#berylgem

The skirmish should not have had her so exhausted, even as violent as it had been. She was one of Homeworld’s best scouts, at least among those deployed to the future Earth colony. The long sword in her hands was one of the reasons for that. She not only could gather information, she could fight. But nothing here made sense.

She had woken a few weeks ago next to a destroyed clay golem, a weapon of Homeworld’s that had apparently been powered by Beryl’s gem after she had dissipated during an ambush. That sort of brash tactic was somewhat new at the time, but she had fully expected to be awoken after the fight had ended. Instead, some indigenous creature called a human had been there.

No sign of the platoon she was guiding, nor of the rebels that had attacked them. There was no doubt the gem had been ‘sleeping’ for much longer than anticipated. But that still was proving hard to believe. Homeworld should have fully colonized this rock by now! The indigenous creatures had learned to use strange weapons capable of defeating one of their golems, a device that propelled projectiles with explosions (which was the most awkward way to attack someone Beryl had ever seen) so it had been some years at least.

But Earth still stood uncolonized.

The ‘human’ had been somewhat talkative, and Beryl had not let the opportunity pass to gather some information. The next weeks had been spent wandering from gem site to gem site, looking for working communication. Everything looked ancient, like it had spent centuries in disuse. Nothing worked, either missing power or with smashed consoles. There was no way around it, Homeworld had somehow lost.

It was impossible. Unthinkable! But Beryl was a gem to trust what information she could gather. She could not pass along useful data if she was unsure. It was not until she was passing through the big, if primitive, settlement of Empire City that she found new information she could use. A ‘human’ news feed featured rumors about strange happenings and sightings that sounded like other gems in Beach City. Even knowing it was likely not friendly gems, it took no time to realize that had to be her destination. Beryl was not going to sit on her hands.

That was what had led her here, to this plain. Her eyes still desperately watched the grass in front of her, the sword almost shaking in her grasp.

In her march to find this Beach City, she had been ambushed. A massive quadrupedal creature with no eyes and massive fangs had darted from the woods before her and attacked without warning.

Though Beryl had, in the end, proven to be the victor, she was still shaken. Because the strange beast had not been organic. It had dissipated like a gem. Another impossibility, perhaps. Or else a new weapon that the rebels had used to win the war. Or some punishment unleashed on the defeated.

Fear of leaving the thing to her back had kept Beryl in place, needing to know that what she had seen were true.

Long minutes stretched. She could have been long gone, the thing wouldn’t have been able to track her forever. But she couldn’t make herself leave.

After what must have been an hour that had felt like several, light filled the plains. The thing had truly been a gem, and now it was reforming. Beryl sprang to her feat, holding her spirit blade in front of her, watching for all she was worth.

Light billowed out of a gem that had begun hovering, filling into a humanoid shape. For a brief moment, Beryl thought she had cured whatever punishment it could have been. A very brief moment. Before whoever she was had solidified, her form exploded outward into a massive beast once more. A roar echoed across the plains, likely heard for miles, and the thing fixated on Beryl.

Steeling herself, she prepared to meet the thing’s charge again. She beat it once, barely. She could do so again. She refused to find out what happened if she lost to whatever it was. But she found it’s eyeless gaze had locked onto her weapon. She edged herself forward a step.

With a grotesque snarl, the thing suddenly turned and fled down the plains.

It was a beast after all, not a weapon. But somehow... also a gem. Beryl’s head hurt. She stared after the thing until it passed from sight, only then letting her longsword vanish.

In Beach City there was answers. Possibly. And gems. Maybe. Likely enemies. Still, her trick of mimicking fleshy tones had granted her access to the human cities, perhaps it would throw them off long enough for her to get what she needed.

A bustling city spread out across the horizon, bordering a forest that had recently seen a bit of a fire. Cars darted back and forth across the many streets, seeming to disregard the sun’s slow decent into the west. In short, it was any number of larger cities across the earth, full of humans doing the things that humans do.

And it was all completely alien to Beryl.

He was a rather androgynous humanoid creature leaning against a tree. And he felt like a ‘he’ today. The Gem was not even quite sure what that was supposed to mean, he just did.

Observing the city, from a distance he could be mistaken for any other human that had decided to watch the city from the border of the woods. Two hand, two feet, nose, ears, he had the whole set. Though the slicked back green hair and pale green skin was something that would probably set him apart. Every human he could see from there seemed to have much more... for lack of a word for it, ‘earthy’ tones. Now that it was getting dark, though, he could slip into the city and see what was what.

On the whole, the city seemed familiar in a way. What memories he could conjure of the Homeworld included cities something like this, though all of the ‘food’ places seemed to stick out as odd. Must be a human thing.

Even with the night approaching to hide his unique features, Beryl stuck to the side streets and alleys just to be safe. He wanted no uproar today, he was just exploring. Unfortunately, not all of them were unoccupied.

“’Ey! This is our turf!” A rather big human growled at him, crossing through one of the darkest. What he was doing hiding in such a place was a good question, but it was no matter now.

“And these are my feet. I’m using ‘em. Calm down.” The gem said, just as though he were discussing weather. Which was odd in it’s own right, on this planet.

“You don’ get to talk ta me like that!” The creature yelled, rushing at him. A huge fist came at him, but it was just too slow. Beryl ducked it with ease and left him stumbling and nearly falling as he walked on.

Unfortunately, there was two more of the humans in that direction. One of them carried a sharp looking knife, and the other some blunt, rounded wooden club.

More words were exchanged, but by this point Beryl wasn’t listening.

Dancing back from the swinging bat, he fell right into the first goon’s arms, who held him for the knife wielder to come in close. The Gem had only a moment to shove himself upwards, using the strong-arm’s grip to flip around behind him and allowed him to take the knife to the leg rather than him.

Those two turned on each other, but while Beryl had been admiring his work his leg suddenly shifted sideways with a loud crack and a fiery burst of pain. The third man with the club had struck hard, and was laughing like he had won. The androgynous gem got a hand on the bat, even as he was calling out in pain.

By the time the rest of his pack turned, the assailant was already falling to the ground unconscious as Beryl limped away using the weapon as a crutch. Whatever happened to them afterwards was a mystery the gem saw no reason to solve.

The Gem didn’t stop his limping flight until he was possibly halfway into the city, letting himself fall against a wall in some other alley. Thankfully this one was truly empty. He was getting nowhere fast like this. With a last check around the area to see that he was actually alone, Beryl sat himself down behind a dumpster that looked like it hadn’t been emptied in a week. With a muttered curse, his physical form vanished in a flash of light, leaving behind only a cracked green gem. And a used baseball bat.

An hour or two later, the gem glowed vividly before building up the androgynous Gem creature once more, this time with a working leg. And a little more weight added to the chest. Beryl felt today more like a ‘she’ today. Swinging the bat around, she tossed it in the garbage and put a hand to the brick wall. The mortar used was a nice tan. If green was setting her apart here...

What little remained of her magic like this pulled away the mortar like it was a powder. She smiled grimly and set to applying her new ‘makeup’. These attacks would cease if she could walk down the main streets. She just had to blend in a little better.