011. Red

Karina turned the ruby over in her hands, watching it sparkle in the sunlight. It was such a pretty little gem. She loved gemstones, except for diamonds. They reminded her of working in the store. The Diamond General Store, her mother had named it for some reason. Ruining a perfectly reasonable gem, it was; sullying up a pretty, sparkling beauty.

Gemstones were lucky. They never had to work. They just sat in rocks for years and years, never once moving, growing more and more beautiful the longer they sat still, until someone dug them out. Zaid, the dwarf from the desert settlement, had dug this one out. A present, not that it meant anything special, he said.

Well, special or not, it was a very pretty gem, red like a strawberry, or like Raven's hair, or like a sunset. Sunsets meant nighttime, which meant sleeping without being told that she had to wake up. And that was always a plus in Karina's book.