Once upon a time in Rainbow Valley, there lived a little chameleon named Coco. Every day was a special day because I had friends of all colors and shapes. There were birds, butterflies, flowers, and even stones in all hues you can imagine.
Here, everyone was accepted, and everything was loved. We appreciated our differences, and that was what made life in Rainbow Valley so beautiful.
On one such sunny day, while playing hide and seek with my friends, I noticed someone who didn’t belong to us. He was covered from head to toe in pitch-black fur and had huge green eyes that glowed. The most curious thing about him was that he was a bear, who had a patch of broken black fur right in the center of his forehead that bore an uncanny resemblance to the letter Y, a small white reptile curled up beside him. He was all alone in our vibrant valley that was filled with colors. I felt it was my duty to welcome him.
“Hi there! I’m Coco! Do you want to play?” I said cheerfully.
He looked at me haughtily and replied, “I don’t play with you colorful and joyful creatures; I like things to be black and white.”
“Come now! I’m sure in your heart you love colors just like any other creature. I’m sure you’ll meet a color that will make you happy.”
He growled. “All colors are useless bits of nonsense, and I shall soon wipe your tears of joy. I love only black and white,” he said and slapped his paw down on the ground.
At that very moment, all colors in Rainbow Valley vanished, replaced by an eternal monotone of black. The sun turned dull and gray, the trees stood still, their colors stripped away. My playful friends also stopped as they began to notice the dreadful change around us. I felt my heart sink. It seemed our colorful lives were over. I had to do something, but what? The whole valley pleaded with me. I needed to address the challenge and prove to the black and white bear + the reptile that there was beauty in diversity. Standing tall with my heart racing, I said, “Friend! Look around you. All the rainbow colors shine on bright things. You know it isn’t the colors that shine; it is the objects they light up that shine.”
He cursed the colors and yelled, “I like my world black! That’s how it’s meant to be.” Then a voice although trembling and low agreed with him: “There, you see! Why be so silly as to want things to shine? What’s the use of life itself, which is so much better when the wind whistles through it? So stay quiet, old fellow. Light is of no account at all.”
“But heard you not that where no light shines there is no life?” I exclaimed. “A thing got to show where it is, otherwise how can we know anything about it? Won’t you pray? You know not what that’s like in Rainbow Valley. May life and light come back again to all of us.” And as I prayed to the Founder of the World, I sang:
“Light of life and light of the world,
Shine on us, dear Father, shine,
So that we mad things cease to be wild,
And our hearts shall rejoice in their kind.”
The wind began to moan. “You are wrong,” it said; “something is the matter. I think life is bound to come to us again.”
“Oh yes! yes! I feel it! I am looking forward to a bright, light-colored day,” whispered a flower that had not lost her voice.
“Life to the right! Lights to the left!” commanded the bear. But the assistant merely replied: “Don’t you feel it coming?”
At that moment, I was wholly astonished by hearing the loudest thump I had ever heard. Plump! The colors rushed in again with a boom, and lo, here was Rainbow Valley in all its life and beauty once more. The colors shone brighter and more splendid than ever.
“I knew it! Yes, yes! I do feel it coming!” murmured the whole flora, the forest, the valley, the stone, and the trees in chorus.
“So I must bear the annoyance of colors and lights,” whispered the villain suffering with his nearest neighbor, and they flitted away like a gloomy gust of wind.
“Silly folks! Were they to let colors shine?” thought the cock and hushed up, cackling.
So the sun, the rainbow, and the stars were glad about it, and they closed the Gay and Flower’s love-feast with the cock’s “Kikeriki,” and said about the valley: “Now all our friends are back again.”