The Rainbow Opal

by Paula Harrison

  “Here’s your cup of tea, my dear,” said the king. “I’m sure the princesses will be back in a moment.” There was the sound of a teaspoon clinking against a teacup.

  Summer lifted her head to look over the windowsill. The king and queen were sitting on the sofa and Bill was setting up the camera stand. None of them were looking towards the window.

  “That poor little koala!” sighed the queen. “Do you think we should tell Summer what the vet said before she left?”

  Summer froze. What was her mum talking about?

  “I can see that the little creature’s in a bad way, Your Majesty,” said Bill Fleck. “But surely he’ll get better?”

  “I’m afraid he might get worse,” replied the queen. “The vet said he’s terribly ill. If he hasn’t improved by the end of today, he’ll probably get weaker and weaker. I just hope he pulls through.”

  Summer’s heart filled with sadness. She couldn’t let Custard get worse. He had to start getting better – he just had to!

  She looked at Rosalind, who nodded. Slowly they crawled away from the window, keeping their heads low. They scrambled up as soon as they were out of sight and ran to the corner where Lottie and Maya were waiting. Black clouds gathered overhead and rain began to fall.

  Summer stroked Custard’s fur, and he looked at her sadly and whimpered.

  “What’s wrong?” Maya asked her. “You look really serious.”

  “The vet didn’t tell us how ill he really is,” said Summer, and she told the others what she’d overheard. “So we have to use the rainbow opal right now,” she added. “We have to help him before he gets any worse.”

  “We’re Rescue Princesses,” said Lottie firmly. “We’ll help him no matter how hard it is.”

  A flash of lightning lit the sky as the princesses crossed the palace garden. Then the thunder growled and the rain grew heavier. It pattered down on their heads, making their tiaras slippery on their wet hair.

  Once they’d gone through the gate, Lottie beckoned them to join her underneath a tree. “Let’s stop under here for a minute,” she called over the drumming noise of the rain. “When the rain gets lighter we can set off again.”

  The rain shower grew heavier until every dip in the ground became a puddle. At last it slowed down and the girls made their way towards the river. Kanga flew from tree to tree in front of them, the rainwater sparkling on his bright feathers.

  “How will the magic inside the opal work?” asked Maya, trying not to slip on the muddy ground. Custard clung tight to her shoulder.

  “I don’t really know,” said Summer. “What do you think, Rosalind? You’re good at getting magical jewels to work, aren’t you?”

  “Sometimes.” Rosalind frowned. “But I’ve never done anything with an opal before.”

  The thunder rumbled over their heads again.

  Maya looked at the sky. “I hope there won’t be another big downpour.”

  The sun began to set and the woods grew darker. The princesses scrambled down the slope until they reached Rainbow Creek at the bottom of the valley. The river was flowing fast, full of extra water from the rainstorm. Summer unhooked her necklace and made her way gingerly down the bank. She skidded on the wet earth and grabbed hold of a bush to steady herself.

  The frills on her dress got caught on a bramble. She pulled at the frilly stuff, not caring when it made a loud ripping sound. The rest of her dress was splattered with mud, which had left a splotchy brown pattern across the green and orange stripes.

  “Go on, Summer! Just dip the jewel in the water like the wise man said in the story,” said Lottie. “I bet something will happen straightaway.”

  Summer held out the necklace and leaned over the water. She caught her breath. Would the magic begin at once? Did she need to dip the rainbow opal in the river for very long? She wasn’t really sure. She would just have to try it and see what happened.

  The opal glowed as it dangled above the surging river. The last rays of the setting sun broke through the grey clouds, making the rainbow colours shine inside the jewel. Then the clouds blocked out the sun again and the wind grew stronger. The trees branches trembled overhead.

  The wind gave a sudden gust and Kanga, who was perching nearby, squawked in alarm. Summer was knocked sideways by the wind. She stumbled, dropping the necklace into the water.

  “Oh no!” she cried. “Come back!” She crouched on the riverbank and thrust her arm into the swirling water. But her hand came out empty.

  Lottie and Rosalind ran to her side. “Careful! Don’t fall in,” said Rosalind. “Rivers can be dangerous, especially after a storm.”

  “But I dropped the jewel!” said Summer, tears coming to her eyes. “The wind pushed me over and now the rainbow opal is gone!”

  “It’s really bad luck,” said Lottie. “I can’t see the jewel at all. I thought something would change when it went under the water.”

  The three girls stared at the place where the necklace had sunk but nothing happened.

  Maya called to them from the top of the bank. “Custard seems cold and he’s shivering more than ever.” She hugged the little koala. “I wish we hadn’t brought him outside. I think we should go back.”

  Summer climbed miserably back up the riverbank. She hoped the rainbow opal wasn’t their only chance of helping Custard. The jewel had probably sunk to the bottom of the river and it was all her fault.

  Another rain shower started as the princesses walked back to the palace. Rain trickled off their dresses and their shoes squelched with water. Custard sneezed and clung tightly to Maya.

  The queen met them at the front door and her eyes widened in horror. “Oh my goodness, look at the state of you! Come inside quickly.”

  The girls ran in and dripped water on to the palace floor.

  “Summer, what on earth have you been doing?” cried the queen. “Just look at your new dress! I expected you to be more careful – you know very well I wanted you to wear that outfit for the photo.”

  Summer’s dress was a patchwork of mud stains. A large rip ran across the material and one of the frills was hanging on by a thread.

  “I’m sorry, Mum. It got caught on a bramble,” said Summer, too worried about Custard to feel glad about the ruined dress.

  The queen shook her head and muttered something about stain treatments being no use. Then she sent one of the maids to fetch towels and told the king to get a fire going in the drawing room.

  Kanga gave a low squawk and hopped along the stair rail. Then he shook rainwater off his wings. Custard gave a little whimper.

  “The poor little animal,” said the queen. “Give him to me and I’ll dry him.” She took Custard and wrapped him up in a towel. Then she sent the princesses upstairs to get dry and change into warm pyjamas. “And don’t forget to dry your hair!” she called after them.

  By the time the girls came back down, a fire was burning brightly in the fireplace and Custard had gone to sleep inside his towel.

  The princesses sat down on the sofa in their fluffy pyjamas and ate delicious tomato soup with warm buttered rolls.

  The queen fussed over them. “Eat up now! You need some good hot food after getting soaked like that. I know you wanted to find the koala’s mother but going out in the rain was just silly!”

  Summer didn’t want to mention the rainbow opal and she cast a warning look at the others so that they didn’t say anything. “I’m sorry!” she told her mum. “The soup tastes great. Can we have some more?”

  After dinner, Lottie made a fresh bottle of milk for Custard and put some drops of medicine into it. Summer gently pressed the bottle to the baby koala’s mouth. He only drank a little and gazed at her with big, dark eyes.

  “Please get better,” she whispered, stroking the pale fur on his tummy

  Custard gave a tiny squeak. Summer was worried about how quiet and still he’d become. She took him to her room that night and he settled down on her pillow. She watched him for a while before going to sleep, w
ondering what she was going to do.

  Summer woke up in the middle of the night. Her bed was shaking slightly. Sleepily, she switched on the light and found that Rosalind was sitting on the end of the bed.

  “Hello.” Rosalind had a serious look in her blue eyes. “I need to talk to you.”

  “Huh? What time is it?” Summer sat up in bed. Custard woke up too and shivered.

  “It’s nearly midnight.” Rosalind walked over to Summer’s window and pulled the curtains open. “And it’s stopped raining.”

  A bright crescent moon shone in the cloudless night sky.

  “But it’s still dark.” Summer rubbed her eyes. “Why are we talking about the rain in the middle of the night?”

  “I couldn’t get to sleep,” said Rosalind. “And then I started thinking … what if the opal’s magic is the kind of thing that takes time? What if we came away from the river before it even started? What if it’s down there under the water working right now?”

  “I hadn’t thought of that.” Summer felt a fluttering in her stomach. “Rosalind! You’re a genius!”

  “Well, we don’t know if I’m right yet or even if we’ll be able to find the opal,” said Rosalind sensibly. “But I think we should go down there and look.”

  The bedroom door creaked open, letting in a rectangle of light from the passageway. “You guys do know you’re talking really loudly, right?” said Lottie.

  Rosalind explained her plan to Lottie and then they had to wake up Maya and explain it all over again.

  “So we should definitely try to find the rainbow opal right now,” Lottie finished. “In fact, there’s only one problem.”

  “What’s that?” asked Rosalind.

  “If we find the rainbow opal, how do we get it out of the water?” said Lottie. “The river’s too fast and too deep for any of us to go in.”

  “Have you got a fishing net, Summer?” said Maya. “A small one that’s like a stick with a net on the end.”

  “No, I don’t.” Summer picked up Custard and hugged him. “I wish there was a way to reach it …” An idea popped into her head. “Wait a second! The frills on that awful dress are just like a net. That’s why the dress is so itchy!”

  Maya ran to Summer’s bedroom and brought back the dress. “You’re right; these frilly bits are the same material as a net. We just need to cut them off and sew them together. Are you sure your mum won’t mind?”

  Summer shrugged. “I hate the dress and it’s ruined already. At least this way we can do something useful with it.”

  So Maya and Lottie got to work, quickly cutting the scratchy frills off the dress and sewing them together. Finally, after a lot of thought, Rosalind stuck four rulers together with sticky tape to make the stick part of the fishing net.

  “It looks a bit strange,” said Rosalind, picking up the net and turning it round.

  “I’m sure it’ll work,” Lottie told her.

  “One of us must stay here with Custard,” said Maya. “He shouldn’t go out into the cold night air. I’ll stay if you like.”

  “Thanks, Maya,” said Summer gratefully.

  Maya sat down on the bed next to Custard, who was leaning against the pillow with his eyes shut. He didn’t open them when Maya picked him up. She stroked his fur, her forehead creasing. “His breathing is very slow,” she said anxiously.

  The other princesses watched, waiting to see whether Custard would wake up. But he didn’t.

  Maya looked at his still face and swallowed. “You’d better go and find that rainbow opal. And hurry!”

  Summer, Lottie and Rosalind crept downstairs, found their shoes and slipped out of the front door. Then Lottie switched on the torch that she’d brought and lit their way across the palace lawn. Their pyjama legs brushed against the wet grass. Rosalind carried the home-made fishing net.

  Summer stopped at the gate and looked back at the palace. There was a faint light at her bedroom window. Maya would be inside, looking after Custard. Her throat tightened. She’d never seen an animal look so ill.

  Lottie opened the gate. “We got out without anyone hearing us. Now we just have to find that opal!”

  “Let’s just hope we can reach the jewel with the fishing net,” said Rosalind.

  The forest felt different in the dark. Fluttering sounds came from overhead, and Summer couldn’t tell if it was a night bird or just the wind in the trees. There was a scuffling on the ground and a pair of little yellow eyes blinked at them for a moment, then they were gone.

  “Shall I go first?” said Summer. “I know the way to the river really well.”

  “OK, lead the way.” Lottie handed her the torch and they went through the trees one behind the other.

  They heard the roaring of the river before they could see it. Summer knew from the noise that the creek was still swollen with rain from the storm.

  Slithering down the bank, she searched for the place where she’d stood that afternoon – the place where she’d dropped the necklace.

  Then she saw footprints in the mud. Yes, this was where they’d been. She remembered the trees opposite and the shape of the bank. She shone the torch at the water. “I can’t see anything. Maybe the necklace was washed along before it sank.”

  “But it looked like it sank straightaway,” said Rosalind.

  Summer frowned. “I thought it did too, but the river’s flowing so fast right now. I think it may have got pushed along.”

  The girls scrambled through the woods, following the flow of the river. In many places the trees grew right down to the edge of the water, making it hard to walk along the bank.

  “These silly branches are in the way!” said Lottie, pushing them aside roughly.

  “Hey! You’re making them ping back at me!” said Rosalind crossly.

  “I didn’t mean to,” began Lottie. “It’s just—”

  “Wait! What’s that?” Rosalind pointed at the other side of the river.

  “It’s the moonlight shining on the water,” said Lottie.

  Summer peered across the river and her heart skipped. There was a dot of white light in the water, close to the opposite bank. As they watched, it flickered and changed to a warm gold, then it became a cool icy green.

  “That isn’t just the moonlight!” breathed Summer. “That’s magic!”

  “But is it the rainbow opal?” said Rosalind. “It’s hard to see!”

  The girls got as close to the water’s edge as they could and Summer shone the torch across the river.

  “Those colours are amazing! It must be the opal.” Summer watched the light change from a dazzling blue to a deep fiery red.

  “I think I can see the chain of the necklace,” said Lottie. “Look!” She took the torch from Summer and shone the beam upwards a little. There, caught on a low-hanging branch just above the water, was the glittering gold chain.

  “We won’t be able to reach it with this.” Rosalind held up the fishing net. “The river’s too wide. How can we get over to the other side, Summer? Is there a bridge?”

  Summer bit her lip. “There is. But it’s further along the river and it would take us too long to find it.”

  “Maybe we could use a boat,” suggested Lottie.

  “The river current’s really strong,” said Summer. “We’d float away down the river as soon as we set off.” She frowned, thinking hard. “There must be a way to get over!”

  “Stilts?” said Lottie, her eyes gleaming. “Or we could make our own rope bridge?”

  “Rope! I tied some rope to a tree near here a few days ago,” said Summer. “I was using it as a swing.”

  Taking the torch back from Lottie, she scrambled up the bank and searched the trees. She’d chosen a tall one with sturdy branches to hang the rope on. It dangled there, swaying slightly in the wind.

  “I don’t think a rope bridge will work,” she told the others. “But maybe one of us could swing across on the rope.”

  “Great idea! We need to tie it to a tree right next to the
creek,” said Rosalind.

  Summer handed Lottie the torch and shinned quickly up the tree. She sat with her legs dangling on either side of the branch, struggling to undo the rope knot. “I tied it really tight so that it didn’t slip off while I was swinging,” she called down to the others.

  At last the knot came undone and Summer let the rope drop to the ground before climbing back down the tree trunk.

  “Here’s a good tree,” Rosalind called from the edge of the riverbank. “It’s got really flat branches and it looks like it’s strong.”

  Lottie and Summer ran to join her and Lottie shone the torch up at the tree.

  “That’s great!” Summer climbed up and tied the rope firmly to the branch. “Pull on it – see if I’ve tied the knot properly.”

  Rosalind pulled the rope, then she tried dangling from it with the fishing net in one hand. “It feels strong to me. So who’s going to swing over?”

  Summer climbed back down and the three girls exchanged looks.

  “I don’t mind swinging across …” began Summer.

  “No, it can’t be you,” said Lottie firmly. “Whoever goes across will be stuck there. They’ll have to walk along to the bridge to get back. We need you here so that you can find a quick way back through the woods to the palace. You’re the one that knows the way. Custard’s life could depend on it.”

  “So will you swing over?” asked Summer.

  Lottie nodded. “I’ll do it.”

  “Hold on a minute,” said Rosalind. “If you swing across and then you’re stuck on the other side, how do we get the rainbow opal back to Custard?”

  “I’ll throw it across to you,” said Lottie.

  “But if it drops in the river we’ll be right back where we started,” said Rosalind.

  “Don’t worry – I’ve got an idea.” Summer turned away from the river and cupped her hands around her mouth. “Kanga? Can you hear me?”

  There was a long silence. Then they heard the whirr of wings and there was a flash of blue and yellow feathers in the darkness.