A little guys treasures

Celestite placed the chunk of crystal on a ledge and stood back to admire how it looked under the bright display lights shining upon it.

The entire piece was roughly the size of a fist, with a warm gray stone base that held the cluster of deep purple crystals. They could stand to be polished as their surface was crealy matte in the light, but that would come in time. Celestite had only mined them today and he was worn out both from the effort, and the trek to where he had found them within a damp, small cavern. He wasn't sure what type of crystal it was exactly yet, but he could guess it's origins were hydrothermal. The cave that held it was near enough to the hot springs that runoff seeped through the porous stones making up the cave walls. He made a mental note to keep exploring that area for any other unique formations.

In the faint light of the cavern he hadn't been able to see the depth of the color that glinted now before him. Some parts were blacker than the Burrowgatory at night, their purple undertone only visible when held to the light. In the heart of larger planes on the gem he could see it turn a cool red, not quite pink. More of this would look gorgeous carved into an imp, he mused to himself.

His eyes trailed along the rest of the display shelf, as well as the ones above and below it. All along the wall were crystals of all shapes and sizes, most with small labels on the edge of the shelf denoting what they were. Some had little more than a hint of blue or green amidst white peaks, while others were unbelievably vibrant. He had pieces similar to the one he'd just placed—large chunks in classic crystalline shapes, but others were nothing more than glitter in a piece of rock, while others still had strange rounded shapes like mounds of foam.

Most importantly, they were all his. 

Of course, Celestite didn't own the sprawling cave systems that he frequented. Making a home for himself in the mouth of one such cave didn't grant him anything more than easy access. But, in his heart, these were his. 

No one else knew of how big his collection was, where to find all of these beautiful crystals, how to mine them. He could get an order for a statue and know exactly where to go to find gems the right color. Some buns had in the past balked at the prices of his handmade wares (as if they could do any better) and demanded to know where he had found the gems so they could get around paying. As if he would ever tell anyone such precious information.

When giving tours, he wouldn't completely cheat visitors out of the sights the caves had to offer. He walked them through tunnels lined with quartz as big as any doll, even from his home one could see blue crystals jutting out of the walls. This was all common and easy to find, though. Things that were purple, and black, and richly red in the middle, were all his. 

Celestite stood back and pulled out his phone first to take a picture, one he could reference while searching for the name of the gem. Then, from a table below the shelves, he picked up a polaroid camera and snapped a second image. This one he set aside while he sat in a nearby chair, then plucked a journal from next to it. The worn book had a log about every gem on the wall; where he found it, how he mined it, other observations about softness, cleavage, so forth, before finally taping the picture to the page. He wasn't so foolish as to write plain directions, either. They were brief, using names he had specifically made up for many tunnels and caverns, the key for which was hidden deeper in his home. 

Was this all a bit much? Maybe so. 

What he knew for certain was the thought of someone else having such a collection, treading through his caves, made his blood boil. If this process kept his treasures special and all his own, he was happy to do it.

Once the picture had developed, he stuck it to the page with tape decorated in cartoon crystals. The page wasn't filled out much—he had a lot more work to do, but again, he needed to rest. Not every entry was particularly long, either. Celeste idly leafed through the pages in reverse order and took in the look of it all, rather than specific words.

Someday he hoped to find something completely unknown, so that he could name it, then mine all of it and be the only one to distribute any. Of course he would make a few statues out of it probably, most for himself, but some people had to have beautiful figures to show off. They could admire his work, and seethe knowing no one would ever have as much of the gemstone as he did. 

With a sigh, he closed the book. Maybe this purple crystal would be the one. Celestite wouldn't complain if that was the case, but he'd exhaust every avenue to identify it first. 

Already making a mental checklist of what sites and books to look through first, he headed out of the room, leaving the lights on so he could glimpse his dearest treasures every time he passed by.