10. Quartz's Big Day Out
In the meantime, Rainbow’s winter engagement was finally over. Traditionally, the winter job finishes when the crocuses appear, and the last task to do before waking the rest of the gems is to collect the pistils inside. A short while later, all manner of flowers that Tourmaline had described were in bloom around the big island, and Rainbow made his way over to the hibernation chamber where the rest of the gems had been sound asleep for months. Rainbow moved the enormous door blocking the entryway, allowing the light of this pleasant spring morning to pour into the chamber, waking his now disgruntled peers int0 a quiet cacophony of grumbling and groaning. He knocked on the door, loudly.
“Hey! It’s spring, time to wake up.” He shouted.
On the big island, all the gems would dress in elaborate outfits to hibernate in. They’d always end up getting messed up over the course of the winter through months of tossing and turning, so everyone looked rather shabby. Tiger Iron was asleep closest to the door so he woke up first. Rainbow crouched down beside him.
“I’ve got some good news for you, come see.” He said and led Tiger up by the hand. “Get Nuummite too.”
Rainbow, in his fancy white work clothes, led Tiger and Nuummite, in their hibernating pajamas, down the hall to the infirmary where Quartz was sitting on a ledge. He was a little rough around the edges still, as Rainbow’d given up on finishing his initial polishing.
“I found him over the winter. I figured I’d leave the detail polishing for you two, but I got through the hard part in my free time.”
Tiger approached the little gem. “Does he speak?” He asked.
“No, I also figured I’d leave that up to you guys.”
“That’s alright, your job doesn’t involve initiating the newborns. You’ve done a fine job in anticipation for the spring.” Tiger said as Nuummite led Quartz over to his workspace and got to work.
“Thank you.” Rainbow said and bowed a little.
“He looks to be a quartz, yes?” Tiger asked, “We needed something like him to come along, I’m grateful. He’ll make a fine fighter, quartzes tend to be.”
“May I train him?” Rainbow asked.
“...You may, but do your best to not lose him.”
“Understood.”
Over the course of the day, everyone woke, got into their new spring clothes, and were gathered in the main atrium for a meeting. Tiger, Rainbow, Nuummite and Quartz, albeit hidden behind the three, made their way over to the strategy table which all the meetings were hosted around. Tiger began his speech. “Good morning everyone, I hope this winter has proved restful for you all. We will begin full patrol operations tomorrow. For now, Rainbow has good news to share with you all.”
Rainbow stepped up to the table. “This winter was mostly uneventful. The moon people came only four times. Unfortunately none of them were bearing any fragments of our friends, but to compensate for that the shore of nascency has been quite generous. I’ve collected a fair amount of spare pieces, most of which were metallic in nature.” A few gems sighed in response. Many of them had been waiting for new limbs for some time now. Violane, for example, was missing a hand, and had been using a hooked piece of wood in place of it. Auralite was missing part of his torso, but was too proud to use his hair to plug it up and so had been walking around for years riddled with holes and missing chunks. What the gems really needed were some decent chunks of silicate, not metal. Metals were dense and hard to deal with, and the only gem who dared use them as prosthetics was Boracite, the typical winter shift worker, who was born without legs and was so desperate to join in useful work that he’d use the slag no one else was willing to. Even to him, they proved testy, and he’d gone through more pairs than anyone could remember.
Rainbow continued. “That being said, we do have someone to introduce to you all.” Nuummite brought Quartz out from behind. He looked just like any other gem now, polished to a smooth surface, covered in white powder, and given a hairstyle of his own, which was straight, shoulder-length and pulled away from his face. “His name is Quartz. I found him this winter. I think he’ll make a good addition to our ranks.” The gems all looked intently at him. He couldn’t speak yet, so he just smiled.
“Aww!” Most of them said in unison.
“Okay, that’s enough.” Nuummite took Quartz away, not wanting to overwhelm the newborn.
“Aww…” Most of them said in unison.
Tiger took hold of the meeting again and discussed battle strategies he’d want to implement for the new year, as well as quelled any curiosities as to whether or not the old master woke up at all (The answer was no). Then, he finished, “It’s a beautiful spring day and the future is looking bright for us. You’re all dismissed.”
Over the next few months, Quartz took up language remarkably fast. Rainbow had also been giving him lessons at night, to hopefully speed his graduation out of Nuummite’s hands. Rainbow had been entrusted with Quartz, and had made a promise to Tourmaline that his secret island would remain a secret. Quartz, having been born there, and also knowing how to talk now, was a liability and could spill the truth out at any moment. So, Rainbow made sure to keep him in arm’s reach.
Eventually, the time came for Quartz to take up fighting. In olden years, gems would be at least 20 before they began to fight, spending the first two decades of their lives learning about the world and developing their personalities. These days, they’d learn to fight right after they’d learned the basics. Rainbow, of course, took the role of training him.
The two were standing out in the field, one day. Today’s pairing was Rainbow and Quartz with Lodolite and Auralite. Lodolite was a clear quartz too, except he was full of all manner of colorful inclusions. He had bits of hematite, chlorite, rutile and so on. Auralite, his partner, was also a quartz. He was predominantly an amethyst with hematite. Rainbow also had hematite inclusions– or moreso hematite and magnetite, in thin sheets that shone like a rainbow under direct light, but were black and red in the shade. Overall, the quartet made a cohesive group, all either being quartzes or hematite included or both.
They could see, far out on the horizon, another patrol quartet, which was Merelani and Demantoid with Hexagonite and Violane. It was a pleasant summer day, so an attack was likely. Quartz hadn’t ever actually witnessed or participated in a fight, he’d only been preparing for one and hearing battle stories from the older gems.
“I can’t believe he put that guy’s fragments to weapons.” Aura said to his partner.
“We’re low on weapons, though.” Lodo replied.
“Do we need, like, what, three swords for each of us? They should’ve gone to repairs. We’ve got no pieces to fix us up with.”
“Aura, stop talking about Quartz’s chipped off fragments while he’s within earshot, it’s rude.” Rainbow joined in.
“I oughta’ve gotten those pieces! He’s a quartz, I’m a quartz, he had spare pieces chipped off, I’m filled with holes, why wasn’t I given ‘em?”
“Because Tiger deemed our lack of weapons to be of higher importance than you having a few chips out of you. You could always use your hair that you have excess of.” Rainbow said. Of course, Aura didn’t know that Rainbow had personally requested swords be made of Quartz’s pieces, but that wasn’t important. If anyone was repaired with the shaved off bits of Quartz, the recipient would gain some of Quartz’s memories, and thus, know about the secret island.
“No way, man!” Aura said. He was simply too proud to get rid of his trademark hairstyle.
“Guys, look!” Quartz interjected, pointing at the other patrol group far away. Above them hung a black spot in the sky with several rays streaking out from it. A sunspot. The moon people were here to attack.
“Okay… Quartz, you head on back, go tell Tiger. Aura, Lodo, you're with me.”
The trio ran over while Quartz made his way back to the great big stone dome to locate Tiger Iron.
Quartz scanned the building for signs of his boss, which proved difficult. Over the whole first floor he couldn’t find him, nor the second or the third. He got up to the fourth floor, which was mostly home to the convalescent center. It was a dark, wide-open room with some sort of mossy plant carpeting the ground, and toweringly tall shelves in rows that spanned the entire floor. Each shelf was draped in enormous sheets of white fabric, and according to the others, underneath were stacks upon stacks of boxes filled with the pieces of gems inside. He’d hardly ever been up here before, he just ran out of other places to look.
“Tiger? Are you in here?” He shouted. No response. He began to wander around, looking in through each row. “Hello?” It was a creepy, quiet place. About ten rows of shelves later, he finally found not just Tiger, but Nuummite, the doctor, too. They were talking quietly in front of one of the shelves, which the draping was pulled back on. He could see the stacks of boxes, each one black with fancy white detailing on the outside. There were so many of them. So many gems. He couldn’t quite make out what they were discussing, but it seemed private and important, but hopefully not any more important than the fact that the moon people were here to attack.
“Um, excuse me?” Quartz said. “Sorry to bother-”
The two of them jumped and turned. “What are you doing up here?” Tiger said while Nuummite quickly closed the box they were looking at and the drape to the shelf.
“We’re under attack… Rainbow sent me, but I couldn’t find you anywhere. Sorry...”
“No, no, you’re okay. Where?”
“Um… above Violane's group. Rainbow went to help too.”
“Okay, let’s go.” Tiger hurried out, as with Quartz and Nuummite. Along the way they picked up their own weapons and a couple of large sheets of fabric.
As they approached the attacking ship, Quartz didn’t get to see an awesome battle like he thought he would be treated to, instead it appeared he was too late. Too late not in the sense that the battle was over, but that all seven of the fighting gems had been defeated, and the moon people had lowered their ship down to the ground to collect their shards strewn about the grass.
The moon people were very strange indeed. They were all identical in form. They were all the same pale creamy color, and they never spoke. Their eyes had no pupils inside them, and they always seemed to be smiling. They were all wearing the same clothes, which were flowing and the same color as the rest of them. They walked carefully as they crouched to the ground to pick up the pieces and place them in a great big bowl. This time, they were each adorned in intricate jewelry, each pendant and glittering stone being made from the body parts of captured gems. The sight angered Tiger, who immediately broke into a sprint and wasted no time launching himself at the moon people, slicing each one in two. Whenever they were cut, they would disperse into a cloud of smoke, and their jewelry fell to the ground. Their ship did, too, and that was all. It's hard to beat the moon people when they're armed, but once they set down their bows to collect their trophies, they're left quite vulnerable.
Quartz and Nuummite caught up a short while after, and watched as Tiger paced around the carnage. Not a single gem was left whole, not even Rainbow. “Truthfully, I’m a little disappointed. Seven. There were seven of you! What was different this time? What did they do?” He shouted.
Rainbow, whose top half had been severed from his bottom half, raised an arm, weakly. “They had explosives.”
“They’ve only ever used arrows and spears.”
“They’re changing their strategy.”
“Hm.” Tiger walked off to fetch some backup.
Nuummite approached and began setting down sheets of fabric to collect each gem’s pieces in. First he brought Rainbow over, as he was the most whole. Then Auralite, then Lodolite, then Demantoid, Violane, Merelani and finally poor Hexagonite who’d been blown into a great many tiny pieces. Quartz felt bad just looking at all of them. He crouched down beside Rainbow.
“That sounds scary.” Quartz said.
“I don’t know what we’ll do.” Rainbow knew that he was leaving soon, so it was a good time to get out, just as soon as the enemy started to use frightening new weapons. He felt guilty about this, terribly guilty.
“Rainbow!” Nuummite shouted from out of his view. “Did you notice?”
“...What?” Rainbow said. Nuummite sauntered over with one of the necklaces that the moon people were wearing and passed it to Rainbow. “Look who they had on today!” The jewelry was filled with little green cabochons with brown veins scribbled throughout them. Rainbow smiled. Each time the moon people came in excessively gaudy jewelry, as much as it was an insult to them, it was also an opportunity. Whenever they’d successfully defeat an attacking party, they’d get to collect the jewelry they were wearing, and hope that one day they’ll have enough pieces to rebuild their old friends. That hadn’t ever happened before, but these days the convalescent center was full of boxes of reclaimed shards of old comrades. Surely, it’ll happen one day. In Gaspeite’s case, they were just one step closer to rebuilding him.
“Anyone else?” Rainbow said.
“Definitely, but the rest are all a bit hard to tell apart at a glance. I’ll let everyone know once we’re back inside.”
“Who’s that?” Quartz looked at the necklace.
“He’s just beads and cabochons right now, but he was my partner about 50 years ago.”
Some other guys came over to help with collecting all the pieces. Fortunately, no one was taken away. The pieces of gem were wrapped up in a shroud of fabric and brought back into the dome, and the sun began to set.
That night, the dome was all abuzz with questions about the fight and Nuummite had his hands full gluing the wounded fighters back together. He recruited Apophyllite and Stilbite to help out, and asked Quartz to assist as well. It felt good for him to be called upon to help. Eventually, everyone had been fixed up. Some of the gems were still unconscious, so they were just laid out on blankets on the floor. Nuummite then turned his attention to the unidentified gemstones that had been regained from the moon people, and brought each one back to the fourth floor to be put in boxes on the imposing draped shelves.
The following morning, Tiger began his meeting. He discussed the weather and the day’s patrol teams, but everyone was more curious about yesterday’s battle. “In regards to yesterday… The moon people seem to be growing restless and bored with their typical attacking style that they’ve tormented us with for millennia. Yesterday, they came and brought explosive devices with them. According to the gems patrolling that day, they came in the forms of little spheres that explode shortly after being thrown and striking an object. I’ve asked the toolsmiths to brainstorm possible ways to counteract these weapons, and if anyone has any theories they believe would be helpful it would be appreciated to bring them to myself, Apophyllite or Scolecite. That aside, yesterday the attacking lunar party was seen wearing various pieces of jewelry, each of which we’ve reclaimed. So, we welcome pieces of Rose Quartz, Pyrope, Tsavorite, Gaspeite and Tourmaline to the convalescent center, and hope to reclaim more pieces in the future.”
Rainbow was puzzled. How were the moon people wearing pieces of Tourmaline if they had never taken him to the moon? He was missing a foot, so perhaps they took just his foot. But how likely would that be if he said he wasn’t attacked?
After his patrol shift that day, Rainbow made his way to the convalescent center to investigate. He scanned through the boxes and eventually came upon Tourmaline’s. It was full of faceted stones, way more stones than could’ve possibly been made from his foot. How was that possible?
This would continue to confuse Rainbow the more and more he thought about it. It was, in all honesty, possible that perhaps Nuummite had misidentified the gem. It looked to be just the right color, though, and when he picked one up with an ungloved hand, it certainly felt like the same hardness.
Quartz and Rainbow were sitting on the floor in Rainbow’s quarters that night, playing cards.
“It doesn’t make any sense.” Rainbow said.
“What doesn’t?”
“The moon people never kidnapped Tourmaline, yet they came to attack us wearing pieces of him. But that’s not possible.”
“Why?”
"He's been in the sea this whole time. He’s coming over this winter to take you back to where you were born.”
“Oh, right.” Quartz had almost forgotten that he was only supposed to be here for a year.
“You’ll like it more over there, probably. According to him, the moon people have never attacked there, not even once. You’ll be safe forever.”
“What about you?”
“Oh, I’ll come too. We are both very lucky to have been granted a way out of this fighting.”
“Why was I brought here, then?”
“He was too lazy to give you an education himself.” Rainbow chuckled.
“Oh. Is he nice?”
“Yeah, he’s nice enough. You’ll get along fine.”
By the end of fall, there had been several attacks featuring explosive devices, and the gems only had gotten slightly better at fending them off. Several more pieces were returned in the forms of arrowheads and jewelry, though not enough to rebuild any single gem. The end of the year was approaching quickly, and Rainbow had much to think about.