Peridoh
Legacy Name: Peridoh

I took shape in the warm depths of the earth, singing with my sister gemstones as Mother Earth birthed us by filling us with droplets of her magical light. At the moment my final form was granted, I knew that though I could not take in air and move over Mother's surface, I was very much alive. I also knew my true name as it was whispered into my core. Peridoh.

Stars died and were born in the time I slumbered with my sisters, sharing their dreams of Mother's comforting voice and the warmth of the volcanic depths that housed us. I would have been happy to spend eternity in my birth chamber but the wandering creatures are impulsive, violent beings that force great changes in little time.

The lantern cast harsh light over my face, revealing my many sisters in glints of pale green light. The bedrock shuddered as the rag-clad human picked away at the stone. Mother's farewell was a bitter whisper in my mind as fingers wrapped around my body and plucked me into the air. I could feel the body of sisters similarly separated from Mother as I was carelessly cast into a bag but I could no more share thoughts with them than I could with the creatures that were turning my beautiful home to rubble.

The huge light in the sky was painful on my many facets as one of the men held me up to the sun. Men with skin ranging in color from rich volcanic soil to the pale sand at the water's edge gathered around to handle and admire me.

I could sense great Needs in many of the men, from the one who had fallen ill for lack of plant-foods to the one so worried about his mate straying in her affections that he did not allow his body to fall into the slumber pattern. I helped these men as best I could, sending out my healing energy in gentle waves. Some threw up defensive nets in their minds without knowing they had done so. These I could not help at all.

There was one very sick man with dark skin and thick ropes of black hair. He was too weak to hide even his deepest thoughts from me. From him I gathered much knowledge, learning that these creatures were humans and that the palest ones had brought the others to aide them in pulling my sisters and I from the ground. They had done this same cruel disservice to my cousins the diamond and the ruby. They would not be satisfied until my entire family was uprooted. Sorrow caused my light to flicker but I could not change my nature. I am a gem of peace and healing, not of violence or war. I could no more wish harm on these creatures than I could unmake myself.

I sent strong healing waves at the dying man. His companions shunned his company when he recovered, sure that a demon had possessed him.

He was a native of a nearby island. He had heard stories about the powers of gemstones. He waited until the other men were asleep to take my sisters and I in his hands and whisper a blessing over each of us, thanking us for the service he knew we had performed.

The bullet pierced his heart as he held me. His sticky blood splashed over my surface and sorrow once again caused my light to flicker. The other men in the camp thought the healed man was a thief. I pulled the hated word from their minds as they advanced.

I could not undo what was done but among my powers is the ability to lessen the grip of hate. One man spoke up, wondering if the sick one's wits were lacking. He insisted that the man have a proper burial beneath the earth. I encouraged this line of thinking where I could. They could not deny the sense in allowing a creature the peace of Mother's slumber. The dead man was buried and I almost envied him.

The man across the ocean had sweaty palms and a nervous twitching in his fingers as he held a small glass to my surface to study my every angle.

"An unusual specimen, for an emerald. Where did you say you dug this one up?"

Human fool! How dare he call me by the name of one of my cousins? I wished for just a tiny drop of the destructive forces that had shaped me, to melt this ignorant human where he stood. He set me on a tray as he counted out pieces of gold into the miner's hand.

Another human stepped forward, clearing his throat gently. "Master Farlan, I believe you're mistaken. This specimen is surely a peridot, and a very fine one. I've heard them referred to as the evening emerald, but they are a stone unique in their own right."

The sweaty one glared at the wise young man. "Learn to hold your tongue, apprentice."

I found myself trapped in a little wooden box lined with velvet. When I was next exposed to the light, I was plucked into the air by hands heavy with silver and gold bands. Many cousins had been sadly reduced from their natural state to serve as centers for the faces of rings.

The woman left me displayed in a case with a particularly fine collection of gemstones that never felt a jeweler's blade. Sometimes she would bring her sons into the room, whispering about the glory they would someday inherit. I sent waves of growth energy into the children, aiding them in growing straight and strong. Illnesses never took hold of the family for long, not until the wealthy woman fell into the final stages of the aging sickness. I eased her night terrors as fearful dreams of coming death began to haunt her. I settled a wave of comfort over the boys as they grieved her passing.

The thief was bold enough to break in while the family was putting her to rest. He stuffed my cousins and I into a rough burlap sack. We complained in the clatter we raised with every pounding step he took as he ran for the gate.

The butler was no marksman but he did manage to wing the thief with one of his bullets. The man never slowed though his curses were quite plain.

The thief holed up in a small and dirty cave that was nothing like the comforting darkness of a gemstone cavern. He ate watery gruel and lay staring at the ceiling as the loss of blood wrestled with his body's will to live. My cousins and I sent what healing energy we could but his fever would not break.

The fat man found the thief after three days, lifting one cold hand and letting it drop. He took one look at us and grinned, showing a mouth full of rotting teeth. He walked into the town as I sent a wave to cover his body. Rich food and laziness would kill him slowly. I could reverse their effect and improve his heart given time, but our time together would prove short.

The butler was not the best shot but he did have an excellent memory. He recognized the sack the thief had slung over one shoulder. He tackled the fat man, scattering my cousins all over the road to glitter and sparkle in the sun.

I was at the top of the bag. I spun through droplets of rain, teetering for a moment on the edge of a sewer grate before I dropped.

The water beneath the human city was polluted by human filth but a strong current soon moved me to a cleaner stream. I floated through channels that widened until they came to a pipe that spat me into open ocean. My weight pulled me down. I could sense the approach of the ocean floor and I thought this was Mother's way of welcoming me back but it was not yet time for me to find a place to rest.

The fish was large, its bulbous eyes drawn by the glint of light on one of my sides. It tried to take me in its jaws, thrashing its head in anger when it could not swallow. It refused to let me go as it swam for deeper waters.

My carrier soon forgot the conundrum of how to devour me when faced with the greater problem of how to avoid being devoured. The greater fish gave chase, catching my host atop a thermal vent. The smaller fish opened his jaws, spitting me into that dark crevice as his own form was bitten in half.

I floated in welcome darkness, coming at last to rest on a shelf of dark rock that was not so dissimilar to the bedrock where I had been born. I cannot hear Mother as I once did, but in this secluded place I feel near to her presence once again.

Story by Pureflower

Credits: Profile by: Ringo