Iris

Once upon a time there were two artists. Bound by their love for jewels and all things shining, they had decided to set up a studio together, where they worked day and night in the pursuit of beauty. After many years of failed attempts, they finally succeeded in what they had dreamed of for what had seemed eternity: giving life to a being made of crystal. 

It was so small it could fit in the palm of one's hand, but it shone so beautifully, it was impossible to take your eyes off it. 

What captured the onlookers the most was the way it seemed to magnify light in the most mesmerising way, an outburst of colours that could have put a rainbow to shame. 

"Iris," one of the artists said looking at it, and the second nodded, and its name was chosen. 

Iris, for its own part, looked at the world in complete awe, its heart overwhelmed by how beautiful things around it were. Humans looked incredible, with their skin and clothes and teeth…magnificent. And so was everything else: the crackling fire, that table, that dog! Oh, how it loved that dog!

Most of all, though, Iris loved the sky, and the stars, and the sun. The sun…Iris envied how it could shine so brightly just by itself, bringing light to the world from up there in the sky…it sighed as it looked outside the window, longing. 

Longing, just like the two artists did. They tried to create another being like Iris, but to no avail. Soon enough, their hearts slowly sank into darker places, greed corrupting their souls as they both stared at their creature, determined to have it all by themselves. 

They fought and fought and fought for it, both holding onto it with all their might, until suddenly it slipped from their grip and fell to the floor, shattering into dozens of pieces. 

The artists immediately began to argue about whose fault it was, Iris still shattered on the floor, not realising that as they moved around the house, they were actually stepping onto bits of it, crushing them into even more pieces. 

They fought and fought until there was nothing left to say, then they scraped Iris up from the floor, put it in a box and left. Their bond had shattered with Iris, and their studio was soon shut down. 

Iris sat in the box for days, weeks, months, the sunlight now just a distant memory. It wondered what had happened, why it had been left there broken into pieces. It wondered if it was its fault. Maybe it shouldn't have shone so much. Or maybe it was too horrible at sight. Humans were so beautiful, it must have been hideous to their eyes. 

It sat there, shattered in the darkness, until one day a streak of light suddenly broke into the box, followed by more and more light and- a human? 

It was! 

A human was holding up its box and looking inside and-

"Ow! That's blinding!" 

"What is that?" 

"Nothing, just a bunch of glass."

"Oh, let me see!" 

"No, leave it, it's useless junk." 

And just like that, the light was gone. 

It took a long time for the box to be opened again. This time, a nice pair of green eyes took a peek inside, and lit up in excitement at the sight. 

A lady took Iris out of its box and observed it in awe, struck by it. Iris couldn't help but notice she had crystals in front of her eyes, and felt its shards warming. Maybe she liked crystal! Maybe she could take it with her. She looked very nice. 

Iris got so excited at the thought that all its pieces started pointing towards the lady. It stared and stared with such an intense hope that-

"Ow! That burns!" 

Somehow, Iris had focused so deeply on the lady that it had…burnt her? 

The pain was so sudden that the lady's hands opened at the shock, dropping Iris once more and shattering it into more pieces. 

And just like that, the shards of Iris were put back in the box and shut away from the sun. 

As it sat in its box, Iris could not help but think it was its fault. The lady had been nice to it. She liked crystals! Hers were very pretty. They didn't burn humans. Iris did.

"What's this?" 

The shards of Iris shook as if in the midst of an earthquake before the box opened right above it. 

"Oh! This is interesting. Could it be…"

A man poured Iris out of its box gently, spreading it out on the table. He looked at it thoughtfully, wondering if he was mad or…was this the old studio from the myths? The place where those artists had managed to create a being made of crystal?

As he observed Iris, he slowly reached out a hand and gently brushed a finger against its surface. A second after all of the shards shivered slightly, and that was when he knew. And that was when he decided. He was going to put Iris back together. Its shards alone looked beautiful, he was certain the whole being would be stunning.

Slowly, patiently, the man began to look at all the pieces and try to place them together, and was overjoyed when he found out that they stuck together on their own. He could do it. He was going to put Iris back together. 

And heavens, how Iris hoped. It hoped so desperately to be put back together and be able to shine in the sun again…

Piece by piece, it finally seemed like everything was going to be alright. 

Until one of its pieces cut the man. 

He had always been extremely careful with every piece he'd picked up, but somehow this time something had gone wrong, and he had cut himself. The shot of pain sent through his body was enough to make him loosen his grip, and in a matter of seconds, all his efforts were destroyed. 

Iris lay on the ground once again. In pieces, once again. 

This time, however, it wasn't put back in the box. The man simply ran out of the room, leaving it on the floor. 

But this time Iris knew something it hadn't known before: it could be put back together. 

It began to try and put itself together, piece by piece, shard by shard…but it didn't remember how it was supposed to look like. It had been shattered for so long, it had no clue which piece had to be where. It didn't even remember what it used to look like. 

Iris tried its best, every part moving to the other in the hopes of finding their match, but what came out was just a messy, mismatched bunch of shards sticking together. 

A bunch of shards that could move, though, which meant Iris could still try and reach the window and see the sun it loved so much. Maybe even find a human who could help it get back together, and maybe, just maybe, love its light. Just like its creators had.

It tried to climb back up to the window, but slipped along the way and fell, crashing once more to pieces. 

And once more it tried to put itself together. 

And once more what came out was nothing but a bunch of broken crystals moving in unison.

Several attempts later, Iris was still shattered on the floor, its pieces now reaching the hundreds. Every time it broke, its pieces shattered into more, smaller pieces, making every reassembling attempt harder and harder each time. 

The studio had now been in disuse for so long that young humans had begun coming by in secrecy, enticed by the mysterious place. 

It had been a long while since Iris had seen any humans, and to its eyes, they were all so beautiful. The thing it loved most was hearing their laughter. Iris was convinced that laughter was the most gorgeous sound in the world. 

All these young humans…it couldn't help but hope that maybe…maybe that one? The one with crystals on their ears? Or, or that one! With a rainbow on their shirt! Maybe that one with crystals on their face, like that pretty lady from years ago…

Yet none, not a single one of them stopped by to look at Iris. Some stopped and looked down when they stepped on it, looking at what had just caused the cracking noise under their shoes. Most of them just went on without care, some looked for a moment before walking away. 

All of them broke it. 

Until one day, a young boy came wandering on his own. He was holding something in his hands, a book about myths and legends of the Country, and he was looking for that crystal being stories had been told about for decades. 

Iris had been trying to put itself together as always, failing miserably as always, but as soon as it heard steps it stopped. It had managed to move to a sheltered area where nobody would step on it, so maybe if it just stayed still and in the shadow, he wouldn't have noticed. 

But the young boy did. His torch had hit one of Iris's shards, making it glimmer in its hiding spot, and the biggest smile had appeared on his face. 

"I can't believe I found you!" 

He knelt down and tried to reach out to it, but as soon as his hand got close, he had to retract it in pain. 

All that time, Iris had been piecing itself together so that the shards would shoot towards the outer world. 

Humans might have been beautiful, but they had done nothing but shatter it into more and more pieces before leaving it on the ground. If there was one lesson it had learnt, was to protect itself. 

What Iris didn't expect, however, was seeing the young man…stay?

"Oh, you poor thing. What have they done to you?"

And then he pulled out a pair of thick rubber gloves, put them on and…picked Iris up. And he didn't cut himself. He picked Iris up and placed it on a table and slowly began to pull Iris apart and reassemble it. 

Iris, for its own part, was extremely confused. What was this human doing? Why was it staying? Why didn't he hurt himself? He was surely going to hurt himself. Every time someone had reached out, they had gotten hurt. Iris was going to hurt him. And he was going to break it. Because that's how it always went. That's how it was supposed to go. 

Maybe that was why Iris tried to grasp any chance of cutting him. Or blinding him, or burning, or hurting in any wait it could. 

It didn't want to stay shattered forever, heavens, it didn't. But shards were all it had known for almost all its life, the days of hope and sunlight and beautiful humans were long gone. Now the light was just a far away dream, and humans were danger. 

But if they were, why was this human staying? Why was this human putting plasters on his cuts and burns and just moving on? 

Why was he so determined?

Couldn't he just go, before either of them got hurt? 

Why couldn't he go?! 

Iris was so confused and scared, it didn't know what to do. That human was nice. The nicest it had ever seen. Yet that couldn't be, it was wrong. He was going to get hurt and Iris was going to shatter again and even if he could put it back together, it was hideous, wasn't it? Its creators had broken it. People had run away at its sight. Why was this human- why couldn't he just-

Go, just go! Go! Why can't you go!!

The young boy was halfway through his mission, and he could already see how amazing Iris was going to be once fully assembled. Being broken into more and more pieces had only made it more beautiful: every single piece meant more light being reflected, more colours shining from it, more beauty. 

Oh, it was going to be breathtaking.

He smiled in excitement as he placed every piece back to its place, already dreaming of the moment he would see Iris as a whole, but he never did. 

Terrified, lost and confused, half-assembled Iris pushed itself out of his hands and ran, ran, ran…until it fell and crashed to the ground.

One of its shards shot right to the young man, hurting him badly. He pulled it out and ran back to Iris, tried his best to scramble all the shards back together, but they were so fragmented it was impossible to get a hold of them all, and he did nothing but cut his hands. 

He sat next to the pile of shards for a long time. He just sat there, heartbroken, looking at that beautiful, fragmented being. 

He sat and sat, hoping to at least be of some kind of comfort. He wasn't precisely sure what he hoped for. For Iris to give him another chance? For it to get back together on its own? For the world to end? 

Whatever he hoped for, nothing happened. 

Iris just stayed there, motionless. Shattered. This time, truly, irredeemably broken. 

It didn't want to be pieced back together. It didn't want to shine. It didn't want humans or the sun. It just…lay there. 

After a while, the young man just left. 

Time went by, the building slowly fell apart. Vegetation grew, animals came by, rain, wind, sunlight and all kinds of weather passed. Humans passed by, too. 

And Iris stayed there. 

With time, its crystals grew smaller and smaller, dissolving into dust, until one day nothing was left. 

Parts of Iris dispersed into the air, up to the skies, floating.

Some of them took part in rainbows whenever it rained. Some flew into sands and were turned into glass. Others, the luckiest, flew into space and joined other particles to create stars, finally shining up there just like the sun.

Not a single part of it ever lost the love for that planet that had hurt so much but was, to Iris's eyes, immensely beautiful.

-C