My eyes drift around the diner at the various other patrons seated everywhere, my eyes scanning each table for the familiar face of my friend, Kaeden. It doesn’t look like he’s arrived yet, though. I shrug my jacket off as a waitress approaches me with a smile.
“Hi, a table for two,” I return her smile in kind, “my friend should be here soon.”
The waitress nods, reaching under a nearby counter and pulling out two menus. “Sounds good, come on and follow me, okay?” She spins around happily, setting off towards an empty table. I follow behind, folding my jacket in my arms as I do so. I can’t help but smile at the chipperness of the waitress, her mood definitely helping to boost the atmosphere of the otherwise drab diner.
After directing me towards my table, she takes my drink order before dashing off towards several other tables to check on the other guests. What a busy girl. I idly wonder how she doesn’t tire herself after a whole day of that. I feel drained after a day at the college, and most of that is just sitting all day.
I sigh once more, shaking all of the errant thoughts out of my head. Instead, I try to focus all of that attention on my notes. Pulling out a small notepad, I review the few notes that I scribbled down this morning while researching black gemstones.
An old friend of mine named Kaeden messaged me out of the blue last night, rambling about an incredible find of his in a nearby cave. He had called me up because he knows I have a passing interest in rocks and minerals, and to an extent, gemstones. According to him, he found an entire, seemingly unexplored, section of a cave nearby his cabin that is filled to the brim with these black crystals he wants me to look at.
I know that his cabin is further out of town, closer to the mountain ranges, at least one of which is a dormant volcano. I told him that it was all probably obsidian, but he was adamant that I take a look at it. I agreed to take a look at it over lunch because, even if they just turn out to be a smoky quartz, I wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to spend some time with an old friend.
“Your orange juice, Ant.”
I glance up from my notes as a waitress places the glass in front of me. It’s a different waitress from before, but someone I actually recognize. “Oh, Bea, I didn’t know you worked here.”
She shrugs, glancing around at the rest of the shop briefly before sitting down in the chair opposite of me. “Job’s a job’s a job.” She says, sweeping that topic under the rug and gesturing to my notepad, “You’re awfully engaged in that notepad of yours, did you just come here to study?”
Dropping the pad onto the table for her to see, she looks at the first page before looking back up at me. “I thought you decided you were going to college for nursing, not… rocks.” The page contains a list of gemstones and some descriptions of ways to identify which is which.
“I am. This isn’t school work, I’m supposed to be meeting Kaeden here to help him with something.”
She looks at me funny after that, sitting a little straighter up. “Kaeden? He’s still around? I thought he ran away to go live in the woods or something.”
I chuckle at that. “Not exactly an inaccurate description I guess. But he didn’t really run away, he just lives in a cabin a bit outside of town. He’s pretty keen on ‘living within his means’ or whatever, but I keep in touch with him to keep him sane, sometimes I go out to hang and we play board games.”
“Wow. I guess he’s doing alright for himself then?” She looks genuinely surprised. He didn’t keep up with her after high school like he did with me I guess. I can’t help but feel a little bad about that.
Shifting in my seat, I take a sip of my orange juice before responding. “Well enough, yeah.”
“Huh…” she says, looking out the window absently. She gets up from the chair, but she doesn’t leave the table. “So, what, he’s coming into town so you can talk about rocks?”
I shrug again, “I guess, yeah. Said he had something he wanted me to look at.”
She sighs a little before saying anything else. “Sounds lame. Well, have fun talking about rocks I guess. I gotta get back to work.” She turns around to walk back towards the kitchen, but I call out to her before she gets too far.
“It’s nice seeing you again Bea,” I say. She doesn’t respond verbally, but she does glance back at me slightly with a thumbs up.
With Bea gone, I’m back to reviewing my notes alone. It’s not too long after her interruption though that I’m pulled out of my notes again.
“Anthony!” Kaeden’s voice startles me out of my thoughts, causing my eyes to drift up towards him. “Good to see you, man. I’m so glad you came.” He sits down across from me, placing his backpack on the chair beside him. He picks up the menu from the diner and begins to thumb through it.
I smile at that, shaking my head slightly at the implication that I would ever not come. Kaeden has always been there for me, there’s no chance I wouldn’t come. “Of course I came. It’s good to see you too. You remembered to bring the gemstone, right?”
Glancing up from the menu, he smirks. “I would feel really stupid if I somehow forgot it.” Reaching into a pocket on the front of the bag, he pulls out a considerably large chunk of a strange black crystal.
Just a glance at the crystal's surface is all it takes for me to become incredibly interested in what Kaeden has brought to me. This crystal is unlike any that I can recall studying last night. The black is such a deep color, but hiding deep below the surface is a strange red sheen that sets it apart from any of the gems I saw while researching.
Kaeden holds the crystal out to me and I absentmindedly take it. I make sure to handle it gently because I can tell that the edges are very sharp. My eyes snap to Kaeden’s hands as he pulls them back, noticing a bandage on his left one. Seems he found that out the hard way. I run a finger over the smooth edge, looking for the red sheen that I saw from afar. It’s still just as hidden from up close as it is from further away.
I eventually pull back from the crystal, looking over at Kaeden. He’s just watching me eagerly, a big smile across his face. “So, what is it?” he asks.
I shake my head, turning my eyes back to the crystal momentarily before setting it gently next to me on the table. “I don’t know. It doesn’t match the description of any of the gems I researched,” I lean back in my chair a little more, just taking in the lump of crystal on the counter. “I’m gonna be honest, this is a bigger piece than I expected you to bring.” I shake my head slightly, turning my attention back to the menu in front of me. I should at least figure out what to order before I get too lost over that rock.
“So… it might be a new gem entirely?” Kaeden lowers his voice to almost a whisper, the excitement not leaving his voice. I drop my menu just enough to see Kaeden leaning over to me conspiratorially. “I didn’t even know that was possible.”
I frown slightly at that, glancing over at the gem. It must be a variant of one of the types I researched, I just don’t know which one. “It can’t be a new gem, that’s basically impossible. It’s probably just a strange looking quartz or something.”
Kaeden leans back into his seat, frowning slightly. He picks up his menu to look over it himself, giving me a moment to gather my thoughts. Looking over the menu, I eventually decide on a simple omelette. With my food choice decided, I reach over to grab my orange juice and my hand strays a little too close to the crystal. I let out a small hiss, pulling my hand back quickly to look at it.
The back of my wrist has a small cut, barely bleeding at all. Kaeden hears my hiss and looks over to see my small cut. “Oh, damn, you alright?” He reaches into his bag, pulling out a small bandage and handing it over to me. “You gotta be careful, that thing is actually pretty sharp. I cut my hand the other day when I found it.” I take the offered bandage and put it over the small cut. It’s just a small cut, but it really is shocking just how sharp it is. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s as sharp as a newly sharpened knife.
After putting on the bandage, I raise my hand to show that it’s fine. “It’s a small cut, I was just surprised.” Kaeden just nods, pulling his menu back up to continue looking it over. Meanwhile, I turn my attention back to this strange crystal, pulling it closer and looking it over.
There’s no doubt that whatever this crystal is, it’s an incredible specimen. If it does turn out to be just normal quartz, it’s still a decently large chunk of quartz. At the very least this crystal is leaning more towards being a centerpiece than it is a paperweight. “During your phone call, you said that you found a lot of crystals like this? Was this just the biggest one?” I ask.
“Yeah, there was a whole cave full of them. It’s not even the biggest by far, that’s just one of the chunks that I managed to break off.” I tear my eyes away from the crystal to look at Kaeden seriously. He just smiles at me widely, his expression not wavering at all.
My voice dips down to a whisper at this point, a slight chill moving through my body from head to toe. “You’re serious?”
He straightens his back, holding one hand over his heart and his expression turning more serious. “Deadly,” his voice dips in volume to match mine and his tone is as serious as I’ve ever heard it. His serious tone slowly slips away as he leans forward and continues talking just as excited as before, his voice still at a lower volume. “I told you that it was a huge find!”
Shaking my head slightly in disbelief, I turn my attention back to the crystal in my hand. I can already feel the creeping desire to know exactly what this gem really is taking its hold on me. “Okay, I admit that you’ve caught my interest Kaeden. I have no idea what kind of crystal this is. If I could study it using my college’s equipment though, I bet you that I could figure it out.”
Kaedens smile somehow grows wider as he leans back in his chair. “Hell yeah, Anthony. I knew I could count on you.” He gestures to the crystal in my hand, “you’re welcome to keep that by the way. And if it turns out that they happen to be worth something substantial, I’d be willing to cut you in for some more of your help.”
I take another sip of my orange juice, unable to tear my eyes away from the crystal. “...I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks for the offer.” The waitress from before returns to the table to take our orders. I order the omelette and Kaeden orders a burger. She looks strangely at the crystal on the table as she’s writing down our order, but she doesn’t end up saying anything at all.
Kaeden continues talking and I have to force myself to pay attention to him instead of thinking more about the strange crystal. “Anyways, since you mentioned it, how’s college going?”
I sigh, resting my head on the flat of my palm, my elbow keeping me propped up. “Boring and busy. I didn’t expect nursing school to be so boring. Thankfully, keeping my grades up isn’t too difficult.”
Kaeden chuckles, “You’ve always been the studious type. I guess it’s not surprising.”
I shrug, looking up slightly. "I guess so.” Most of the other students in my class seem to be constantly studying, but for me it almost seems like we haven’t covered anything I couldn’t already intuit. There are a couple things I know that I have definitely benefited from studying in the past, but so far nothing has really tripped me up. “What about you? Other than apparently spelunking?”
He smiles at that, puffing his chest out. “I’ve been working on acquiring a wider variety of skills! I actually was only cave exploring because I’ve been learning how to metalwork, and I wanted to try my hand at getting my metal raw from a cave rather than continuously smelting down junk from the junkyard.”
I quirk an eyebrow at that, looking him up and down. I thought he looked a little bit more buff, it’s no wonder if that’s what he’s been filling his free time with. “Is it hard?” I ask him.
“Hard work!” He chuckles, but I don’t get whatever joke he was trying to tell. “But, not really. I mean, it takes a lot of muscle to do, but it’s not terribly difficult. And look!” He rummages through his bag for a moment, pulling something out for me to see. It’s a simple hunters knife with a paracord handle. “I made this myself! Start to finish.”
I take the knife, looking it over. It looks well used at this point, but I can tell that he’s maintaining the blade edge. “Paracord too?” I ask in amazement.
“Ah, no, not that,” he says in embarrassment. “Everything else though!”
I hand the knife back to him with a smile. “That’s really impressive!” I tell him honestly. I don’t think I’ll ever have the muscles required to do something as intensive as metal working.
The waitress returning with our food interrupts the conversation as we dig into our respective meals. I can’t help myself from glancing at the strange crystal out of the corner of my eye.
Ooh I love the arknights story, looking forward to where this goes
Oh oh oh, the rocc is coming
Get ready to go farming (with Bagpipe)