Gemstones

Eblions surface was full of light, trees and colours, as there were more flowers than one could count flourishing and growing all over the hills and valleys. The world was full of live near the shores, as there was water to live and it rained often which was good for the crops. Going deeper into the lands, there were woods and mountains; and deep below those woods and mountains lived the goblins.

They lived in large caves with countless channels that combined the large rooms. Over the years they have built this world below all by themselves.  Generations of goblins have created a tunnel system that was larger than any city above ground.

And while they were creating new tunnels, they found lots of shiny stones and metals. They were worth nothing for the goblins, but they looked nice so they decided to keep them. After generations of mining, the goblins had several chambers filled with gold, diamonds, rubies and other jewels. Until one day, the goblins decided that it was no longer worth to keep all this rubbish, even when it looked so beautiful and shone so bright.

“What shall we do with all this?”, asked one of the goblins. The goblins were excited and had many ideas what to do with the useless dump.

“We can just burn it.” – “Let’s throw it into one of the old tunnels that nobody uses anymore.”  - “Lets destroy them and use the powder to decorate our homes!”

“No. I have a better idea.”

Everyone turned around to one of the most intelligent goblins of their city. He smiled a devilish grin. “I know exactly what to do with it. We will sell it to the world above.”
Suddenly there were excited whispers. “Sell it? That dirt? Who will exchange anything valuable for this?”
“Trust me, fellow goblins! We know the over ground, but they do not know the world below. Let me try my brilliant trick, and if it shall not work we can still burn it.”

 So the goblin started following the tunnels to the upper world. It took several days until he arrived a small whole covered by leaves that was the gate to the world above.

It was in the middle of the day, and the goblin, having been in that area already several times in his life, knew exactly where he had to go, as there was the biggest city of Eblion’s overground only a few hours of walk away.

The goblin went to the busy market place of that city. A lot of different creatures were on their way, so nobody even gave the goblin a second look. Without hesitation the goblin climbed a house and stood on its roof.

“Everyone behold!”, he screamed as loud as he could, and everyone turned.

“I am a goblin, from the world below Eblion. We are much more civilized and more advanced than you. We have a button that we push, to start fire and have light. We have bows that shoot deadly metal faster than any dart. And we have windows that show us what happens all over the world!” – All this, was of course, a lie, but they did not knew. Everyone turned around and looked at the goblin with surprise, respect, and, this enjoyed the goblin the most: with fear.

“I will not harm you. But I want to help you poor, stupid creatures on the world above.”

Slowly the goblin put a hand into the pocket of his cotton pants and pulled out a handful of the shiny stones.

Everyone gasped, as in the light of the sun the gemstones shone even brighter than the goblin could imagine. He was also surprised, but did not show it. The sun reflected thousands of little dots of light over the crowd below him. It looked like magic. They had different colours: Blood red, dark green and ocean blue.

“Creatures! We have tons of this where we come from. Too much. They are the most valuable….” The goblin thought of another word for ‘thing’. “They are the most valuable products of exchange for us superior creatures. Do you want to keep living your simple lives, or become as superior as we are?”

The goblin smiled triumphantly; when he saw the creatures below him discuss the beautiful stones in the hand of the goblin.

“I give you one night. Tomorrow I will be back, at the very same roof, and I will give you all of our highly valuable stones. All we want in return are your crops.”

“But then we have nothing to eat!”, someone from the crowd shouted.

“With those stones you can get even more crops. It is just, that my poor friends below the ground, we have only bats and insects for ourselves. But I would love to give my children sugar, bread, cake and potatoes. Think about it.” The Goblin jumped behind the house and hid between the bushes, so it looked like he magically disappeared. But he could listen to the creatures discuss the surprising offer of the goblin.

The very next day at the same time, the goblin climbed back to the roof.

“So, what is your decision? If you will not take it, I will give it to another city that understands the value I am having in my hand only. And there are so much more of those diamonds that I will give you in exchange for your crops.”

“We will take it, we will take it!”, the people screamed.

The goblin grinned, and threw the jewels in his hand into the crowd. He achieved the effect he wanted, because the creatures started screaming and crawled on the floor on all fours, just to collect the gemstones the goblin had thrown on the floor.

Only a few days later the citizens of the city transported all of their crops to the woods, where the gate to the underworld lay. Hundreds of goblins helped transport the valueless dirt and brought back fresh and delicious crops.

The goblins were never so happy. Thousands of years later they would tell each other about the brave and smart goblin who traded their dirt to get more crops than they could eat. The goblins enjoyed the sweetness of their food and were surprised, when a few years later their trick has developed into Eblion’s currency that is still used until this very day. 


Text Copyright © Rachel Sesom