Growing Up Rainbow

A Cautionary Tale

Once, in times gone by, there was a little girl who got lost in the forest of the Wild. She wasn't one of the Wild, but rather a girl from the City. Back then the City and all its ways were far from the villages and towns of the Wild. But this girl had heard of our Glade, and she wanted something.

She'd gone as far as our market and then snuck away from her friends and into the woods. She thought she was clever and prepared because she brought food and water in her school back pack. It was the school that had made her want something so badly she decided to violate the land of the Wild.

None of the guards found her because they didn't know know she was there. Her mother and her friends, like most of the City, did not care enough to keep track of her. This made the girl long to belong to something bigger than herself. Since she wasn't of the Wild, she had no clan, so she wanted to be in a special Rainbow. You know of the Rainbows, Tomoe. It is what the City women created since they had no clan. They take the names of the girls and give them colors instead.

This girl wanted a color. She wanted a very specific one, and somehow she got it in her head someone in the forest could give it to her.

Being of the City and not knowing the woods, she became lost. The sun set and she had eaten all her food and drunk all her water. She sat down in a clearing like this one and began to cry. She was sure no one would ever find her and she would die alone.

Drawn by the scent of her tears, a Priest of the Midnight Glade found her. He appeared to her as a shadow, like the Priests always do. "Why are you in my Glade, daughter?"

The little girl looked up from where she was crying and saw only the dark outline of a human form. "I'm lost, Father." She called him father because to her all men were fathers. Her father had died years before.

"The way out is that way," said the Priest and pointed.

When the girl looked she saw a dimly lit path. She was sure it hadn't been there before. She stood up and was about to leave when she remembered why she had started this journey.

"Can you make sure I get Red as my color, when the picking of color happens for my Rainbow?"

"Why would I do such a thing even if I could? What would you offer me in return?"

The girl was young, and brash, and not too smart, Tomoe. She thought for a little while, but could think of nothing to give him. "I don't have money. I'm just a daughter."

"I have no need of money anyway. I can help you but you will have to give me color for color."

"Color for color? What does that mean?"

"I will make sure you are made a Red Girl when the time comes, but in return you will give me the colors you already have."

This should have been a warning to her. But she didn't have a mother who told her the stories. You will think on this story and remember his words, Tomoe. They are full of clues if you are wise.

But the girl was not wise, so she agreed.

"Go then, and tomorrow you will pick Red for your Rainbow color."

The girl smiled and skipped off down the dim path in the dark.

The next day she picked her color and when she look at the token it was gray. And her hands were grey. Everywhere she looked everything was a shade of grey, or black, or white. She was color blind.