From Out Beyond Your Star (Book 1)

Chapter Five: The First Encounter

{Rosie's POV}
I stood behind the green gem that was taking me through the unknown.
"What gem are you?" I asked
"Peridot." She answered flatly. "What about you? You seem pretty mysteriously unreadable." The smallest of smiles crossed her face.
"Umm, Rose Quartz. But my name's Rosie." Peridot stopped in her tracks, her eyes wide. She looked at me, and pursed her lips. Then she turned around and started walking again. Everything loomed over me like it knew something I didn't and was going to use it against me. Then Peridot opened the doors to an ornate hall, decorated with yellow diamond drippy chandeliers. At the end of the hall sat a great chair, surrounded by technology, and sitting in it was a big gem, tall and very yellow.
"Who's that?" I whispered to Peridot.
She put her tongue in her cheek.
"That's Yellow Diamond, just be nice to her, and she won't hurt you, got it?" She said to me matter-of-factly. I nodded.
Yellow Diamond turned her head to look at us, and her golden eyes widened a bit as she looked at me, and she shifted her position in the chair, so she was facing us.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't Peridot. You ran away before I could annoy you a bit, honey." She smirked. "And who's that?" She said, motioning to me.
Peridot's cheeks went a little greener, and she opened her mouth to say something, but then I stepped forward and said:
"I'm Rosie Quartz Universe. I don't exactly know where I am, or why I'm here. I'm five years old, and I have a very high-level vocabulary for my age." I said, looking her in the eye. I wasn't afraid of her, I could summon my weapon, although I wasn't that good at it, and I could run again, but where?
Yellow Diamond looked at me and smiled. An orange beefy meatloaf of a gem stood next to the chair, and she squint-eyed me.
"You've got confidence for a mere five-year-old. You're less than one one-hundredth of my age, you know...."
When she said that I was surprised. "Really!?" I smiled.
"Really." She smiled back, and the light in her eyes was warm. "So tell me, Rosie, are you wanted back anywhere, or are you needed somewhere?"
Then I thought of Pearl and Amethyst and Garnet, but mostly Pearl. I looked down at my feet.
"No." I replied.
"Hmm.......good. You can stay with Peridot for now, we'll make you something comfortable to sleep on, you look a bit tired." She said to me.
"With Peridot? Sleep?" Peridot asked confusedly from behind me.
As she mentioned it, I did feel a wave of sleepiness wash over me, and I followed Peridot as she reluctantly led me through the infinite maze of yellow hallways.