Dreams of Stars (A Once Upon a Time/Jiminy Cricket fanfic)

Dreams of Stars Part 10

Kaelin thought she felt something poking her cheek. She squeezed her eyes more tightly shut and tried to brush it away, but it persisted. Then she heard an urgent, familiar voice: "Kaelin...Kaelin!"

Opening her eyes with a gasp, Kaelin sat up abruptly. For a moment, the world seemed to be spinning around her, and she didn't know where she was. Then she realized she was sitting in the wet grass beside a small, wooden house. The house was in a village. Looking around a little more, she understood that she was sitting there beside her own house. For a moment, she felt a horrible sinking in her stomach as she wondered if her entire quest had been a dream. But, then, that didn't make sense. She wouldn't have gone to sleep right outside her house instead of in it.

"Kaelin," came the urgent whisper again, and Kaelin looked down quickly to see a dark green cricket.

"Archie!" she gasped happily, picking him up and hugging him as well as one could hug an insect. She held him out in front of her. "What happened? I..." Her memories from the past few days were slowly coming back to her, but they were still foggy, like memories of dreams. "The rainbow!" she gasped, "We made it! But, I...I couldn't..." Horror slowly enveloped her, and she shook at the realization that she had failed. "I couldn't reach the star. I fell. But how did we get here?"

"Can't say I'm entirely sure," Archie replied, "When you passed out, we started sliding down the rainbow, and I held on to you. But the farther we slid, the more sleepy I became, and...I'm sorry, Kaelin, I couldn't keep from falling asleep. When I woke up again, we were back here. I think there must've been some kind of enchantment on the road to protect against unwanted visitors—if you start falling, you end up back at your home."

"But I fell, because...because I didn't take a rest when you told me to, and I got too tired. I failed..." Big tears started to form in Kaelin's eyes.

"No, listen Kaelin—we didn't fail," Archie said eagerly, "Look." He held out one three-fingered, little hand, which was closed in a fist. When he opened it, a beautiful, tiny light glimmered from his palm.

Kaelin caught her breath. "That's—"

"Right. It's stardust," Archie confirmed proudly, "Right before you fell, I was able to touch that star. It's only one speck, but—that's enough, isn't it?"

Kaelin nodded, speechless with happiness. She held out her hand and let Archie drop the speck of stardust into her palm. She stared at it with wonder. The light that emanated from the speck of stardust was like the light of the stars themselves: so gentle and lovely, yet so cold and piercing. It was perfection and purity incarnate.

Suddenly, there was a flash, and the speck of stardust disappeared from Kaelin's palm. With a cry, she leapt to her feet. "What happened?"

"Just claiming my deposit, dearie," sang a bright, reedy voice from behind her. Kaelin whirled around to see Rumpelstiltskin standing there, the stardust gleaming from between his fingers.

Archie fluttered up and landed on Kaelin's shoulder. "That's not yours!"

"Oh, yes it is—just ask her! We made a little exchange."

"You got help from Rumpelstiltskin?" Archie asked her in horror.

"He was to claim at least one speck of stardust," Kaelin muttered, clenching her fists at her sides.

"That's right! A little payment for my...advice!" He said the last word with a gesture like a joker, rolling his big eyes up toward the sky with a grin. He let out a little giggle.