* * * The Jewel World - Page 8

Seeing that there was food to be served, Kicker took over. She gave each of the girls the bright colored Rainbow food. Then served herself. 

"What is it?" asked Merkeeta. Merkeeta was picky and food, and liked to eat grains and fruits, not strange colored jellies. JenJen sniffed at her plate, and then tasted some. Her eyes lit up with enjoyment.

"Oh. Yummy. This is great." She said as she quickly ate. 

The other girls copied her and they thought the food was really good. The colorful food was wonderful and tasted better than pastries and candies. The girls ate until they were full and then rested on the bank of the crystal stream. 

Kicker leaned back with a smile and said, "I love Rainbow and I never want to leave it." 

Katya agreed as she got all cozy, and curled up for a nap.  

"I don't know," Merkeeta said as she looked around. She was bored with sitting and started jumping back and forth on the stones which connected the two sides of the stream. 

"I'm starting to feel bored with Rainbow. "I love it too, but I don't want to stay here forever. It's pretty, but then what?"

JenJen nodded in agreement. 

"Yeah, after you've walked around, collected golden shells, yelled into the echo tunnel, then what do you do?" she asked. "And how do you get out of here?" 

She looked over to where the Emerald Queen once again stood. JenJen asked the pretty Queen. 

"Your Highness, how do we get out of Rainbow?"

The Queen of Emeralds looked at each of them and answered, "My children, that is for you to find out."

Jen and Merkeeta looked at each other. They frowned because they didn't like that answer. But when they frowned, their foreheads hurt. So they tried not to frown as it was painful.

Jen asked again, "Your Majesty, can you at least give us a clue on how to leave Rainbow?"

With that question the Emerald Queen faded away into a green mist. Jen had a scary thought that they would never get out of Rainbow. But with each scary thought she felt her heart freeze with cold. So instead, she tried to remember how delicious the food had been. 

Merkeeta crawled over to JenJen whispered in her ear. "What if we are trapped in Rainbow and never get out?" she whispered. "I think we may be stuck here forever." 

Katya's ears perked up. "Hey, what are you two whispering about over there? All I heard was Whooch, whooch, whooch."

JenJen signaled "Shhh."

"We think we may be trapped in here." Merkeeta whispered into Katya's ear. "We need to figure out how to escape. [Press Extra Button]