The Spike Poem Anthology

by Zephyr Spark

The Cave of Blue Crystals

Author's Note:

This is a fairy tale I wrote as part of an assignment. It's not really poetry (or MLP to be honest), but I think it's a story well worth sharing that can just manage to fit in this collection.

Once upon a time, in a mining town there lived a young man named Holt. He had a good life with a loving family of many uncles, aunts, sisters, and grandparents who lived together and shared everything they had. At night, they would share a family meal, bowing their heads in prayer. Yet, Holt was unhappy. Everyday he saw the wealthy merchants parade across the street, dressed in the finest velvet and silk bluer than the sky. They forced his fathers and grandfathers to work in the mine. They would spend days at a time, digging out any valuable gemstones that went directly to the merchants. Certainly, the merchants would give them time for holidays and provide them with food, but only because the king made laws to ensure they would protect their workers. One day, Holt approached his father and asked how one could avoid working in the mines. His father refused to answer, but after months of pesterings he gave an answer.

“One would have to throw away his own life and enter the mines at night. Only then would he find the power to command his own fate. But oh, my son, are you not happy as you are? We have little, but we love one another. Those merchants may have our wealth, but they do not have family.”

“But they reap the benefits of our labor. Why should they who do nothing, earn what we dig up by our own hands?”

“Don’t seek to be like them. Wealth cannot love you, and though it may buy workers, it cannot buy love.”

Determined to find his fortune, Holt ignored his father’s warning. He was nearly at that age to be sent into the mines. He saw how it broke backs and dirtied lungs. His heart wretched at the sight of such broken men, and refused to submit. So that night, when his family slept, he snuck from the bed towards the door and headed to the mines. Carefully, he snuck past the sentries stationed to guard the cave and made his way into the darkness.

He lit a torch, illuminating the granite walls surrounding him and went down the tunnels, desperate to find power to change his fate. After walking through miles of tunnels, he found a blue gemstone. It was a sliver, no bigger than his pinkie. When he picked it up and held it to his eye, he could see a trail of light extending from top of the cave.

“How curious.” He said. “Perhaps this light will lead to the power to change my fate.”

He followed the light through the mine, descending deeper than any man dare go. Soon, the light led him to caves with walls bluer than the skies. The rocks burst with light, as though illuminated with a torch. When he looked through the stone again, Holt saw the trail of light grow thicker, and denser. Bits of the light seemed to drip onto the floor and melt into gas.

He followed the light further; going so deep into the caves he could scarcely breathe. At last, he came to a chamber larger than his own house. The entire chamber was lined with blue crystals. On the walls, he could see portraits made entirely of gemstones, holding the faces of ancient rulers. He could read words engraved in the crystal ceiling: That rich thing will change your fate. At the center of the cave, sat a pale man. He wore no shirt and had grey hair trailing all the way down his back across the cave floor. He was paler than a skeleton. His skin clung tightly to his bones. His back was turned, so Holt could not see his face.

He came closer to the man, deciding to sit beside him. Long grey locks completely covered the man’s face, hiding his eyes and skeletal jaw.

“I want to change my fate,” Holt declared. “I don’t want to work in the mines. I want to be rich like the merchants. Can you help me, stranger?”

The stranger’s skeletal jaw creaked open.

Beware, beware the unfettered greed.

It is the most lethal of weeds—It chokes and devours.

The monster sullies the world, strangles the patches of flowers

One cannot love such greed and love mankind

In worshipping such greed, one goes blind.

“I won’t. I’ll help my fellow workers. I just don’t want to work in the mines.”

The skeletal figure’s face turned towards Holt. The man’s long hairs reared up like a thousand hissing serpents and wrapped around the boy. Now Holt could see the man’s face. Where his eyes should have been, there were sockets with two gems bluer than the sky. The grey hairs seized Holt, wrapping across his body, covering him like a mummy. He was so frightened he fainted.

Holt woke up in a granite chamber surrounded by treasures beyond his comprehension, capable of buying the town twenty times. The skeletal man and the blue gemstone cave were gone. Deeply embedded in his palm, was a royal blue gemstone.

“Treasure will change my fate,” Holt said. He gathered up his treasure and left the mines.

He ran into the merchants as they paraded through the streets. They took notice of his immeasurable wealth and gawked.

“Young lad, where have you found so much treasure?”

“Deep in the caves, where no man dared to venture.”

So impressed by his bravery, they invited him to join them and become a merchant. Holt agreed and went to the merchant’s guild go learn their craft. With his vast wealth, he completely bought out the mine from the merchants. One of them tried to bring him to court for his treachery. When the merchant went to press charges, Holt raised his hand embedded with the gem. The merchant lost all power of speech and vanished from the judge’s eyes. Thus, Holt went on, unchallenged and the merchants were forced out of the town. For a time, he made sure the worker was provided for, receiving excellent food and reward for their work. Yet, he soon realized his kindness was costing him his wealth. Merchants running other mines found more treasure than him by cutting corners. So, he lowered the worker’s wages, and soon found a little more treasure in his coffers. He decreased their rations, and found more spare money in his coffers. Then, he doubled their workload and found more money in his coffers. When the workers complained about his abuses to the king, Holt raised his hand embedded with the blue gem. Like the merchant, the workers all lost their power of speech and vanished from the king’s eyes.

One day, he realized how lonely his mansion felt, and returned home to his family, hoping to invite them into his new house. When he returned to their hovel, his many uncles, aunts, sisters, and grandparents could no longer see him, or meet his eyes. Certainly, they might apologize if they bumped into him, but they no longer knew him as family. Now, he was a stranger.

“Don’t you recognize me? I’m your son, Holt.”

“I’ve had many sons, daughters, nephews, and nieces,” said his father. “But never have I known a son named Holt.”

“I’ve come to take you back, father. To bring all of you to my mansion so we can live comfortably with my riches.”

“Young lad, don’t you realize treasures don’t make life rich? When you die, your treasures won’t mourn you. The only way to change your fate is with that rich thing called charity.”

Holt sneered. “Fat lot of good charity did you. Rot away in this prison, but I will never return to poverty.”

For a time, he felt a twinge of guilt at the miners’ suffering, but he had no desire to become poor again. So, he increased the labor of the miners, forcing them to work for weeks on end with little pay and destroying their holidays. He forced them to buy their own food from him, taking back the little wages they earned. In time, he forgot about ever being poor. In time, he even forgot his own father. He became known as the most reviled man in the country, cruelly forcing the miners to dig up the earth for him and refusing to release them until they returned with mountains of gems. Their complaints never reached his ears, when he could simply raise his hand and silence even the king. Soon, even the king’s voice was replaced entirely with the sound of blue gems, the call to mining.

These days, Holt can no longer see human beings. His vision now only allows blue gemstones. He has gone all but blind in his pursuit of wealth.