Legends of Belariath
Phantasma
Hunting Rainbows
A Yellow Dove Story
It was at times like this that Phantasma admited to himself that he could try to be a bit too clever for his own good. Only to himself of course, he'd never even hint at the slightest weakness to anybody in this world if he could help it.
But, as he looked over at the stream as it splashed over the rock on it's way downhill and eyed warily the the moving cloth bag he held in his hands, he could surely have gone for an easier plan. The offer of a magical item was tempting enough, and recalling it decided him.
Biting his lip lightly, Phantasma stared carefully across at the spray off the rock and searched for the telltale signs of what he had been tramping about searching for all yesterday and half of today so far. Sunlight sparkled on the waters and he sighed unconsciously at the inviting warmth of it, almost imagining how those rays were waiting for him to find some soft patch of moss or a blanket and curl up in them rather than continue tramping about uselessly on such a glorious afternoon....
A spot of light slightly different from the rest caught his eyes and he turned quietly, staring for a moment before finally making out the pale band of colours within the spray and the small area of gold which seemed to float on the water at the base of the arch. Phantasma allowed a faint grin to cross his face as he spotted this, moving closer and watching as the rainbow seemed to shrink back away from him.
That so-called school for magic was offering an nice little reward in exchange for yellow doves and he intended to claim. Unfortunately, the mage had run into one small snag along the way.
That being that yellow doves just didn't exist naturally.
On the other hand, Phantasma knew a lot about the world and there were a number of ways around this slight problem. A number of them he had to discard as unworkable or too expensive, others just couldn't be done without things that plain were not available. Finally though he had settled on one which relied on an often misunderstood fact:
There was gold at the end of a rainbow.
As he slowly approached, the wary and flighty beast he ran over the facts in his head. Rainbows always had gold at the end of them, because they turned things gold as a distraction for the only beings which could hurt them: spell casters. Rainbows tried to use the greed against things that could think by, when threatened, turning that which their end touched into iron pyrite. So called fools gold. Which was, when you got right down to it, a yellow rock.
One trick in hunting anything, even rainbows, was to know your prey well and at the moment he felt well aware of that fact.
Reaching the edge of the water, he kept his eyes securely on to the rainbow shimmering at the other side of the spray as he reached into the bag for one of the two doves he had brought with him without glancing downwards. A sharp peck made him curse under his breath, but Phantasma kept his eyes on the rainbow despite the mild pain. He did not want to lose track of this one after all the time spent already finding just the right type.
With a loud coo of protest the dove was pulled out of the bag, still alive and well as when he had bought it from the market this yesterday morning despite it's hours long confinement. Phantasma silently thanked the gods that he had remembered to tie the tether to the idiot bird's leg and knelt, feeling around for a rock big enough to tie the leather strand to and hold the dove in one place. After a few awkward moment he found something which felt about the right size and secured the dove in place, ignoring as best he could the numerous pecks is was ever so generously bestowing on the hand he was holding it with.
Straightening, shaking his pecked hand slightly to try and rid himself of the pain to some degree, he backed off very slowly. The footing was hard going, moving over water dampened rocks backward was definately a challenge to the agility to anybody who cared to try it, but finally Phantasma managed it, his tail swishing nervously behind him as he did so. The way that the rainbow slowly crept towards him again as he backed up in no way aided his state of mind...
After what seemed like an eternity of backing this way and that, shifting his position slightly in responce to the movement of the rainbow and much gritting to teeth as the stupid thing didn't quite end up where he wanted it to go, Phantasma finally had the array of glowing colours exactly where he wanted it with that glowing golden light at it's end hovering over the cooing, flapping dove.
Raising one hand Phantasma gestured sharply, spitting out a single Word as he threw his Will against the world and felt the world give first. Razor edged shards of ice swirled aroudn his hand for an instant, a blue white glow of unearthy cold pouring from them before they shot off towards the multitude of colours which formed the rainbow and tore into them.
A few ragged holes opened in the fabric of the arch before the things reared back, retreating with it's colours sprakling madly as it left behind a patch of ground and a single dove, all sparkling in a tempting golden colour. A rainbow might be untouchable by mundane means but even that single, extermely under-powered spell could hurt one if it struck..
Knowing that the rainbow would not stay frightened for long Phantasma dashed forwards, his hands opening the bag and grabbing the remaining dove from inside despite the bird's struggles. Snatching the golden, tethered dove from where is was secured by the weight of the rock and held on tightly to the leather throng attached to it's leg as he threw the other, more mundane looking dove towards the rainbow as he turned and began making his best speed away from the river.
Running off to the safety of shade of the trees where the rainbow, dependent on light as it was, dared not follow Phantasma tried to ignore the startled squawk of the dove and the soft, wet sound which cut that cry short. Reaching saftey he headed away with out looking back, his mind all too easily providing an image of what had just happened and he was sure that if he turned he would see the colourful predator slowly ingesting the tattered remains of the carcess which it had just rent asunder.
The real trick to hunting rainbows is to make sure that they don't end up hunting you. After all, nature gave the creatures pretty colours as warning for a reason...