Ferall Koboi paced outside his wife's bedroom, his face a mass of worry lines, from the tips of his pointed ears to the corners of his darting eyes. He really was trying to remain calm, he really was, but he just could no silence hi internal monologue.
"I knew we should have gone to the hospital instead of calling the doctor, I knew it! Everything is going to go terribly wrong, and Rose is going to die, and the baby will be a girl, and the doctor will charge extra, and..." His inner ramblings were cut short by the opening of the bedroom door. The doctor, a warlock, emerged, carrying his bag.
"Doctor, is she all right, please say she's all right, can I go see her, please, tell me everything, Doctor!"
Doctor Philius Pepper paused, smiling, and wiped his glasses carefully before answering, "Your wife is perfectly fine, sir, so you can stop wringing your hands like that. I don't specialize in finger surgery." Ferall looked down at his hands, note even aware that in his anxiety he had been squeezing them hard enough to turn them as red as a sun burnt dwarf.
"Now, Mr. Koboi, your wife and child need some rest, so I strongly advise waiting to go see them until she calls for you. Why don't you go for a walk? Might do you some good," he winked. "Some chocolate wouldn't hurt either. Good day, sir." The warlock doffed his hat and headed for the door.
"Wait! Is it a boy or a girl?" Ferall called after him. But Dr. Pepper was out of earshot. Oh well, he would find out soon enough. In the meantime, he would take the doctor's advice. Not to go take a walk; he wanted to be there the moment his wife wanted him, but to have some chocolate. He headed for his study.
Pixies, as you may not be aware, are not only power-hungry, ambitious, and greedy, they are also extremely fond of chocolate. If there is any chance of a bite to eat between meals, it will be chocolate. Midnight snack? Chocolate. Dessert? Chocolate, and so on. Pixies, being greedy, also don't want to share their chocolate, which is why Ferall Koboi kept his in a secret hiding place in his study, in a vase given to him by his mother. It was quite a hideous piece of pottery, about as big as Koboi himself, with three curvy handles and a bright fuchsia glaze. The perfect place, as nobody wanted to go near it.
Reaching into the pink monstrosity for some chocolate truffles, the devious pixie began to plan the life of his offspring. His anxieties removed upon the reassurances of Dr. Pepper, his usual cunning and guile returned. First, his son (for there was no chance of it being a girl!) would be sent to the most prestigious school for precocious young fairies in Haven, the Haven Academy of Engineering for Toddlers through Teenagers. After graduating at the top of his class, the boy...
"Ferall, darling," a weak voice called from the bedroom, "Don't you want to come in?"
Ferall sighed, stowing the remains of the box of truffles back in their hiding place. As much as he loved Rose, he loved chocolate and plotting more. Crossing the hall to her room and opening the door, he was shocked to hear her say, "Oh, Ferall, isn't she beautiful?"
She?
He had a daughter?
But he hadn't planned for a daughter, only a son! Oh, this was terrible, and just what he had feared. He couldn't tell his wife this, though, and lied through his teeth. "Gorgeous, sweetheart, just gorgeous."
Rose was, as always, oblivious to her husband's displeasure. She had eyes only for her newborn daughter, who was wide awake for being only forty-five minutes old. The infant's eyes were darting around in her small face, trying to find the sources of the interesting sounds. Those eyes were an iridescent blue-green, just like...
"Opals. Don't her eyes look like tiny opals, Ferall?"
"They do indeed, sugar. Why don't you name the precious thing Opal? It fits, doesn't it?"
You had to feel sorry for Ferall. Though he did not know it at the time, he had just named a criminal mastermind who would attempt to dominate the planet and succeed in ruining the rest of his life... after a precious stone.
