New Beginnings

Three

"Huh? Something new?" A brownish-multibraided-haired gem pondered for a moment. "I only know about the stuff I use. But hey, I want to fix this chair, so could either of you two just hold that there for a while? Oh, you must be Danburite, I'm Sphene. Welcome to the family."

"Oh! Nice timing, Phos!" That was Red Beryl, who strode in while Phos was holding onto the chair, unable to move. "Can you model this for me?" the red-haired gem asked, holding what seems to be fabric.

"I heard you're working on an encyclopedia..." a green-and-short-haired commented to Phos, not paying any special attention to the black robe Phos was wearing and the stars placed on her hair. "We're running low on hemp this year, so don't go wasting paper!"

"Hey," I asked the grumpy-looking Phos, "who's that?"

"This is Peridot," was the reply to me, "she's in charge of making paper."

"Ah, you must be the newcomer! Danburite, right? Want to make some paper?"

"Ah, no thanks, maybe sometime later!"

"I know all about glues and powders," Rutile said while holding onto a knee section and hand of what seems to be the Helio that Goshe mentioned earlier today, "but you want something no one has used before, huh?"

Phos and I had ran away from Red Beryl's clutches (mostly Phos dragging me along since I wasn't involved with Red Beryl's modelling). I didn't know gems could pant or even breathe for that matter, but here am I and Phos, catching our breaths. Phos was using a chair as support, slouching over while standing, while I was sitting on the floor, lying on the side seats.

"Cinnabar out on night watch might know something if you ask," Rutile suggested.

"Oh come on!" Phos suddenly shouted while looking up at Rutile, which startled me. "Wouldn't you know more than anyone? Are you just brushing me off cause you're busy, you quack?" She complained while she stood up and walked closer to the doctor.

Right, "they." Damn, we all look like girls, save from Kongo-sensei, so why don't we simply use "she", "her" and other feminine pronouns?

Meh, I'd rather not question and go with the flow, I have a cover to maintain.

"That mouth of yours... Perhaps it's in need of an emergency operation," Rutile commented as they used Helio's hand to attempt to touch Phos' mouth.

Phos immediately backed away and used the notebook to cover their mouth.

"Ew! Don't use that hand!"

"I mean," they continued, bringing down the notebook, "I know Cinnabar walks every nook along the shore, but it's always night, right? Can Cinnabar even see anything? The rest of us are no good at night."

"Indeed," Rutile confirmed, "the rest of us feed off the sun and are not built for the night, which makes things dangerous. But Cinnabar..."

She paused for a moment.

"Cinnabar's endless silvery poison pulls in the faint night light and allows for patrols at night. But, the Lunarinas have never shown themselves at night."

"What?" Phos asked. "Then why even have a lookout at night?"

"No matter how unlikely, that is Cinnabar's job. If you two do go out there, be careful."

"It's not like I want to go visit."

"Phos probably knows this already, but if any part of you comes in contact with the poison, light will no longer pass through it. It will have to be chipped off from you. And you will lose all the memories held within these chipped pieces," Rutile warned, showing the knee section piece of Helio.