A long time ago, on the world of Gaeliand, lived a leprechaun by the name of Patirik. This leprechaun was a holy one, seeking the will of God in all things, and eventually became a fantastic priest. At that time, the cultures of Gaeliand were still quite young; the only major traditions and holidays having come with them from the old world of Erianu. Also, the knowledge the people had about their new home was slim to none, and it saddened Patirik that so few could go out to explore, seeing as there was so much wonder to be found on Gaeliand. It wasn’t long after having these thoughts that Patirik was visited by an angel of the Lord and was prompted to choose two companions and explore the world of Gaeliand. After making absolutely sure that the angel was in fact from the Most High, Patirik did as his God requested, and chose two companions to set out on the journey of their lives. The two he chose were Brendar and Calomba, two seminarians whom Patirik was training, and together the trio set out to explore the wilds of Gaeliand.
Patirik soon learned of the wisdom in his choice of companions, as both proved to be very efficient and intelligent, helping Patirik in the naming of the species they found. Calomba especially carved out a name for himself in the books of history being the one who not only discovered the craipear, the tree that became the source of paper, but also made the first pen using a feather from a caladrius and ink from the sap of an ebony tree. Brendar also carved his name into history by being the one who built the first boat and became the first traveler of the seas. But those are stories for another time.
The three had finished another successful day mapping and naming, Calomba making sure that all notes had been written down in order while Brendar and Patirik made sure the maps were drawn correctly, when they noticed another creature. Calomba recognized it as a rabbit from Erianu, but instead of pink ears, it had green, quite similar to a leprechaun – as Brendar noted – though a leprechaun only had green-tipped ears. But, when they got closer to inspect the green-eared rabbit, the little thing scurried away. It paused and glanced back at them, almost as if to say, “Well, aren’t you going to follow me?” The three caught the hint, and followed the rabbit for a few minutes. The rabbit took them out of the forest and into a meadow full of what Patirik immediately recognized as shamrocks. The three wondered why the rabbit thought that they needed to see this, seeing as how they would have come across it the next day, when all of the four-leaved clovers flew away. The three realized with a start, upon closer inspection, that the four-leaf clovers were in fact the wings of butterflies! All that remained were the triple-leaved shamrocks. Patirik plucked one, and became so inspired by it that he instantly composed a song, which came to be known as “The Hymn of the Shamrock”.
The three decided to make camp in the shamrock meadow, though they concentrated more on writing down everything:Brendar on the map, Patirik on his song, and Calomba on the names of the creatures and plants they had encountered that day. When they finally fell asleep, it was late into the night, and none of them expected to get up early the next morning. But, early the next morning, the rabbit crawled into their tents and hopped on top of them until they woke. The three groggily awoke and crawled out, just in time to see the morning rays of the sun hit the shamrocks just so, causing rainbows to shoot out of them. It was such a wonderful sight indeed that it woke up the three companions completely. They ran out into the field to get a closer look at the shamrocks, and found a tiny stone imbedded in the middle of each shamrock. Patirik held up the shamrock he had plucked, and found to his amazement that the rainbow shooting out from it went in a completely different direction than all the others. Instead of aiming west, it was aiming north. Brendar and Calomba each took a turn with the shamrock, and found that the rainbow went in the exact same direction. They each plucked another shamrock, and found that the rainbows all aimed in the same direction as the first. Patirik began to wonder if the shamrocks were also a pathfinder, a gift from God to help them follow His path. They decided to try it out, broke camp, and traveled north, the rabbit tagging along. They kept holding up the shamrocks to the light, waiting to see if the direction would change, but they kept on a northerly route for a couple of days, paying heed to everything around them.
Finally, about midday on their third day out from the shamrock field, the rainbows changed direction, telling them to head west. They did so, and came across the second most spectacular sight on their journey, a large creature with the body, tail, back legs, and head of a white stoat, and the wings, front legs, underbelly, and eyes of an orange-breasted green pigeon. Calomba named it the ollipheist, as the group quickly found out it was protecting a colony of rabbits; apparently the colony of their little companion, and they were excited to be reunited. The three continued on their journey, eventually joined by the colony and the ollipheist, the two species forever intertwined with leprechauns and shamrocks.