G.E.M | Gemstones, Enchantment, & Magic | Mystical Realms

Fasinaton for Fiction

Chapter 2
Fascination for Fiction
"And now hundreds of years later we have our home as we know it." A young lady stood in the middle of a small town in the kingdom, she had round, black glasses that accentuated her emerald green eyes. Her straight raven black hair was tied back into a low side ponytail with a braid running through it. Her head was adorned with a single golden yellow flower complementing the golden jewelry she wore around her wrist, neck, ankle, and on her ears. Her outfit was made up of a short, poofy, black dress with a hood attached, accompanied with a gold belt at her waist. Her sheer stockings covered her legs, and finally a pair of black flats completed the outfit. A small group of young children had been seated around her. "Here we stand at the core of her legacy, the statue of our great empress," the young lady passionately gushed. While doing so she extended her hand up out towards the stone statue that towered over them.
"Wow! She sounds so brave!" a small girl with pigtails exclaimed over the fascinated group.
"Yea, totally!" a short boy with glasses agreed. The emerald-eyed lady was in awe of how excited the children were. As she looked around she saw a petite girl shyly raising her hand. The girl had dark brown hair tied back in two braids, and a cute dark blue dress adorned with black flowers by her shoulder.
"Hello, what's your name?" she asked the girl.
"K-Kacey" she answered almost whispering, her voice soft and gentle like a feather in the wind.
"Well Kacey, did you have a question?"
"I do, um.. did the empress have a name?" she hesitantly asked
"Ah, good question little Kacey," she replied with a playfully intrigued glance. "Unfortunately no one knows, but I think I found a lead." The other children waited patiently to see what she had in store. The young lady pulled a flat tablet made of calcite, inscribed on it were strange symbols. "See these?" she asked, pointing to the symbols. "Those are called runes, I've spent a few weeks attempting to decipher them."
"What do they say?" multiple kids eagerly questioned, awaiting an answer.
"From what I found," she paused. "They read, Anwarah," she spoke, giving a slightly mysterious tone. "Which I'm sure means 'the bright one' or can also mean 'eternal flame'."

Suddenly before anyone could say anything else a young man interrupted the small "lesson".
"Esmeralda!" he shouted.
"Jasper!?" her heart stopped for a split second due to the unintended scare. "What are you doing here?"
"The better question is what are you doing, huh" he questioned playfully, for he knew what had been going on. "Excuse me little ones, I need to borrow her for a second." He said with a gentle tone, pulling Esmeralda aside.
"Ugh, why can't you leave me alone?!" Esmeralda groaned.
"Oh I don't know, maybe because you are my sister, you need to get your head out of the clouds." Jasper rolled his eyes. "You spend too much time researching about a fictional legend, the 'overworld' doesn't exist Es-"
"You don't know that!" Esmeralda cut him off in denial
"And you do?"
"Fine I get it, but," she paused. "I know you want to believe it, he is stopping you and we both know it," Esmeralda concluded, her anger dropped, and instead her tone was filled with worry. Jasper's head dropped, not wanting to look at his sister.
"I wish it was different Es, I just want to protect you," Jasper muttered.
"I know big bro, I know, tell you what," Esmeralda suggested. "How about I wrap it up with the little ones, we go home, get Ruri, and grab some Flame Pops with the G.E.M squad, I'm sure Gemma, Zari, and Rubin aren't doing anything at the moment, plus~." A smirk spread across her face, giving an unreadable expression towards the now slightly worried Jasper. "We can even invite Kyran~." The boy blushed a bright red, surprised at his sister's statement.
"How did you-"
"Please, like it's that hard to tell," Esmeralda laughed sarcastically.
"How about you finish up with those kids huh," Jasper deflected Esmeraldas obvious attempts to tease him.
"Fine, but we aren't done with this conversation."
"That's what you think, Es."

Esmeralda returned to the group of kids that had been patiently waiting on her return, making up stories of adventures with each other to pass the time.
"Sorry for the wait," she apologized. "If no one has any more questions then that will conclude our time together." The children stayed silent as they shook their heads. "Great! You are dismissed, I will see you next week!"
"Alright let's go 'Esmeralda the teacher'," Jasper mocked as they began to walk home.
"That's 'Ms. Esmeralda' to you young man," she laughed
"Don't you 'young man' me, I'm older than you Es, and more mature if I might add," he gloated.
"Says the one who's still in denial over you know who~"
"Oh, shush you," he gave a brief smile, happy to, for once, be relaxed and with his sister.
"Race you!" Esmeralda shouted and took off.

Just before leaving, something caught Jasper's eye. A crystal lay on the ground, it gave off a calming and tranquil aura. It's color was as red as fire. He glanced at his sister running towards home. "Wait up!" He swiftly picked up the red crystal, slipped it in his pocket, and ran as fast as he could.

Hello reader!
You have made it to the end of the chapter! Thank you so much for reading. I hope you enjoyed and are excited for more. Have a good day! Bye reader!

-Shroom 🍄