Fern’s Precious Jewels

Once upon a time, Fern was sitting on the couch sorting her jewels on the coffee table. She was sorting them by color in rainbow order.

She had one necklace made out of diamonds and emeralds. She had a tiara that had little glinting sapphires among all of the diamonds. Almost all of her jewelry had one or two diamonds; There was a bracelet that had rubies and pearls on it, and there was another necklace that was also made out of rubies. She had an anklet that was made out of amber with a matching tiara as well. She wore her bracelets on her front paws and anklets on her back paws. She also had a crown inset with emerald and aquamarine beryl gems. And an amethyst ring.

But her favorite item was a big, beautiful, magnificent choker that had all of the gems you could think of on it; it had diamonds and emeralds, sapphires and rubies and pearls, and amber, aquamarine beryl, amethysts, pink beryl, and in the middle, the most precious gem of all, was the famous Allnatt yellow diamond. She couldn’t wait to wear it when Tsunami’s family came over for dinner tonight. But for now she couldn’t decide how to sort it because it had all of the colors of the rainbow. She decided to put it in the yellow pile because the center featured a yellow diamond.

Her second favorite jewelry was a pair of earrings which had beautiful, smooth, sparkly, polished emeralds in the center. Her most special jewelry was a necklace made out of amber, emeralds and diamonds.

She would wear her jewelry to ceremonies or if there was a special guest coming over, like Tsunami’s family.

One time for Halloween she was a queen and wore the jewelry for trick-or-treating. She had loved how everyone commented and pointed at her when she walked past.

Another time she wore her jewelry for Christmas because there was a show and she was the queen in it also.

As she was thinking about these good times, Fern noticed an anklet that she hadn’t seen before. It was astounding, made of silver inlaid with amber, sapphire and pearls. Fern looked at it for a bit before she picked it up and put it on.

There was a sudden flash of white light and to her amazement, Fern found herself floating in the air. At first she was kind of scared, but then she realized that she could still control her movements. She started to experiment with her new power:

When she swished her tail back and forth she went forward, and she could use it to turn as well. When she wagged her tail down, she went up, and when she wagged it up, she went down.

Fern was so amazed and surprised! “This is awesome!” she exclaimed. She noticed that her anklet was glowing. “That’s funny,” Fern thought.

Suddenly there was another flash of light and she dropped down on the sofa. “What happened?” Fern blinked. “Why did I drop down? Did I do something wrong?” She looked down and realized that her anklet was no longer glowing. “Maybe the anklet glows only when it is giving some of its power to the person wearing it. Maybe it only glows when you actually need it. Maybe this was the first time it glowed because it needed to show me its power. Maybe it’ll glow when I actually really need it. Maybe I’m right.”

Fern looked at the anklet. “Where can I put this without losing it?” Fern thought. About ten minutes later after a lot more thinking Fern decided to keep it on. “Maybe one day, when I really need it, it will glow.”

She looked at all the jewelry laid out in a rainbow pattern on the coffee table. Then she went to the garage and got one of her sorting boxes. She had a bunch of these boxes because she loved to sort stuff. This particular box had exactly seven sections. Fern quickly finished sorting her jewelry and put each of the piles into the container.

She brought the container up to her room and put it on a shelf. At that moment, the doorbell rang. Fern heard Mama Leopard running down the steps to answer the bell. She put on her favorite choker and the amber tiara along with her favorite emerald earrings.

Fern went out of her room and into the bathroom. There she polished her claws, cleaned her teeth, brushed her fur with her furbrush, and adjusted her jewelry in the mirror. Then she went down the hallway and stood at the top of the steps.

Looking down, she could see Queen Anemone, King Shark and Princess Pearl all together talking with Mama Leopard on the couch. Tsunami was sitting on the rug, she must have come in with her family. The King and Queen looked exactly as Fern had expected; Queen Anemone had a magenta tail and King Shark was a deep green color. Pearl looked exactly like Tsunami but a little bit smaller and instead of a deep blue tail, hers was violet.

Fern went down the steps and bowed to the King and Queen.

“Hello Your Majesties.” She said as politely as she could. “Would anyone like some tea?”

“Yes please.” said Queen Anemone and everyone agreed.

After tea, Fern asked “Would you like to see our garden?” and they all went into the backyard.

“It is wonderful,” said Queen Anemone.

“Hey Fern” Pearl asked, “Do you want to play tag?”

“Of course!” Fern laughed, “that’s my favorite game!”
Suddenly Pearl jumped toward her and touched her shoulder. “Tag! You’re it.” Fern jumped up and ran off after Pearl, still laughing. After a little bit, Tsunami joined in and they enjoyed a fun game.

Too soon, Mama Leopard announced that it was time to go inside to eat dinner. They had prepared a special meal for everyone, and when they went to the dining room they immediately sat down to have the best dinner they had ever had.

Once they were seated, Pearl, who was sitting next to Fern, said “I really like your choker and Tiara.”

“Thanks” Fern said shyly, “I love your pearls also.”

“Thanks,” Pearl replied. Pearl was wearing a strand of shimmering pale teal pearls with a seashell and coral tiara. “I love Jewels” she added.

“Me too,” Fern said

“Fern,” Tsunami asked from across the table, “what are we having for dinner?”

“Taro soup, Pato no Tucupi, maniçoba, roasted cassava, with Bolinho de Macaxeira to start. And then there’s going to be a dessert, which is cacao ice cream with mango.” Fern replied.

“Wow!” exclaimed Tsunami “that’s a lot of food!”

Suddenly Mama Leopard came out of the kitchen, carrying the appetizer, which was the Bolinho de Macaxeira. She set the fried balls on the table and went back to the kitchen. She came back out with bowls of Taro soup for everyone, went back in again and got even more food. She also got a lot of veggies and fruits. Soon the table was so crowded that it looked like a dream come true. They all stopped talking as they began to eat.

After dinner, everyone had left. Fern got into bed, turned out the lights, and went to sleep smiling, sure she was going to dream about flying through the sky.

The End.