The Fairy at the Rainbow's End

 There was once a little girl who waited for the rain with a quiet desperation. She waited, you see, because sometimes, very rarely, the sun would be there, too. That meant a rainbow. And that further meant that somewhere out there at the rainbow's end there might be a fairy. 

    She had heard the tales growing up, of the fairy who lived at the end of the rainbow. It had, quite naturally, made an impression on her. 

    But try as she might, she never seemed able to find the end of the rainbow.

    One day, as she slogged through the rain, drenched and dripping, she made her way into a forest where it seemed the end of the rainbow might be found. Alas, when the little girl entered the forest, the whole of it was steeped in darkness. All light had vanished. And that meant that the rainbow had, too.

    The little girl sat down, pulled her jacket tight around her, and tried very hard not to be too disappointed. She had been sure that this time she would find the rainbow's end, because this particular rainbow had been brighter than ever.

    As she sat, her forehead pressed against her knees in frustration, a thought dawned in her mind. It was a fierce thought. A fascinating thought. A hopeful thought. It was the kind of thought that made her stand up, and march.

    She marched right into the middle of the forest, right to the very place that she could have sworn the rainbow would have dropped, had the light penetrated into its darkness.

    There, at that very place, in the hollow of a tree's trunk, lay a fairy. She was curled up tight, breathing as one asleep, and she was very glittery.

    The little girl stood staring, her face alight with the magic of it. But she was too kind a child to wake the fairy. All she had ever wanted was to see one, she reminded herself. And so, when she had looked her fill, she began a slow walk home to think over the wonder of an ambition fulfilled.

    That was when something lighted on her shoulder.

    The little girl turned to see the fairy, staring mischievously.

    The little girl hid her surprise in a grin. And then she winked.

    And it was the wink that made the fairy stay with her forever. For what better companion for a fairy than a little girl who is just as mischievous as on of the wee Fae.

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