Chatterbox: Inkwell

So.

I'm writing a book.

For Camp NaNoWriMo/NaNoWriMo/just on my own time. 

Called "Glittering Stones, and what truly lies beneath." (Which sounds unbelievably cheesy, I know. ;)) 

It's a dystopian genre, so the government of now has been obliterated and now it is very corrupt. There may be some fighting, later on, just a heads up to @Admins, but nothing gory like BLOOD BLOOD DEATTTHH, etc ; ) You will understand more of the plot later on, but just know that the people in my story are not... normal people. They are named after gemstones, and they live in a strict caste system, sorted into "Classifications" according to how precious of a stone they are. It focuses on two MCs, Amethyst, and Topaz, who you will soon meet. 

And I really need some feedback! Anything! Whether its grammar or rephrasing an, erm, phrase or anything! I would really appreciate it. I'll post the first few chapters, and if I hear from people then I'll post more. 

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞  

Prologue, Two Years Earlier...  

"Amethyst. Amethyst! Hello? Can you hear me?"

The voice sounded far away, very distant, but it slowly came back into focus. Here she was, Amethyst, standing in the kitchen, completely lost in thought. 

"Finally! You went off into your 'dreamland' thing again." Her 9-year-old sister, Eudie, made air-quotes around the word, "Dreamland", enunciating the fact that there was no such thing in her opinion, at least.

Amethyst rolled her eyes, then went back to kneading the bread dough that she was preparing for Eveningmeal. "What was it that we were talking about again?" she asked her little sister. 

Placing a hand on her hip, Eudie said, "We were wondering where in all the wide world Opal is hiding, and why so much healthy stuff has to go into this bread!" She poked a finger at a lump of the dough for emphasis. 

Amethyst laughed. "You were wondering why most of these ingredients were healthy in this recipe, not me. I don't create the recipes, I just make them. But now that you mention it, I am getting a little worried about Opal. When was the last time you saw her?" 

Eudie checked her wristwatch. "We started playing H&F almost an hour ago! She found me two times, so then I said best out of five, she went off to hide, and now I just can't find her!" 

Grinning at her, Amethyst said, "Now's the time to admit that she's a better Hider than you are." But really, she was worried. Opal was known to go wander off by herself at times, but not for so long. Eudie and Opal were biological twins not identical in any way except for the fact that they shared the same Birthing Day. While Eudie was the life of the party and enjoyed chatting nonstop about nonsensical things, (Or, the life the party that a 9-year-old could have) Opal only talked when necessary and enjoyed a little peace and quiet to herself. 

"Well," Amethyst began. "Where have you searched already? I'll help you look for her, but we can cross off whatever places you already checked." As she talked, she formed the now well-kneaded bread dough into loaves and put them on a metal sheet covered with a towel to rise. Then she dusted her hands on her apron and hung it on a peg on the nearby wall. 

"I for sure looked all over the basement, and I think I got most of the third story too," Eudie told her as they began their slow search of the large house. 

First, they began on the ground floor, peeking around commonplace things like window drapes and under tables until Eudie finally convinced Amethyst that if "she had hidden under those things, I wouldn't have needed your help!" However, that was what the ground floor was made up of for the most part; commonplace hiding places. There were none of the delicious and dark shrouded corners and closets like the upstairs or basement. 

A quick peek of the lower and upper floors proved Eudie's point that she "already checked really good!" in those places. 

Now Amethyst was panicking slightly. But only on the inside, never the out. Amethyst couldn't show Eudie how afraid she was. She was supposed to be the responsible one. The caretaker when their parents weren't home. Amethyst knew that if she started to panic, Eudie would too. Still, she couldn't help shouting her younger sister's name a little louder, the sound echoing off the spacious walls of the home like resonant waves on a seashore. 

The only place there could possibly be left for Opal to hide was the outdoors. The yard of the house where Amethyst, her sisters, and her mother and father lived in was large, to say the least. Large and spread out, with very few trees or shrubs where a petite 9-year-old may hide. 

It was also Curfew. 

From 13:00 to 16:00, no person without military, police, or medical licensing could leave the building that they were currently residing in when Curfew began. The three sister's parents, Sera and Howlite, had neither. They were common Merchants, buying, trading and selling items at a higher or lower price (depending on just who was doing the buying) to different persons "in need." 

At noon, Amethyst's parents had attended a Gathering at noon and were not expected to be back until well past Curfew. It was better to be safe than sorry when dealing with the Afternoon Curfew, which was one of Amethyst's inner hatreds. But that was a thing for another time. Right now, the only thing that mattered was whether or not Opal was out of doors and/or abducted by neighboring Authorities. 

Amethyst inhaled deeply, once, then motioned to Eudie to come closer, as if there were said neighboring Authorities wandering about the house. "I think Opal might have gone outside." Brace for the explosion. 

"What?! Why -why would she do that?!? She knows that it's Curfew! She knows what will happen if she... if she's... caught." The last word was spoken as if it was painful to get out. Amethyst could see her own panic mirrored in the eyes of her sister. 

"Well," she said to Eudie, softly. "I'll have to go out and check."

"NO! Ame, you can't!!" 

Turning and walking down the hallway, Amethyst said, "I have to, Eudie. You need to stay here. I doubt I'll be gone that long, but if Mom and Dad come back, you explain all that's happening to them."

"But where are you going? The front door isn't that way!" Eudie followed her down the hall, to where Amethyst opened a door to a room that she had not often been in: her father's. On the threshold, Eudie stopped. 

"What are you doing in Dad's room? He doesn't like it when we go in here..."

Amethyst rummaged through the dusty wardrobe that was shoved into a corner, pulling out one of her father's long grey trench-capes. "I can't just go waltzing outside during Curfew; I'll be reported for sure. I'll stick to the alleys and wear Dad's cape, so even if someone does see me, I won't be immediately recognized."

Eudie nodded, looking very pale, but did not say anything else as Amethyst donned the long, voluminous trench-cape and pulled up the hood. Her face was draped in shadows, and her hands and legs were buried in the thick folds of the cape, making her completely unrecognizable as the 16-year-old daughter of Sera and Howlite Semi-precious. Instead, she looked like a regular person whose salary was profitable enough to afford a trench-cape, and who just happened to be out and about during Curfew. 

Amethyst sighed at her image in the mirror, then turned to hug her sister. "Wish me luck," she whispered in her Eudie's ear. Eudie managed a wan smile. "You and Opal both," she told Amethyst.

With one more nod in her sister's direction, Amethyst walked down the hall, then she slowly turned the doorknob of the rear entrance. It slid open soundlessly, casting a shadow from the warm afternoon sun that slithered down the hallway. Amethyst, too, slid out the door without a sound. 

She was wearing her house shoes, which would make less noise on the cobblestone-clad alley than her boots. The cape, too,  made a swishing noise every time she took a hurried step, so she slowed her pace just a bit. Amethyst tried to shake away the dread that she felt creeping up her spine, but it was almost too much. She'd heard stories of people that had been caught outside during Curfew, she and Eudie and Opal all had. That's why she'd been so pale. Once the Authorities dragged you off, kicking and screaming, protesting that your pet had gone missing or some other completely plausible excuse for being outside, you were never seen again. Amethyst tried to force those grim thoughts down. She didn't need them floating around her mind right now, taunting her. Instead, she focused on her steps. 

Right, left. Right, left. 

Behind the Semi-Precious' backdoor was an alleyway. One way lead out onto the main road and the other led in the direction of their communities' yard. Amethyst crept down the alley towards the yard, thinking that the yard would be the most logical place for Opal to have gone. She had almost reached the edge of the yard, but stopped when she heard an urgent whisper:

"Pst. Hey. Hey, you. You with the grey cape."

Amethyst froze. The voice had come from behind one of the Waste Compartments. She turned, glad that the hood covered her face, and whispered back, making sure to keep her voice low, "What? Who's there? What are you doing outside during Curfew?" 

After a pause, the voice behind the Waste Compartment said in the same cool-yet-quiet-voice, "I could ask the same about you." The voice was clearer, now. Most definitely belonging to a young man, a boy, perhaps. A bronze-skinned finger popped out from behind the Compartment and waggled at her to come closer.

Squaring her shoulders beneath the cloak, Amethyst shook her head silently. "I have other more important things to do than obey a strange person who spends their free time hiding behind Waste Compartments," she said in whispered --while still firm-- voice. "Good da--" The arm belonging to the bronze-skinned finger and whispered voice shot out from behind the Compartment, latching onto her own and dragging Amethyst down behind the Compartment with them. 

She landed in a heap with a loud thump, her vision blocked by her hood falling over her eyes she started to cry out but stopped when she heard voices. 

Men, most likely, running in the alleyway and shouting at each other from where she'd been standing moments ago. The Authorities. Doubtless, they would've seen her and taken her away had she done what she intended and continued searching in the alley for Opal. 

"You sure?" one of the men asked in a gruff voice that grated on Amethyst's ears. 

"I swear! I heard people talking!" another insisted. 

"Eh, must've been the wind," the first one said.

"Wind? What wind?! It's the middle of After-Snow!" retorted the other. Their mingled voices faded away as they returned to their posts down the road once more. 

Breathless from her close encounter, Amethyst yanked off her hood and confronted her rescuer. It was a young man, or rather, he, with bronzed skin to match his arm and finger, wearing tattered jeans and a shirt. His eyes were the most striking part, however; they were a clear ocean blue, shifting from an aqua green. If he seemed surprised that the wearer of a Merchant's trench-cape was a teenage girl, he did not show it. The smirk plastered on his face clearly said, "I told you so" mingled with a dash of "Why didn't you listen to me in the first place?" 

That annoyed Amethyst. Very much.  

Ruffled and flustered, she managed to get out a, "Thank you," and, "Who are you?"

With a slight air, as if he were offended that she hadn't recognized him already, he told her, "I go by Topaz." 

She nodded. "I'm, well, you can call me Amethyst." Then, with hesitation, she added, "Nice to have met you, I just... wish it were under different circumstances... " Which reminded her of her reason for being out during Curfew in the first place. Amethyst got to her knees and scanned the alleyway both directions for lingering Authorities before standing completely. 

"I would ask of the circumstances regarding our encounter," Topaz said, getting up and standing too. "But we all have our own secrets, most of which don't need to be shared."

Amethyst didn't quite understand his logic but nodded anyway. "Have you seen a little girl of about 8 or 9 anywhere around here?" she whispered to him.

Topaz's eyes fixed on something behind her, and he said/whispered with mild interest, "Why yes, I have." And he pointed to something behind her. 

Amethyst turned, following to where he had gestured and there was Opal. She was crouched down among some other Waste Compartments, looking very guilty, very scared, and very close to tears at the same time. Still not daring to yell, lest the Authorities might hear her, Amethyst rushed over to her sister and enveloped her in a hug. Opal whispered into her ear how she had gone outside to hide and had heard some Authorities making rounds and had had to stay in her hiding place so long that she'd fallen asleep. She had woken up when she'd heard the Authorities come and go just a few minutes ago and had caught sight of Amethyst and Topaz. 

After Opal had shed a few well-deserved tears, Amethyst motioned for her to go back inside, where she knew that a worried Eudie was waiting. 

But when a very grateful Amethyst turned around, Topaz was gone.