Under the Rainbow (pic #8, #3, #4, #14, #2) -- original

[marycatelli]

Title: Under the Rainbow
Fandom: original
Character: original
Length: 629
Rating: G


The clouds loomed, cobalt blue. Sunlight gleamed over the fields before them. A rainbow arched down toward the trees.
Carolus shifted his weight. "We should go that way."
William glared at him. "Do you believe the stories about the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?"
"Here?" said Lilac, distantly. "Here I believe everything. It might even be a golden key, that would be more useful. Or a golden door that leads out." She started to walk.
The grass muffled down the sounds of footsteps behind her. It did not take long for her to regret leaving the path; little though it had been, it had been more even than the hillocks and dips of this way. But the rainbow did not shift.
Over hill and over dale. The rainbow did not shift, and she began to worry if the sun would last. And then the scene dissolved into a lake, with the sky overhead as ablaze with sunset as it had been with rainbow, only in more delicate shades, and the lake reflected it, with the land between dark with evening, and a dock reaching out into the lake, its wood also subtly colored with rainbow shades (she did not think it was the sunset light), and boats there of blue and gold.
The blue one bobbed on the waters as she walked out on the dock. Lilac let her breath out.
"We'll take the oars," said Carolus. "You steer us."
Lilac opened her mouth to ask how, and then shut it again. The rainbow gleamed to her right. Demurely, she sat at the stern while the men rowed, now and again telling them to go right or left. But as they drew nearer, the rainbow gleamed over them, casting a path over the water, and the men could watch it in the wake.
The shore on the other side was flat and sandy. When Carolus stepped out, the boat road up enough that he could pull it far ashore, and William and Lilac could step out on dry sand.
The rainbow still shone. Lilac walked toward it. When the sunset ended . . .
Past the next hill, a carousel stood. A horse was gaudy with blue and green ornamentation. She looked about again, and saw no rainbow.
"Which of these do you think looks like a gentle nag, suitable for a gently bred and delicate lady?" she said, wearily.
William pointed to a dapple gray, where the ornamentation carved on was of pink and yellow roses. Not too thorny, she hoped, as she mounted. William choose a blood bay set with banners, and Carolus a black set with stars. Her mouth twitched. And then the horses shuddered and loped off. Into a night where a rainbow path shimmered before them.
Lilac let out her breath, and sat as straight as she could. All she had to do was keep from falling.
Neither of the men spoke either as their horses loped through the night, under stars and a gibbous moon that set before any sign of sunrise. The rainbow light did not spread far enough to let them see whether they rode through fields or forest, or even on the ground or in the air.
The morning was gray and pallid. The horses slowed as they came through a grove of trees, and stopped before a treehouse -- large enough perhaps to hold adults, held up by three boughs, with a stairway leading up, all built of weathered wood.
The horse started to shift. Lilac scrambled to dismount, and so did the men. They found themselves standing alone in before the stairs.
Lilac drew a deep breath. And started up.
Within the treehouse were books. Shelves of them. All the colors of the rainbow.