The cursed gem

Walk of desperation

The sun was high up in the sky when Alchemist Cookie decided to go on a walk to clear her mind. Before that she brushed her hair and took a shower, along with changing her clothes. She also wanted to pass the time, as she waited for hours for the glow of the crystal to change in any way. Noticing that observing it directly seemed to slow down the process to absolutely none, she decided to leave the gem alone. She knew it sounded foolish but she was slowly getting desperate. She did everything she could possibly think of. From shining light from a flashlight directly at it to trying to heat it up. But no matter what she did, she wasn't able to get the crystal to glow more or less. Leaving it alone was her last idea. Ever since she left the house, she couldn't stop thinking about it. She tried focusing on other things like the sound of cookies' voices or watching them run around, but nothing worked. She was exhausted from the long night. She wasn't much of a sleeper but 4 hours were a minimum. She only fell asleep once and it wasn't good either. She eventually decided to sit down by a water fountain in the center of the kingdom. She found a nice, shady bench, which she sat on. She watched the water splashing everywhere near. Just then, a wave of anxiety hit her like a wave. She left the crystal all one on her table for anyone to just walk in and see. She knew that no one had a reason to enter her room but she couldn't help but want to run back home and hide it. But what if hiding it would interfere with the experiment? What if what she was doing needed to be done? But what if someone would find it? What then? The thoughts in her head fought one another. She was so caught up in them, that she didn't even realize that she had curled up in the corner of the bench. She kept mindlessly staring at the fountain, not paying attention to her surrounding. She unawarely started playing with her hair. It wasn't often that she wasn't able to control her thoughts. She was oftentimes able to calm herself down, whether it was counting everything on percentages or by simply using logic. This time, however, she wasn't able to stop the racing thoughts. Eventually, she settled on going home. As she got off the bench, she tried her best not to run, but her legs refused to cooperate. It felt like something was dragging her back and she had accepted it. She already ran halfway to the house, when someone crossed her way. She wasn't able to stop herself fast enough, resulting in a crash. She fell down.
-'Oh dear, are you alright?'
She looked up to see Cherry Blossom Cookie's worried expression. She was usually glad to see her. They got along pretty well. They enjoyed each other's company dearly. Alchemist would sometimes even take a break from her research which, asking anyone who knew her, was truly rare. This time, however, she didn't feel joy at all. Instead, she felt anger, burning her from the inside. Cherry Blossom tried to help her up, but she quickly got up.
-'Watch where you're going next time!' she yelled out angrily as she continued to run. She wasn't exactly sure why she was so mean to her. Was it because of the anxiety she felt? Yes, that must've been it! What else could it possibly be? She was going to apologize later but now she had to rush home. She was sure that Cherry Blossom would understand. She slammed the door open. In a corner of her eye, she saw Vampire Cookie, staring at her from the couch. She ignored it and ran upstairs. She opened the door to her room, to see the crystal completely untouched. It was right where she left it and how she left it. She sighed in relief as she closed the door behind her. She came up to it to look closer. She smiled as she noticed that the glow was, indeed, brighter. She quickly picked up her notebook from before to write down the change. So her theory turned out to be true! She did need to leave the gem for it to glow more! Now that she knew how to control the crystal's brightness, she was now able to go further with her research.