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Xander put his journal away. “Trees! We’re in
the Rainbow Forest. I read about this once when I went to the library in
Appleworth. It said the trees were every color of the rainbow. I believe
it!”
“Where is the Rainbow Forest?”
“Right smack dab in the middle of the Land of
Waterberry. We have to figure out which way is north and head that way to
get back to Appleworth.” Xander looked at the direction of the sun. It’s
nearly suppertime. The sun is setting in the west. If that’s west and that
way is east,” he said, pointing the opposite direction, “ and we flew from
the south, then that way is north.”
“But Xander, it will be dark in an hour. Let’s
get something to eat and find a place to spend the night.”
They walked through the trees. Pink fruit
dangled from a red-leafed tree. Xander reached up and picked on. “I hope
these don’t have worms in them like the sugarapples did.” He bit into one.
“Look at this, Toast. There’s not a pit inside of it. There’s a jewel. It
looks like a garnet.”
“Let me see.” Toast took the fruit from
Xander’s hand. “It is a garnet. I wonder what we’ll find inside some of
the other fruits.”
Inside of the yellow-leafed tree’s fruit they
found a gold nugget. They picked a dozen lemon-colored fruits and ate
them. “Gold!”
Inside the fruits growing on the lime
green-leafed tree, they found jade instead of pits. The orange fruit had
amber, the purple had amethyst, the blue had sapphire, the white fruit had
diamonds. When Xander picked a black fruit he choked. “Ick. This black
fruit just has a hairy pit and tastes horrible.”
Toast picked a brown one. “This one too.” She
spit it out.
“Look at all these jewels. We’ve got more than
we know what to do with. We should pick a hundred of them.” Xander put all
the jewels into his pockets.
“Xander, just because we have a lot of them
doesn’t mean they are precious and rare. They can’t be that precious, or
that rare if they grow inside fruits. Surely others know about the Rainbow
Forest too.”
Xander dropped the fruit on the ground.
“You’re right. We shouldn’t take too many. Just enough for us to be rich
for the rest of our lives.” He filled his pockets with diamonds and the
other jewels. “This is a good place to spend the night. These pretty
leaves will protect us. Bandiffs don’t come into pretty places, neither do
wucas. We’ll sleep right here.” Xander gathered a pile of leaves and
dropped them in a pile. “The leaves are really soft, aren’t they?”
Toast lay down. She sighed. “So soft. So
soft.” Within minutes she was asleep.
Xander scribbled a few things in his journal
and lay next to her. He too fell asleep.
Glossary:
Rainbow Forest – Located in the middle of the Land of Waterberry. The
trees are all different colors and have jewels inside them instead of
pits. |
