An Opal Of Pure Black

Excellence Award in the 'Write Here Write Now 2017' competition

Igneous and Boysen sat on a rust bench by a glistening lake. Taking turns, they skipped rocks across the water's surface, watching as the ripples travel to the banks of the lake. An icy wind blew. Boysen felt something as she drove her hands into her pocket. Pulling it out, she was surprised to find that it was a pebble. It look as dark as Vantablack and it shone in the setting sun in a way a stone so dark shouldn't. She held her hand up to throw the pebble...
"Stop!" Igneous cried, before Boysen did. "Don't you know what that is?
"A pebble?" she shrugged, "What's significant about that?"
"It's not a pebble. It's an opal and not just any opal either. I can tell by the colour. It gives its owner the power to defeat an army of cunning giants, grow hectares of crops in a single night, bring creatures only known in fairy tales to life, or anything else imaginable!" his eyes twinkled as he said this.
"How do you know this?"
"I've told about this opal you a million times and you said I was reading fiction books. There're only four of these opals in the world! How' d you get it anyway?"
"Now that I think about it... I had a dream last night. So there was this woman who was standing high on a cliff, and there was something in her hands. She held it up into the sky. The way the light shone on her rosy brown hair and fair skin made her mesmerizing. Usually I would have envied such beauty but there was something about her that made me like her, admire her, even. She looked down at me to reveal creamy blue eyes. Walking towards me and stopped. There, she held out a peb - I mean - the opal, and put it in my pocket. Then she whispered, "Keep it safe," in my ear before I woke up. I didn't even remember the dream until now. Oh! And I felt some sort of weight in my pock all day! Anyways, knowing the power in this thing, I don't really want it. Here, take it."
"I'd be honored! But I can't. .."
"Why not?"
"Because... you have to be dead before I can take and be able to use. You know, many have tried to steal them and failed. The lucky ones come back with a missing eye or limb but otherwise alive. Others have attempted to find more but have gone insane in the process!"
There was a rustle in a nearby bush. Igneous stood up.
"Boysen!" he hissed is a whisper. "We have to get out of here. We're going to the library." "Why?"
"We're going to see the head librarian."
"Why see her?"
"She was the first person to find one of these opals-" A twig snapped. Igneous broke into a run as he grabbed Boysen's hand, "-and the only person we can trust."

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