Oh my gosh, I'd practically forgotten all about this - my inspiration and my readers seemed to run out at about the same time, so I never finished it. But if you're interested, I might as well finish it off; and yes, there was one spot left, so you can join if you want to :)

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Spring - Day 1

Luna Silvermoon was happy as she rode towards the front of the group. Things were going well; Lyric had arrived that afternoon, laughing excitedly, her black hair rumpled by the wind that had blown her to them. There were all seven of them now, united; Luna had a feeling that the next clue was coming, maybe to finally end their search; and a splendid spring sunset tinted the grasses golden into a fiery path in front of them.

It was the same day they had left Lady Ravirla's palace. Luna Silvermoon had been sad to see it fade into the horizon and vanish, but now the pull of the future had entered her again. She was being pulled onwards by wanderlust and the allure of that elusive treasure. Strange how Lilacgold's promises took hold of you...

Miss Fern, riding beside her, paused and called back to the scattered CBers, "I think we'll stop for supper? It's getting late."

"Wonderful," Poinsettia said with a quick smile, swinging easily off her horse. North Star came up beside them, and, after a while, Darkvine and Lyric; they'd dropped some way behind the others and were still chatting.

"Where are Reuby and Hex?" Luna asked.

"Aren't they with you?" Lyric asked. "They aren't behind us."

"Oh, no -," Darkvine groaned, slipping off her horse. "Don't tell me Hex has gone off for one of her 'walks' again - and taken Reuby with her."

"I don't think she'd do that," North Star said quietly. "Not anymore."

"Let's hope they're safe," Mr. Soforth said grimly.

***

Hex blinked and sat up. She was somewhere in a forest in the late afternoon - there was sunlight on the treetops, but down here dusk was starting to creep in - and she was surrounded by people. She looked sharply a second time at one of them, and bit her lip. He was her cousin.

But what had happened? At one point she'd been riding with Reuby a little way behind Lyric and Darkvine; and now--

"Ah, you're awake, dear cousin." Miles - her cousin - turned toward her, and she rose warily to her feet. She was scarcely going to trust him after he'd tried to stop them all from reaching their goal. Then she saw Reuby, sitting up dazedly a little way away from her.

"Just as well," Miles was continuing. "There are just one or two things we wanted to ask you. First, what on earth are you doing siding with Lilacgold - instead of with me - and, second, what are the Chatterboxers' plans?"

"Yeah, I have some questions of my own first," Hex informed him coldly. "First, what's Reuby doing here. Second: where are we?"

"We couldn't let Reuby get away," Miles told her with a small shrug. "She'd have told the others. And, well - no harm in telling you where we are." He was gripping her arm firmly, she noticed. "We're in a small forest a little way away from the other CBers. Oh, and I almost forgot. Knives, please."

How does he know about the knives, Hex wondered. No time for wondering, though. She took a deep breath. "No need to," she said, as carelessly as she could. "Did you ever really think I wasn't on your side?"

Unconsciously, Miles' grip loosened, and in that instant Hex twisted away from him. She darted past Reuby Moonnight and into the forest; hopefully Reuby would follow. She knew from the light footsteps behind her that she had. For a few moments she ran on, ignoring the sounds of pursuit behind them, then swiftly darted behind a thick bush, pulling Reuby with her and pulling out one of her knives.

For a moment they crouched there, both panting heavily in the silence. Then Reuby took a long, shuddering breath. "Will they find us here?" she asked in a whisper.

"They will if you talk," Hex returned crossly, also in a whisper. "I don't know, though. I hope not..."

The heavy footsteps were growing closer, and after a moment Miles and the other people with him came into view; Reuby held her breath, hardly daring to hope that they wouldn't be seen.

But Miles passed on, the others after him. Hex breathed out a long sigh of relief and stood up slowly. "Let's go," she said. "It won't be long before they realize we aren't in front of them anymore."

She was sure she'd never had a happier moment than the one when she finally reached the edge of the forest and saw the CBers a little way away, standing around a campfire and talking worriedly. Lyric saw her first. "Hex! Reuby!!!" she exclaimed, running over to them. "Oh, thank goodness - you're all right - what happened? - "

Hex explained, standing by the fire with her gaze flicking watchfully through the trees. "I say we get as far ahead as we can," she said. "Since they're so close on our trail."

"You're right," Nightly declared. "No use in waiting around for them."

North Star turned, and gasped. "Look," she said.

The others turned. Stretching away beyond them was a broad trail of flowers, sparkling a little in the dim light, an oddly dream-like quality around it. "The next clue," Darkvine said softly, dropping down on her knees to brush her fingers against the flowers. Then she looked up. "Come on, guys."

They fetched their horses and started off along the strangely magical trail. Poinsettia, like Luna, was starting to be very certain that the end of their journey was near. And in a way, she was glad. This quest had been wonderful, magical, unexpected - life-changing, really. But by now, it was a bit too dangerous...

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Ack finally back :/ This took way, way, way too long to write, and I'm so sorry. Beginnings of school and too many other things to write have finally made themselves shown :[ The next part should (hopefully) take less time to write.

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Spring - Day 2

Lyric was thinking deeply, her eyes fixed on the lifting, gentle hills far ahead. The flower path had ended, but they were still heading in the direction in which it had gone. Towards midnight, they'd slept a little (though, really, Lyric had been too nervous to sleep much); and now it was morning again.

It was Lilacgold's letter, the one that started this whole thing, that puzzled her. Who had scrawled the warning on the back of it: "Be careful! The hotel people won't harm you - but..." She was sure that Lilacgold hadn't written those sinister words, and the wind seemed to have taken the letter straight from Lilacgold to her, so who had added on that message? And it seemed that the same warning was on the other CBers' letters too.

A little gust of wind blew suddenly around her, returning her attention to the world around her. The ground was starting to rise into the hills, and the sky had clouded over. For just an instant, she had a premonition of danger - a feeling that made her look quickly at the horizon. Just for that instant, and then she saw it - the cloaked figure standing on the hill before them. He gave them a small, cold smile. "Yes. Your treasure hunt ends here," he said.

"What do you mean?" Poinsettia demanded angrily, her dark eyes flashing into the growing wind.

"You know, don't you? You can't possibly stand against us. You were fools to try. If you give in to us now, we'll send you all back to where you belong - CBers to Earth, the Lilacgold people back to their hotel. Are we agreed?"

"Why is this treasure so important to you?" Lyric asked suddenly, surprising herself - she wasn't usually one to speak up, especially in situations like this.

Miles frowned. "That's nothing you need to know."

"Then don't expect us to stop searching," Reuby said with ice in her voice, looking up at him where he stood on the hilltop.

Miles' eyes narrowed, and suddenly he raised something he'd been carrying. Lyric saw with a sudden chill that it was a bow. Run, something in her mind screamed. But before she could react, a shaft of sunlight pierced through the clouds and illuminated the little group. Lyric could feel the warmth of it surrounding her, and also felt that something was changing, shifting, appearing, underneath her. She glanced downwards almost involuntarily and saw that the trail of flowers had appeared again, leading directly to her right.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed something whizzing toward her, and she ducked instinctively. But before it could reach any of them, the arrow stopped abruptly and fell, as if it had come across a wall in the middle of its flight.

"Let's get out of here!" Luna exclaimed, and Lyric was only too glad to comply. The entire group set off as swiftly as possible along the path, leaving a fuming Miles to brood over his third failure to stop them. They were safe; it seemed arrows couldn't reach them as long as they were on the path.

About half an hour later, Darkvine saw that the path ended again. A little way away from its end was a small building of stone, almost like a miniature castle, but crumbling and old. And standing in front of it, looking straight along the path at them, was an old woman. She had pure white hair pulled back from her face and a dark blue dress, studded around the waist and hem with sparkling diamonds; but what Darkvine really noticed was her face. It was an oddly eagle-like face, full of wisdom and strenth, shaped by flight and winds; her dark, brilliant eyes were shrewd but proud and fiery, and there was a reserved welcome in them as well. As the last of the path faded from beneath the ponies' hooves, she came forward. "I'm glad you've managed to come," she said - there was a breath of power in her voice too, old though it was. "You'll be safe here for tonight, but tomorrow you'll have to go on and find the waterfall and the rainbow. Dangerous as it is, but once you'e come so far I doubt you can go back."

The perilous rainbow... Lyric caught her breath and slid off her horse. "Thank you," she said. "But - who are you?" Oh dear, I hope that wasn't rude.

The old woman smiled slightly. "I'm Rubywind," she said majestically, and in such a way that no one wanted to ask her more. After a moment the others dismounted and followed her inside.

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Oh dear, this part has taken me even longer than the last one :( At least it's long to (hopefully) make up for that. I'm so glad you've been enjoying it, and tysm for your remarks on my Middle-Earth solo write - it was so much fun to do :) I'm liking Rubywind myself - she turned out much more complex than I'd thought she would.

Also, I know that rainbows are sometimes linked to pride and all that... however, in this solo write I'm just referring to the natural phenomenon (with possibly some magic added in because the CBers are in a magical land, but that's all).

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Spring - Day 2

Luna leaned against the doorframe. The night air was cool and fresh, and overhead sparkled a thousand intricate stars and a thin luminous crescent of moon. A moon that was already directly above her. That meant it was already midnight...

Midnight, and they were still talking. Or had been talking; she realized that silence had fallen. She turned back to the golden glow within the room, closing the door softly behind her.

The CBers and the Lilacgolders were sitting around a table, looking at Rubywind; the imposing old woman was at the head of the table, and had for the past few hours been explaining to them who she was, and mostly refusing to tell them anything else. From what Luna could gather, she was an old, semi-magical being who had known the founder of Lilacgold; she knew something about the treasures of the hotel, and she had been the one who created the path under their feet just before Miles could loose his arrow.

She stood up now, the firelight casting an ethereal glow around her. "I've told you all I can or should tell you," she proclaimed. "Please. Everyone. You should rest."

"You're right," Miss Fern said quietly, but there was reserve in her voice too. "And I can only thank you again for helping us. But if we're here, we at least need to know what you meant by the waterfall and the rainbow. Where is this place where we're supposed to go tomorrow?"

"That, at least, is something I can tell you," Rubywind said with a cold graciousness. "Miles and his followers will trail you, and there's only one way you can escape them and still have a chance of reaching the treasure. Not too far away from here - if you go by the right route - is a waterfall, from which there always springs a rainbow. The rainbow's your path. Go straight onto it. It's a perilous path, but if you can make it, you're safe from Miles." She paused. "Or you can go back to Lilacgold."

For a moment North Star could feel Rubywind's dark eyes looking directly into hers, straight and searching as a thrown spear. She took a long breath. "We can't leave this quest," she said steadily. "Especially not when we don't know why Miles wants the treasure himself, or what he'll do with it."

The others murmured assent, and Rubywind looked around at them all once more. "I don't advise it," she said almost harshly, her expression far-away in the firelight. "I truly don't advise it. In these lands, rainbows might be a bit more than light and water vapor, but they're still dangerous." She paused suddenly, and shrugged. "Never mind. Do it, then. And be careful."

They stood silently for a moment; something in Rubywind's voice held them. Then Rubywind turned and walked out, and after a little the CBers left the table too and settled down for the night.

The next morning, on waking up, Reuby Moonnight discovered breakfast waiting and no Rubywind to be seen. "Where is she?" she wondered aloud, joining the others at the table.

"Where's who?" Darkvine asked. "Rubywind?... I have no idea. We haven't seen her."

Reuby's eyes narrowed slightly. How could Rubywind tell them to go to a waterfall, and then not tell them how to get there? Where was the old woman now? She hadn't seemed too friendly when she left them last night. Reuby pushed away the rest of her food - she wasn't hungry anyway - and stood up. "Come on. Let's get out of here," she said.

"Right now?" Miss Fern glanced up. "Reuby, I'm sure we're safe -"

"Maybe. We need to keep ahead of Miles anyway," Reuby said, surprised to find herself scrambling for some excuse. The straight truth was usually enough for her. Why was she trying to explain away her decisions?

At least, though, it managed to convince everyone; they all agreed to set out immediately, and about half an hour later actually started to do so. Rubywind still hadn't appeared.

Reuby swung onto her gray pony with a feeling of liberation. They were off again. Though off where, she wasn't sure. She looked ahead, through the forking ears of her mount, and felt disbelief rising up in her. "Look," she whispered. The trail of flowers was there again, leading straight away from the hut and glowing a little in the pale sunlight. Rubywind's doing, surely. But Reuby found it impossible to think that they shouldn't follow the magical path.

"It must lead to the waterfall," Hex said, looking along it with shining eyes.

Reuby, looking along it too, agreed silently. The waterfall... there was infinite promise in those two words. She urged her pony foward, the others following.

A little way along it, some feeling made her look back. Rubywind was standing in front of her hut as she'd done the first time Reuby saw her, looking after them with a little smile. And in that moment, Reuby knew why she hadn't wanted to admit her distrust of the old woman. It had been because she'd wanted to trust Rubywind - she had trusted Rubywind. That majestic gaze had held her as much as it had the others, and in it she had read the truth: Rubywind cared for them and wanted to help them.

Reuby lifted her hand briefly to the erect figure by the hut, hoping her momentary distrust would never be known. Then she turned, facing the horizons and the future.

***

They'd been riding for hours now. North Star glanced searchingly along the path - what was left of it. It was late afternoon, and the flower trail had long since vanished. The meadows, too, had given way to rocky gorges with narrow passages snaking between them. More than once now North had looked up and seen the dark gliding shape of a hawk or a vulture.

The way through the rocks that they were following twisted suddenly; North Star, turning the bend, stopped abruptly. Jagged, layered rock sloped steeply upwards in front of her; no pony, and no human, could scale that. "Oh, no," she muttered. What now?

Lyric came up beside her and stopped as she had done. "Oh. My. Gosh," she said bleakly, looking up at it. "Guys...? This is what they call a dead end."

The others came around the bend too, and saw what the situation was. "We could go back," Luna suggested without much hope.

North's gaze was caught, unexpectedly, by a thin pale sliver of somethng that ran down the rock some way to her left. "No. There might be a way there," she said quietly to Luna, wheeling towards it.

It was a path; narrow, steep, but a path. Maybe another of Lilacgold's signs? North Star thought as one after another of them scrambled up it. She reached the top of it herself, and inhaled deeply: there was a wet, wild scent in the air. And there was a rocky bank up ahead, and - no - a river? Poinsettia was ahead of her, and called back, "It's a river!! And it looks like it has a waterfall further along."

North Star joined her. It was a swift, tempestuous river, constantly catching itself on rocks and rising in little waves and rushing over itself. She glanced down it. Yes, it looked as if there was a waterfall there.

Hex - the last one up the trail - came up to her, and they and the others moved off in the direction the current was going in. North Star didn't feel as if she wanted to or had to speak, and the others were silent too; the spell, the power, the excitement of the river had gotten into them and was pulling them towards the rainbow. A perilous path, North Star remembered. But by now, she was fairly sure, there was no turning back.

Darkvine glanced upwards. The sky was blue - a blue more vivid than any she could remember seeing. She looked ahead again. And yes, it was there. The water dropped away suddenly; it appeared to merely end, like a length of ribbon cut short. Darkvine could see that there was a gentle slope to the bottom of the waterfall, though the cascade itself was enormous: she could hear its thousand thunderous voices, and as she drew nearer she could see the masses of water falling like shards of glass or crystal, dropping down powerful and unstoppable, and then foaming up again at the bottom.

Into a rainbow. She glanced at its pale, pure colors against the steep rocky bank, drawing nearer every moment as she started the descent to the foot of the waterfall. Their path. Something in it did seem dangerous - its fragility, the softness of its muted colors, the perfect arc that ended in unseen lands beyond this one - but it was danger shrouded in crystalline beauty. Surely there was nothing so like a vision, so much the stuff of dreams and fantasy and sunlight, as this.

"Stop them!" The shout rang out a little way ahead of her, echoing and re-echoing on the rocks. Darkvine shot a look ahead, and yes: there was Miles, one or two dark-cloaked figures behind him. "Not Miles here," Hex muttered behind her.

"Make a dash for the rainbow," Darkvine suggested with sudden decision, measuring the distance between them and the foot of the rainbow. Miles was not stopping them. Not here, not now, not yet. "It's our only chance."

"Right," Lyric said grimly beside her, and suddenly they were running: Darkvine could feel the swift galloping of the horse under her, had a glimpse of river and land and sky all caught up together in a textile of brilliant color, knew that Miles had loosed another arrow. Then she sensed a change in the movement of her pony - it was lighter, more airy, more springy - and saw a soaring, aerial path of colors stretching away before her, and knew that they had made it onto the rainbow.

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