Rainbow's End - Wizard by Corrie Mitchell

turned thoughtful. ‘He brought a photo-album with him. Maybe… I think I’ll look in on him tonight.’
     
    The children saw them coming and some left the water, running to meet them, clutching and touching at their summer-dresses and their hands; all jabbering at the same time. The two women laughed and joked, and held their hands and twirled and danced with them until they reached the pool’s bank; then Annie stuck two fingers in her mouth and whistled, loud enough to put a stationmaster to shame. Frieda and she began gesturing and waving at the children still in the water to come out, and the disappointment on their faces made Annie laugh.
    ‘We should have brought ice- cream!’ she shouted at Frieda.
     
    *****
     
    They’d left the forest and were stopping at the various pools; Big John explaining their purpose, if any. There was the “Gem Pool”. Thomas could see the actual stones strewn over its bottom, glittering blue and red and green - just as they did against the cave walls. The “Golden Pool” - the water had a golden tint due to the thousands of nuggets on its sandy bottom; some just flakes, others as large as Big John’s fist. ‘Both pools fund Rainbow’s End’s day to day existence,’ John explained as they continued up the silver chain of the river, passing the “Fishing-Pool” (where the children fished - what else?).
    The next pool was very still, and Thomas thought, very deep. Several weeping willows stood on both its banks; under one, a wooden bench. Big John sat down and patted the space next to him.
    ‘I call this “John’s Pool”,’ he said, after Thomas had sat down. His eyes were serious. ‘I come here when I need to be by myself: When I need time out… time to think.’ He picked up a small stone and skimmed it over the deep green water: quiet then, and at peace with himself.
     
    After a while: ‘There were gods once… I think there still are. Or superior beings - call them what you will.’ John shrugged. ‘Powerful beings capable of feats and things, and thoughts and concepts, impossible to us mortals; things… actions…we cannot begin to grasp…’ He looked at Thomas for understanding, then back at the pool.
    ‘A long time ago - many hundreds of years, maybe thousands - in a different planetary system, one such god lived on a planet very much like the Earth. He ruled with wisdom and love, and his people were happy and prospered. For many centuries. Then he fell in love. With a mortal; a normal flesh and blood woman.
    ‘ Like Annie, or Frieda,’ John interrupted himself, smiling at Thomas; then continued. ‘He asked to be allowed to marry her, and knowing he would do so in anyway, the council of gods eventually gave the union their go-ahead. But not their blessing. And put a price on it.
    ‘Karan - that was the god’s name - would stay a god, but he would lose his immortality. He would still rule his world, but he would age, albeit slowly, and eventually die. This was done to discourage others… other gods, from attempting the same folly. Karan agreed - such was his love for Kyrstyn, the mortal woman, and they married.
    ‘Their love was a wonderful thing and no two beings were ever happier.  Everywhere they went, they went together; and everything they did, they did together. The world they were in prospered further and two children were born to them. Twins: a boy and a girl. They called them Kraylle and Ariana.
    ‘But…’ Big John looked at Thomas again. ‘There’s always a “but”, isn’t there?’ His smile was sad. ‘Anyway… As always, there were the malcontents. People who deem themselves superior to others: more on par with gods than mortals - some imagine themselves capable of achieving even more than gods…’
    Big John paused and when he continued again, his voice had become softer, sombre. ‘There is a way to kill a god… They found it - the malcontents - and one day, after leading Karan and his wife into an ambush, they killed him.