Today Liska and Tahrra were playing at the beach. Liska was grinning so wide you could count all her teeth. All twenty-six of them — and she loved every single one!

Liska climbed a tall, tall tree. Her whiskers trembled with curiosity. Would A HUNDRED SNOW LEOPARDS fit in the sea? she wondered.

"Let's jump from tree to tree, like acrobats!" suggested Tahrra.

"Yes! I'm a flying leopard cub!" Liska announced. She flapped her paws so fast she looked like a whiskered bumblebee. Bzz-z-z.

Liska picked the sturdiest branch, took a running start and... jumped!

But the branch on the next tree was higher than she thought...

KA-BONK! The leopard cub smacked her face right into the trunk.

"Ow-ow-ow!" Liska squeaked, touching her mouth with her paw. Something felt wrong inside.

Tahrra ran over.

"Say aaaah!" she commanded.

Liska opened her mouth.

"You've got a cracked tooth. You need to see a dentist!"

The whole beach went quiet. Even the seagulls stopped. Liska's heart went THUD, THUD, THUD. A DENTIST! Scary! With POKIES and BUZZIES!

She pressed herself flat into the sand. Maybe dentists couldn't find flat Liskas?

Tahrra plopped down right next to her and pressed her shoulder against Liska's.

At home, Liska decided not to tell anyone about her tooth. She tried to chew only on one side of her mouth and spoke very quietly.

She hoped it would go away on its own. But it didn't.

By dinner, even her VERY favorite fish cake couldn't pry her mouth open. She poked it. She sniffed at it hopefully. She tried a mini-bite. Ow! Nope. She tried a teeny-tiny-micro bite. OW! Still nope.

Mama noticed Liska wasn't eating at all.

"What's wrong, kitten?" she asked.

Liska lowered her head and showed Mama the cracked tooth.

Liska exhaled, relieved. She'd been hiding her mouth all day. Now she didn't have to.

Mama tilted Liska's chin up. Papa leaned in and they both peeked inside.

"You've got a little crack in there," Mama said softly. "We need to see a dentist."

Liska's ears flattened and her tail went bottlebrush.

"But they're SCARY! They make it HURT!"

"I know. They do sound scary," Mama said gently. "But actually they fix teeth so they stop hurting."

Liska sniffled. She thought about it. Then, asked very quietly:

"Can I just hide under the bed until the new tooth grows?"

Papa laughed out loud. Mama clapped a paw over her mouth and giggled.

"When I lost my first tooth, I thought it would hurt too," said Papa. "I was so-o scared."

Liska peeked up with one eye. "What did you do?"

"My mom showed me something that helped. Let's go to the sea."

At the beach, Papa said:

"Find yourself the most beautiful pebble."

Liska dug in the sand, sniffed around, and even asked the crab for advice, until she found a rainbow heart-shaped pebble.

Papa warmed it in his paws and held it out to her.

"Here. This is now your courage stone. When you get scared, squeeze it and say our special words: Scared and slow, still I go."

In the morning, Liska remembered the dentist. She squeezed her courage stone in her paw and whispered, "Scared and slow, still I go." Her whiskers stopped trembling.

"I'm ready," Liska said. She took Mama's paw, and together they walked to the dentist.

In the waiting room there was a little lynx cub. He was hiding behind a plant, peeking out with just one ear, and crying loudly. Liska felt so sorry for him.

"Please, you go first," he asked in a shaky voice.

He needs me to be brave for him, Liska realized.

She took a deep breath, squeezed her stone even tighter, and said out loud:

"Scared and slow, still I go."

And then she promised the lynx cub:

"I'll go first and show you it's not scary!"

And it turned out — the dentist was very kind. He showed Liska his pokies and buzzies and explained what each one was for.

And fixing the tooth didn't hurt at all — it was just a little ticklish!

"You sat so still!" the dentist praised her. "And you didn't even bite the tools once!"

He gave Liska a plush snow leopard. She hugged it so tight its nose went flat.

Liska sighed with relief. Her tooth didn't hurt anymore. She did it!

When she came out, the lynx cub was still trembling quietly.

"See? I told you — it's not scary!" she said. But the little one was still afraid.

Liska squeezed her stone. She had been brave today, and she had a little helper with her.

She looked at the trembling lynx cub. He needs his own helper too, she thought.

Liska walked up to him and held out the plush leopard.

"Here, this is a courage leopard. He'll help you, just like my pebble helped me."

The lynx cub took the toy and smiled for the first time all morning.

A week later, Liska saw him at the playground. He was going down the slide and roaring like a tiny lion.

"Thank you!" he shouted, and smiled, showing off his healthy tooth.

From then on, whenever Liska got scared, she'd hold her pebble in her paw, take a deep breath and say, "Scared and slow, still I go."

Now she knew that bravery isn't about not being afraid. The bravest leopards are the ones who are scared — but still go!