Rannoch tales - The Fox and the Rainbow
The Schiehallion fairies visited the highest house in Rannoch where a girl was to be born. The girl was not yet born but even though the girl was still not a zygote the fairies could talk to her. Fairies can do anything they like. Here’s what they said -
“Would you like to be dyslexic?”
“Does it hurt?” (Even pre-zygotes can talk to fairies)
“Oh yes, it hurts a lot”, the Fairies said. “You won't be able to spell and everyone will think you are stupid”.
The girl thought for a moment (even a pre-zygote can think when talking to fairies)
and replied, “Why would I want that?”
“You won't be able to spell but we will give you the universe’s greatest power”, retorted the fairies.
“Is it more powerful than a volcanic eruption or an earthquake or a black hole or a nuclear explosion?”, she asked.
“So much more powerful that there is no comparison”, they said.
“What is it?”, she asked.
“Imagination”, they replied.
The girl saw that it was good - “Yes”, she said. “I want to be dyslexic”.
The fairies smiled and returned to the fairy laboratory deep within Schiehallion where they began to knit the DNA that they needed. Within the chamber they could be heard muttering,” knit one, pearl one, adenine, thymine, cytosine, guanine, cast off a codon, knit one, cast off”. So it went on until all the necessary chromosomes had been knitted and the special ‘anything-is-possible’ gene had been included.
“What shall we call this girl?”, asked the chief fairy. The assembled host spoke as one - “Spirit”.
When Spirit was seven (and she knew she always would be) she was sitting in Rannoch looking at Schiehallion when it started to rain but the sun was still shining. A rainbow formed and one end landed at Spirit’s feet. She hardly had time to glance at the sparkling colours when a glowing chestnut fox appeared at her side.
“Hello”, she said without surprise.”
When you have the world’s most powerful imagination there is no need for surprise. “What do you want?”
It was the fox who was surprised. “I’m going up the Rainbow, of course”.
“Why”, she asked.
“To get to Schiehallion, of course”.
“Tell me more”, said Spirit.
“Why do you think it is that you see so many fox prints on the mountains and yet you hardly ever see a fox in the Glen?
We foxes use the Rainbow bridges between the mountains. When a rainbow forms we have to rush to the bottom and waste no time in going up the steps. Look can you see them?”
She could.
“What happens when you get to the top?”, she inquired.
“Oh that’s easy”, he said. “We just slide down. We got our lovely chestnut colour from the colour rubbing off the rainbow. To go really fast we slide on our fronts with our legs sticking out and that is why we are white underneath because all the colours merge at speed and form white. Some of the other colours fly off and so that is why the sky is blue and the trees are green. One problem is that if the sun goes behind a cloud we fall. It's then that we can use our brushes (our bushy tails). If we wave our brushes from side to side it's like rowing through the air. We land with a thump but are not injured. In winter, if the rain suddenly becomes snow we can jump from snowflake to snowflake to reach the ground. If we are over water we just dive in and swim for the side. All going to plan we slide down to the next mountain.”
“You can do it as well”, said the fox.
“I know”, she said. “I can do anything. When you have imagination there’s no need for miracles because everything is a miracle.”
The fox went on its way to Schiehallion but she knew she would see him again.
Spirit raised a hand, grasped the passing breeze and floated to Kinloch Rannoch beach. She imagined a warm sunny day with the Loch Rannoch mirror calm. She was sleepy and lay on the warm rounded pebbles with her ear to the ground. She listened to the beating heart of Scotland and went to sleep.
She dreamed that the fox asked her - “Is this a children's story?”
“No”, she said. “It's not a story.”