High above the world, in the billowy kingdom of the clouds, lived a brave little raindrop named Captain Puddle. He wasn’t the biggest drop, nor the fastest, but he had the biggest heart and the boldest dreams.
One morning, the sky was supposed to sparkle with a brilliant rainbow after a gentle rain. But when the clouds parted and the sun stretched its golden rays… there was nothing!
No red, no orange, no shimmering arc of colors. Just plain, gray sky.
“The rainbow is missing!” gasped the other raindrops.
Captain Puddle straightened his tiny shoulders. “Then I’ll go find it!”
The other raindrops murmured in surprise. “But where will you look?” asked Drizzle, his best friend.
Captain Puddle thought for a moment. “Rainbows love light, and they love water. I’ll search every puddle, every river, every drop of sunlight until I bring those colors back!”
And with that, he leaped off the cloud and began his great adventure.
Captain Puddle tumbled through the sky, splashing into a shimmering puddle in the middle of a quiet street. He looked around.
“Excuse me,” he called to his reflection. “Have you seen the rainbow?”
The puddle rippled. “I saw a streak of red race toward the flower garden. Maybe you’ll find part of your rainbow there!”
Captain Puddle bounced along the sidewalk until he reached the garden. A bright red ladybug sat on a rose petal, polishing her tiny wings.
“Ladybug, have you seen the rainbow?” Captain Puddle asked.
The ladybug fluttered her wings. “I found a piece of it this morning—it was hiding in my spots! But I think orange rolled away toward the pumpkin patch.”
Captain Puddle dripped and dashed to the pumpkin patch, where the plump pumpkins gleamed in the sun. A sleepy fox stretched nearby, his orange fur glowing.
“Fox, have you seen the rainbow?”
The fox yawned. “I felt orange tickling my tail, but then it bounced into the river. Maybe the fish know where it went.”
Captain Puddle splashed into the river, floating along with the ripples. A shimmering fish with yellow scales peeked up at him.
“Looking for the rainbow? I saw yellow swimming past me, heading for the lemon tree!”
Captain Puddle followed the clues, gathering each color along the way. Green danced in the leaves, blue twirled with the wind, and indigo and violet whispered in the twilight sky.
Finally, with all the colors swirling inside him, Captain Puddle leaped back into the sky, carrying the rainbow home.
As he reached the clouds, the sun stretched out its golden arms once more. The colors spun and stretched—and with a magnificent shimmer, the missing rainbow appeared across the sky!
Cheers erupted from the raindrops. “Captain Puddle, you did it!”
He beamed. “A rainbow is never really lost—it just needs a little help finding its way home.”
And from that day on, whenever the world needed a rainbow, Captain Puddle was ready for another adventure.
