Rainbow Lane: Part Three

     The grandfather clock tower would dong every minute leading up to the next hour or half hour. And once it reached the next hour or the next half hour, it would dong as many times as the number given. So if we didn’t make it out, we would know it because we would receive twelve loud dongs in our ears.

     Dong. My heart stopped every time I heard it. So far, I’d heard five, and at the moment I heard that sixth one, I held the Aisha close. It would start mewing at every minute after the dong. I guess it was scared, but who could blame it?

     “C’mon...” Rio growled under his breath. “We’re not gonna make it...” He clutched a lock of Clairise’s mane in frustration.

     “Ow, ow, ow! Let go, you oaf!” the Uni protested. “At least you’re not the one having to cart around two people and a baby to the end of a maze in ten minutes! Goodness!”

     I felt like crying, but something in me restrained me from doing so. Who knows what would have happened if we didn’t make it out of the gates? Even Rio had no clue. But there was no time to think about anything else other than getting out of here before the twelve dongs.

     Dong. Time was running short. I could tell Clairise was getting tired, and Rio was just as scared as I was. I wondered how the Aisha must feel. I looked down to see the tiny Aisha staring up at me, its dark eyes as blue and enrapturing as the ocean that I had only seen in pictures. It tugged at me that this little one may never live to see it, let alone live at all if we were trapped in Rainbow Lane. I tried to be in sync with Clairise’s hooves hitting the pavement. Cloppity clop, cloppity clop...

     Dong. “Eeek!” Clairise whinnied. “Quit digging your feet into my side! Oooww...”

     Rio was breathing heavily. Or at least I thought he was. Then I realized that it was me, and I was about to pass out. I held my head up and hugged my Aisha. I had to stay strong, I just had to.

     I looked into those ocean-eyes. They blinked at me. The Aisha’s mouth was straight and unsmiling, but it kept a neutral expression. It reached out its little paw and was smiling now. It mewed again.

     I then realized that there was nothing I was doing to help Clairise and Rio. They were doing everything for me. And I lived here, didn’t I?

     “Rio?”

     Rio whipped around, almost setting the Uni off-balance. “Make it quick, Tairah!”

     I felt my expression grow stern. “You see that four-way road up ahead?”

     Rio squinted out onto the horizon. “Yeah, I see it.”

     “Make a left! Every turn on these streets is the same, but this one’s a little different because I remember my house being on the edge.” I pointed to the left. “And I walked to the right of the street when I left home! So go left and follow my lead!”

     Dong. “Okay!” Rio shouted. “But I sure hope you’re right!” He turned to Clairise. “Make a left!”

     Clairise did so.

     “Now, keep going straight!” I shouted loud enough for Clairise to hear. “Faster! Faster! Now, straight!” The Uni galloped harder and faster “...alright, now left!”

     Clairise followed every instruction. I was getting dizzier, but I did indeed know what I was doing. I kept exclaiming as loudly as possible as I gave directions. “Now go right! Now left! Left! Straight!” My throat began to burn, but I shouted with all the strength I had.

     And then we saw it. The huge, golden gates were wide open. We were getting closer and closer...

     Dong...

     “Faster!!!”

     And—I don’t know what it was. Second wind?—Clairise did. Rio and I almost fell off. I clutched the Aisha baby. It seemed to hang on to me too. We could hear Clairise breathing, not saying a word, and her terrifying roaring as the gates slowly began to close on us.

     And with one final leap...we were out.

     And for the first time in my life, I was free.

     I could still hear the clock, but ever so faintly, as it faded when the doors began to close.

     Dong... dong... dong.........

     Clairise made a not-so-graceful landing that sent us all flying. Rio landed on the dirt road, and I landed in a bush. I felt as if an angel caught me. I looked at what was clinging to my chest—and clawing it. The Aisha was still clinging for dear life, and mewing. Moments later, it began to purr again.

     I stroked its head.

     Then I couldn’t move. Rio had stood up and was standing over me, and so was Clairise, dripping with sweat, even in the cold, from her run. My head was throbbing.

     “Tairah,” Rio said, panting. “Thank you. You saved us.”

     I smiled.

     “Tairah? Tairah?... Clair, she’s not responding...”

     I shut my eyes halfway. I was too... exhausted...

     “Tairah!!!”

     And for a while... it all went black.

      ***

     “Heeeyyy... wakey, wakey...” I heard a little girl’s voice say.

     I opened my eyes to find a big pink muzzle in my face.

     “Mommy!” the pink Uni shouted, galloping out of the room. She returned a couple of seconds later with a larger Uni, who was purple. It was Clairise.

     “Oh, Tairah!” she shouted, throwing her front legs (arms?) around my neck. It took a minute of her warm fur on my face for my consciousness to kick back in. And for my eyes, throat, and the back of my forehead to start burning so I knew I wasn’t in a dream.

     “W-where am I?” I groggily said, wincing for my sore throat.

     “You’re in our house! I’m Mariebelle, by the way,” the pink Uni said. “My mommy brought you.”

     “And me too. Don’t forget!” I heard a more masculine voice say. Rio stepped in. He was well-rested, and not sweaty or wearing a cloak, so it was easier to see his features. He was wearing his long, red hair loose and down his back, and he was still in his pajamas, which seemed kind of silly for such a dashing hero. I would have laughed, but my throat hurt too much. “How are you feeling?”

     I shrugged, but hardly. My entire body hurt from being bounced around on Uniback for so long while going so fast.

     “Now, now, Rio. Let her rest.” She turned to me. “You were out cold, Tairah. You fainted as soon as we left the gates.”

     I was still hazy for a while, but on the word, “gates” I suddenly remembered the Aisha. “B-but... there was... Aisha...”

     “Aisha? Don’t worry, she’s here,” Rio said as he bent down. He came back up holding the little blue neopet and set it on the bed.

     It crawled up to my face and licked it. I smiled as she curled up beside of me and mewed. “It's okay... that’s good...” I said.

     “It’s a girl,” said Mariebelle. “Did you not know that?”

     If my leg wasn’t so sore, I would have kicked myself. I’d been calling her an “it” for a tad too long now.

     “I bet you’re hungry!” Clairise piped up, changing the subject. “I have a cherry-tastic faerie pie in the oven right now, so help yourselves when it’s done!” She clopped out of the room and into the kitchen. Soon, the wonderful aroma of cherries and sugar wafted through the house, and we ate soon after.

     ***

     I sat on the edge of the bed, looking around the room. Rio was still asleep in the living room, and Mariebelle and Clairise were out collecting berries, so I was practically alone for a couple hours. The room here was very much unlike mine from the week before, when I lived on Rainbow Lane. Clairise had lived here many years with her daughter, and had started raising Rio when Mariebelle was just born. (Clairise had been widowed a month before she had Mariebelle... her husband had fought in a Meridellian war.) And now I was staying here, as I had no other family other than what lay within the gates we escaped from.

     The walls were a golden yellow, with greyish, intricate patterns scrawled down them. There was a cherry oak cabinet filled with unusual contents, such as porcelain teapots and other delicate dishes you were never supposed to eat off of, old-fashioned usuki dolls, and mysterious amulets that made you wonder if they had mystical power, despite that they had collected a pale sheet of dust and that they were thrown among common misshapen pearls and plastic. The bed I had rested in for a few days until I healed was old, and the splintery edges had been rubbed smooth. The mattress was new, however, and stuffed with Lenny feathers. That may have been what was causing my recurring nightmare of Dr. Forester tearing out half my brain and sending me to live in my own box-like house. There was also another dream where I had quintuplets, and I was crying so hard because I wanted to keep them all. Each of the babies was a different colour, except for the fifth baby, which wasn’t even a Kyrii at all, but an Aisha.

     I then realized that I didn’t know where the little Aisha girl was. I had seen (and heard) Rio snoring, and Mariebelle woke me up early by mistake with her hooves on the wood floor, and I saw Clairise with her. But no sign of the Aisha. I hopped out of bed and tip-toed around, although it was useless because of the squeaky floor. I then scampered through the door to the kitchen and into the living room where I ran around Rio to look under the couches, and into the Unis’ rooms and elsewhere, even in the bathrooms. My eyes fell on the open door in which Mariebelle had carelessly left creaked. I opened it fully, nearly blinded by the sunlight and I almost woke Rio.

     It was beautiful! The green, green grass had rid itself of dew from the early morning, but still glimmered in the sun as small petpets chased after petpetpets, in which those few were the first I had ever seen. Flowers sprouted here and there, whether they were weeds or expensively bunched up in gardens. Oh, and the trees... they seemed to reach up into Faerieland, which I saw a little of from the pinks and purples and blues that lay in a segment of the expanse of clouds. All that was on Rainbow Lane were boxy houses, a couple of laboratories and corporate buildings, potted street plants, and the hard, stone-paved road.

     I set foot on the porch, the wood warmed from sitting out. I couldn’t help but think that this feeble thing could collapse under my weight, so I hurried off and set both feet in the grass for the first time. It felt strange, yet I paced the yard and set my eyes on the expanse ahead—no walls in sight, other than the buildings of the Neopia Central shopping center that lay ahead of the small, homely village and farms. I was running, this time, knowing that there was no way I could be stopped by any sort of wall, save for the wooden gate that I nearly broke my nose running into. Other than that, I never felt freer.

     Then I remembered my mission. The Aisha. I began searching among the green for blue, and I did indeed find her. She was splashing around in a puddle of water, seemingly thinking her cheeky reflection was another being. I approached her, and she began to purr with delight as she rubbed her wet, velvety body back against my arm, expecting me to stroke her, which I did.

     But something happened seconds after that... when I withdrew my arm to scratch an itch on my neck, I noticed streaks on my white arm where the Aisha had rubbed were red... red-brown, in fact. Was I bleeding? I felt the area, but it remained damp yet unscathed; just warm, auburn fur. Wait...

     I dipped my paw into the puddle that the Aisha was playing in for a second, and took it out. The same happened to my paw, and the excess water dripping off of it was pure white, sinking back into the blue of the puddle and disappearing, yet giving off a mysterious kaleidoscope of colours as the milky white had subsided. A cloud then formed overhead—and it began to produce what I thought was rain, but the drops that fell onto my white fur began to turn it red again. I stayed in place as the unusual water washed over me and eventually developed into a waterfall. It subsided soon after, followed by a mysterious round of laughter as the cloud drifted away. I looked up and noticed that it was a light blue, with streaks of lavender stratus clouds circled around it.

     “There you are!”

     I turned around to find Rio, fully dressed and towering ahead of me. “Wasn’t that the rainbow fountain cloud above you? Sometimes the fountain faerie likes to randomly pour down water to see who it hits, turning the victim a random colour.” He looked up at the floating cloud. “Seriously. It’s a sick game, depending on how expensive your previous colour was.” Then he looked at me. “And now look at you. You’re red again!”

     All this time I was speechless—I hadn’t said a word all day. I looked at my reflection; I was looking back at my red self. I smiled. “Maybe I like this sick game,” I said, grinning ear to ear admiring my familiar fur.

     “I guess you’re an exception... it’s lucky you turned red again, instead of some other color, like snot,” Rio said, chuckling as he moved his hair out of the way to rub the back of his neck. “But I’ve seen that happen to a faerie pet before... the poor thing turned mutant... Hey, look!” he said all of a sudden, startled and pointing to the ground.

     I looked down. The little blue Aisha was changing too... her powder-blue fur melted in with the indigo hue of the rainbow fountain water... and her new fur revealed not one, but many colours.

     “She’s rainbow now!” Rio exclaimed, examining the tiny Aisha as he held her from the loose skin on the upper back, tickling her belly.

     “Uh... rainbow?” I cocked my head in confusion.

     “Ah, you don’t know what a rainbow is, do you?” Rio asked, setting the Aisha down. “A rainbow is a collection of colours, usually red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and purple. The humans needed a name for Rainbow Lane, so they called it that... although they obviously didn’t know what went on there.”

     “So that’s a rainbow?” I asked, pointing both at the sky and at the puddle.

     “Evidently, yes.” Rio replied, nodding. “They usually appear after rainfall. And it did rain last night... and they didn’t call the Rainbow Fountain the Rainbow Fountain for nothing, right?”

     “Right.”

     The Aisha consistently started to mew again. We both looked down at her. “You know...” I said. “We never really did give you a name, did we?”

     “Other than it, or she, or the Aisha...” Rio added. “I can’t believe we went for nearly a week without properly addressing the little thing.”

     I looked up at the sky. “Then, because of all of this...” I brought my view back to the Aisha while bending down to scratch behind her ears and stroke her more. “Your name will be ‘Rainbow’. So we all will never forget.”

     Rio nodded approvingly. Rainbow’s eyes, which had remained blue, were now set on me, seeming to accept the new name.

     And that’s what she has been called since.

     ***

Epilogue:

     Tairah continued to live with Rio, Clairise, Mariebelle, and Rainbow in Neopia Central, enjoying her new, free, life. But she never forgot her life back on Rainbow Lane. And Rainbow never let her forget it. She grew rapidly into a beautiful young Aisha who couldn’t get enough out of hearing Tairah’s adventure out of Rainbow Lane over and over again, and they both hope to return some day and permanently put an end to the purification process, alongside Rio and Clairise, and maybe even Mariebelle if she’s old enough.

     As for Korsin and his wife, they faintly remember Tairah, but will always have her in their hearts as they raise begin to raise their new son they recently received, Morris.

The End