Chapter 3: When Emeralds Do More Than Look Pretty
"A livelier emerald twinkles in the grass, a purer sapphire melts into the sea." ~ Tennyson Maud
XXX
By dawn I was up and moving, no longer able to sit still. I felt the forest calling me, channeling an actual need to get up and search.
'Come, I'm waiting.' The voice slipped through my mind languidly, delivering my consciousness into a drunken state. My thoughts twisted themselves, only one desire available to my whims: find the source.
Leaving the clearing, I found my myself searching through the forest of the island. Everywhere I turned trees blocked my vision, making it difficult to actually search, but as I continued my mind became fuzzier and I stopped looking altogether. Instead, I knew if I kept moving I would find what I needed to. The yearning in my belly would lead me.
The fire within me burned hotter and bolder as I traveled around trees, over boulders, and through bushes. It was close. The fire became one with my mind, and, as I passed through the last of the vegetation, I knew I had arrived.
I entered a massive field of grass, of which surrounded a large monument of stone. The structure laid in layers, each proportionally smaller than the one below it. It wasn't the structure I was being drawn to, however, and while the fuzzy disarray of weird attraction had finally left me, I felt a compulsion to venture to the top. With ease, I climbed up the steps of the monument and as I climbed higher the air felt more vibrant. The fire in my belly and mind had dulled, instead of the heavy unbearable heat from before, it now only filled my core and delivered a nice radiant warmth throughout my body.
As each step brought me higher, my body became lighter, until, finally, I made it to the last stair of the mountain. The top was flat, reaching out to have several square feet of intricate patterns of stone. The drawings rotated and circling towards the middle of platform, but my eyes weren't drawn to the etchings, instead they saw to what the patterns rotated to. Floating, there in front of me, was a large green gem.
Slowly, I moved to it, loving the feeling of warmness it imminated. The green glow was small and delicate, compelling me closer and closer until I was inches from it. The gem, itself was as tall as my waist and about two feet wide. It was cut in the same shape I often saw on wedding rings, only a hundred times larger.
After a small bout of hesitation, I touched the gem's surface. At first, it was cool and slick, which confused me, since it was emitting small traces of heat. However, the gem quickly turned warmer. I felt relieved and a sense of belonging.
'Finally!' The voice in my head sighed out. As if the word was a signal, the gem's light began to lap at up my arm. Crying out, I shrank back in fear and moved to avoid the invigorated green fire, but it had already caught my skin. Busy with patting at the flame to put it out, it took me a moment to realize that the flame was not burning me. Instead, even as it grew up my arm to my shoulder and on, it filled my senses with an intense, energetic feeling. Energy pulsated through my veins, and before I knew it I touching the gem with both hands.
More light flowed from the gem, thick cords of energy attached themselves to various places on my body. 'Clear your mind.' The voice commanded, and I felt compelled to do as it said. 'Imagine the energy flowing through your veins. It is me, and I am becoming one with your heart.'
XXX
"Who are you?" I asked it. The green light had finally faded away as the sun set hours ago. Even though there was an absence of chords of energy, I could still feel it radiating through me. I felt complete and at ease, something that had not happened in a very long time. Sometime ago I had lain down, exhausted from the day's advances. Though I had just been pumped to the brim with energy, I felt as if I had just ran a marathon.
I overwhelmed by the sense of humor. Taken aback, I sat in contemplation. Was this a riddle or a ploy? "You control the gem here then?" I sat up and leaned against my arms.
'Emerald.' The voice sang through my head. 'I am.'
I didn't quite seem possible. I stared intensely at the gem, searching the glowing majesty within it. "You're the emerald?" The gem just flickered in response, and I felt a wave of agreeance hit my subconscious. The emerald's emotion covered my own, sending my brain in to a frenzy to try regain a hold of my own.
After a moment of silence I was washing into a sickening feeling, loneliness I pin-pointed after the emotion died away. "Your lonely?" The emerald flickered. I rolled to my side, my front facing the glowing green gem, my head resting on the crook of my arm. "I won't leave tonight then." I was responded with the feeling of relief.
XXX
I awoke as the sun broke over the horizon, invading the thin skin of my eyelids. I rolled over, searching for my blanket to cover my head. When I couldn't find it, I became confused and opened my eyes. I was met with the sight of a giant green gem and I suddenly recalled the event of yesterday. Slowly, I sat up. Every muscle in my body screamed at me as I lifted my arms above my head and stretched.
Looking over to the emerald, I smiled a bit. "Good morning." When I didn't receive a response back I was a little bit shocked, and I began to be concerned that it was all just a dream. Reaching over, I touched the smooth surface of the gem and immediately felt a sense of peace and tranquility. Content that I wasn't crazy, I stood and stretched again making several of my joints pop. Perhaps sleeping on the ground wasn't the best idea for my back.
Silently, trying not to wake up the gem (could a human wake up an inanimate object?), I climbed down the stairs and walked in to the woods. I need to take care of a few human urges, and I knew the emerald would understand. Randomly choosing a tree I used it to lean on as I relieved myself. When my bladder was empty I walked back in direction of the clearing.
I was increasingly curious about the area. While I had just ran through this part of the forest last night, I hadn't actually gotten to take in the actual terrain of it. The trees and plants were not unlike the plants from the the small field I had collapsed in the previous day. Deciding to take a detour, I took a left and continued on.
I trekked through the forest until I found a small pond. Fascinated, I quickly stripped off my flimsy hospital gown and ran into the water. Glad to have some form of cleansing process, I swam a couple laps in the water. When I was tired, I stood in a relatively shallow part of the water and ran my fingers through my hair, attempting to untangle. I gasped when my nailed scratched a relatively sore part of my head. Pausing for a bit a moment to allow the slight pulsing pain to subside, my finger tips easily finding the sore object and traced it.
My heart pounded in my chest, there was no way. Where my ear was supposed to be there, instead, was a foreign thing was soft and fury. As if the thing sensed my shock it twitched away from my touch. Completely scared, I jumped out of the pond and ran around to a side were the surface wasn't moving. I stared at my reflection, turning my head to side and parting my hair. I saw my eyes widen in shock and my mouth clench. There on my head, instead of a normal human ear, was a brown furry object, in laid with light pink. I touched it to make sure that it wasn't just my hair stuck to my ear. But when I pulled the tip, I was filled with slight pain.
I quickly turned my head to the other side and found there was something completely identical. "What the hell?!" I screamed at myself. Then, I noticed my other changed features. I still held a human face, but my eyes had changed colors. Instead of my dark gray irises, I now possessed dark green ones.
My chest, while I had never really had large breasts, they were now noticeably small and sported what looked like a tattoo. Two dark lines traveled from top inside of my left boob, split apart to travel in a crescent shape, the lower line etched only a couple of centimeters from the top of each nipple, and ended on my right boob, near my armpit. "I HAVE A SMILEY FACE ON MY CHEST!" I screeched, hitting the water to destroy the image. I stepped away from the reflection. Maybe, I was just stressed. "Ya," I said to myself. "I just need to calm down."
I took a few calming breaths before stepping next to the water and look at my reflection in the water again. The tattoo was still there. I reached up to feel my ears, and...yep, those were still those sensitive fur blobs. I screamed and went to hit the water again, but this time I tripped and landed on my but. Somehow, landing on my rear hurt four times more than normal. Reaching to my but my hands came in contact with something that defiantly was not supposed to be there. I harshly grabbed the thing, bent it a bit, causing tears to come to my eyes, and turned my head to look over my shoulder. Like my hair and ears, this thing was brown and furry, however, in contrast, it was long, skinny and pointed.
Releasing the object from behind me, I walked around the pond and tugged my hospital dress back on left the clearing.
