Don’t wake the Empress!

At the edge of the dead forest, sits the palace of the vanquished Empress. 

Tink…tink…tink…

“Garnet… Amethyst… more Garnet… you find anything better, Penny?” 

She sighed, dropping onto a broken pillar dramatically and breathing heavily. “No…”

They’d already been in this “Pristine Palace” for an hour, promised riches and glory…

Still, Flint was going strong on his side, smashing through rock and uncovering crystals of red & purple. Penny watched, uninterested at first, but soon a wicked thought crossed her mind. “Hey, Flint?” She called softly, adjusting herself slightly. 

Though his eyes drifted to her, his arm continued to swing. She knew how to sit to attract the eye, to captivate. “There’s still so much to dig over here. Say, if you want to finish my side… I’ll show you my treasure…” her hands traced her body, passing over her slender waist until they cupped her breast. “What do you think?” Her voice was smooth as silk, her face flushed. 

“I think…” he uttered. “I think if you want to pay off your debt you should get working.”

Her face dropped immediately as did her hands, all while he returned to his digging, looking very satisfied with himself. 

*-*-*

“Stupid gem nerd… doesn't understand how to deal with a beautiful lady.” She grumbled. Penny had walked away, going further into the giant castle of gemstones. The next room was cold, still surrounded by hillsides worth of valuables, but they all looked the same as the last room.

She wandered past the columns, examining each twinkle, each colour in search of something of worth. 

“At this rate we’ll only have the scraps… doesn’t seem like anyone else beat us to it, no one wanted to anyways…” So far the only thing about this place that seemed off was that, the reluctance. “Why would anyone refuse this treasure?” She wondered. 

Past the mountains of stars, and she saw it, eyes wide and for once, speechless.

Flint wiped his brow, continuing to puncture deep into the rockface, seeking even a small sight of starlight. His bag was almost filled with reds and greens and purples, each a common stone that would gather only enough to pay for the tools. The next hit revealed a flash of yellow, catching the moonlight and his eye. “Now, what would you be my shiny friend?” It was loose finally, he reached for it slowly, ever so slowly…

“Flint!” Penny called, her voice booming through the vacant halls and startling him. His eyes flashed back to the gem, tempting him. “What?!”...

No answer. 

A sigh later he dropped his pick and stood slowly, still eyes glued to the gem below. “I will come back for you my beauty, just you wait.” 

*-*-*

He’d angrily stomped down the hall and into the next room, grunting as he went. “This is why your mother told you to be careful around those kinds of girls, Flint… always trouble…” 

Finally he spotted her beyond the rocks, her gaze stuck on what lay beyond his vision. He stopped just before her, adjusting his gloves. “I hope you have found something useful, Penny. I am a man of great resilience to your wiles.” 

She seemed bewitched by what she had found, turning to him slowly and pointing back at it, her expression unreadable. 

Flint shook his head. “What is it?” 

“...Big woman…” She offered no further detail. Flint examined her for a moment further, wondering if his partner had too few chickens for a coop. He moved past her, looking further into the room. 

It was smaller than the great hall they had been in previously, more like that of a former bedroom. The window let in the moonlight and the cold night air that sapped away the last remaining warmth. But at its centre, his vision finally met with what had entranced her so. 

A giant gemstone, milky white and translucent, reflecting the light in its many facets. Inside it however, a woman… nay, a giant perhaps. Flowing green hair with an emerald crown atop it. The gown of a royal. She was encased in it, frozen away from time itself, she was… big woman.

“Well, you don’t see that every day…” Penny commented, perplexed as she examined her. “Who do you think she is?”

He didn’t answer her, he was too focused on the crystal. Like a laser he raced past her, feeling the stone while howling like a baboon. Penny looked on with disgust. 

“I never thought I would see one! Such a rare, beautiful sight you are!” He cried. “Penny, do you know what this is?!”

“Uhh… no, please do explain oh great gem genius…” the sarcasm completely flew over his head. 

“This… this is… Samoite…”

Her head tilted, with one eyebrow raised. “Who’s Sam White?”

The silence was deafening… 

“Wow… you dumb…”

*-*-*

“Anyways” Flint said while massaging the bump on his head. “Like I was saying, the gem is Samoite.”

Penny still looked less than impressed, resting her head on her palm as she sat on the floor like a pouting child. “Yeah? So what?”

“So?! It’s the single most valuable thing in this room, second most expensive gem in the world” he explained, and Penny’s ears pricked up. “We just so happen to be looking at a metric buttload” 

“Except there’s a very large lady in it…” Penny added.

“Except there’s a very large lady in it…”

“Who do you think she is?” She asked as she stepped a little closer, looking for any discernible features. 

“We’re in the castle of the former emerald empress. You are looking at what could only be described as a giant, with a green crown, green hair and green dress… think it might be her?” He asked sarcastically. 

Another punch later, Penny returned to her examination. “They said the heroes of old sealed her away centuries ago, I always thought it was just the old folks trying to scare us.” 

He could see a hint of fear about her, unusual for his peppy friend, so after a sigh he stood and tapped her shoulder as he passed. Pick in hand he measured it against the wall of crystal. 

“W..Wait!” She cried, stopping him mid swing. “You’re going to break it?!”

“Uh, yeah? Just a little pebble of it’s enough to pay off what we owe, what’s the problem?”

Her hand tensed, raising to her chest. “What if you wake her?”

“Penny, she’s been in there for hundreds of years.” He replied. “If she wasn’t dead when they sealed her in it, she’d have died soon after. Relax.”

Still she held him back. Her breath was shallow, her eyes watery. “I don’t trust it, Flint. There’s gotta be other gems around… can’t we just get them?” It seemed as though her eyes were getting bigger and bigger “please?”

“Alright.” He answered quietly. Her face softened a little, relief washing over her like a tide. “Thanks, Flint. I’ll go look around.”

As she went, almost skipping along like a child in a field of flowers, Flint took one more look at the crystal wall. He longed for it, to take it into his hands. “Don’t leave me.” It whispered to him. 

“I can’t, I… Promised.” His words were like a zephyr, reaching out his arm only to pull it away weakly. “But you are beautiful…” 

“Penny won’t notice. You know you can’t resist.” 

He took another look back at her, hearing her words again and trying to pull himself away. “Just, just a bit… a little chip. She won’t notice…”

…

Tink

Immediately the sound shot through her whole body, stopping her where she stood. She didn’t turn for a moment, hoping that she had heard wrong, or that Flint had moved onto some other low quality stone. She eventually turned, slow and uneasy. Her heart dropped to her stomach as soon as she saw it. 

He had a hold of a small piece of it, enough to fit in his hand. “Ahh, my pretty…” 

“Flint?” She whispered shakily. 

His head rose in slow motion…

CRACK!

Both of them needed only look up at the stone once more. The broken crystal shattered, splintering further up the face. Spiderwebbing across it, and eventually, falling into a thousand pieces. 

A landslide of light refracting stone, with the sound of a million drums beating at the same time to the melody of the underworld. They took shelter under a desk, Flint holding Penny’s head under his body. 

Once the dust cleared and the drums stopped beating, they found the courage to look beyond the cover. “It’s over, I think.” Flint noted, returning to her and holding her shoulders. “Are you hurt?” 

But she pushed him hard, her brow furrowing and her fists balling. “Am I okay?! You could have got us killed, you idiot!”

“Relax. We’re fine!” Flint replied, only getting a glare back. 

“No thanks to you! I told you to leave it, now look at us. Gods, why are you like this?” 

Flint quickly held out the gem to her, and it sparkled in the moonlight. “Look at it Penny. Just this much and we won’t just pay off our debt with Mako… we’ll be kings!” He switched the Samoite for the garnets and amethysts in his bag and the difference was night and day. They were dull and small yet the sure amount of them in his bag was staggering. “We could pick this place clean of this stuff and we wouldn’t even have two coins to rub together after Mako. I’m sorry for listening to its voice, but it’s over now. Lets get out of here, rent some sleazy tavern room and live it up!” 

She knew he was right, the bag on her shoulder was heavier than anything she’d ever held before, and the strap was a string away from snapping. She pushed him away again, but this time it was softer, slower. And she looked in his eyes with hope… “If you think you’re getting in my bed, you better think again.” She pouted and it cracked Flint, laughing like a mad hyena.

…

…

BOOM

It felt like an earthquake, the pieces of gems seemed to run away from it.

BOOM

The crystal was gone, and the body had moved closer. Their heads lifted up slowly, like trying to gaze upon a mountaintop. Her jade eyes opened uneasily, and she groaned as air filled her lungs. The duo quaked, holding each other…

“F-Flint?” Penny squeaked, he looked at her unable to speak through the shivers. 

“Finally.” She uttered. “I am free.”