The Chameleon Shop

After an uncomfortable night on a cushioned seat near the fireplace, Kaylee woke, stretched stiffly and breakfasted on a muesli bar and apple she had in her backpack. She could hear Dougie snoring like an approaching train down the hall and didn’t want to trouble him.

Jett, after a full body lick, was looking majestic, alert and ready to go. The monkey was actually sitting quietly and well behaved for a change. He was on the table, putting on his best cute Labrador face.

‘Come on then, flea-bag.’ Kaylee laughed.

What began as a trail through the most beautiful garden Kaylee had ever seen gradually thinned, becoming more and more dry and barren as they walked towards the land of the Fire Realm. Rivers had become mere trickles and only tough grass and weeds now grew and even those sparingly.

Kaylee carried Willy the monkey on her shoulder with his long tail wrapped snugly around her waist. He was only tiny, so didn’t weigh any more than her backpack. She saw a shadow moving quickly across the grass in front of them and looked up in the sky to see the large white wings of a magnificent snowy owl.

What a truly beautiful creature it was. It must have been searching for mice or other small prey. It looked down and seemed to be staring unnervingly straight at her... but she was probably just imagining that, she thought

‘What’s happened here? Where have all the beautiful flowers gone?’ Kaylee asked, feeling an incredible aura of sadness descend upon her.

Jett pointed with his nose to the distant, snow topped mountain, where she could just make out a dark and gloomy, gothic-looking castle near the top. ‘Wilfrey!’ he said in angry tones. Before she could ask who Wilfrey was, Jett pointed with his nose to the fields on their right. ‘Except for that wide scorched black patch over there … that was the dragon; I guess someone round here upset her one day. She usually keeps to herself.’

‘When was that?’ Kaylee asked.

‘Oh must have been around six months ago,’ Jett said.

Six months? Six months ago her father died. Is it just coincidence? Kaylee wondered.

‘The stumps are courtesy of Wilfrey Hobbs,’ Jett continued and Kaylee looked at him confused.

’He blocked off the main tunnel through Mount Beaton and now the only way we get water or anything else we need by trade, is by going through him! And he keeps more than he sells.’

‘What a horrible, greedy … man?’ Kaylee said.

‘Yes, I guess you could call him a man.’ Jett replied.

‘Why did he do it?’ Kaylee asked as they plodded along the now dusty road towards the Fire Realm village.

’For power, dear child. He likes to be in control and make sure he has the most of anything we have. Some Guardian he turned out to be.’ Jett turned away, as though bitter with disappointment.

‘Guardian? What is a Guardian in this place?’

He turned back to Kaylee, having gained control of his emotions once more. ‘The Guardian is supposed to help keep order among the people of the Five Realms and make sure everyone is managing alright, helping those who are not. The trouble is he’s only interested in helping himself.’

‘So you have the Fire Realm. How many are there, did you say... another four?’ Kaylee asked.

‘You’re a very smart girl. See if you can guess?’ He stopped walking and sat observing her, his tail slowly waving back and forth, in thought.

Kaylee tapped her chin, ‘Let’s see, you mentioned water, so I guess there must be a water realm?’ Jett nodded. ‘And I saw those amazing floating islands, so what would that be? Wind or air perhaps? Then you need food, of course? But no, you wouldn’t have a food realm, what do you need to grow food?’ she asked herself. Jett waited patiently as she tapped her lip and walked in circles as she sorted her answers out. She stopped and grinned triumphantly, ‘Dirt! Or rather, Earth!’

‘Ha, ha! I knew you were a clever girl. The last one of the Five is Spirit. The Spirit Realm is where I have my lair hidden.’ Jett was impressed with Kaylee. He felt she was someone special and her presence here could be of significant importance to the Five Realms.

‘What does spirit give us that we need?’ Kaylee asked him.

‘Well, lots of things really, but one of the most important ones is ... love. For although you might not think you can see it, there is hardly a stronger feeling than love ... except, sadly on occasion, perhaps hate. But most people here choose the lighter path, fortunately.’

The pair sat for a rest on a couple of tree stumps by the side of the road and breathed the fresh air of the countryside. They watched the sheep and cattle in the paddocks that surrounded them.

The animals looked a bit thin, Kaylee thought, compared to the ones at the sale-yards at home. The grass was a bit dry here, in desperate need of water. There were streams here and there, but they were low, barely flowing. Like someone had dammed them up somewhere. Wilfrey, the likely culprit, she presumed.

As they moved on down the dirt road towards the Fire Realm, Kaylee thought to herself of those at home whom she loved and how much it hurt losing her father. Yes, Jett was right. Spirit was a very powerful thing. Love could heal hurts or, on the other hand, hurt very deeply. She knew that from personal experience.

Up ahead of them, she could see a small clearing in the middle of a group of evergreen trees. It was the last large area of forested land they would pass through before the town. There were fields upon fields of stumps surrounding this. It looked very barren and sad. Kaylee thought if they kept on like this, they would run out of trees altogether before long. What would they then do for wood to build houses, or for fires to keep warm?

She shook off these depressing thoughts, as she could now smell the scent of fragrant pine carried to her on the gentle breeze. Beneath a particularly large conifer, there sat a lovely Gypsy Wagon, its curved roof painted bright reds, yellows and blues. Near that, hobbled and grazing peacefully, stood a beautiful black and white horse with long white fringes on its legs and a mane of such splendour a supermodel herself would have envied it.

There was a fire burning merrily in a circle of rocks and a pot of something hot steaming over this. It smelled like chicken soup. Kaylee’s stomach rumbled loudly. All this walking had made her very hungry.

The woman had her back to them and was at this moment bent over the pot, stirring the soup with a huge wooden spoon. She stood up straight when she heard them, turning to greet them with a big warm smile.

‘Ah, there she is,’ Jett said, ‘Betina, my friend. Hope I find you well, this lovely afternoon?’

Betina looked to be somewhere around her mother’s age, (although anyone over twenty was old to Kaylee). She had long, thick, wavy black hair, tied back with a colourful lilac scarf and before Kaylee could stop her, Betina rushed forward and enveloped the surprised girl in a firm hug, smothering her cheeks with her ample bosom.

The spider monkey cunningly avoided the hug. When he saw Betina’s impending smothering, he leapt off Kaylee’s shoulder and onto the black and white horse, giving the poor animal a bit of a fright. However, the little creature on its back appeared harmless, so the horse ignored it and carried on munching grass. Willy began to pick through the horse’s mane, searching for more tasty creepy crawlies.

‘Hello, child. I’ve been expecting you. Come, come, sit and share a meal with me,’ Betina said, as she finally let Kaylee ─ cheeks blushing crimson ─ free from her clutches. She quickly dished up a couple of bowls of soup for Kaylee and Jett then joined them by the fire.

When they had eaten, Betina led Kaylee and Jett up small steps into her pretty gypsy caravan. There were shelves on the walls, packed with an assortment of glass bottles; blue, green and yellow with round stoppers on top. ‘Herbs,’ Betina told Kaylee. ‘I get them from the Spirit Lands to help people when they are hurt or sick.’

She ushered Kaylee to a big soft cushion on the floor and sat back down on her own cushion before her crystal ball on a box in the centre. The crystal ball looked like clear solid glass, but had a swirl of what looked like smoke drifting ghost-like within it.

Betina had known Kaylee had come to their lands, though not precisely why. ‘You seek something very special, I can feel it in here.’ She gently placed three fingers on Kaylee’s chest around the place Kaylee’s heart would be.

‘Yes, I agree,’ Jett said to Betina, as he sat on the cushion between them. ‘I felt it too.’

Kaylee looked up and said, ‘Well, now that you ask, yes, I do want something. I want my father back.’ She blurted that out, surprising herself. ‘But that can’t happen, he...’ She gulped back the tears. ‘They told me he died a few months ago, in a mining accident.’

‘Oh, I see. How very sad. I’m so sorry to hear that, Kaylee.’ Betina said, patting the girl’s shoulder gently. ‘Yet, for some reason I feel he is still nearby, still close to you? Maybe his spirit is lingering – unfinished business? Or perhaps there is another purpose for your being here ... and it will become clear to us in time.’

‘But my mother will be out of her mind with worry by now. I have to find a way to get back. Can you help me, please?’ Kaylee remembered the iron key in her backpack. She slipped the pack off her back and dug it out handing it to the beautiful gypsy woman. ‘I have this ... I think this is how I got here.’

Betina nodded, running her fingers over the delicate Celtic design admirably. ‘Ah, yes this metal work looks familiar.’ She looked up at Jett, her face serious, then at Kaylee. ‘You must go talk to the gnomes of Mount Beaton. They should know how you came by one of their keys. But, heed my warning, Kaylee. You will have to go carefully, my dear, for there are dangers beneath that mountain which dwell in the honeycomb caves. The caves of the tunnel which Wilfrey’s crone blocked with a giant wasp nest, years ago.’

Great! Giant flying bugs! Kaylee did NOT like the sound of that. Not one bit. Her face grew pale and afraid.

‘Don’t worry,’ Jett put a comforting paw on her arm, ‘I’ll come with you.’