A Jeweled Child

"What do you mean you are a fire fairy?" Ruby asks once Raynold helps her up.

"I mean what I said," Rouge answers, taking a seat on Ruby's shoulder. "I am a fairy specialized with the attribute of fire. It's pretty self-explanatory. Enough about me though, I want to know how a jeweled child managed to be born. You're just supposed to be the caretaker of the jewels you're assigned. You aren't supposed to have a physical form."

"What do you mean jeweled child? I was found in the ruby mine that was on a volcano in a nearby island."

"Miss Ruby," Raynold interrupts, visibly confused, "who are you talking to?"

"You don't see him?" Ruby asks, pointing at her shoulder.

"I'm afraid not, Miss Ruby. You're going to have to tell me yourself."

Ruby glances over at the fairy on her shoulder. "Is it okay to tell him?" Rouge nods his head in agreement, so Ruby looks back over at Raynold. "He says that he's a fire fairy named Rouge. He came from the red light that I was talking about earlier."

"Did... did you just say a fairy?" Raynold asks bewildered.

"Yes, is that a problem?"

Without warning, Raynold takes Ruby's hands. "We must go to your father immediately."

"Why? What's wrong?" Ruby does her best to keep up, but her short legs couldn't match Raynold's pace, making Raynold pick her up and carry her to the duke's office.

"Fairies have long disappeared for thousands of years, or so history says. No one has been able to catch another glimpse of a fairy after the last one mysteriously disappeared before the kingdom was created."

At an amazing speed, Ruby and Raynold made it to the duke's office in record time.

"Your Grace, it's Raynold and Ruby. May we come in?" Raynold announces after he frantically knocks on Duke Stoneborne's door.

"You may come in." As Ruby and Raynold enter the room, Duke Stoneborne notices Raynold breathing heavily. "What happened during Ruby's break time that you had to come here nearly out of breath?"

"Your Grace, Miss Ruby can see fairies," Raynold quickly answers, still catching his breath.

"I don't have time for your nonsense. If you are just going to spout-"

"Excuse my rudeness, but what I say is the truth. Explain to your father, Ruby."

Ruby looks at her father while Duke Stoneborne coldly glares at Ruby. "You know how I dislike unnecessary things. I hope you aren't going to waste my time."

"I would never do something as selfish as waste your time, Father. Raynold is right. Can you not see the fairy on my shoulder as well?" Ruby asks, motioning over to her shoulder.

"No, I don't," the duke briskly answers.

"His name is Rouge. He's a fire fairy. I touched a red light that I saw in the garden when it suddenly turned into a fairy."

"Why did you let Ruby recklessly touch a random floating light?" the duke questions Raynold as he shifts his gaze from me to him.

"In my defense, I could not see the light that Miss Ruby was talking about. She kept pointing at it, but I couldn't see it. I tried to stop Miss Ruby, but then something strange happened."

"Are you really going to make me ask what happened?"

"Ah- my apologies, Your Grace. When I reached to pull Miss Ruby's hand away from where she was reaching, her whole body heated up to the point where it burned my hand." Raynold shows the palm of his right hand which was still slightly burned.

"You said that her whole body heated up?" The duke looks back over at Ruby then sits up in his chair. "Ruby, do you remember how you were feeling when you burned Raynold?"

Ruby takes a minute to try and remember as she twiddles her thumbs. "Oh! I was getting upset at Raynold for trying to stop me."

-Raynold says that Ruby can see fairies. Ruby supposedly introduces me to a fairy fire. Ruby's body overheated after she got mad and burned Raynold.... Where is the common denominator in all of this?-

While the duke is in his thoughts, Ruby interrupts the silence. "Rouge also said something about me being a jeweled child. I don't quite know what that is, but Rouge said that I'm not supposed to have a physical form and be a caretaker of the jewels."

"Jeweled children..." Duke Stoneborne quickly stands up and heads over to his bookshelf where he pulls out a black leather book. He skims through it until he finally stops on a page. "Jeweled children come from the children's story about the lonely fairy who wanted friends. The jewels that turned into humans were called the jeweled children. Once the fairy died, the jeweled children returned to the caves that they were originally dug out from where they went into eternal sleep. Over time, their human bodies decayed, but their souls remained alive as they gave themselves the task of overseeing the development of the jewels like themselves.

"In other words, Ruby is one of those jeweled children that the fairy created hundreds of thousands of years ago, or so I am assuming," the duke concludes after he closes the book. "The question is, how did the fairy named Rouge know that Ruby was one of these children?"

"There was a mark on her neck! A brilliantly red sigil shaped like a flame!" Rouge answers as he flies around the duke, hoping he would hear him.

"Rouge says that he saw a mark on my neck that was shaped like a flame," Ruby responds, acting as the interpreter.

"If there was a mark on your neck, the maids would have told me about it," Duke Stoneborne sharply replies.

Raynold walks over to Ruby and gently slides Ruby's hair away from her neck to reveal nothing. "Your Grace, what if the mark is also something that we can't see?" Raynold suggests as he fixes Ruby's hair.

The duke sighs and sits back on his chair. "It looks like we will have to have Doctor Pledais come by the estate again. He should be able to find a way for us to be able to see what Ruby sees."

"Father, if I may ask, can we go out together and meet Doctor Pledais?"

"Why should I do something so unnecessary if I can just have him come by?"

"Well... I quite enjoyed our outing yesterday. It was nice to see the city and the people interacting with each other and the smell of different food. I... I wanted to do that again if we had a chance."

-If I take her back out into the city, she will begin to develop and learn more emotions which will ruin her quiet nature. However, even without going into the city, she has started to pick and choose personality traits and emotions since she is around the knights and Professor Brian.-

"Fine, I don't see why I should deny your request. We will head out after your swordsmanship training in the morning so that you can be back in time for your afternoon classes. We can just eat something at a restaurant for breakfast."

Excited for the first time, Ruby jumps up and runs to the duke to give him a hug. The duke stares at Ruby surprised at the loud response that she gave instead of her usual quiet response.

"Thank you, Father!" Ruby beams, still hugging the duke.

The duke looks back over at Raynold who is just as stunned. That's when Raynold mouths 'hug her back' as he motions on how to give a hug. Not having hugged anyone since his mother died, the duke couldn't bring himself to hug Ruby back.

"I have to go back to class now, Father. I'll see you again at lunch." With that, Ruby swiftly runs out of the room, leaving Raynold and the duke alone in the office.

"What just happened?" the duke asks, still frozen in the position he was in when Ruby hugged him.

"Ruby showed a new emotion. It seems like she is growing faster than you had anticipated," Raynold answers, making his way over to the duke. "Are you still having trouble with physical contact, Your Grace?"

The duke recomposes himself as he dusts off his clothes. "That's not important right now," the duke tries to dismiss. "What's important is that I supposedly have a daughter from a story that was created centuries ago. If what that fairy that Ruby supposedly sees said is true, then that would explain everything. Why she was found in a cave. How she survived. Why she doesn't know much about the world."

"Your Grace, if Ruby is really a child that was created by a fairy then that would explain why she can see fairies," Raynold comments. "On top of that, if she's a jeweled child, then doesn't that mean that there are others like her?"

"I can't completely dismiss the idea that there may be other jeweled children like Ruby, but what are the odds that we will find another one in the kingdom?"

"It does seem out of reach, doesn't it?"