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Here are the posts for the topic 'rainbow drops' from my mailing list, Fantasybits.
by JacLyn Jones (jasujo@hotmail.com)
The girl had been looking for her little sister for hours now. She had checked most of the possible paths. _I hope she hasn’t wandered off the path because then I’ll never find her,_ Candri thought nervously.
Candri had taken her little sister with her to visit her friend, Sindra, who lived in the forest. Sindra was a wood sprite, who had taken up the peculiar habit of living in a house. She had a nice little place, crafted out of living trees. Candri always loved to visit her there. This time, when she went inside to visit her friend, her sister, Gedra, had chosen to stay outside and pick berries. When Candri and Sindra had come out of the house, laughing at a previous joke, Gedra was no where to be found. They searched high and low and finally decided that she must have wandered down one of the many forest paths.
“Have you seen any sign of her yet?” the worried sister asked the wood sprite when they met at an intersection.
“Well, it’s not much, but I did find this,” Sindra said as she pulled a piece of red cloth from her pocket.
“It’s the same material as Gedra’s dress! Where did you find it?” Candri asked excitedly, fingering the bit of cloth.
“Right over there on that thorn bush,” she answered distractedly, pointing to it behind her as she looked into the distance. “It must have snagged when she stopped to pick some of the raspberries next to it.”
Candri walked over to the bush and knelt down. There were raspberries on the ground and faint purple footprints, where Gedra must have stepped on a berry, until they faded away in a couple feet. “They lead right to this intersection. Which way could she have gone?” Candri covered her eyes from the sun which peeked through the forest roof in patches. Noticing that her friend had not spoken, she asked, “What’s wrong?”
Sindra continued to stare into the distance for a few moments more and then shook her head. “I thought I heard something, like a faint tinkle. It’s probably just my imagination, worrying about Gedra,” the sprite answered, still not totally convinced of her own words. She sighed. “So what do we do now? There are two paths, which will you take?”
Candri thought. Both paths looked the same to her. She didn’t see any further clue as to where her sister had gone. “Well, I guess, I’ll go right and you can go left,” Candri answered, getting tired and starting to feel the pain in her feet.
“Okay,” the wood sprite said. She wrapped a slender arm around her friend’s shoulders. Sindra looked into the girl’s eyes. “Don’t worry. We’ll find her. She’s probably curled up under a tree with purple stains on her hands and face, tired from walking and stuffed with berries.” She kissed her friend on the cheek and started down her given path.
_I hope so,_ Candri thought to herself as she watched her friend walk off. _I have a bad feeling, though._ She walked down the right path and, just when she was about to sit down and take a rest, she saw a break in the trees ahead. When Candri walked forward and pushed her way through the bushes, she found herself in a small clearing. It was empty and quiet. The sun shown on the flowers and they seemed to glow. The grass looked soft and inviting. The clearing looked like paradise to the weary girl. _Well, maybe Sindra’s right. Gedra could be curled up, resting under a tree. It wouldn’t hurt to sit down for a little while,_ she thought with a small smile and a sparkle in her eyes. As Candri stepped past the bushes, a glitter in the corner of her vision stopped her. Intrigued, she turned her head. A gentle breeze blew through the grass and again she saw a flash of color.
Candri searched it out and, laying in the grass, she found seven glistening raindrop prisms set in a circle with one more in the middle. They were so beautiful. They reflected all the colors around them and seemed to sparkle more than the sun would explain. She squatted down, entranced by their colors. She had never seen anything like them. Candri reached over and picked up the one in the middle. She stood up. It glittered and shined in her hand. At that moment, she heard a rustling in the bushes and Sindra’s head popped out.
“So, this is where you are. My path ended and I traced it back and decided to catch up with you,” Sindra said as she entered the clearing. “What are you looking at?”
As Candri turned around to show her friend, Sindra’s jaw dropped and her eyes opened wide. “Look. Isn’t it beautiful?” the girl asked, holding out her hand. “I found it over there. There are more in a circle in the grass.” She pointed to the others, while watching the colors dance in her palm.
“Drop it,” Sindra said decisively.
“Why? It’s so beautiful,” the girl answered.
“A circle? And this one was in the middle?” Sindra looked at her friend, concerned. “I said drop it.”
Candri looked curiously at the wood sprite, wondering what could be wrong with the entrancing crystals. “Why? What’s wrong? What are they?” she asked, worried at the seriousness of her friend’s tone.
“Listen, you have to put that back and we have to get out of here,” Sindra said, looking around the clearing, shielding her eyes from the sun. “Those are rainbow drops and . . . ” She didn’t get to finish. A net dropped out of the trees and she dove into the bushes. Candri was caught in the rope. The wood sprite watched as elves poured out of the trees and stood around the girl. They tied the end and dragged her off. Candri struggled, but the rope was too strong for it to make any difference.
Sindra watched the wood elves drag off her friend and, when they were far enough away, she stepped out of the bushes to follow them. The wood sprite stopped by the raindrop prisms and picked them up as she passed by. _What dangerous beauty,_ she thought to herself as she fingered them in the sunlight. She put them into her pocket. Sindra kept the elves in the distance, so that she wouldn’t be found. She could walk silently and conceal her tracks, so detection wasn’t a problem. _They must be bringing her back to their camp,_ she thought. A frown spread across her face. _I just hope I get there in time._ She quickened her step.
Candri looked out of her wooden cage. She was suspended from a heavy tree branch and there was no way out. She had been trying for about an hour. The girl held her bars and looked down. The elves were dancing in a circle around a large, bubbling cauldron, chanting in some unknown language.
“This would be my luck,” Candri said as she sat down, resignedly. She heard a giggle and looked up. On a tree branch, not far from her, swung Gedra in her cage. The small girl laughed at her sister and waved, holding up a glittering crystal. Candri smiled and waved back. “Of course, this would happen. Mom is going to be steamed.” She turned to watch the elves again and shook her head.
Sindra parted the bushes just enough to see through. She saw the elves dancing around the pot. Her gaze moved to the two suspended cages and noticed her friends. _So, it isn’t too late, but what do I do now?_ she thought. She looked again at the elves and sat back to make a plan.
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