4. A Memory
...
A few days had passed, and Tourmaline was trying to jog his memory, figure out how he might’ve gotten here. Something came to mind.
It was any number of years ago in reality, but quite recent to him. It was late spring, partly cloudy, back home on the big island. All the gemstones were gathered inside the great big stone building they lived in, around a little wooden table with a map and various abstract figurines on it. Their de facto leader, Tiger Iron, was explaining today’s patrol plan. He was an average gem, as everyone was quite average and looked roughly the same save for their hairstyles, made of a banded iron formation. He was part hematite, part jasper, and part silicified crocidolite, so he had a mix of brown, black, gold and orange hair, with three spiky buns on each side of his head. Because he was in charge, he was entitled to a few traits to set him aside from the others. He was wearing purple gloves instead of the usual white ones, and he didn’t apply any powder to his eyelids, letting the material underneath show through. He was cool.
“The weather is fair today, so we’ll be sending out twice the amount of patrol teams. I’m going to be pairing pairs into groups of four. Golden Beryl and Blue Diamond will be with Lodolite and Auralite, Hexagonite and Violane will be put with Unakite and K2, Merelani and Demantoid will be with Emery and Spessartine, and Tourmaline and Psilomelane will be with Rainbow Feldspar and Gaspeite. Opal and Bicolor Sapphire are taking the day off. Any questions?”
There were never any questions, though it was nice that he left the avenue open.
“Oh, right, one more thing. If anyone was wondering, the master still hasn’t woken up yet.”
The old master had been asleep for a very long time, so long that Tiger Iron was actually the second de facto leader the gems had. Tourmaline recalled meeting the master a few times, but since then he’d been in the top room of the building under a shroud of cloth, and had been for centuries. The first leader who took charge since then was a diamond named Framesite, who was taken away to the moon before Tourmaline was even born. Since Tiger Iron became leader, he put heavy importance on having everyone go patrolling. The old master was allegedly very strong, and could dispel an army from the moon with the snap of his fingers. Without him, the gems were vulnerable to attack, so just three of the entire population were given clearance to stay off the battlefield. Those gems were Apophyllite and Stilbite, who made the weapons, paper and tools for all the gems, and Nuummite who put injured gems back together and taught the newborns. Everyone else, though? They had to fight, whether they liked it or not.
Anyways, the group broke up into quartets, and everyone got ready to head out. Today, Tourmaline was with his main partner, Psilomelane, as well as Rainbow Feldspar and Gaspeite. Psilomelane was the oldest of all the gems, a chilled-out manganese oxide with an unremarkable hardness, but enough luck and wit to have evaded kidnapping for the past 6000 years. He was put with Tourmaline to try and calm him down, as in his youth he had a tendency to electrocute things and set them on fire. As for the rest of the quartet, there was Rainbow and Gaspie. Rainbow was a strong-willed feldspar, also with an unremarkable hardness, and a prominent cleavage that made it so hits from the wrong angle would split him right in half. He had to be careful about this, so he was an excellent and nimble fighter who used a fancy sword that looked like a needle. And then there was Gaspeite, a crumbly nickel carbonate with a measly hardness of four and a half, which meant literally everyone else on the island could break him with a touch. He was meek and quiet, and honestly wasn’t good at fighting, but once again, everyone had to unless they were better at something useful.
The group set out for a sunny plain by the sea, which was a nice place to be camped out all day long. Some of the less fortunate gems would be put up to guard the swamps, or the cliffs where it seemed like all the kidnappings happened. The elders, Psilo and Rainbow, led the group, while Tourmaline and Gaspeite lagged behind. This was the case for many such outings. Although the official pairings consisted of Tourmaline and Psilomelane and then Rainbow and Gaspeite, it was actually Rainbow and Psilo who were closer, and Tourmaline and Gaspeite would be left to hang out together.
Psilo and Rainbow were chatting to each other, as they tended to, and Rainbow turned behind to address everyone.
“Since we had an attack yesterday, we shouldn’t get another for the next two days. Still, keep your guards up, you know how they like to surprise us.”
“I’m amazed you can keep track of that kind of stuff.” Psilo said.
“I’m amazed you’ve made it to six thousand without knowing these things.” Rainbow replied.
“Hey, don’t jinx me!”
They chuckled and the direction of their conversation shifted back to themselves, leaving Tourmaline and Gaspeite once again walking quietly together. Gaspeite never had much to say.
They arrived at their patrol spot for the day, so everyone split up into pairs, the same pairs you’d expect them to split into, the elders chatting amongst themselves and the youngsters left to hang out together. Tourmaline did like Gaspeite, though he didn’t really know what to make of him. He seemed as though he didn’t want to be there, and was a total dud when it came to fighting. However, the majority of the patrol job just consisted of hanging out just in case an attack might happen, so he was quite okay at hanging out. He was great at making flower crowns and identifying plants, so it was nice for him to get outside. When the time came to defend himself and his friends from incoming lunar attacks, though? Not a chance. He was terrible at it. Luckily, since they were all in groups of four now, the number of kidnappings had lowered significantly compared to when the patrol teams were sent out in pairs.
Gaspeite and Tourmaline ended up laying down together in a field, Gaspie on his belly with his head in his hands and Tourmaline on his back watching the clouds roll along.
“Maybe those two should pair up instead of being with us,” he said, “they get along with each other way better.”
“I think they’re supposed to be training us, that’s why the groups are usually a young guy and a geezer.” Tourmaline replied.
“I guess so.”
Tourmaline noticed Gaspeite’s long glove sort of sloughing off of his arm, and he noticed underneath was covered in scratches and cracks. “Hey, what happened to your arm?” He asked.
Gaspeite adjusted his glove. “Oh, that’s… hm. I really don’t think I belong here with you guys. You’re all way stronger than me." Tourmaline frowned a bit. Gaspie continued, "I don’t know why he wanted me in this job anyways.” He said. Tourmaline thought about what to respond with. “He… sees your potential?” It was true, though. He didn’t really belong on the fighting team. Rainbow picked out the poor gem when he was a fair bit younger to hopefully get him to want to fight, but that never happened. There was truly no room for him to do anything else, though. The gems already had a doctor, and they already had a smith and a carpenter, and they certainly didn’t need a botanist, at least not without the old master around to defend them all.
“Well, when we’re older and stronger, I think we could partner up, but like, for real.”
“I’d just slow you down.” Gaspeite said.
“Hey, you’re just starting out. Maybe you haven’t found a style you like yet. I heard Beryl’s using a bow to shoot down the moon people instead of a sword. You could try out something like that, yeah?”
Gaspie didn’t say anything, so he figured he’d not press him about it. Some people just don’t like doing what they don’t like to do.
Anyways, this came to mind as Tourmaline brought himself back to the present, where he was laying on a field, also looking up at the clouds, this time beside the mysterious spiky gem instead of Gaspeite. This was a place where nobody had to fight. It was totally peaceful. It had been a few days, and not a sight of the moon people at all. It was clear that this guy never had to fight, and did not live under the shadow of fear that he’d be kidnapped and turned into jewelry. He was so very lucky. Gaspeite would’ve really liked it here. He thought that maybe one day, he should find a way back and bring him over.