Thanks to all readers and reviewers!
Prompt: Write a story from the land of Bism, the land below the earth, where jewels are alive.
"'Twas deep and dark and dangerous",
The minstrels might have said,
Had not the king corrected them:
"Nay, it was bright and red."
And seated in the castle's hall,
He told of what they'd seen,
Of brilliant blue and scarlet shine
And flash of emerald green.
Beneath the sky, beneath the ground,
Beneath the Witch's prison,
A country heretofore-unknown:
The flaming land of Bism.
In depths of light the gnomes did dwell,
Awash in lambent heat,
Where silver grew upon the trees
And gold like fields of wheat.
The orchards there were made of gems,
A-flowering on the vine.
The rubies, food; the diamonds, drink;
And more on which to dine.
A molten river ran throughout,
Betwixt the groves of jewels,
Which nourished them with heat and light
From all its streams and pools.
And in it swam the white-hot ones
The gnome could not omit:
The salamanders, fire sprites
Of wondrous clever wit.
The four had stood at chasm's edge,
Washed in its flaming glow.
They'd listened to the gnomish tale
Of wonders found below,
And in himself the prince had found
A wish to then descend—
If Caspian had sailed the Sea,
His son the Earth might rend.
In Paravel, the tableguests
Saw in him the desire
To delve beyond the deepest place,
And seek that living fire.
But just as soon, the longing fled;
The yearning died to none
As Rilian looked 'cross the hall
To where a portrait hung.
"'Twas well," said he, the once-bespelled,
"That wiser heads prevailed.
Or else I should have come too late,
And at his tombstone wailed.
Yet still I find, and might alway,
That half my heart is there—
Midst living jewels and singing light,
In Underland the fair."