Dumb Crystals

This stinks.

This really, REALLY stinks.

Shiloh lets out an annoyed sigh as he gazes down at this stupid red stone that River and Neesha brought back from the cave, sitting down on the bridge connecting the village’s houses to the plaza, Shelmet sitting beside him and staring at his own red stone.

Shiloh grumbles under his breath, just sneering down at the crystal, as if staring at it hard enough would cause it to crack and fracture. But alas, even his gaze cannot pierce stone.

“Do we really need to commit to this?” Shiloh suddenly speaks up as he glances back down at Shelmet. “We couldn’t have known they’d actually come back out with the red stones. I thought they’d come running back out after they realized who was guarding the cave!”

“Well maaaaaaybbeeeeeeeee we shouldn’t have agreed to that deal then.” Shelmet huffs, his pouty lips only pouting even further as he stares at the red stone. “We shoulda just told her ‘nuh-uh’ and then been done with it! But she just had to go and make things more difficult.”

“River’s annoying, sure, but Neesha? She’s no pushover, not like Goomy.” He groans, shaking his head. “I STILL can’t believe she burned that paper in my hands like that! I could’a caught fire! Not for long, but, I could’ve been burned! She’s like, like a different brand of annoying! The goody two-shoes kind of annoying! Uugh!”

“Hey, chill out, Shiloh.” Shelmet glances up at him. “I’m annoyed about this too but you don’t need to get angry over it. Just seems like we don’t have any choice. If we don’t go through with it and leave Goomy alone, who knows what they’ll do?”

Shiloh just stares angrily down at the stone, gripping it tighter in his grasp. Not hard enough to break it, but hard enough to start applying pressure to it as he grumbles.

“We gotta go through with it. They’ll call us out if we don’t and it’ll only escalate from there.” Shelmet sighs, picking the stone up and place it on his head. “It’s gonna get late soon and I need to get home before dark. It’s annoying, but we can’t do anything about it now. I’ll see ya tomorrow, kay, Shiloh?”

“Uh-huh. Yeah, see you tomorrow, Shelmet.” Shiloh doesn’t look up at him as Shelmet leaves, hearing his little clanking footsteps and hops progressively getting further away. This sucks. They had a routine, they had a formula, now it’s ruined. Who was this Neesha, anyway? Who is she to tell him what to do? She’s not as annoying as River, but she’s a very different breed of annoying. Standing up to him like that? Nobody talks to him like that!

Growling angrily, he tosses the stone into the river as it makes an audible splash, splattering at the wood of the bridge as he quickly gets back to his feet and stomps off as the stone drifts away. _{“Hmmph. Stupid River. Stupid Neesha.”}