A Tale of Gold and Greed (A Short Story)

I - The Gold

In a little village of Leprechauns, Hasheesh paced his courtyard hammering away at the shoe in his hand. Everyone was familiar and quote comfortable with the noise of hammer against shoe but the noise from Hasheesh was different. Croaker, his next door neighbour, couldn’t stand the noise any more. Shoe and hammer in hand, he walked out of his home and went to meet Hasheesh.

“Hasheesh! What’s the matter with you? You're ruining the rhythm of my hammering with your discordant tune.” He began.

Hasheesh continued pacing, hammering on as he did. Croaker wasn’t one to be ignored. He walked towards Hasheesh, transferred the hammer to his left hand and used his right hand to pull at him.

“I am talking to you. What is the matter?”

“The matter is that I can’t find my pot of gold.”

“What nonsense. Check the….”

“...end of the rainbow. Yeah, I did. I dug all around it. I even went two paces further and checked around. Nothing.” Hasheesh narrated as he returned to his hammering. Croaker, not knowing what to do, hammered along with him, following his tune.

Felicia was the smartest and mischievousness of all Leprechauns. She was making her way through with a some gold she had gotten when the discordant tunes jabbered into her ears. She walked to the duo and asked what was happening.

“Hasheesh here cannot find his pot of gold.” Croaker explained.

“Well, he certainly isn't going to find it here. He should go check…”

“...the end of the rainbow. He did. He found nothing.” Came the rejoinder.

Felicia thought hard for a while. “While don’t we go check it again?” She suggested. And so the three of them walked out of the village with Hasheesh leading the way. After a few minutes, Felicia and Croaker paused, puzzled by Hasheesh leading.

“Hasheesh!” Croaker called out. “Where are you going to?” He asked when Hasheesh turned back.

“To the end of the rainbow, of course.” Hasheesh replied confidently.

“No! The end of the rainbow is the other way. Check your compass.” Felicia countered.

Hasheesh looked at his compass. He was going in the right direction. He walked back to Felicia and Croaker to prove it to them.

“Here, look at it.” He said, showing them his compass.

Felicia collected it and examined it carefully for a long time.

“I think your compass is broken, Hasheesh. That is why you can’t find your pot of gold. You have been going to the beginning of the rainbow instead of the end.” Felicia explained. She then brought put her compass and signalled Croaker to do same. They both checked out. And so the three of them, using Felicia’s compass went to the end of the rainbow and Hasheesh found his pot of gold just where he had left it.

Hasheesh was elated. He hugged both Felicia and Croaker and then turned to count his gold. He relished the feel of each one in his hand.

“Now, it is time to get you a new compass.” Felicia announced.

“How do we do that?” Croaker asked, as Hasheesh was deeply engrossed, counting his gold.

“Leave that to me.” Felicia announced with a mischievous grin on her face.

II - The Greed

In the human city not far off from the Leprechauns’ village, Felicia walked into the shop and climbed up the counter. she then walked down the counter until she was directly in front of the attendant.

“I need a compass. Could you be kind to give me one? And I want something made of leather so when I shrink it, it still has a nice look. And some shrinking powder too. Just enough to shrink the compass to size.” She said

The attendant couldn’t believe her eyes. She was starring at a Leprechaun, a living Leprechaun.

“Hello! Are you…”

The attendant grabbed Felicia before she could finish her sentence and dropped her into an empty jar.

“Hey! What’s the deal? Let me out.” Felicia demanded.

“No! Not until you grant me three wishes.” Came the confident reply.

“Are you sure you want three wishes? Why don’t you just give me a compass and I’ll pay in gold.”

“I don’t want your gold. I want three wishes.”

“Aright, have it your way. Let’s hear them”

“First,” the attendant began twisting a strand of her hair with her finger. “I want to be very beautiful. So beautiful, anyone that sees me has to comment on how beautiful I am.”

“Okay.”

“And two,” She added, pacing around. “I want my whole life to be filled with gold.”

“Filled with gold. Okay. Be careful what you wish for.” Felicia cautioned, trying to hide a grin.

“Just grant me my wishes. Thirdly, I want a prince to stop by and take me to his palace. That’s all. Now grant me my wishes.” She demanded.

“You will get your wishes aright. Just give me what I came for and get me out of this jar.”

The attendant pulled Felicia out of the jar, dropped her on the counter and went to bring the requested items. Soon, she returned with a compass and some shrinking powder wrapped in paper. She sprinkled some of the power on the compass and the compass reduced in size. She then repeated the action again and again until Felicia said the current size of the compass was perfect.

“Now my wishes.”

Felicia picked up the compass, flashed a mischievous grin, waved her little finger on her left hand and jumped off the counter.

Three hours later, a prince was ridding by the shop and noticed the crowd that had gathered outside. He asked for what was going on and he was told about the golden statue. He went inside and saw the most beautiful gold statue he had ever seen in his life. Promptly, he asked his men to commandeer a cart. Using the cart, he carried the stature of the beautiful golden girl to his palace.

This is my entry for the Twenty-four hour short story contest for March 13--Topic 8--A Leprechaun can't find the gold at the end of the rainbow by @mctiller.

It was pretty hard as I’ve never heard of a ‘Leprechaun’. So I looked it up on Google and began to read the myths and legends of Leprechauns. Based on what I read, I did what I could do and let it be. I hope it was good enough.

Thanks for reading

Blessings

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