At first I just wanted something for my mantle, something nice to tie the whole room together. I was out with a few friends at a nearby antique shop that had recently opened. We wandered for about an hour, when something in the corner of my eye caught my interest. I had been looking for some vases, or maybe a cool piece of art, but it just called out to me. It was ornate and made of a dark wood that matched my coffee table perfectly. I broke off from my friends to take a closer look.

It seemed to be in working order, I couldn’t find any cracks in the wood or the glass, and it had flowers that matched the ones in a painting my mother had given me for the living room a few months prior. All around, I was excited to find seemingly the perfect thing. It was decently priced too, right under what I had brought with me for any impulsive purchasing I might encounter.

Long story short, I brought it home with me and placed in the empty spot above the fireplace.

The next morning is when the odd things started. I have this suncatcher in the window, and the rainbows always go near the cat tower in the far corner. But that morning they were all centered around the clock. I thought nothing of it at first, but then I noticed the paintings around the house seemed dimmer, the wallpaper seemed a shade darker, and my plants that had been doing fairly well lately were turning brown and grey.

I chalked it up to needing new glasses, that is until my friend noticed the clock was now ten minutes slow. The day before it had run five minutes slow. And a few days later it grew to be twenty minutes slow even though I was sure I had fixed it.

The more slow the clock got, the darker the colours in my apartment seemed to get.

Eventually I took the clock down to examine it further. Underneath I found a small handle I had never noticed before. I turned the clock on its side and pulled the handle to find a little drawer. Inside was something I’d never excepted…

“A tiny man?!” I shouted louder than I meant to. I barely held onto the clock, managing to catch before it tumbled to the floor.

“Well what else did ya expect?” The tiny man said, adjusting his tiny green hat.

I was lost for words. However the tiny man seemed to have many at his disposal.

“Never in all my years have I seen someone as unappreciating as ye for ma craft! Lassy ye got much to learn before yer ready for ye-know-what. Even then, I dunna think anyone would want a Longleg who drops their first catcher tuar ceatha for an apprentice-“

At this point I had set the clock down on the couch and was trying to decipher his thick Irish accent, as well as try to make sure I didn’t pass out. “What do you mean by ANY of that?!”

“Huh? Ya mean ya don’t know whatcha signed up fer?”

“No??”

The tiny man jumps out of the clock and onto my leg, “I’m a leprechaun.” He says with a small bow, “And yer catcher here is yer ticket to apprenticeship with one of us to guide ye along the path to being one yerself if ya want it.”

“My catcher?”

“Yer rainbow catcher!” He gestures to the clock, “Where else did ya think they came from? We gotta recycle em to reuse ever so often.”

“I’m a bit- no, a lot confused.”

The leprechaun taps his foot & scratches his head, “Well that won’t do, we gotta get ye started pretty soon here.”

“Started?”

“On yer apprenticeship, I just said! Geez yer a slow one,” he hops down and makes his way to the back door. “Come on Lass, I’ll show ya.”

With pent up curiosity, and a hope to wake up soon, I decided to follow.

Needless to say, that was the start to a long adventure…