Moonstone

Ch. 4 | Spring

"Wow!"
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Moonstone was hiding behind one of the tall white pillars when Antarcticite opened the windows and waited for the others to wake up.

The cloth-filled room brightened as rays of sunlight poured in through the now open windows, each column falling perfectly in their place. They shone on each on the gems, giving them the energy needed for work.

Sapphire was the first to awaken. Then Rutile followed by Ruby followed by Yellow Diamond and the others.

Their clothes were disheveled and falling off their bodies. They slowly got up as Antarcticite started handing out their outfits. They exited the room one by one after they changed their clothes and fixed their hair.

When the last gem had walked out to be given a briefing of what had happened over the winter, Moonstone came out of her hiding place and looked at the sheets.

They look comfy.... She thought, lying down on the sheets. 

She sat up after a few minutes and sighed, thinking what she would be able to do this year. She wanted to make friends with at least one other gem. She thought hard about it and she eventually decided to start with the gem who was her age, Rutile.
She walked out the big chamber and walked up the stairs to her room. It was a large white room with a hole in the wall for the bed on one end, a wooden desk on the other and a large window with little snowdrops that littered the edges.
She sat on her bed, staring at the wall opposite her.

Once upon a time, it had been a plain white wall, like any other wall in any other room. But now, the wall was littered with maps, pictures of the ice other pieces that she'd drawn and the small flower sitting on the desk that stood against the wall, covered with dirt.

She looked out her window at the now green field and noticed how different it was compared to the soft white snow of winter. She stood, walking out as she attached the sheathed sword to her uniform. She walked sluggishly down the stairs, easily dodging the other gems that ran about.

It was the first few hours of the morning after all.

She walked on, reaching the area where Antarc and Kongo-sensei were speaking. She looked around, and nodded, confirming there were no others.

He and Antarc were waiting for her in the meeting area when she entered. They were discussing something when she cleared her throat to attract their attention. They turned to her.

"Moonstone!" Antarc exclaimed in shock. "We were just discussing your spring job and Sensei said that you should just compile an encyclopedia. I told him about your drawings and he told me that you would be perfect!"

Moonstone nodded her head as Kongo-sensei handed her a check board along with a pencil.

She left the room, thinking about what she could put in her encyclopedia. Donning the newly-commissioned green coat that was made for her, she walked out of the school and into the green fields.

She already had a basic idea of what it was supposed to be but how could she get all that information if things could change so easily?

As she walked, she reached one of the tall trees, looking up into its leafy foliage before looking down, only to see a patrol heading her way.

She did the first thing that came to mind: she jumped into the leaves. As she waited for the patrol to pass.

When it left, she quickly ducked below the tall grass that had grown over the few weeks of early spring.
It was enough to hide her from the other gems but not too thick that it blocked the sunlight from reaching her.

As she crawled around, the low viewpoint gave her an entirely new perspective of the world. Flowers, bugs and all sorts of things dwelled in the world below their feet and most gems didn't even notice.

As she studied each of the specimens she found, she came to have a fondness for them, as one would if they had nothing else to do and the creatures were most interesting.

After a bit of wandering, she realised that she could probably never find the exact spots due to the never-ending sea of grass that surrounded her. She made a mental reminder to ask for a map later on.

At around noon, she had finished around 30 pages of the check board and was getting a little weary of her job. So, she marked the spot where she stopped with a large branch and headed back to the school

The day was almost finished when she completed her report on the field and walked down the stairs to give it to Kongo-sensei.
On the way there, she had near run-ins with nearly all the other gems. First Blue Zoistite and Sapphire, then Yellow Diamond and Pink Topaz, then Rutile and Padparadscha and finally Green and Red Diamond, She hadn't run into Ruby yet though, which was good as Ruby was the loudest of the gems.

When she entered, she rushed in so fast that she didn't notice Ruby standing a little way off while Antarcticite and Sensei were talking.

She then calmed herself and waited at the side for Antarc and Sensei to finish. When they did, she walked up to Sensei and gather her encyclopedia findings to him. She requested the map, and he gave one to her.

She was about to leave for her room when Ruby stopped her.

"Hey! Who are you? I've never seen you around before," she called out, grabbing Moonstone's hand as well as grabbing the attention of every single gem around them.

Sapphire, Blue Zoistite, Yellow Diamond, Padparadscha, Pink Topaz, Green Diamond and Red Diamond all looked at her too, expecting an answer.

"U-um... well.. I'm M-moonstone! I-I'm new here a-and I... i-it's nice to meet you!" She stammered, bowing to Ruby as all the other gem looked at her with clear confusion.

"But no one arrived here last year except Rutile," Ruby protested.

"I-I.... have to go!" She yelled, before yanking her arm away and running as fast as she could to escape the attention.

"Wow!" Pink Topaz squealed. "Yellow! She rivals your speed! Isn't this exciting?!"
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
~End~
Hey everyone!
Sorry for the long delay but... oh never mind I'd just be making excuses. I am sincerely sorry for not being able to publish sooner but I had an issue with Moonstone's nickname. Do you think it should be Onwa or Miki? Onwa was a suggestion by Fayesummers and I think Miki suites her because it means 'beautiful chronicle' in Japanese.
                                                                                                                               Sincerely ,
                                                                                                                           MoonDrop24