by Orla Kelly
Owlys team followed along the path of the stream which flowed along the edge of the forest. The water in the stream was brown in color and quite dirty with lots of dead leaves floating on top.
Suddenly Suzie squirrel saw something green shining next to a rock. Looking closer, it was shaped like a very smooth stone, but you could see right through it, and when you held it up to the sun, it glowed.
“Yes, I think this is something the Spirit of the Forest would be interested in” said Owly. “Hold on to it for a while.”
On they went, and as they passed by a fallen tree, they found a cluster of yellow flowers. “I don’t remember seeing these before,” said Betty butterfly. “Me neither” said Suzie, “Will we take all the flowers or one?” “Just one I think,” said Owly, so Betty butterfly held this one. The other teams found a red rose petal, the wing of a multi colored butterfly and a silver feather.
Each team knew they were getting closer to finding the colorful things, because each of them saw some strange things, like a rock floating in the stream when all the other rocks had sunk to the bottom of the stream and this is where they got the green stone.
Then they saw a spider jumping on its spider web like it was on a trampoline just near the broken tree with the yellow flowers. The silver feather was found just floating in the air and seemed to follow them where ever they went.
The rose petal was found on a blackberry tree and the butterfly wing was found attached to a piece of long grass so it stood above all the other pieces of grass looking like a multi colored flag.
“Okay, so we have a green stone, a yellow flower, a silver feather, a multicolored butterfly wing and a red rose petal” said Owly. “I think that is enough colorful things. Let’s bring them back to where Lizzy is and put them all together.”
When all the teams dropped what they had collected near the tree where Lizzy was, and Owly put everything together, something strange happened. All the things began to glow and the colors came together to make up a beautiful rainbow of colors starting right there and ending beyond the forest.
“We need to see what is at the end of the rainbow,” said Owly. “Maybe that is where the Spirit of the Forest lives and this is our signal?”
“Let’s split up into teams, one team with me, one guard Victor, one to watch in case the Spirit of the Forest comes here to look for the colorful things and one to take care of Lizzy and her family and make sure they get home safely” said Owly.
Owly set off with four others: a fox, a butterfly, a deer and a rabbit. Because they worked as a team, they could only go as fast as the slowest creature, but no one complained, and it was nice to do things together. All the animals had forgotten what it was like to work as a team and to talk to each other.
Even though they all had a very important job to do, the other teams who had to stay behind were still happy to do what they could, to help the medicine tree, and find the Spirit of the Forest who would know what to do.
Like the medicine tree, the Spirit of the Forest was around for a very long time and was much older than any of the other forest creatures who were at most only a few years old.
They felt certain that the Spirit of the Forest and the medicine tree knew each other, but then why had the Spirit of the Forest disappeared and why had the medicine tree gotten ill. Maybe they had a fight and were no longer friends.
Each of the creatures began to wonder what happened all those years ago, and now wondered if they could really make a difference and make everything right again.
As they got closer to the end of the rainbow, it was harder to see where they were going. The colors of the rainbow were so bright and each one glowing and sparkling. The colors almost seemed to be dancing up and down the rainbow.
The rainbow was so bright that the whole countryside around was lit up in all the colors of the rainbow. Even the grass was no longer green. It was all different colors and so were the stream, hills, rocks and trees.
The colors seemed to change all the time. One second yellow, then red, then violet, until all the colors of the rainbow had lit up the whole area, and then it would start again.
It was amazing, and even the forest creatures became bathed in the colors of the rainbow. The butterfly was used to being multi colored but the fox, rabbit, and deer and Owly were not, and took great delight in changing into different colors.
The Spirit of the Forest heard them laughing and in a gentle voice so sweet and soft said “Welcome dear creatures. I am the Spirit of the Forest. I really enjoyed watching you work together, stay together, talk together and play together.”
“You all had forgotten what fun you can have when you care about each other. Your great, great grandparents used to have such fun also but then something happened. The fun stopped, then the caring stopped and nobody cared for each other or the forest anymore.”
Each creature looked around, but couldn’t see the spirit anywhere. Finally Owly spoke up in a low voice. “Where are you Spirit of the Forest? We can’t see you anywhere, yet we can hear you and feel you are with us?”
“Yes little one I am here, I am there, and I am everywhere. I am a spirit. I get carried in the sunshine, in the drops of rain, in the wind and in the water in the streams” said the Spirit of the Forest.
“Where are you now?” asked Owly. “Why I am in the rainbow-didn’t you guess? Anywhere there is life and color, you will find me” said the Spirit of the Forest.
“Spirit we need your help, not for ourselves, but for the Medicine Tree who helped Lizzy lizard and who helped me when I was injured by Victor Vulture also” said Owly.
“Ah yes, the dear Medicine Tree, we are very old friends,” said the Spirit of the Forest.
“Then your friend is really ill. I think he may be even dying. I found him when I went searching for help. I didn’t even know if he was real and he was. He helped me even though he didn’t know me or Lizzy, and he gave me some of his medicine, even though I think he needed to keep it for himself” said Owly.
“Ah, my dear little owl, the medicine tree cannot keep the medicine for himself. His medicine will only work on others, so you need to make medicine now for him if you want to help him.”
“Can you please help as we don’t know what to do?” said Betty butterfly.
“Yes, my dear friends I will help. Remember all the colorful things you collected that made this rainbow?” “Yes” they said. “Well go back there and wait for me. I will take those things and cast a special spell on them to make them into medicine for the medicine tree. I will gather up a few more things here to make the medicine more powerful, so wait for me when you get there” said the Spirit of the Forest.
“I’m sure you will get there before us Spirit as we are tired and Robbie rabbits paw is sore, so we can only travel slowly” said Owly.
“Why then you must take a short cut. Climb up the rainbow and when you reach the top you can slide down the other side super-fast.” “Wow a rainbow slide. Yippee” thought Owly.
“Hurry dear friends and I will see you soon.”
“Boy this was turning into some adventure” thought Owly.
Off they went. As they climbed to the top of the rainbow, Robbie forgot about his sore paw, Doris deer forgot she was afraid of heights and Owly forgot he was an owl!
The view from the top of the rainbow was amazing. The rainbow cast its magical colors across the whole countryside and everything seemed magical.
They felt like they could stay there forever, but they had an important job to do. They had to make the medicine and then bring it to the medicine tree.
The slide down the rainbow was thrilling. All the colors of the rainbow were zooming passed them as they slid from side the side down the rainbow. It only took a few minutes to get to the other side and each of them landed on a soft bed of leaves sending them scattering up in the air.
At this stage Lizzy and family had come out of the hiding place and Lizzy was running around playing with her new friends. Victor was going nowhere in the un
derground trap, and especially now that he had a broken leg. They would deal with Victor later.
Owly told them all about the Spirit of the Forest and their journey down the rainbow. All the creatures were so excited to see what would happen next.
The Spirit of the Forest Casts a Spell
