Lucky Leprechaun's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Lucky wanted to be the smallest leprechaun ever to earn the elders' respect, and tonight he still had no idea how. He stood no taller than a mushroom cap. The elders laughed off every trick he tried. Last week he'd vanished a farmer's boot. They yawned. To win their nod, he needed one stunt so bold no leprechaun his size had ever dared it. But he couldn't even name that trick. So he crept into the old tavern by the clover-marked door. He needed to hear what the elders secretly admired. He wedged himself behind a barrel and waited. The old ones gathered at a corner table. Their voices carried over their mugs. One elder leaned close, sharp-eyed and quick to scowl. Lucky knew him well. He was the angriest of them, forever picking at faults, the one who had once mocked Lucky's boot trick loudest. "No one has ever stolen from the rainbow's end," the angry elder growled. "Not in a hundred years. The one who bottled a whole rainbow—now that was a leprechaun." Another elder nodded. "That jar sits guarded still. Untouched. Beyond any young fool." Lucky's heart thumped. There it was. The legendary trick. Steal the jar that held a captured rainbow. Bring it back before the elders. No leprechaun his size had come close. He leaned forward to hear more. His elbow struck the barrel. It rocked and thumped the floor. The angry elder's head snapped around. "Who's there?" Lucky froze. Then he bolted for the door. He was too small to shove it wide, so he squeezed through the gap at the bottom. Boots stamped behind him. A mug shattered near his heels. He didn't stop until the tavern was far behind. He crouched under a fern, gasping, and grinned despite himself. He knew the trick now. The one that would prove everything. But the grin faded. The angry elder had seen the shape of an intruder. By morning, every elder would know a small leprechaun had been spying. They would watch him closer than ever. Lucky pressed his back to the fern stem. He had his legendary goal at last. Steal the bottled rainbow. Yet now the elders were warned, and the one who guarded that jar would be waiting.