AUTHOR'S NOTE: All "Fraggle Rock" characters belong to Jim Henson. Any other character belongs to me. This is also my first attempt at *trying* to write for Cantus, though he shows up in a later chapter. He is extremely difficult for me to write, so bear with me in that regard.
It was a typical day in Fraggle Rock. Red was diving in the pool, Mokey was painting, Boober was doing laundry, and Gobo was telling Wembley about an old map he found. Wembley, however, wasn't listening to a word Gobo said, like he usually did when Gobo began talking about an adventure. This time, he was watching a bunch of Fraggles playing Tail Tag. Or, more specifically, he was watching Lou play Tail Tag with a bunch of Fraggles.
"Wembley, are you even listening to me?" Gobo asked.
"Huh?" Wembley asked, turning toward Gobo. "Oh, sorry, Gobo. I guess my mind was on something else."
"Or someone else," Gobo said, looking in the direction Wembley had been looking. "Thinking about Lou again, eh?"
"Yeah . . . . well, no, not really . . . . I mean . . . ." Wembley said. Then he sighed. "Yes, and no."
"Okay, what's the problem?"
"It's just that Lou's birthday is tomorrow, and I want to give her something really special. I just don't know what."
"Is that what you're so deep in thought about? You don't have to give Lou anything fancy just to impress her, Wembley! She likes you a lot, and the whole Rock knows it, too!"
"Yeah, I know that, Gobo, but I don't want to give her something special just to impress her! I want to give her something special because . . . . well, just because I want to."
"How about a crystal from the Crystal Caverns? You know Red was pretty impressed when we brought one back for her."
"I gave one to Lou last year, remember?"
"Oh, yeah, how could I have forgotten? She gave you such a big kiss, you were practically floating on the ceiling for three days afterward. Hey, I've got an idea! Let's go to that place I was talking about a minute ago!"
"What place?"
"The Rainbow Caverns. I found one of Uncle Traveling Matt's old maps that leads right to it!"
"Has he ever been there before?"
"No, I don't think he has. We'll be the first Fraggles to map it out! Come on!"
"Okay, Gobo."
Immediately, Gobo and Wembley went to their cave to pack their supplies. Then, they were off in search of Rainbow Cavern. When they got there, they found it to be just a ordinary cave.
"Gee, Gobo, I wonder why they call it the Rainbow Caverns?" Wembley asked. "It's all dark, and gray . . . . and boring."
"I don't know," Gobo said. "But let's go in and maybe we'll find out, eh?"
Wembley nodded, and he and Gobo walked into the cave. There still wasn't much to look at, until the two Fraggles came to a staircase. At the bottom of it was a red door.
"What do you say we see what's behind the door?" Gobo asked.
"It's okay with me if it's okay with you," Wembley said, shrugging.
"Don't start that again, Wemb."
"Oh, sure, Gobo. Whatever you say."
Gobo sighed, grabbed the handle on the door, and pulled. A light came out and nearly blinded the two Fraggles. Once they got used to it, they saw that everything behind the door was red.
"Wow!" Wembley shouted, and he raced inside, looking at everything. "Look at this place, Gobo!"
"Yeah," Gobo said, making some notes on his uncle's map. "I've never seen so much red in my life!"
Wembley immediately began picking up some small, round, shiny rocks, and stuffing them into his pocket.
"What are you doing that for?" Gobo asked.
"If I can find enough of these rocks," Wembley said, "I can ask Mokey to help me make a necklace for Lou!"
"Well, don't fill your pockets too much," Gobo said. "There's another door up ahead."
Wembley looked, and found that Gobo was right, except this door was orange. It was the only thing in the room that wasn't red. They opened this door, and found a room that looked almost exactly like the previous room, except everything in it was orange, with one exception, and that was a door on the other side of the room, and it was yellow. At the end of the yellow room, there was a green door, a blue door at the end of the green room, a darker blue door at the end of the blue room, a purple door at the end of the darker blue room, and a pink door at the end of the purple room. Gobo made notes on his map while Wembley gathered up rocks.
"Well, looks like this pink room is a dead end," Gobo said. "No more doors. I guess now we found out why it's called Rainbow Caverns."
Wembley wasn't really listening. As he was gathering some pink rocks, one of his purple rocks fell out of his pocket, and bounced over to a corner of the room. He followed it, and saw some kind of string sticking out from a pile of rocks. He grabbed it, and began pulling on it, but it was stuck.
"Hey, Gobo!" he called. "Can you come over here and help me?"
"Sure," Gobo said, coming over. "What's going on?"
"This string's stuck under the rocks here," Wembley explained. "Help me get it out."
"Okay," Gobo said, grabbing another part of the string. "On the count of three, pull as hard as you can. Ready?"
"Yeah."
"Okay. One, two, three, pull!"
Gobo and Wembley pulled as hard as they could, and managed to yank the string out from underneath the rocks. Of course, the two Fraggles wound up knocked off their feet once they got the string loose, since they were pulling pretty hard. Then they noticed it wasn't a normal piece of string at all. It was attached to a round, light pink pendant. There was a circle in the center, surrounded by round, rainbow colored stones: pink, red, blue, purple, dark blue, green, yellow, and orange.
"Hey, look at that!" Gobo shouted. "No wonder it was so hard to pull that string out from under there!"
"Wow," Wembley said. "I've never seen anything like this before. I wonder what it is?"
Wembley touched the purple stone in the pendant. The stone glowed, and played a note. Startled, Wembley touched the yellow stone, and a different note came out. Then he touched the pink stone, and went all the way around the pendant, and the entire musical scale played.
"Hey, a musical necklace!" Gobo shouted. "That's pretty neat!"
"I'll say," Wembley said. "You know what? I think I've found the perfect present for Lou!"
"Great idea, Wembley! Of course, you know what this could mean."
"What?"
"We may have to tie you to a rock so you don't go floating away on us. If she gave you a kiss that made you float to the ceiling for giving her a crystal from the Crystal Caverns, imagine what kind of kiss you'll get after giving her a musical necklace!"
Both Fraggles laughed, and then started back toward Fraggle Rock. However, neither of them realized that they were being watched by a nightflyer lurking in the shadows. Nightflyers were large creatures, had the head, body, and beak of a raven, but it also had the ears and wings of a bat, the feet of a raptor, and glowing red eyes. They were also extremely ugly. He was a pet to a beautiful, raven-haired sorceress named Narcissa, who lived in a castle far away from the Gorgs' garden. However, unlike the Gorgs' garden, Narcissa's castle was dark, dank, dreary, and rather depressing. Not to mention ugly. This was because Narcissa wanted to be the most beautiful being in the universe, and she didn't want to be outshone by flowers, trees, animals, and especially not other Silly Creatures.
The nightflyer flew out of the Rainbow Caverns through a hole in the roof, and returned to Narcissa's castle, giving out a loud screech to let his mistress know he had returned.
"You're back, are you?" Narcissa asked. "Excellent. Now, give me the amulet."
The nightflyer squawked and flapped his wings a bit. Narcissa's eyebrows narrowed as he did this. She was not happy to hear this.
"You mean to tell me someone else found it?!" she shouted. "You useless flying fool! How could you have let it happen?! No one's been in the Rainbow Caverns for hundreds of years! Who has it now?!"
The nightflyer started squawking again. This time, Narcissa made a disgusted face, and began backing up.
"A Fraggle?!" she shouted, grimacing. "Ugh! It's bad enough you let someone take the amulet right from under your beak, but to tell me you let a disgusting little Fraggle get his filthy little paws on it?!"
The nightflyer began squawking again. Narcissa growled, and turned away, storming to her throne.
"I don't want your excuses!" she shouted. "I want that amulet! How do you expect me to take over the universe without it?! You'd better hope that filthy little Fraggle doesn't put it on! You know the legend behind it! Whoever possesses the Rainbow Amulet also possesses it's power. Power enough to take control of the entire universe! I've got to find it before it can get into the hands of the one destined to use it to defeat me. If I don't get that amulet before then, I'll clip your wings!"
The nightflyer squawked in fear, and flew out the window. Narcissa grunted, stood up, and walked over to a large mirror on the wall. After primping a bit, she waved her hand over it. The image in the mirror changed from her reflection to Gobo and Wembley walking toward Fraggle Rock, playing songs with the amulet.
"Good," she said. "It doesn't appear those simpletons know how the amulet works, except for making that awful noise with it! And appears the little green one is in possession of it, and he doesn't look smart enough to even know what to do with it. But I can't take chances. He must be the chosen one, if he was able to find it before my nightflyer."
Narcissa snapped her fingers. Her army of goblins came running into the room, though when one of them stopped, the others ran into him, and they all fell to the ground. They all wore suits of armor, so when they all fell, they made the most awful noise you can imagine. Narcissa groaned, and rolled her eyes.
"You called, oh mistress of the night?" the head goblin asked.
"Yes," Narcissa said. Then she turned to the mirror. "You see that little green Fraggle? I want you nimrods to bring him here."
"Yes, oh queen of darkness!" the head goblin shouted. "At once, oh queen of darkness! About face! Forward march!"
The goblins got to their feet, and ran out of the castle, off on their mission, clattering all the way. Narcissa sat down in her throne, rolled her eyes, and began massaging her right temple.
"It's so hard to find good help these days," she groaned.