Get to know Eos, the Goddess of Dawn, in this twenty-fourth Goddess Girls adventure! Joan Holub has authored and/or illustrated over 140 children’s books, including the Goddess Girls series, the Heroes in Training series, the New York Times bestselling picture book Mighty Dads (illustrated by James Dean), and Little Red Writing (illustrated by Melissa Sweet). She lives in North Carolina and is online at JoanHolub.com. Suzanne Williams is a former elementary school librarian and the author of over seventy books for children, including the award-winning picture books Library Lil (illustrated by Steven Kellogg) and My Dog Never Says Please (illustrated by Tedd Arnold), and several chapter book and middle grade series. She also coauthors the Goddess Girls and Thunder Girls series with the fantastic Joan Holub. Visit her at Suzanne-Williams.com. Eos the Lighthearted 1 The Dawn EOS, THE GODDESS OF THE dawn, fluttered into the sky on feathery white wings. Her bright, saffron-colored robe, its hem embroidered with lovely blue flowers, ruffled in the breeze as she moved up and up, preparing to bring forth the morning. A lighthearted inner joy filled her, as it always did at this moment. In mere seconds she would share some of that joy with the world around her. High above her, Nyx, the goddess of the night, stood in her horse-drawn chariot reeling in her magical cape. Both girls were twelve years old, but though the same age, they were pretty much opposites. Dawn and darkness. Yet they’d become good friends. Nyx’s dark cape and the plum-colored gown she wore were studded with stars that twinkled and flashed as she expertly tugged her cape down from the heavens. Her clever hands worked fast, folding the rapidly shrinking cape to make it smaller and smaller. Once it was the size of a sandwich, she would pocket it. Her nightly job completed, she would then go home to sleep in the Underworld. Eos felt her heart clench at the mere thought of that deep and gloomy place underground. And a familiar “sad-mad” feeling that had nothing to do with Nyx welled up inside her. As always, Eos quickly squashed that feeling before it could swallow her happiness. Then, aware that Nyx’s cape was nearly folded now, she brought her attention back to the task at hand. It was almost time for her to take over from her friend to bring forth the dawn! Nyx looked down, and the girls’ eyes caught. Eos grinned and wiggled her rosy fingers in a wave that caused long, squiggly lines of pink vapor to drift outward from her fingertips. “Was it a good night?” Eos called up. “Yes, thanks!” Nyx called back. “Also, I have big news! There’s finally going to be . . .” Her attention wandered from her folding, and she made a wrinkle. She paused to smooth it, then went on breathlessly, “Sorry. I’d better keep my mind on what I’m doing. I’ll toss down the notescroll I wrote you when I finish with my cape. It’ll explain.” “Pink!” Eos called back, which was her word for “cool.” “Can’t wait to read it!” What could the news be? she wondered. Since the two girls worked opposite schedules, their interactions were brief, and they never had much time to actually chat. It would be weird for the world if darkness and dawn lingered together too long. So mostly they communicated through the notescrolls they tossed each other as Nyx was leaving for bed and Eos was beginning her day. Speaking of beginning her day, she really needed to get a move on! Graceful as a dancer, Eos raised both arms over her head. With gentle flicks of her wrists she sent glistening rays of pink, purple, and orange to fan out along the horizon. While she worked, she swayed from side to side, sometimes twirling with happiness as she sent out her colors to paint the sky with the misty, drifting hues of dawn. Though she performed this same action every day, she never grew tired of it. In fact, the satisfaction she got from watching her colors spread was her greatest joy in life. (This was a feeling Nyx understood, since she did something sort of similar with the aid of her cape.) Eos loved to imagine her colorful dawn filling all beings who were awake to see it with energy and hope for the new day ahead. Not that everyone was an early riser like her, of course. But in her opinion, late risers were really missing out! Nyx had finished folding her cape, and now she slipped it into the pocket of her gown. “Time to head for home, Erebus,” she called to her swift and loyal horse. He gave a whinny and then took off, mane flying. As Erebus swooped past Eos, Nyx reached over the side of her purple-and-gold chariot and tossed the notescroll. “Have a good day!” she called to Eos. “Hope you can come!” “Hope you can come”? What was that all about? Eos wondered. Too busy with her work to catch the scroll just then, she watched it drop to the ground far beneath her. She took careful note of its approximate location, planning to retrieve it after her work was at an end. A