The following day as light streamed into the cave Emerald and the others put forth their daily colorful display upon the walls. Awakened Mr. Penn took a drop of water from the cave wall and washed his face. Glancing over with a sweet smile at his beloved an idea popped into his mind. Letting her sleep he ran from the cave and gathered flowers, sweet grass, seeds, and nuts. Along the way he met up with another silver mouse. He stopped to chat only for a brief moment, discovering this mouse was his wife's brother, he laid out the plan and invited him and his family to come over to the cave. They were going to hold a mouse wedding. The brother asked their sisters to nibble Queen Anne's lace flowers and gather a few spiders webs. Next was to distract her with a task to make her leave the cave. Mr. Penn had the perfect one. He would send her to gather Ginsing berries from next to her family's burrow. Her sisters could take it from there.
While the plan was put into motion outside, unbeknownst to the lady mouse, she had awoken. Rubbing her eyes she was a bit sad not to find Mr. Penn next to her nor anywhere else in the cave. She rose and washed her face the same as how Mr. Penn had done. Turning around she took in the sight and beauty of the cave in the morning sunlight.
All of the gems greeted her and let her know that Mr. Penn had gone foraging. Settling down she took a cotton blossom and started to wipe dust from Emerald and Ruby. Essper desired a bit of conversation with Mr. Penn preoccupied elsewhere, she started to speak to the lady mouse. "Miss Mouse may I ask you something?"
"By all means Lady Essper; as long as I may do the same in kind with you."
"What shall we call you now that you are to be a part of our family? As you shall not be Miss Mouse forever. You will be becoming Mrs. Mouse soon." Essper enquired.
"My given name is Sylvania S. Fieldmouse, but I have always been called Sylvie. Begging your pardon. May I know as to how you got the name Essper? It seems a strange name to me." said Silvie.
Ah a wonderful inquiry for once thought Essper. "Esspiritous Esperanza Crystalus," Essper exclaimed in a lofty voice, " I, perhaps more correctly we, are a phantom crystal. You see if you pick me up and hold me to the light, you will see why." Holding Essper up she saw an unusual sight, another crystal point was barely visible within the left side of her. Shocked Silvie placed her back down.
"You see I am much like a twin of sorts, my sister Esmeralda, had a very week life force since the very beginning and could barely keep it awakened. I being stronger I had always protected her and kept her close to me. Along time back she stopped awakening, I could tell that her life force was still there but particularly faint, so I held her so tightly for so long that over the centuries we grew to become one. She does wake up once in a great while breifly to survey our latest surroundings then back to slumber once more. Tough she lacks the strength to speak I can feel when she is happy. I dare say it is impossible to be separated now without both of us having our life forces extinguished."
Emerald, Ruby, and Silvie had come to learn something new that day. That the life force granted from the Earth could be so frail. Silvie had tears escape from her seed like eyes both in sadness and in thought of offending Essper. Seeing the tears Emerald asked, "Are you alright Miss Silvie?" Pulling herself together she answered back while wiping her face with her paws, "Oh yes. My emotions got ahead of me and leaked out. Lady Essper I do hope I have not offended you with my curiosity."
"Not in the slightest my dear. Actually Mr. Penn asked me many more questions. It went on for days. Being a very young mouse, just having become separated from his family, his mind had boundless curiosity. That and I welcomed it, especially since loneliness had started to settle in, he was a breath of fresh air. He grew to become such an industrious mouse with a kean eye for lovely things. Speaking of lovely things we here are so glad he found you."
Wiping the gems in the cave made Silvie quite happy. Musing to herself, ' I believe I could get used to doing this every day. Be it a few at a time. Such a beautiful place as this I feel as if I have been brought to Heaven upon Earth. I am so blessed to have been brought here by my dear Penn.' Humming a tune she carefully wiped the crystals until Mr. Penn returned.
Acting as though he had been foraging, he walked back into the cave with acorns tucked in cheek and paw, he laid them all to the side. "My love you have done a great job cleaning the gems. I am pleasantly surprised at how stunning you have made them. But may I trouble you with a task? We are in need of some ginsing berries for medicine just incase the weather turns and we become ill. The ones near your family burrow look just right to harvest."
Mr. Penn kissed her cheek and ushered her to the entrance. Once out of sight he started to bring in all of the lovely things that he had gathered and begun arranging them. Twisting garlands and making bouquets. Next he set out rose petals to make a carpet, then made a place for the local magpie to officiate, as he had no trust in owls.
As Silvie made her way to the location she was tackled by her sisters and dragged away.