Aurora Rainwing's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Aurora Rainwing pulled the last thread through her loom and held the cloak to the light. It hung gray. She wanted the fairy court to crown her their new monarch, and the crown went to whoever wove a cloak that shimmered like a true rainbow. Her spool held only dull thread from ordinary silkworms. Before the court, this cloak would look like wet ash. She folded the failed weaving and set it aside. The coronation was near. Every fairy who wanted the throne was already gathering bright fibers. Aurora had none. She needed thread that carried real rainbow light, and she needed it soon. A flash caught her eye. Near a cluster of sunflowers and lilac, something small crawled over a leaf. Its shell threw sharp bursts of color across the ground. Aurora crept closer. A beetle, its armor cut like faceted crystal, split the light into every color she lacked. Where it walked, faint bright threads clung to the plants, spun from its own glinting body. Her heart jumped. This was the shimmer she needed. But the beetle sat deep among the leaves, and a Venus flytrap gaped beside it. One wrong reach and the trap would snap her hand. Aurora knelt and stretched slowly toward the bright threads. The beetle froze. Then it scuttled sideways, straight past the open flytrap. She grabbed for it and missed. The flytrap snapped shut on empty air an inch from her fingers. A small orange cat burst from the lilac, chasing a green butterfly. It landed square in the plants. The beetle bolted. Aurora lunged after it, but the cat's paws tangled the bright threads and scattered them across the dirt. The beetle vanished under a leaf. Aurora sat back, breathing hard. The threads lay broken and dim in the mess of pawprints. Then she looked closer. The cat had knocked loose a whole snarl of the beetle's spun fiber, and it still held color. Faint, but real rainbow light lived in every strand. She gathered the tangled threads into her palms. They shimmered when she turned them. It was not enough for a full cloak. But it proved the beetle's silk carried true rainbow light, and one beetle had left this much behind in seconds. Aurora looked at the leaf where the crystal beetle hid. She needed the creature itself, not its scraps. If she could find where it nested, she could gather enough shimmering thread to weave a cloak grand enough to win the throne. She tucked the bright strands into her spool and stood. The dull gray cloak stayed on the ground behind her. Aurora watched the leaf until the faceted shell flashed once more, then slipped away deeper into the plants. She followed.