The Leprechaun and the Gremlin
THE LEPRECHAUN AND THE GREMLIN
There are always consequences to staying up too late. For most of us, that might mean feeling a bit crabby the next day, wearing sweatpants when the sun is out, or sleeping past breakfast and missing important hours of playtime. But if you’re the child of the Man in the Moon and the Lord of Light like the Leprechaun, then the consequences can be dire – especially if you’re so tired that you fall asleep with your eyes open and your shadow escapes.
Being magical, the Leprechaun has a magical shadow that is capable of phasing in and out of matter. As such, it always enjoyed playing tricks on people stepping over him. Or when the Lord of Light gets ready for bed in the evening and it gets long and slender, it likes to pretend to be a scary giant on the sides of buildings, dance in the forest treetops with the squirrels, and steal the colors from the world. And that last bit is actually an important job. Without his shadow’s mischievous larcenies, the Leprechaun couldn’t make rainbows bloom in the sky. And without rainbows, as you probably know, the flowers can’t choose their colors.
Most shadows are really attached to their people. And really, it’s the luckiest job a shadow can have. With how much people move about and the clever things they can do with their hands, people’s shadows are always coming up with fun things to do, and they’ve really turned the copycat game into an artform. They’re so fast and precise at it that no one could be blamed for thinking that they’re in control of their shadow. People and their shadows wake up together every morning, explore the world, and go to bed at the same time. (Shadows need a good night’s rest - just like the rest of us.) And besides, what would a shadow be if it was all alone?
Well, in the case of the Leprechaun’s shadow, the answer is a Gremlin. If you’re not familiar with Gremlins, let me tell you, keep them away from your toys! Especially machines and electronics. They love to take things apart and they rarely put them back together again. They’re naughty little tricksters and they get into everything.
When the Leprechaun woke up, he was a bit groggy from staying up all night and playing games with his dad the Man in the Moon. He didn’t realize his shadow had escaped. It was already late in the day and the Leprechaun was feeling a little rushed to do all the things that he needed to do, so he gave his dad a big hug and jumped on the Swan Chariot to get back home to Magicalena.
“First things first,” the Leprechaun said to the faded flowers, “I’ll dial up a rainbow and bring back some lovely lusters!” The Leprechaun raised his hands to the sky and… nothing. “Well,” he said to himself, “that’s weird.” He danced a little jig and did some heel clicks to rev up his rainbow magic, raised his hands to the sky again and… nothing! Some birds nearby started laughing at him and called him a sil-silly-dum-dum. He gave them the stink eye and that’s when he noticed that his shadow was missing! He spun around in circles looking for him until he got so dizzy that he couldn’t stand it anymore. He began to panic.
He did the only thing he could think of doing and called his mom the Lord of Light. While it’s true that most parents have superpowers for finding things, the Lord of Light is in a class of her own. She may have terrible night vision due to her zinc deficiency, but during the day she shines on everything. It didn’t take her long to spot the Gremlin and tell her son where to go.
Gremlin knew that the only way that he could truly escape was if no one was looking for him. Nothing hides from the Lord of Light for very long, but he had a plan. Using the quicksilver moonlight before the dawn, the Gremlin forced himself through a crystal prism and refracted into seven colorful copies that, when combined, form the superimposer Roy G. Biv the Color Spectrum Sprite.
The Gremlin had to return to being the Leprechaun’s shadow and was sewn back on with the finest threads of sunlight – which was fine, he figured. He liked the job most of the time. But as for the colorful Gremlins, they’re still out there messing with stuff…