AUTHORS NOTE: This chapter is a bit longer then the one before... I hope youlike it! PLEASE DONT FORGET TO R&R! Oh yeah, I changed the name so that it was Birthstones and not Birhtstones.I think that was what it was before. Sorry:)

RESPONSES:

Karolyn- Thanks for the critisism. I really need it for helping my writing skills. I have never read or even heard of Antagonistic Diamond... is it good? The idea of this story really just popped out of nowhere. I was going to do it with planets and stuff because I was in that kind of a mood. I have those a lot. Opal the main character, isnt that thoughtful, let's say to others... yet. She develops through out the story to treat others as they should be treated. She is kind of harsh in the beginning but as I said she doesnt have much of a relationship with her mother. The next chapter hopefully won't be as choppy!

Glitterpoison- I like that you liked it!

ENJOY!

CHAPTER 4

"Wake up sleepy head!" Garnet said gently shaking her. "We thought you might want some dinner. You've been sleeping for a couple hours now and Joshua said that we could wake you up now. We have some birthday cake with candles for you! But first have some of this; it will make you feel better."

Opal took the cup and sipped it.A few minuteslatershe wasfeeling better. Her hand was cramping though. She touched her ring. It felt like her lifeline.

Maybe it was and that was why the fox went forjust the ring.Just thinking ofthe eventwas giving her a headache.

"Are you alright to come downstairs and meet the rest of the gang?"

"If you will help me get up." Opal got up slowly. Garnet led her to the door.

"How do you like your room? Right now I think it still needs some final touches but do you like it? I designed it." Garnet was proud of her work. The walls were a lots of different shades of red. There were also some pictures of people. I probably dont know them though. Also there was a desk, bed, and dresser, with corresponding colors. All her stuff (which wasn't much) was already in her new room.

"Yeah, it looks great! Let's go downstairs I'm getting hungry."

They made their way down the stairs and towards their destination.Garnet escorted Opal to the dining room. It was quite big. The table fit fourteen people. The walls were adark huntergreen, with pictures to brighten it up. It was all old-fashioned and it smelled of lots of foreign food. She examined the people of the room. Everybody was excited to see her and Opal was just as excited to see them.

They're just like me. I hope they will be my friends.

"Let's introduce you to the rest of us." Garnet said."There's me, Onyx, Aqua, and Diamond."

"And being your birthday and your first day back, we celebrate!" They all chanted.

"I've never had a birthday party before." Everybody looked surprised except Diamond.

Opal got her first good look at the one who insulted her hometown. She was quite tall, taller then everybody.The high-heel shoesjust added to her height. Her hair was bleached and was, like Ruby's, the latest fashion. She had a lot of jewelry on that glinted from the light. Opal even thought she had diamonds in her hair. Her outfit was a dress made of sequins that wentdown to her thigh. Which was a bit flashy for this occasion. It almost seemed as though she was trying to steal the attention from the birthday girl.

Diamond thought she was better than perfect so she insulted Opal again by saying, "What do you expect in that town? I mean, come on." Her voice was a very high pitched sound thatwas coming out of her nose.

The room glared at her as she twirled a strand of her perfect hair. Tears swelled up in Opal's eyes. "What? It's probably true." Opal couldn't take it. She ran up the stairs and into her room, slamming the door.

"Why do you always have to do that?" Garnet asked and then ran up afterOpalwithout waiting for an answer. Joshua came out with a smile on his face.Thesmilequickly changed.

"Where is Opal and Garnet? Have they not come down yet?"

"No they came down. Diamond's just being her old self again." Aqua mentioned. He was a punk who looked older than his age, which was sixteen. His hair was dark with blue stripes and he had dark eyes.

If you looked into those eyes you would be able to tell that he had had a hard life. Joshua didn't find Aqua until he slipped his power out a third time. Which kind of burned things up. Literally.

Everyone looked back at Joshua seeing what Diamond's fate would be. Joshua nodded to himself and said without question,

"Diamond, you will get no cake today or leftovers if there is any. You will have your dinner sent up to you but you may come down to Ceremony. Now Go To Your Room!"

BIRTHSTONES----BIRTHSTONES----BIRTHSTONES----BIRTHSTONES---BIRTHSTONES----BIRTHSTONES----BIRTHSTONES----BIRTHTSTONES

Upstairs Opal ran into her pillow. She was sobbing as Garnet came in quietly.

"I don't like this place." Opal told her. "They don't like me here. I want to go home." She sniffled some more.

Garnet tried to cheer her up. "Diamond's always like that. Just don't speak to her. She will be gone by the time we go down there again. Cheer up… It's your birthday!" She smiled.

"Ok I'll go downstairs, I mean I'm still famished!" She stated heading towards the door. " I have a question though. Where's Toby?" Opal presented a worried expression. "He has to come to my birthday party."

"Don't worry he'll come." Garnet replied taking her by the hand and leading her to the party.

They were going down the stairs just as Diamond was going up them. Opal didn't look at her; she didn't want to. Not after what she had said about herself and her town.

"Welcome birthday girl!" Joshua greeted with bliss. He told onyx to go get the birthday cake. "We hope that your day has been going fine, but we all know that it hasn't. We all apologize for Diamonds' behavior. She was raised in a rich society. Well, do you want your cake before or after dinner?"

Onyx came in holding the cake. Opal couldn't see it though, for the container covered it.

"I would like it after, please!" She was anxious for the cake, but she knew good manners.

Another thing mother would have been proud of. She thought sarcastically. It's like I'm getting better while I'm away from her.

The dinner was a feast. Joshua conjured up Opal's favorite, most expensive meal she could think of.The childthought of King crab. Since she heard her school mates talking aboutit occasionally. Opal had always wondered what crab tasted like. There was also some vegetables and wild rice. Where's Toby? He would just love this! He popped out from under her chair.The girl gave him some of her crab.

Opal had just finished when someone called "Cake!". She was full at that time but she could always make some room in her stomach for more! The cake was homemade by Joshua himself.

They uncovered it.

"Carrot Cake!" She heard herself saying. She was having the best time in her life and it was going by too fast.

"And after this, there's the ceremony!" Peridot said with his mouth full of cake. "That's the best part!"

"What goes on during the ceremony?" She didn't know there was a better part to this day. It couldn't be true.

I hope this isn't some big thing where they all pay attention to me. I don't like it when all the attention is directed to me. I knew this was all too good to be true.

"The ceremony will begin in fifteen minutes!" Someone yelled out.

"Time's going by really fast today." Sapphire said cheerfully.

"Yeah," Opal muttered. "Too fast."

They were all lead into another huge room. The living room had dark purple walls and it was filled with paintings. There were three huge comfortable looking couches and a couple luxurious chairs. There was a very homey looking fireplace with a brown carpet in the middle. On the carpet in the very center was where Joshua was now standing.

"Everybody find a spot to sit down." He paused smiling. "Everyone except Opal." She walked over to him.

"And what," Opal asked. "Would you like me to do?"

"All I need you to do is to tell me who you got that ring from." She was completely confused by this. She didn't know who gave her the ring. She thought she was born with it but then again that wouldn't make sense. On habit when she thought, she always looked up. Then Joshua spoke, "Think hard and long. Look back into the past. This is your First Test." She started thinking on how she got the ring. She saw Joshua again but he looked younger. She kept going back.

She thought harder.

How did I get this ring?

She kept thinking that same sentence and implanted what the ring looked like in her mind. She then had a vision. She didn't know what was happening since it was only her second one. The other one seemed a dream. The vision itself was about ten minutes long but she thought it went faster then that.

It faded in with laughter. Which startled her because she thought she was still in the room. Opal thought someone was laughing at her. So she was about to comment but then she saw different faces. They were very strange. The strangers were dressed in very bright colors with lots of shapes. They all had big red noses. They were there for a second then they disappeared. A man that she recognized came towards her. "Hello my daughter Opal." He said as he picked her up. "I've been waiting for this day to come for a long time." He took her to a room and opened the door. In the small room there was a podium. He took her to there and set her on top of it. The man took from his pocket, a case and levitated it so it was eye level to Opal. He called out in some strange language and a crowd of people showed up. Just out of the blue. "Opal," Her father said proudly, "You are the new holder of the October Sky Ring!" And he placed it on her index finger of her left hand.

Then everything started to disappear. She found herself back in the living room, lying in an odd position on her back.

"The answer to your question Joshua," She said getting up. "Is my father or the one who called me daughter Opal." She felt proud at answering her first question. Opal looked around. Everyone acted worried. "What? Did I do something wrong?"

"You just fell straight on your back." Ruby said. "Your eyes went blank, we knew that would happen. But since you were looking up, your balance wasn't right so you just fell."

"What do you mean my eyes went blank?" She didn't want something happening to her without knowing it.

Joshua also looked worried. "You had a vision. When people have visions others can not interfere. If they do, then that could result in terrible consequences. But not all consequences are unfortunate. Anyway, the person with the vision can't see what's going around them; otherwise they would get confused. Two things going on at once. That's why when Enchanters and Enchantresses made the power so that wouldn't happen. They blanked out all that was happening around them so that person could concentrate on the vision at hand. But Opal passed the Test as everybody in this room has."

Toby appeared from behind her and rubbed up against her. He licked her hand.

"I'm alright. Don't worry Toby." She told him while bending down. "I didn't even know I fell." He looked relieved. Joshua continued.

"People in the room as I said has to take a similar test. But since everybody has a different power I ask different questions. We are looking for the twelve children who possess powers out of the ordinary. Ordinary being, that they can levitate things and such. In the twelve, two people have the same power. Like Ruby and Aqua. They can both conjure fire out of thin air. The only two who haven't found their 'Partners' are Opal and Diamond. So those people won't have someone to help him or her through hard times with their powers. They only have me." He smiled. "But thankfully we will have the two last kids to complete the circle and defeat…." He trailed off. "I'm getting of the subject now. We've found everybody by sensing his or her powers. Once we've found them we send our note and take them back. Whatever it takes to get them back. Most of you have had one experience before we found you but then there are some who it took us a bit longer to find." He glanced at Garnet and then Peridot. "But we probably wont have to deal with that kind of problems again. So ending this very long speech I congratulate Opal for passing the test."

Then suddenly Ruby asked, "Where's Diamond? You did say she could come down for ceremony."

"I don't know." Joshua said slowly. "I don't know."

---BIRTHSTONES----BIRTHSTONES----BIRTHSTONES----BIRTHSTONES----BIRTHSTONES----BIRTHSTONES----BIRTHSTONES----BIRTHSTONES---

Everybody left the party in a good mood. They all went to their rooms and fell right onto their beds since it was well into the night. Opal on the other hand did not fall to sleep so easily. She was exhausted but not mentally tired.

Opal looked at the clock. It was only 10:30 PM but if she had been home she would've been asleep for a couple hours now. The girl suddenly didn't feel well. Thinking of home made her homesick. She got up feeling the darkness and cold surround her. There was some light from the hallway. She figured it was magic, which was the reason for a lot of things in the home.

Opal let her eyes adjust to the dark. She slipped on the slippers that were lying next to the bed. As she got up her feet brushed the floor. It was freezing. This night was abnormally cold. She shivered.

"Toby?" She called quietly. "Toby are you awake?" She found him fast asleep.

Now what have you been up to tonight?

"I guess I'll never know."

When she had walked into her room after the Ceremony she had recognized it from somewhere. Then it hit her.

It was from my vision! The room was from her vision It was just a little different with the colors and the walls.

Opal walked back to her bed and lay down. Just now remembering the vision, as it was stuck in her memory forever: the man who was her father, the strange people (who Joshua had said were clowns), The little case in which held the ring, her dad yelling out those words. "You are the new holder of the October Sky Ring!" She lay on her back and stared at the ceiling.

"Where did you go father?" She asked the air. "Where did you go?" Opal fell asleep saying only those words.

---BIRTHSTONES----BIRTHSTONES----BIRTHSTONES----BIRTHSTONES----BIRTHSTONES----BIRTHSTONES----BIRTHSTONES----BIRTHSTONES---

Opal found herself looking over an ocean. The ocean was black or dark anyway. It was probably dark because it was night. The child figured it was about twilight. The ocean had lots of glowing circles in it.

"What are those glowing things?" She heard herself say.

"Those are Bioluminescent Dinoflagellates but you can call them fire plants or, if you prefer, glowing things. It's beautiful isn't it?" Someone said from behind her. She recognized the voice but didn't turn around.

"Yes, very." She paused. "Where are we?"

"This my dear is the North Pole."

"But I thought it was cold in the North Pole."

"We are using magic." She now looked over her shoulder and smiled. It was Joshua.

"Is this my Second Test?" Opal asked. Her smile faded, as he did not reply. He had his hands out in front of him with his ring glowing faintly. His warm eyes closed and his distinct smell faint now.

Just then Joshua opened his eyes but it seemed as though they weren't there. They were glazed over and white. Opal was startled but then she remembered that when they do that it means that that person is having a vision.

He walked forward as if in a trance. His hands were getting closer and closer and Opal stumbled back. She didn't know if she should scream or run away. She decided to run away when she found she couldn't. It was as if she was a statue. Joshua blinked and his eyes weren't blank any more but they were cold. He was so close she could hear his jagged in-takes of breath.

Then, what seemed to be Joshua, pushed Opal off the iceberg and she was falling. Falling into the black ocean with fire plants. Falling into the deep unknown.

Authors Note: HEHEHE left you on a cliffhanger..literally. :) Now review!