A dwarf with a silvery black beard squints at everything around him. You may recognize him. He’s been Christopher’s grumbling guest, many a time.
Quartz: Right. You’ve probably noticed. Christopher isn’t here. I am. Blogger has been updated beyond the scribbler’s outdated operating system’s ability to post there. Secondary Characters Speak Out is moving here. Once a Monday a month, Christopher doesn’t have to have a conversation. I’ll be letting Secondary Characters voice their concerns, their neglect, and other things bugging them about their roles in their stories. Beginning with…
…he turns to face another dwarf similar to himself from his silvery-black beard to his scowl.
Quartz: Huh? What’s up with you, being here?
Opal: What’s up with me? What’s up with you is what I’d like to know! What in the flaming shards is wrong with you?
Quartz: Nothing is wrong with me, you daft fool.
Opal: You’re the daft fool! Flirting with kobolds, having our younger brothers follow a ruddy kobold, after all the times you warned us to stay away from kobolds!
Quartz: It’s, err, complicated. Not that you should worry your head about it. We have a bargain, Nimmie Not and I, for all he’s a treacherous sort. He wouldn’t break a bargain.
Opal: Are you even listening to yourself? Steer clear of goblins, kobolds, and trolls, they’re nothing but trouble, your own words! Now you’re trusting one to keep a bargain with you, with all us, and even worse, you can’t stop flirting with him!
Quartz: I keep telling you, pebble-brain, I am not flirting with Nimmie Not!
Opal: Pebble-brain, you are, who do you think you’re fooling? You’re even running errands for that kobold’s pet dragon!
Quartz: As if Prue would ever be Nimmie Not’s pet. If anything, it’s the other way around.
Opal: And you’re calling that dragon Prue, as if you’re friends with it!
Quartz: Prue isn’t an it, they’re a them. I told you, well, I told you in Of Cuckoo Clocks and Crystal Coffins, which isn’t finished yet. Dragons are beyond gender and view events through the perspective of many lives. Dragons are always ‘they’, at least in our world.
Opal: Fine, they’re a they. They’re still a giant, fire-breathing menace, living in the very mountain we’ve been mining!
Quartz: I didn’t know Prue was there, all right? Aye, their presence does explain why there were no goblins, no orcs, nor other dwarves in those mountains.
Opal: Aye, it explains that. It doesn’t explain why we’re still there or why you’re running errands for that monster!
Quartz: Doesn’t seem right to call Prue a monster, although I can see why some would. They’re not a bad sort, as I’ve explained to Christopher here before. There’s a purpose to the errands I’m running for Prue. Sometimes that purpose makes me shiver, but I don’t think it’s a bad one.
Opal: This purpose you speak of has to do with those stones you’re taking to the clearing, to state the obvious.
Quartz: You’ll find out what I’m up too soon enough in Of Cuckoo Clocks and Crystal Coffins. You’ll learn what I know or what I’ve guessed only too soon.
Opal: Reassuring, aren’t you?
Quartz: Shouldn’t be. I shouldn’t be and neither should you. I’m gathering healing stones, though, Opal. What I’m doing, what Prue asked me to do isn’t bad.
Opal: Bad things will come of this, Quartz. No matter what your intentions are, or that dragons, bad things will come of this.
Quartz: Aye, and maybe good things, too. Ever think of that.
Opal: No.
Quartz: You’re the only dwarf more pessimistic than myself, brother mine.
Opal: Right. As if you’ve met that many of our own kind.
Quartz: Shut up.
inspirationcauldron 