Submission (#3992) Approved

Origins of the rainbow rain

"Come on, Atrophel!" Boreal and Azure called in unison.

Anyone who had seen the comical troop of astral-themed kittoms beneath the dense forests of Enmir would have wondered what the three of them were doing down there, since not the slightest bit of sky could be spotted from the ground.

"Come on..." Boreal whispered once more. He almost regretted inviting his two friends from the Night Sky Library to his mad trip through the swamps of this region. He had heard that the academic elnin had predicted that one of those strange showers of colored stars would hit Eyrie soon, and that's just what he needed to prove his theory: the colored stars originated at Enmir.

Why, how did that even make sense? But Boreal had seen it with his own eyes. From one of the many snow-capped peaks of his home region, a year ago, during the first star shower... He saw how all of Enmir shone with a rainbow-colored light. How could a region shine like that if not for being the birthplace of such a phenomenon?

And who better to accompany him and corroborate his theory than some apprentice astrologers? However, his two friends were not accustomed to wandering through the swampy areas surrounding them. Everything there was... wet. Heavy. Eternal... Every time you sank a paw into the mud you got a shiver from the curious texture that stuck to you and chilled you... Each step took forever. You also had to be careful not to get tangled in the thousands of vines hanging everywhere... Not to mention having to watch out for the fearsome creatures that the locals warned travelers about (although there was no way you could deny that the little frogs were adorable). All this without a map, without a path, without a ray of sunlight under the dense layer of vegetation around them.

Boreal was starting to worry. Atrophel and Azure had enjoyed their first steps in Enmir: they had played with the fireflies that illuminated their walk in the absence of a ray of moonlight. They had also been delighted to observe the flora they had read so much about in their books. But after hours of... splashing around, they were beyond exhausted and hopeless.

"Boreal... Can I talk to you for a second?" Azure whispered to him, stepping forward. Of his two friends, he was the more mature one.

"Yeah, sure." He answered him, waiting a second for her to adjust her pace to his.

"You see... Astrophel isn't as strong as us... Well, neither of us have your physical strength either... So maybe we should rest and consider going back...".

They both turned to look at Astrophel. It was true that this little fellow had always been raised among silks, and it was only recently that his family had taken him to the Library to begin studying with the apprentices in the Tower of Astronomy... Which happened to have only one student: Azure. Azure had been looking after him like he was a little brother. When Boreal proposed this field trip to them, Azure suspected that Astrophel wouldn't be able to handle it, but the little one's enthusiasm was so strong that he didn't know how to say no to him. And now he was paying for that.

"Eh... Yes, you're right." Boreal said in a deflated voice, as they both approached an exhausted Astrophel. "I'm sorry I got you into this, Phel. I know we were all really looking forward to this, especially you, but you're all out of strength. I'd better escort you back after a little rest. I'll go on alone, if I find anything I'll try to bring you when the next rain..."

"No, Boreal." Astrophel interrupted him, in a weak voice. "I can... go on..."

"Don't talk nonsense, little star." Boreal cut him off. "You can't stand up..." He said as he held out a paw to him.

"Th-ank-you..."

Boreal sighed to himself. All they could do was try to regain their strength on some root that would support their weight, because lying in the mud was not going to be pleasant. Probably the star shower would start before they found its source....

That was the last thing Boreal thought before he looked up because from the corner of his eye he had seen a flash of a color that was not forest green.

The other two friends imitated him, and within seconds all three had their mouths open looking up into the canopy of the trees. The layer of leaves and vines were so dense that they didn't let the rain of stars fall and... And they were beginning to pile up.

Boreal could not believe it. In Enmir the rain was falling as it did in everywhere else. What he had seen was a consequence of the characteristics of this place. He dared not look his two friends in the eye, he was sure they were going to burst into mocking laughter at any moment, or get angry that he had brought them there for something so obvious and that he should have imagined. But seconds passed and none of that was happening. Boreal swallowed his embarrassment and finally looked at them. He was surprised to see them both returning his gaze with huge smiles.

The next thing he heard were Azure's joy-filled words as the entire layer of vegetation finally gave up and hundreds and hundreds of colorful dots fell from the sky like a shower of confetti that left specks of celestial magic among his soft fur: "Isn't it great that the beauty of nature surpasses even our imagination?"