A Glimmer Of Hope

• Nabihah Mohamed Ajwath, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2022

Faith’s eyes watered, astounded by the beauty of this unknown place.

Soft, iridescent leaves lined the path she had traipsed on. The deep, meaningful azure waters seemed to bask in the sunlight, reflecting the newly created rainbow. The water shone like an opal gem, blue, green, pink, purple, every single colour had reflected on its crystal-clear surface.
“But how?” she whispered softly, her voice as quiet as the cool breeze rushing through the crack between the looming figures of the mountains, sending a tingling sensation to her skin. “How could I have found the place my ancestors have been dying to find for centuries? The end of the rainbow?”
Tears were streaming down her soft, velvety cheeks, making ripples where it had touched the fluorescent lake.
“I will find that opal gem!” she said determinedly, her voice rising. “I have to! My dear sister died trying to find it! I must finish what she has started!”
Faith started to run, touching stones and rocks that were beyond the lake, in hopes of a secret door to the legendary opal gem. Her fingers slid against a thorn weed, and she winced in pain, but she continued to search, searching for that tiny thread of hope.
“Mother, father, everyone, I will bring the family fortune! I will stop our family from being hungry! I will sell this gem for a bounty so that we can finally eat what we had dreamed of eating, lamb!” she almost shouted as she continued to find a hidden door.
And then her hands gripped on a special rock, one that was rainbow coloured like the great rare opal. She pressed on it, and the mountain ahead of her began to open, revealing a chasm. She ran towards the dark chasm and made a makeshift torch at the mouth of the cavern.
She silently gasped as she saw what brimmed the border of the chasm, and she was filled with nameless dread.
Find the way to the opal if you dare, meet despair when you see fair.
She walked as quietly as she could, yet she could still hear her footsteps echoing through the cavern. She gulped. She had started to feel the walls close in and tried to calm her claustrophobia.
Then, when she had reached a dead end, she tightened her palm against the ragged stick of a makeshift torch she had made on the way in through the chasm. Faith’s eyes darted to another verse written down in the cavern.
“Feel the wrath of one of orange hair, see the spirits in this chasm that did the dare.”
At this verse, she felt a sudden pang of recognition as this verse reminded her of someone. Someone, who was very important to her. But she couldn’t quite grasp who.
There was a sudden cacophony of noises, as a translucent girl about her size burst out from the verse, which was suddenly growing orange.
Tears streamed down Faith’s cheeks as she suddenly saw who it was.
Her sister.