The Other End of the Rainbow - Chapter 12 (Patreon)

Lucy and Kari scrambled further away from the 'cave', although, from the look of things, it couldn't move to follow them, only use the kitten to draw its prey, like one of those weird fish that lived in the deepest parts of the ocean. Part of Lucy wondered why it used a kitten - it was cute, sure, but not everybody liked cats... As she thought about it, though, she recalled something she'd heard once, about some disease you could get from cats that could cause mental issues... She'd even heard that might be why people liked cats so much, and wanted to take care of them, and protect them. Maybe it had been some version of that, making her act the way she had...

Whatever it was, she was glad to be away from it, even if, the further out she got, the more she began to think about the load in the back of her diaper, squishing against her with every time she crawled. She blushed, staring up at Kari, thinking about how, until that afternoon, her sitter had never even seen her in diapers... Now, the girl had seen her fill one to the brim, something Lucy normally didn't even do.

Seeing Lucy did make it seem like there may be a way out of this, an end to her journey that wouldn't end with her trapped by one of this strange world's inhabitants; at the same time, it reminded her why she had to keep going. She had to be close now... She just had to. The rainbow was getting harder and harder to see, but there was still time... Hopefully...

"What in the world do you think you're doing out here on your own?" Kari asked, finally, once she came to a stop. "You were supposed to go out and get the mail, that's all! Just wait until your Mommy hears about this!"

She planted her hands on her hips, and, even from the forest floor, staring up and getting a good view of the smaller girl's cartoon-print panties under her skirt, it was hard not to blush. It didn't help when Kari bent down, giving Lucy's mushy bottom a pat. "Wow, you really had to go, too, huh? That's not going to look good on your chart..."

Lucy squirmed, reminding herself that, once she got where she was going, that wasn't going to be an issue... Otherwise, she really did worry what her Mommy would have to say about seeing all this reported on her potty training chart. It wouldn't be pretty, that was for sure.

"All right," Kari shook her head, setting the diaper bag down on the ground and pulling out a changing pad. "I guess we'd better get you a fresh diaper for the trip back, huh? Even if I don't think you deserve it, after everything you put me through today!"

Lucy gratefully rolled over onto the mat, wrinkling her nose as her backside sank into the mess, blushing and looking away while her sitter unsnapped her onesie. "Umm... H-How did you find me?" she asked, trying to distract herself from what was happening.

"I followed you," Kari told her, bending over and frowning as she fumbled with the diaper pins. In retrospect, that made Lucy feel better... She hadn't been able to get them off, but she'd also been weakened by everything she'd gone through. And, speaking of that...

"How did you find your way through the maze?" she asked. "And over the bridge? And why didn't you help me?!" It seemed like the robot had trapped her in that crib for quite a while...

Kari ignored her questions, going with her own rather than answering any. "Where did you get these pins?" she pouted. "I can't figure them out!"

Lucy's stomach churned, for more reason than one. The more immediate reason was, of course, the idea of being stuck in her dirty diaper; however, that non-answer was pretty worrying in and of itself. If this journey had taught her anything, it was not to trust what she saw, or thought she knew... This might be another trick, like the kitten. Maybe some other 'cave' had probed her mind, found her memories of Kari, and were using them to lure her in... She'd been lying on the mat for a while now, it might be getting ready to strike at any moment...

Kari was so small, so thin, it was simple, even for the weakened Lucy, to grab her by the wrists, throw her off herself, listening to the girl's squeal, and wrestle her onto the mat instead, pinning her wrists to the forest floor. "Lulu, stop it!" Kari whined, squirming uselessly under the larger girl. "This isn't funny!"

"What are you?" Lucy demanded, leaning in a little closer. 

"I'm your babysitter!" Kari insisted, grunting as she fought to break free. "And your Mommy is not going to be happy with you when... Oh, don't you dare, little lady!"

She had seen Lucy's eyes shifting over, towards the diaper Kari had laid out for her. Clearly, the pins weren't coming off for either of them, so it wasn't going to do Kari any good... Why let it go to waste? She grinned, thinking of all the times Kari had scolded her, or made her go to bed early while sitting her, all the times on the school bus when they were younger, when Lucy would ask her friends if they thought the other girl was even old enough to be going to school yet... All the times she'd heard from people who had invited the girl to sleepovers that she still wet the bed...

"Lulu, stop it!" Kari demanded, but it only took one hand for Lucy to keep her trapped, while the other slid her thick, cotton undies down. She barely had to flip the girl's skirt up before sliding the diaper underneath her, it was already so short. Kari had, helpfully, gotten the baby powder out, and Lucy made sure to sprinkle it liberally onto her cleanly shaven crotch... Or, maybe, she simply hadn't grown any hair there, yet. She was more than old enough to, though so immature in so many other ways, that wouldn't be a surprise.

"Lucy, don't you do it!" Kari glared angrily at her, planting a knee on the girl's stomach as she rearranged herself to get into a better position to tape the diaper up. She had a feeling Kari could have easily fit into an actual baby diaper, so Lucy's were far too big for her, practically swallowing the bottom half of her, but Lucy could make them fit if she pulled the sides tight enough. "Your Mommy is gonna hear about this, you brat!" Kari raged.

But it was already done. Lucy backed off the smaller girl, surveying her work. It wasn't pretty, since it was definitely the wrong size, although that simply made the girl look even tinier, and more deserving. She snagged the panties she'd tugged down, pulling them all the way off, over Kari's Velcro shoes, before Kari was able to climb to her feet.

"If I could get those pins undone, I'd spank you myself!" she stomped her foot; if she thought it made her look intimidating, she was dead wrong. The diaper was so big, and her jumper so short, it was already visible without any movement, and her throwing a tantrum simply seemed to prove she belonged in it. 

Lucy couldn't help but notice Kari hadn't been sucked underground, or swallowed by a huge mouth, after spending so long on the mat, so that made it more likely that this was, indeed, the real girl, not another lure.... She did feel the slightest pang of regret at that, but not enough to comply when the girl held her hand out and demanded, "Give me my underwear back!"

After she made it to the end of the rainbow, none of this was going to matter, Lucy reminded herself. In a flash of inspiration, she reached down, shoving the panties down the front of her diaper, earning another foot stomp from Kari. "You little brat!" she growled. "Those are mine! They're mine, mine, mine!" She punctuated each repetition with a stomp, her blonde pigtails swinging wildly as she shook her head, making her look all the more like a toddler throwing a tantrum.

"What's wrong?" Lucy taunted, raising to her knees, nearly matching Kari's height simply by doing that. "Aren't you used to them? Do you use Goodnites instead?"

Kari turned bright red, her eyes widening. "Was it you that told everyone I was a bedwetter?! I have never wet the bed in my life, unlike you!" Lucy had to admit, she had developed a problem recently... "You have no idea how many times I went to a sleepover with someone who had a younger sibling, and they made me..." She went quiet, but Lucy could easily envision the rest of the story, one that seemed to confirm her suspicion that baby diapers suited the tiny girl better.

Lucy was pretty sure she hadn't started the rumor, though she hadn't done anything to stop it, either... The thought of Kari, getting diapered up under her surely quite childish PJs before getting tucked into bed was too cute for her to resist, or keep to herself. Even now, when Kari left from babysitting her, and she was locked into her crib, that's what she liked to believe happened when the girl got home.

"You are in so... much... trouble..." Kari gritted her teeth, her hands running over the diaper taped to her, clearly wanting to tear it off, yet knowing, with the length of the jumper she'd chosen that day, it would be a bad idea. "Come on, we are going home right now!"

"No, we aren't," Lucy shook her head. She'd come too far to turn back now, especially at the command of this little twig. "We're following the rainbow."

"What?" Kari rolled her eyes. "Is that why you came all the way out here?!"

Lucy blushed, realizing now how silly that sounded. She'd already said it, however, so she gave a tiny nod.

"Don't be silly, Lulu," Kari sighed. "There is no pot of gold there, and the only place we need to go right now is back home, so I can tell your Mommy all about this little adventure of yours. If I could get reception on my stupid cell phone, I'd be calling her already."

"Fine," Lucy shrugged. "You go do that, and I'll find you later."

"No way," Kari disagreed. "I'm not letting you out of my sight again, little lady."

"Well, you can't make me go home," Lucy told her defiantly. "You couldn't even stop me from putting you in a diaper... What kind of a babysitter are you?"

Lucy blushed, glancing down at herself, and the diaper peeking out from under her skirt. There was clearly no way to argue with that... At least, not until she looked up instead. "Well," she smirked, "How are you going to follow the rainbow when it's already gone?"

Lucy gasped, head snapping back to see that, sure enough, the sky had gone dark. The moon wasn't out yet, but the sun had almost completely set, taking with it any trace of the rainbow she'd spent so long following. "No, no, no..." she shook her head, tears stinging at the corners of her eyes. After everything she'd been through, had she screwed herself by taking the time to diaper Kari, and argue with her?!

"Sorry," Kari shrugged, not sounding like she meant it one bit. "We're going back home... And I can't wait to see how you get punished."

Despite how good it had felt, taping that diaper onto Kari, Lucy suddenly regretted it even more. Mommy wasn't going to be pleased that she'd treated her sitter that way... Even if Lucy could convince her that proved Kari wasn't a good sitter - which she didn't see happening - she had a feeling she'd be landing in diapers full time for a while after that... And that would probably only be the beginning. She'd also wandered away from the house without permission, lost her clothes, pooped her pants... 

"I'm sorry," she said softly. "I-I was just joking... I-I was playing dress-up, like you wanted... I-I don't think you really need diapers..."

Kari shook her head. "Then give me back my panties."

Lucy, of course, couldn't do that. Even if she could get her hand past the snug cloth far enough to grab them, she'd felt them slide down too far, was positive they were ruined, and Kari wouldn't really want them back. "I-I'm sorry..." she repeated, for all the good it was going to do her.

"Let's just get out of here," Kari sighed, grabbing the changing mat and folding it up, stuffing it and the baby powder back into the diaper bag before standing up and turning... Then turning again. "Which way did we come from?"

"I don't know," Lucy shrugged. "I was following that kitten, I wasn't really paying attention..."

"Well, I was following you!" Kari grumbled, shining her flashlight all around them. "I thought I'd been in this forest enough times I wouldn't have any trouble finding the way out, but..."

"You really are dumb," Lucy couldn't help herself, rolling her eyes. "We're in another world!"

"Don't you call me dumb!" Kari crossed her arms. "You're the one wearing a dirty diaper! And your Mommy told me what your grades were like..."

Lucy doubted Kari's were much better, but she had nothing to back that up, so she decided to let it go; clearly, she'd hit a sore spot, which made her suspect Kari had at least one subject in school she'd struggled with. Or maybe she was just used to people assuming, because she was blonde, or because she was the size of a lot of children, that she was only as bright as one.

"Well, if you're so smart, how do we get back home?" Lucy challenged.

Kari didn't have an answer for that. "W-We should be able to see something over the trees..." she fretted, raising her flashlight, making the beam go higher so she could search for signs of civilization. "No matter how far into the forest you go, you can always see..."

"Wait!" Lucy gasped. "Go back..."

Kari turned her head, confused, to see Lucy pointing back to where she'd had the flashlight pointed a moment earlier. Kari shrugged, moving it back, unsure what Lucy had spotted.

"There," Lucy jabbed her finger at it. "Don't you see it?" Kari still looked clueless, so Lucy grabbed her hand, moving it again, following the small patch of color she'd spotted at the edge of its beam. Sure enough, the rainbow was there, faint, but not completely gone.

"That's... not how rainbows work..." Kari frowned.

"Come on," Lucy rolled her eyes; there was no time to convince the girl of what she should have already figured out for herself, if she'd gotten this far into this other world.

"No!" Kari shook her head. "We're going home!"

"How?" Lucy asked. "You don't know the way, and I don't, either... We might as well follow the rainbow, then, right?"

"That doesn't make any sense!" Kari grumbled. "We don't know where it leads! We're only going to get more lost!"

"I know where it's going," Lucy told her. She didn't, really, but she had a good idea, the same as she'd had the whole time. She had no reason to doubt it now. "If we get there, I promise, we'll be able to find the way back home."

Kari didn't look happy about it, yet she also obviously had no other suggestions for what to do. She looked around one last time, then found the rainbow with the flashlight again. They did seem to be close to its end here... It was curving downwards, and when she followed its path with her light, it looked like it was planted there, among the trees ahead of them. 

"See?" Lucy said. "It's right there... We might as well go check it out, huh?"

Kari squirmed. "I-I mean, I've never been this close to the end of a rainbow before..."

"Aren't you curious?" Lucy pushed her. "Even if there might be nothing there... Don't you want to see for yourself?"

"I-I guess..." Kari admitted, blushing.

"All right, then," Lucy nodded, getting back onto her hands and knees. "Let's go." She almost tried to reach back and snap her onesie up again, but what purpose would that serve? She could feel the flaps swaying as she moved, though that was less distracting than having to feel the mess in her pants held even tighter against her, as it would have been if they were closed. 

Lucy could hear things moving around them in the dark, knew that, at night, there had to be all sorts of monsters in this world, ready to spring out and devour the pair. Kari would be no match for them on the best of days, and Lucy doubted she'd be much better now. The only thing that made her feel safe was the sight of the rainbow, growing closer and closer... 

In a way, she was almost glad it had taken so long to get to it, since it had been so bright in the sky earlier in the day. Now, even if they could only see it in the flashlight's beam, it looked huge... If they'd been that close while it was at full power, she was afraid it would have blinded them.

And, sure enough, when it had grown so big the flashlight would only show one band of color at a time, that, no matter where Kari swung the flashlight ahead of them, at the sound of crackling leaves and ominous footsteps, all they saw was part of the rainbow, they stumbled out into the exact place Lucy had expected.

It was different, of course, than she was used to, but she'd expected that, as well. Normally, it was a good-sized clearing, big enough for the parties it was commonly used to host. Now, it was gigantic, so far across that Lucy could hardly see the trees at the other side. From what she could tell, it was perfectly circular, just like the real world, with no sign of stumps, or anything else to indicate any trees had ever grown within it. They didn't need the flashlight to see the rainbow anymore... The various colors were much brighter than they had been even one step outside the clearing, and seemed to be springing out of the ground here, into the sky, like they were standing on a huge, rapidly fading spotlight.

She'd always heard it was a place where witches gathered to do spells, although, of course, she hadn't believed it for years... At least, not until, through the waning light of the rainbow, she spotted the woman. She was old, hunched over a pitch black cauldron in what Lucy guessed to be the exact center of the gigantic circle, within the green section of the rainbow, wearing an equally black cloak, so dark it almost appeared to be leeching away the color around her even faster than it was already vanishing. As Kari saw her as well, swinging the flashlight over towards her in surprise, despite not needing it to see anymore, with the rainbow's light, the woman stared at the two girls, her eyes yellow, her nose long, covered in warts.

"Well, well, well," she cackled. "Just what I need to finish my spell... Come here, little girls... I need your bones."