The end!!! Bingo, we got to the final chapter!!! Hope you love it. Still not sure if I'm entirely satisfied with it, but! But, but, but. It neatly bookends the story. Enjoy!!!
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Robin stumbled down the steps from the throne. He just wanted to go home. He wanted to wake up and find it was a dream…but he didn’t, he didn’t wake up because this wasn’t a dream. Robin stopped still in the doorway. He rested a hand against the distorted doorframe.
Beyond their lay his friends, Beauregard was gone, his uncle, Miss Piggy, Gonzo…he didn’t know what had happened to them. The Rainbow brushed past him, moving out the door ahead. Robin followed, dragging his feet.
He reached the head of the stairs, where Beauregard was. The brave brown figure lay still. A breath of breeze moved through his hairs. Robin knelt beside him. The tears that hadn’t come before, came now. Robin balled his fists against his face, rubbing away the salt-tears, but they didn’t stop.
The Rainbow and connected hearts hovered close, and Robin saw them there. His tears dried, as he rose to his feet. He stepped back, away from Beau, and from the rainbow. “It’s your fault,” he said suddenly. “Get away from me, it’s your fault.”
The Rainbow turned towards him. Robin shook his head. “It’s your fault!” he shouted. “There all gone.”
The Rainbow seemed to stop still for a moment, then flowed quickly back into the hearts. Robin stared at the empty space. The joined hearts floated down to his height, and a floor of light formed around them. The Rainbow light grew and formed into the figure of a person. Its features were incomplete, but it stood erect and it’s arms hug at its side. It could be female or male, man or woman. The colours of the rainbow touched every part of it’s skin.
“Young Robin Frog,” the Rainbow said. Its lips moved, but the echoey voice didn’t match the sync. “There are things I must tell you, things you must know. Many many times ago the rainbow was formed. I was given a job, to watch the creatures of Reanbu. I feared for my existence, for it would not be many times before they would grow old, and forget me. I called for one man who would carve the five wooden hearts.”
The Rainbow took hold of the hearts in its partly-formed hands. “Into the hearts I poured a division of myself, for I knew that one day I should be unable to protect myself against they, and when I was gone then endings would come. And I thought I could stop the progress of time by taking time from all Reanbu and locking it in a heart of its own, with it I locked a part of myself to protect it from me and me from it and they from it and me. In another I placed a power of life, a sustaining energy. Each had its part to play, and each was there for when the time came, that Time should come and escape me or I should be destroyed. For I knew it would come to pass that when I was destroyed, one such as yourself could find the Hearts, bring them together. For when the energy force of each heart would come together, the power of myself would be restored, as it has been.”
“Lucky you,” Robin said, still backing from the walking bow. “You’re back, but what of us? My friends? My family? What sacrifice…” He choked up and couldn’t go on.
The Rainbow took hold of the Hearts, and placed one hand over the Heart of Life. Gently, lovingly, he pulled it away. “This is for you,” he said, holding it towards Robin.
“I don’t want you hearts,” Robin said. “I want my family.”
The Rainbow turned its soft eyes towards Beauregard. Robin reached forward and placed his hand on the Heart of Life. “You can live without it?” he asked quietly.
A nod. “For I shall certainly restore the time,” he said. “With love and time and the rainbow.”
Robin walked towards Beau. He crouched beside him and stroked his face. “Wake up Beauregard,” he said. Robin held the Heart and rested it upon Beau’s chest. For a moment it lay in that place, then it seemed to seep down through the fur and skin, dissolving down into Beau’s body.
Robin sat back. A shuddering breath filled Beau’s lungs. His eyes blinked open.
The Rainbow stepped up behind Robin, and took his hand. Robin looked up into the Rainbow’s eyes. “Thank you,” Robin whispered.
“No, thank you,” the Rainbow said. And time rolled back. Dust rose from floors, brilliant light poured through windows. The magnificent arches, pillars, and walls restored, rising up, great once more. The Throne straightened. Ceiling returned.
Time rolled back. Grey dust swirled, forming familiar bodies. Two brown paws clung together, eyes opening, husband and wife. Wrinkled skin formed tight across bones, then smoothed into a soft face, long golden-blonde hair returned, and blue eyes glistened. Cracks in glass grew together. Stripy socks rose, and grey skin turned to red fur. A brown dog rose from the ground. Samuel Eagle felt young and refreshed, his feathers new and clean. Brother and sister. Kermit’s face formed and his eyes burst from the surface growing into perfect frog’s eyes. Gonzo’s face re-formed, his eyes first, then his nose shooting out from the blue skin.
Robin the Frog watched his hands shrink. He felt himself falling as he returned. He touched his collar with a finger and felt it melt away. He would miss it.
The Rainbow rose through ceiling and sky. Its human form spread, fingers joining. High above Reanbu it arched into a brilliant blue, bird-filed sky. And it wrapped the Heart of Time back in itself. Time was not needed there.
Inside the castle, a black machine melted, dissolving into the atoms of energy from which it was created. The Rainbow would not leave something so dangerous for others to misuse. In the throne room the body of an elderly lady lay still. The pink skin was wrinkled, purple eyes dull, fingernails long and aged.
*****
Robin was woken by the bright sunshine on his face. He leapt out of bed, with a feeling of something, something he couldn’t quite place.
He headed out into the corridor and waited in line for the bathroom. Ahead of him Floyd was having a heated debate with FooFoo, laying down the law about not chewing slippers.
Robin leant against the wall and closed his eyes. Everything was normal then. There had been nothing to worry about. He slipped his hands into the pocket of his dressing gown. “Huh?” he said. “What’s…” He pulled something out of his pocket. It was a small Wooden Heart. Robin frowned.
*****
“Uncle Kermit, Uncle Kermit.” He ran across the stage at the Muppet Theatre towards his uncle.
“Er, Robin, I’m kinda busy right now.”
“But uncle Kermit.”
“Yes, Robin?”
“What’s on the other side of the rainbow, Uncle Kermit?”
A strange shadow passed over Kermit’s face, like a distant memory. “I don’t know, Robin. It just part of a song.”
“Oh.” Robin’s voice sounded disappointed. “Is that all?”
“Yes, Robin, that’s all.”
*****
Miss Piggy’s dressing room door was covered in pink hearts, and yellow stars. Robin knocked quickly. “Miss Piggy. Are you in there?”
“Who is it?”
“It’s Robin, are you there?”
“Well, yes, but…” The door cracked open and a snout emerged. “What do you want?”
“I wanted to ask you about the Rainbow,” Robin said. “What’s on the other side?” He saw it in her face too, a shadow of doubt, then a decision.
“Look, Robin. Can we talk later, sweetie. Miss Piggy’s had a bad hair day.” And the door closed.
Robin sighed and headed to find Rowlf. Rowlf would know, or understand.
*****
Beauregard was tired. He'd been awake half the night with a weird dream, and he'd found a wooden heart in his bed when he woke. It had been jabbing him in the back all night, uncomfortable, and probably keeping him from sleeping.
Everyone was busy, but Beau just wanted to sit. He settled on the sofa, and flipped through TV channels. There was a report of flooding in a cave in Australia, but that wasn’t even exciting.
A hand rested on the back of the sofa, and a fond voice spoke, interupting his thoughts. “Mind if I join you?” Rowlf asked, his big eyes fixed on the wooden heart that Beau held.
"Er, sure," Beau said. "I can move if you'd like."
"No, no, stay. I wanted to talk to you."
“Okey," Beau said. He pushed the wooden heart into his pocket.
"Well now, my friend," Rowlf said. “I’ve not been around for this many doggy years to not tell when someone’s down. And you are down. What’s up, Beau?”
Beau blinked at that, wondering for an instant how something could be up if it was down. “I had a weird dream…at least, I'm thinking it was a dream. About me, and Robin, and you, and everyone. We were on the other side of the rainbow," Beau said. He thought hard to remember it exactly. “Do you know what happened?”
Rowlf’s eyes smiled with knowledge. He shook his head. Robin Frog had said pretty much the exact same thing when he had come to speak to Rowlf only ten minutes before. “Nope,” Rowlf said. “I really don’t know." But it had to have been something. Beau, Robin, the hearts, and a distent foggy memory of his own told him there was something that had happened. "But I know someone who does,” Rowlf went on.
“Really? Who? How?”
“How does he know?” Rowlf said. “Because, Beauregard, Robin was there.”
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