The Mineral Myth

Authors Forward

This story is one of two, created as a challenge between Mother and Daughter. In honor of the Vocal Challenges, we decided to give ourselves challenges too, and use prompts to guide each other in our writing! It would be greatly appreciated if our readers would subscribe and leave a comment! I always subscribe back to those who leave a comment because then I can see them!

Prompt and Rules;

Minimum of 1500 words, max of 5000 words (50-word count grace if over) - Due in 2 weeks, (Nov. 27th)

The prompt is; There are tests, doesn't matter what kind, just tests and if you fail, you disappear. If you pass you cannot tell anyone how and you are not allowed to brag about it. The world is full of training moments like this. Everyone assumes failing means you die- but when the main character fails- they find out that they don't die- They are just born.

Related Stories;

My Mom's submission - HERE

The Mineral Myth

Minerals and Crystals have been symbols of strength and wealth for so long. They have inspired fantasy, curses, blessings, magic, and even science. Today, they inspire the challenges of the spirit, mind, and body. Today, they show extensive traits of energy and spirituality.

Long ago and far away, there was a meteor filled with minerals to be tested and crystals who already passed. In this land, it is believed that in your thousandth year, you will go into the Temple of Tests, face three challenges, and if you pass, you will be released from the room polished and remade into crystalline beings; pure and intense with energy. If you fail... it is said that those who fail will die. Their minerals are scattered to dust, allowing the meteor to grow in strength, and the Mineral will never emerge again. The Temple of Tests was a grand building made of stardust and starlight. Despite how grand it was, inside was just one room. A room guarded and managed by the Elder Gems. Ancient beings that had roamed the meteor for longer than anything known. The Elder Gems ran the three tests personalized to each Mineral and they alone witnessed or judged the Mineral's fate.

Fern was a pale Mineral with ember hair, that was decorated with parts of her minerals. It was said that the shade of your hair would dictate the color of Crystal you would be when you return. If you return... She thought to herself. Most other Minerals were so excited to go to the Temple of Tests, be praised, and get their new skin. Even though it was forbidden to ever speak of their tests or say they won, family members would often celebrate the return of the Crystals. Fern remembered just thirty years ago when she was prepared to celebrate her sister's return, only to never see her again…

"Aren't you excited!?" Fern squealed at her sister, Peridot, who had darker skin, blue and black strands of hair, and minerals decorating her figure. Fern and everyone else was convinced that Peridot would come back an Onyx Crystal. Up until this morning, Peridot was excited too and loved the idea of becoming an Onyx Crystal. But now she seemed nervous and afraid.

"Of course I am excited..." Peridot muttered in a very distressed tone, "Why wouldn't I be? Today is the day I either never come back or I change everything about me..."

"Oh, nonsense!" Fern laughed, "You aren't going to disappear! Mother Gem would never be forgiven and you will still always be-"

"Mother Gem might not even be real." Peridot protested. Fern gasped and shook her head, "Of course she is!"

"No, Fern! Think about it! Just a moment, if Mother Gem were real, and we were all under some divine protection then why do any Minerals disappear at all?" Peridot exclaimed.

Even today, walking up the steps to the Temple of Tests, Fern could hear that conversation as if it was moments ago. Just like she could see herself being dragged back from the steps, sobbing, when her sister did not emerge from the Temple doors. There had to be a reason, she would not let her faith in Mother Gem shake. There must be more to their future that Fern just didn't see yet. When Fern finally arrived at the top of the Temple, a small Tigers Eye Crystal bowed and greeted Fern with a smile.

"Today is the big day, eh?" The Crystal said with an echoing laugh as he opened the Temple Doors, "See you soon!" Fern returned a polite smile and walked through the doors wondering if he said the same thing to her sister. Was he surprised when she didn't come back? Did he even notice?

The inside of the Temple was dark, which was strange... It was made of Starlight and Stardust... it should never be dark...

When the light returned, a sharp weapon was held to her neck, and a voice she recognized as an old friend sounded in her ear, through sobs. "I have to do this, I am sorry." The voice cried.

Fern's breath caught in her throat and she felt herself begin to shake. Was she about to be killed? Before her tests could even take place? Right at the Temple doors, she was going to die? Fern closed her eyes and thought to herself, 'Mother Gem, I look to you now for guidance. Don't let it end like this, I have to know what happened to my sister, I must get through this. I must pass these tests...'

"You can't look to the Mother Gem now... no diety will see us in here." The voice cried louder. "I'm sorry, Fern, I am so sorry!" Fern could feel the weapon quiver and she knew nothing magical would happen to save her now. She had to step up and protect herself. No matter how much her heart bled for her friend now or how confused she felt about the situation, she had to do what was right for her and her friend. Grabbing the weapon, Fern whispered;

"I don't know why you have to do this, I don't know how this happened, but I do know I cannot let this happen." She forced the weapon away from her throat. Hands grabbed her arms and forced them away from each other. She felt her skin harden with her minerals and felt the air around herself shift in a small whirlwind. The wind cut through the spirit behind her and the voice changed completely, no more pain or sorrow, just anger.

"You should have never entered the Temple of Tests, Fern. You are not meant to be here." The wind around Fern stopped and began to close in on her, suffocating and heavy. Fern couldn't breathe. She could feel the light leaving her own eyes, she could feel her mineral-covered skin crack under the pressure. "I... I..." Fern choked, "I forgive you."

The shock at her words reverberated through the Temple. The pressure softened ever so slightly and Fern took that second to continue. "You are not my friend, you are a spirit, here, in the Temple... I forgive you though. I forgive you for attacking me, I forgive you for your hate, your anger, your pain. I forgive you for any burden you carry." Fern coughed and the pressure stopped, the air loosened and began to flow as usual and the voice returned filled with pain, "Why?"

"Because I believe in second chances in the afterlife and I believe in our Mother Gem. I know in my heart that we can all find goodness and peace in the spirit world, we need only forgive ourselves and move on to find it. Sometimes, the forgiveness of a stranger helps."

As soon as Fern finished speaking, the world changed again, finalizing her choice.

The forest ground swirled with autumn colors, golds and reds dancing and intertwining on the forest floor. Between the trees were arrows, and wooden swords from the practice of two friends. Fern held her bow firmly and drew back a string, prepared to hit the next airborne wooden sword from Thirty-five yards away, next it would be forty, then forty-five, and so on until she either missed or no longer had a clear shot past the trees.

There it was, clear as day, the wooden sword shot through the tree's and Fern released her arrow, piercing the wooden sword. Feeling triumphant, she turned to walk five more yards out. As she began to count them, she heard the sharp scream of the boy who was throwing the wooden swords. Turning, she called out for him; "Velin? Velin!"

Fern felt her feet start to get wet and looked down. The ground was becoming marsh and water began to rush in from every direction. She had nowhere to run to and nowhere to go. The tree's around her began to crack all the way up their trunks and water poured out of the trunks like waterfalls. Velin had to be under the water already but suddenly, she couldn't picture Velin. Couldn't imagine what he looked like or sounded like. Did she even know Velin and what was this forest? How did she get here? The water reached her waist and Fern couldn't think of anything to do but climb a tree. Swimming to the closest tree she could find, she grabbed onto its trunk and as she went to pull herself up, something grabbed her foot and dragged her under the water.

The water filled her nose and mouth and she fought blindly to be able to swim up. Finally getting over the fear of opening her eyes, she forced them open to see what she was fighting and instead found herself in a giant fish tank. She looked around and still couldn't breathe but it was almost as if it didn't matter. Her skin began to go numb, her brain couldn't stop buzzing and she couldn't do anything to stop it. She turned to the surface of the fish tank and tried to swim up, she knew there was a lid in her way. Though it was transparent, she could see the reflection of light on it. She hoped she would have the strength to lift it so she could breathe.

Instead, when she reached the top of the fish tank, her head emerged into the air above the surface of the ocean, instead of colliding with the glass. Gasping, she jerked her head left and right, and suddenly water became air. Instead of holding her up with wave after wave, the water fell into nothingness forcing Fern to fall into a different sort of space altogether.

The world around Fern felt still, despite the rushing winds that filled the stillness with the sounds of voices. Voices of spirits- of the dead as well as spirits of the living-to-be. Fern didn't know how to feel. Scared perhaps? Worried? Who were these spirits? Despite all of the overwhelming sounds of their voices in the rushing winds of this world, Fern couldn't make out a single one. Fern did her best to quiet her mind of all concern and doubt... She had to hear these voices! Then, as if responding to her self-proclaimed decision, there was silence met with the tones of three distinctively different voices.

"Seem's you have passed your first two tests..." An old, withered voice announced, as the first of the three.

"Expressing passion and balance to both your mind and heart in your first test as well as strength and endurance in the second... To pass these tests is no minuscule feat." A voice of a child giggled and praised, as the second voice to the three.

"But are you prepared for your third test?" Finally, the last and most masculine of the three voices mused.

"I am prepared to do my very best to succeed in the eyes of the Gem Mother!" Fern said firmly and proudly.

"Are you sure you don't want to turn back, as the little Mineral you are? You can go back a Gem if you wish." The withered voice resounded.

"Yes, reflect the changes you have expressed thus far!" The second, child-like voice agreed.

"Don't bother with our final test. If you are afraid of the unknown, this test is not for you. This final test was never designed for the faint of heart. It's beautiful, its terrifying, its tragic, its a disaster, its chaos like you've never known and peace like you have never found." The third voice said in its low rumble.

Fern felt confusion wash over her, as she realized these voices were offering to send her back in the perfect formation of a crystal, unique to her beauty, if she chose to turn away from the final test. Did that mean that all the crystals back from which she came, even the Elder Crystals... were they cowards? They never passed the three tests? So if you failed, you didn't die after all and that must be why the Crystals were forbade from boasting about passing the tests! It was because that would be a lie- a flaw that would forever show on their crystalline beings. But if the failures returned as crystals... what happened to the winners? What would happen to her if she dared move forward with the tests?

Fern shook herself of doubt and fear once more and firmly looked towards the direction of the voices. "I am ready for my third test, I will not give up! Not now... not ever!"

Fern's head dropped and she closed her eyes whispering to herself. "The path to becoming a Crystal was expressed to me as a lie. I want to know what is beyond the world of Crystals and Minerals, there has to be more than this."

When she opened her eyes again, she felt the weight of a cord from her stomach. She felt a warmth quickly gather to the surface of her skin, ready to escape any moment, and with her first breath of air, she let out her first squeal of delight and fear, and curiosity.

"It's a girl! Perfectly healthy and she is so beautiful! Miss Peridot, do you know what you will name her?" A nurse asked.

"Her name... will be... Fern." The woman proclaimed as "Miss Peridot" panted as she announced softly, reaching for Fern who would now face her final test; to learn and grow as a living a human being.

The End