

Lulu turned. Beside her sat Old Grandfather Alpaca, who spoke so quietly that most animals had to lean in to hear him.

"This is the Whispering Hill," he said. "Sit with me a moment, and say nothing."