rainbows

        A young, grey-blue orin was found laying in the dewed, green grass, yellows contrasting against his duller fur. He seemed to be holding a map upside down, twisting it at all sorts of angles in a moment of confusion. “X marks the spot,” they say, but he had no idea where “X” was. Confused, and a little bit frustrated, he got up and ran off, carrying the map with him in case he later wished to pick up where he left off.

        The orin, named Pigeon, had wandered around for a while before stumbling to the ground. Dazed, he looked up to the sky for a moment. As he translated his gaze from one area to the next, he began noticing more colors in the sky. Red, orange, yellow...seconds later the realization hit; he found the rainbow! He quickly scrambled to his hooves, momentarily bouncing in excitement. He sprinted off in a rush of adrenaline, but the excitement was quickly put to an end.
He halted his movements, nearly slipping over the edge of the riverbank due to the momentum he brought with him. A raging river stood before him, rapids effortlessly pushing away anything in their path. A little discouraged, though much more determined, he did his best to not let this bring him down. He understood the journey wouldn’t be simple, but he hadn’t expected the waters to be as rough as they were, either. Disgruntled by the fact that he was too small to knock down a tree, and much too weak to swim across, he sat and pondered for a moment. He then noticed a path of stones in the water; they were hardly noticeable, but the spot where they stood was shallower than the rapids, making it possible to hop across them.

        He leaped on the rocks one by one, slipping several times and hardly making it across. His fur was soaked, and his legs felt heavy, but he was able to continue his journey. He shook some water off before taking a break to look at his now crinkled map. He glanced at the sky for a second to assure himself he was on the right track, and to his surprise, he was. The rainbow was straight ahead, and he was sure he would make it. The next problem had quickly been realized, though- he had to find his way out of this forest. The map, handed to him by the shopkeeper Ingo, was the opposite of useful. It was a scatter of triangular doodles with a large red “X” in the left-center. Pigeon sighed and threw the map into the river before setting off, this time carrying with him nothing but the cool rock he found.

        He took a second look at the sky to see the position of the sun, and determined that it was nearly noon. He was unsure how long a rainbow would last, so he sped up his pace as he dashed through the large grouping of trees. He tripped over his own hooves a few times, but eventually found his way on a hiking trail. He was unsure how he got there, but shook the question out of his head and quickly checked to be sure he was on track. The rainbow was straight ahead, and he saw a relatively clear path dominating most of his planned route.

The small orin trotted along the path, a sunny sky beaming on his fur. Everything from here on would go perfect, he thought. He’d make his way to the rainbow, make his way to the tail, and find the treasure. It was a simple plan, he thought so. He drooled at the thought of  the shimmering gold and silver, gleaming brightly in the sun in a contrast to the dull grey pot.

        Pigeon was so caught up in his own greedy daydreams, he hadn’t noticed he made it into a crowd. He bumped into a taller orin, one a little lanky with longer legs and long, flopped down ears. The orin’s fur was brown, containing a mix of darker and lighter tones. On the contrary, she had blue accents in her inner ears, alongside her hooves and horn. What stood out the most to Pigeon was the orin’s large wings, a whitish color with blue tips. The brown orin’s head was topped off with two leaves, one red and one green. She had a polite look to her, friendly and approachable, in a calmer manner than Pigeon.
        “Oh dear, my bad! Are you alright?” The taller orin asked, quick to help the smaller one up.
        “Ow, my head...I think I’m alright,” The blueish orin replied in a somewhat unsure tone.
        “Well that's a relief to hear! You had me worried for a second, tiny!” The leaf-topped orin’s mood shifted quickly, almost too quickly for comfort. “The name’s Robyn! And you are…?”
        “Pigeon!” the younger orin announced, startling a few bypassers. “I'm trying to make my way to the rainbow’s tail! Do you wanna help me?”
        Robyn sighed, unable to resist the younger orin’s plea. “Fine, I’ll come along,” She agreed.
        “Yay! Yay!” Pigeon bounced up and down, excited to finally have his ‘partner in crime.’ The two went along the path, chatting for a while and making fast friends. They discussed the journey ahead of them, wondering if anything else could error their move. By now it was nearly 1:30 PM, and it had begun to drizzle. Annoyed by the inconvenience, the two quickened their motions as they followed the way towards the rainbow.

        They found themselves making their way to an unrecognizable town. It was dusty and broken down, and seemed nearly empty of civilization. The two wandered around a little, before noticing a bit of reddish yarn near a large crate. Curious, Pigeon made his way in that direction and looked behind the crate, and to his surprise, he found a young orin chomping down on a sweater! The orin was a brown color, with markings of a darker brown and a cream, with spots in the same colors too. The yarn-tailed orin was dual horned, much rarer than the often seen unihorn.
         “Hello?” Pigeon stated in a questioning tone. “What’re you doing back there?”
        As soon as he spoke, the two horned orin had jumped and ran off. Pigeon followed, curious on where he was going. Robyn flew up ahead, easily catching up.
        The group of orin found themself in a much livelier part of the then ghost town. Confused, they continued on. The yarn orin had come to a stop in front of a much taller orin, one brown with stripes. The tall orin had antlers, something Pigeon had not seen until today, and they were another winged orin. The orin’s look was finalized by a sweater and a beanie atop their head. The smaller orin had suddenly chirped, followed by yelling. 

        “Pibs! Pibs!” was all that was said, but the striped orin somehow understood. They nodded, before beginning to speak. 

        “Hey, what were you guys doing chasing my little brother?” Pigeon stared, confused for a moment.
        “We didn’t mean to chase him!” Pigeon began speaking. “We saw him behind some crate thing and became curious, but he ran off!” Robyn nodded in agreement to these words.
        “Hiding?” the antlered orin started, “Pibs, where were you hiding?” The small orin, named Pibs, chirped in a response. “I see. Well, the name’s Kevin. This is Pibs, who are you two?”
        “I’m Robyn,” the brown and blue orin stated.
        “And I am Pigeon!” He bounced as he spoke, before making a slightly evil sounding chuckle.
        Pigeon looked up in the sky for a moment, before quickly starting his course back up. “We ought to get going, but it was nice meeting you two! I hope we can cross paths again!..” They had moved away swiftly, and were already back on track. The drizzle had stopped and the sky was clear, Pigeon estimated the time to be 2:00 PM.
It hadn’t taken him long to notice they had reached the rainbow! They began trailing their way to the end. Pigeon eventually hopped onto Robyn’s back and they flew the rest of the way.
        They landed at the end, to be greeted by a pot. They approached it, only to be pushed out of the way by another orin!
        The orin that pushed them was wolf-like, an orangey fur color with creams and pinks. Pink and blue pebbles and leaves occupied the orins fur, matching the colorations of their claws.
        “Roar! Who goes there? Don’t ya know this is MY treasure!” The orin stated in a loud voice, barely able to hold in a laugh.
        “Umm...I am Pigeon, and this is Robyn!” Pigeon said, trying to seem tough. He hadn’t seen an orin like this before, and was startled by their sharp teeth.
        “Well, I am Mebh! This is MY treasure, so if you want it, fight me-” Mebh was quickly cut off by Robyn flying over her and looking in the pot.
        “It’s empty,” Robyn stated in a half-disappointed tone.
        “I know that!” The wolf orin said, tilting her head a bit.
        “Then why were you so defensive over it…?” Pigeon interrupted with a question.
        Mebh laughed a little. “What, ya can’t handle a little fun? Sorry to burst your bubble, but there wasn’t any treasure to begin with.”
        Pigeon frowned a little. “No shinies?”
        Mebh nodded. The three sat and talked for a while, discussing the lies Pigeon was told, and the journey he and Robyn had been on. They learned a lot more about each other, too!
        Pigeon then realized that he had found treasure! It was the friends he met along the way! Cheesy, he knew, but a great realization nonetheless. The three became best friends after that, and did everything together!