Lumariae half skipped, half ran along the path, giggling to herself all the while. She still had a large grin when she stopped suddenly and jumped down to her knees, fingers exploring the gemstones making up the edge of the pavement. She traced the outline of each stone with a finger, inspecting their shapes, colours and textures one by one.
"I liiike… you, and you, aaand you!" she announced to her chosen stones, pointing at each one in turn.
She pulled a roll of paper and a stick of charcoal out of a pouch at her waist, dropping the charcoal which then snapped into two pieces. She hurriedly picked one of those pieces up and began to sketch.
"I like you because you're a kind of triangle shape," she informed the first stone, attempting to capture this feature on her paper. The lines were a bit wobbly, and one corner was a smudgy mess where she'd repeatedly rubbed it out with her hand and redrawn it, but she was pleased with her work.
"I like you because you're nice and green," she told the second stone. She paused for a moment, wondering how to represent that with her black charcoal. Eventually she settled for vaguely drawing the shape with the word "green" written in the centre.
The third stone had been badly chipped, perhaps where something heavy had been dropped. There was a chunk missing, and thin cracks radiated out from the centre of the gap.
"And I like you because you're shaped like a bee!" she declared. To her mind the chip took the form of a multi-segmented insect, and the cracks looked like legs and wings. She drew the stone as best she could, helpfully writing "bee" next to her attempt.
Giggling once more, she hastily stuffed the paper and pieces of charcoal back into her pouch and scrambled to her hooves. She then ran back the way she had come to show Almas her work.
She came skidding into Almas' workshop to find him hunched over one of the workbenches. He wore a heavy pair of goggles with multiple lenses he could swivel in and out of place. When he looked at her with those on it always made his eyes look huge, which always made her laugh.
She wandered about the room inspecting his works while she waited on him to finish his current task. There were many kinds of jewels and stones in various states of cutting, carving and buffing. She found a collection of small stone animals and rearranged them around a flat, blue gem so they could all have a drink.
"You're back too quickly, little one," Almas said in exasperation behind her. "I was hoping for more time before you were back messing the place up again!"
His tone was light and joking, and a hand reached out to tickle her which she gleefully swatted away.
"Come then, show me what you found!" He motioned for her to join him at a small table, grabbing her a stool. She had to jump to get up on it, and her legs had plenty of space to swing.
She pulled the paper back out of her pouch. It had become quite crumpled and the charcoal pieces had made new smudges in the bag, but she proudly presented it to him, and he took it from her with the appropriate reverence.
"You have an eye for colour, shape and design. This is good!"
Lumariae felt herself swell with pride. When she grew up, she wanted to carve beautiful decorations out of gem stones just like Almas. She was too young to become a true apprentice, but he had been teaching her some basic things in the meantime.
"Your drawings will get better with practice, but even now I can see what you were trying to do. Now that you've collected some ideas you like, would you like to help me make something?"
She leapt down from the seat, sending it sprawling, "Please, please, please!"
They worked together for a few hours that day. Almas drew up the plans for the design, consulting her throughout. After considering her sketches they chose a pretty green stone made of a softer material that would be easier to shape, and they decided they would make a simple triangle.
Lumariae returned each day to continue working on her masterpiece. Almas cut the general shape for her since she was too little to use those tools by herself, but then she used a selection of wetted files and sandpapers to fine tune the shape and smooth the surfaces.
And then she was finished at last. She had rounded the corners to make everything nice and smooth, and in the end it was small enough to fit inside the closed fist of even her small hands. She wondered if she could make it into a necklace. It would be her treasure, and one day she would unlock its magical properties and find out that she'd been magical herself all along, and that would be really cool…
"Can I see it?" Almas asked, stretching a hand towards her.
"Be careful, I think it might be magical," she informed him as she handed it over.
He chuckled softly. "Of that I have no doubt. This little stone contains some of your imagination, and a lot of your patience and hard work. There is no stronger magic than that."
He turned it over with his fingers, feeling over each surface with his thumb. Then he held it between thumb and forefinger to inspect it closely with a handheld magnifying glass.
"A fantastic first attempt!" he declared. "You've been very careful, it's all smooth and I don't see any damaged areas."
She jumped around the room a few times. She had made a magic stone and one day she was going to be the best jewel crafter ever!
"Now, remember we used a soft stone for our first practice," he reminded her, "so it will easily become scratched if you don't take care of it. Why don't you leave it here for now, and I'll see about finding a nice cloth pouch to keep it protected in?"
She excitedly told her parents all about her creation that evening, and when she fell asleep, she dreamed about all the special properties her stone might develop one day and the adventures she would have with it.