The first moments of life for Geode were a mix of confusion, terror, and pure joy. Within that first spark of time, he felt an energy flowing through and around him, a great power touching the infinite and willing his life to be. The link he felt to everything both overwhelmed his senses and made him want for nothing else. And the darkness that followed after the thread snapped somehow made him feel even more empty than the nothingness before. His heart wept bitter tears of loneliness as he fell back into unconsciousness.

When Geode woke for the second time his whole mind ached. Instead of the blinding lights and overwhelming feelings that had surrounded him the first time, this time he felt nothing but a steady, distant pounding. He tried to move away from the sound but found no success. 

“Ah good, you’re awake.” 

A voice came from somewhere beside him, a voice that somehow felt connected to a large heap of black rocks. Then, without warning, the pile shifted to reveal a bright green emerald set within one of the larger black rocks. The gemstone shifted a bit more and turned towards him. 

“Welcome brother! Welcome to our family. You may refer to me as Aggite. And you, you shall be known as Geode.”

“Geode?” the small Scallionite spoke his name into the air. It sounded strange yet deeply familiar. 

“Yes. Geode.” The pile of black stones fell apart then quietly joined together into a five limbed creature with a long tail swinging gracefully through the air. Its emerald positioned itself in the front.

“Yes. You are a Scallionite, like me.”

“A Scallionite?”

“Yes and I will be the first to admit that this can all be a bit disorienting. Please try to hold your questions as I explain.”

“What is a Scallionite?”

Aggite hummed lightly in annoyance and mirth. “Please little one, patience.”

“Sorry.”

Aggite nodded his emerald slowly. “A Scallionite you ask? Why, we are a brotherhood of Diggers, built by our Maker to plumb the unknown depths of the earth and uncover its treasure. You are one such treasure and have come into existence by our Maker’s will to join our family.”

 “Why?” 

Aggite’s tail twitched as his emerald shimmered. “Why what?”

“Why are we Diggers?”

“Not all of us are Diggers. Some of us our Builders, some Messengers, some –”

“Why do we dig? Did you dig me up? Where was I before here? What was all that light before here?”

Aggite sighed.

“Geode, I know you have a lot of questions. When I woke up I had some of the very same questions. It would be best if you let me explain it all in order. Can you let me do that?”

Geode thought for a moment, his head rumbling with curiosity. “Yea, okay.”

“Good. Now… where was I? Ah yes. You have come into our family to aid in our digging. You will be given your specific task soon. First I will teach you how to move then show you around our home. Hmmm… Let’s begin with something small. Yes, here.”

Aggite swung his black stone tail around, picked up a small gray pebble, and placed it directly in front of Geode.

“As a Scallionite you have the ability to manipulate the surrounding stones, to grab them and use them, to create for yourself a body or a tool or whatever else you might need. Watch.”

The five limbed creature of black rocks that was named Aggite collapsed into the ground, his stones scattering. The stones rolled away then back towards the largest with the green gemstone and reformed into a cube. They then broke apart again and crafted themselves into three wheels. Aggite rolled around for a moment then came apart for a third time. The largest stone with the green emerald rolled through the pile of black rocks until it rested in front of Geode.

“Your essence lives within your gemstone and the stone it is connected to. While you will grow attached to your other stones as you use them, you can and sometimes will be forced to discard your limbs. Do not despair, there are always more stones to be found here in the deep, deep earth. Above all, you must protect your gemstone. Do you understand?”

“Yes. Why?”

“Because that is where you reside.” Aggite explained as he pulled his five-limbed form back together. “Every Scallionite is awoken with their gemstone. If it were to be crushed, cracked, chipped, or separated from the stone it is in, you would cease to exist. But don’t let me scare you with such talk. Let us go back to the pebble. I want you to pull it closer to you.”

“Am I green and black too?”

“No, not at all!”

“Then, what do I look like?”

“You, little Geode, are special! Let me show you.”

Without warning Aggite wrapped his tail around Geode and lifted him in the air. He swung Geode over to a part of the cave where there was a pool of water.

“Take a look!”

What Geode saw surprised him. Held within Aggite’s tail was a dull gray half-rock with a hollow center filled with orange crystals. On the top of the rock sat a small blue gemstone.

“Is that me?” Geode asked.

“That is you. You are special, different, in a good way! One of a kind. Now,” Aggite swung Geode back to where he began and set him down. “If we’ve had enough distractions, back to our pebble. Pull it towards you.”

Geode looked at the small rock then back up at Aggite. “Um, how?”

“With your mind. Extend yourself out to the stone, feel its weight, its mass, and pull it towards you.” 

Geode focused on the pebble’s shape, on how it was flatter on one side than the other. He looked at dirt covering its surface and thought about how much it might weigh. It wasn’t very big. How hard could it be to lift it?

“Um, come here.”

The pebble did not move.

“You don’t need to speak to it,” Aggite chuckled, “use your mind.”

“Oh… okay.”

Geode looked back at the pebble and asked it silently to shift towards him. Nothing. He asked nicely, he requested it to move. He tried to bargain with it and described to it how wonderful it would be to move around. As the minutes stretched and his mental requests grew more and more insistent, he finally got annoyed at the task and refocused back to Aggite.

“It’s not moving.”

“Keep trying.” Aggite responded in an infinitely patient voice. “The first time takes the longest.”

Geode imagined the pebble rolling towards him. He thought of it floating in the air. He glared at the small stone and silently yelled at the object, demanding it move. With every failure Geode could feel anger welling up in the back of his mind as the small stone defied him, anger and frustration, and a bit of embarrassment.

After a few more long minutes Geode looked up at Aggite again. “There had to be some trick to it, something you’re not telling me.”

“It’s hard to explain how. You simply do.”

“That makes no sense.”

Aggite nodded. “No sense until it does. Keep trying little one. You’ll get it soon.”

Geode fought with the pebble, sang to the pebble, pleaded with the pebble, ignored the pebble. The pebble simply sat there. He mentally attacked the pebble and wished for nothing else but for the pebble and him to be friends. Then, with one last exhausted mental tug and failure Geode glared at the pebble with pure burning hatred for the thing.

“I’m done.” Geode swatted the pebble away. It flew off into the surrounding darkness. He then looked up at Aggite, annoyed. “I can’t do it.”

Aggite was completely still for a moment then rumbled out in laughter. 

“What’s so funny?” Geode spat out, his frustration turning on his teacher.

Aggite spoke through his chuckles. “You… can’t … you can’t do it? Then tell me, what did you just do?”

“I kept trying and trying to pull it towards me like you asked but it wouldn’t move.”

“And then?”

“And then I got angry and didn’t want to see it anymore. I …” understanding lit up Geode’s mind. “I moved it.”

“Yes, yes you did. Good little one, good. Let’s try it again.”

Aggite encouraged Geode to stretch himself, to keep trying harder and harder things. Once Geode felt comfortable with the one pebble, rolling it back and forth, bringing it up and down and around in circles he practiced with two pebbles in a clump, then separated and in harmony, then swirled through the air in two different patterns. Then two became three. Then ten. By the time Geode had mastered juggling his pebbles in circles, loops, and knots, Aggite praised him for his progress then turned Geode’s focus inward.

“Good Geode, good.” Aggite nodded as the newborn Socialite rocked back and forth awkwardly. “Moving your base is much more difficult than any of these tiny pebbles since you can’t see what you’re controlling, but you seem to be a natural. Good!”

Once Geode was able to spin, roll, and position himself with his blue gemstone upright, they slowly put the two concepts together. Geode worked on crafting three spindly limbs with the surrounding pebbles then used them to lift his base onto the somewhat stable tower. After numerous collapses and rebuilds he took his very first steps.

“That’s good Geode! Very good!” Aggite encouraged as he watched the young Scallionite try a few different configurations, varying his limb length and count. “As a note, you might find it a bit harder to move with that particular assembly. Eleven legs are quite a lot.”

Geode stumbled as he slowly marched forward.

“Why? You said to start with three, but you have five. Wouldn’t even more be even better?”

“Yes, and no. It is true that multiple points of contact with the ground will lead to increased stability, there is a limit of complexity based on your own mental fatigue. Simply, doing too much at once is tricky. One or two limbs requires balance and beyond eight is a headache. Three is the most efficient configuration.”

“If three is the best, why do you use five?”

“Good question. It comes down to style and personality. And here I should note you don’t have to move with legs either. While most of our brothers do prefer appendages, some choose a wide or long rolling base. A few Scallionites create hooks and claws to scamper up walls and hang from the structure above. Each brother is different, and creativity is encouraged. If you want to use eleven legs, use eleven! But it could take you a few extra cycles before you’re moving around effortlessly.”

Geode let go of his thin legs and reassembled them into a long tail similar to Aggite’s while floating the largest rock he could pick up in mid-air.

“Why do I need limbs at all? Why can’t I just float around?”

“Many have tried. There seems to be a difference in controlling what is outside yourself and what is in you. You can pick up a stone because you are the one picking it up. You can’t pick up yourself.”

Geode yawned. “That makes no sense. Why not?”

Aggite shook his gemstone back and forth. “We don’t know why. We also can’t extend our will on other Scallionites either. Well, almost. I cannot push, pull, or pick up the rocks you have under your control with my mind. I can still pick you up.”

To emphasize his point Aggite wrapped his tail around Geode’s and picked him up again, sending Geode’s pebbles scattering about.

“Hey!” Geode wiggled to little effect. “Put me down.”

Aggite rumbled lightly and set Geode down on the opposite side of his body. “It has been a long cycle. I can tell you are tiring. The next lesson is a simple one but just as important as moving.”

“What is that?”

“You need to rest.”

“Rest?”

“Yes. At the end of every cycle when we have spent our energy we will typically return to the Pit, our nursery, and rest. And what is resting you may ask? Best way I have heard it described is that your essence goes dormant. Your will disappears while your body recharges.”

“Disappear? Where will I go?”

“Nowhere, but you won’t be here anymore.”

“Why? Why can’t I stay here always?”

Aggite shook his gemstone as he chuckled. “Many have asked, no one knows for sure. The world is full of questions without answers. Ah, but back to our lesson. Since you are newly awoken, you won’t be resting in the Pit but instead, right here. By the end of one or two more cycles, you should be steady enough on your legs that we can rest there with our brothers.”

“Okay.” Geode replied. There was a long pause. “How do I do this, rest, thing?”

“It is as simple as moving the pebble. And just as difficult. You need to let yourself go. Feel the fatigue in your core and float into unconsciousness. And don’t worry about the how so much. It’s a natural part of life.”

Geode rolled his base so that his blue gemstone was on top then gathered his pebbles from the day around himself. After a few minutes Geode spoke back up.

“Nothing is happening.”

“Patience little one.”

A few more minutes passed. Geode let the silence stretch for as long as he could bear before turning a bit to look at Aggite.

“What are we going to do tomorrow?”

Aggite turned his gemstone slightly within his heap of black stones. “More training.”

“What kind?”

“Rest little one. Rest and I will tell you tomorrow.”

Silence.

“Will I get to see our home?”

“Yes.”

“Will I get to meet more Scallionites? More brothers like you and me?”

“Yes.”

“How many of us are there?”

Aggite shook his green emerald. “Tomorrow little one. There will be plenty of time for questions and their answers tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

It took seven more similar interactions before the newest Scallionite finally drifted off to sleep.