Autumn Elf had guided every acorn to soil this season but one, and now that last acorn was gone. The first snow would fall soon. Autumn Elf, an orange maple leaf, could feel the cold pressing down from the sky. Each acorn needed guiding to soft ground before the frost sealed the forest floor. Miss even one, and it would freeze on top, useless. Autumn Elf drifted low over the ground, searching between roots and rocks, and found nothing but empty bark. The leaves lay everywhere in bright piles. Autumn Elf swept through them, flipping crisp reds and yellows aside. No acorn hid beneath. The wind had scattered the fallen leaves into a thick blanket, and the acorn could be under any of them. Autumn Elf pushed and lifted until every muscle in every vein ached. Still nothing. "You're looking in the wrong place," a small voice said. Autumn Elf spun. Stella stood at the edge of the leaf pile, her blue blazer buttoned against the chill, her tartan skirt dusted with pollen. She was Autumn Elf's younger sister, and she had a habit of appearing when Autumn Elf least wanted help and most needed it. "I've searched the whole floor," Autumn Elf said. "It isn't here." Stella crossed her arms. "Then it walked off." She pointed at the dirt. Small tracks pressed into the soft ground, curling away from the pile. Tiny feet. Two of them. Autumn Elf followed the tracks. They led behind a stone, and there sat the last acorn. But it was not just an acorn anymore. It had grown a little face, two green eyes, and a pair of thin legs. It waved at Autumn Elf and giggled. "You can't run off," Autumn Elf said. "You have to go into the soil before the snow." The acorn creature shook its capped head. It did not want soil. It wanted to walk. Stella knelt down. "He likes it up here. Can you blame him?" She smiled, but her breath fogged in the cold. "You can't force him under." Autumn Elf hovered close to the little creature. It stared back, cheeks pink, feet kicking. Autumn Elf had guided seeds all season, but never one that argued. There was no burying a thing that could climb out. There was no carrying it, either. It would just crawl free. So Autumn Elf made a choice. "Fine. You won't be buried. But you will be planted where you'll grow, and you'll choose the spot yourself." The acorn creature clapped its twiggy hands and scrambled onto Stella's shoe. The last acorn was found. But now it walked, laughed, and refused the ground. The frost was coming, and Autumn Elf had to teach a living, running seed to plant itself before the snow buried the whole forest.