Blackness became color and color became shape, then there was more than one shape, and the shapes had motion, and the motion had patterns, and the patterns made sense to them. They ebbed and flowed, twisted and intermingled, melted only to reveal that one shape melting away became yet another familiar form. Zhao and Aroc clutched each other amidst the whirlwind of confusion around them, their bodies the only tangible things in a sea of blue. "There's… something" Aroc managed to utter and Zhao strained her eyes harder, urging them to help make sense of everything going on around her. They were moving, she decided. Quite quickly, apparently, as her hair was trailing straight out over her face in black cascades. Weightless, floating… falling? Zhao craned her neck around still clutching onto Aroc to see the planet rapidly approaching.
From this high Aroc could see the whole Quartz Kingdom, and even some of the Beryl Kingdom to the south- the only other kingdom connected to his home by land. It was like looking at a map, but it was… getting closer?
Their gazes of wonder were quickly replaced by screams of terror as they realized they were careening toward the ground.
They were close enough now that they were flying through clouds, and as the ground grew closer and closer a giant chasm began to open up below them. Ground cracked and ruptured as they grew ever near the maw beneath them. So close now they could see trees, dirt roads through the forests and mountains of the Quartz Kingdom. The crack was miles wide now, and went as far as the eye could see to the north and south. As they fell into the darkness, Aroc spotted rocks tumbling over the edge of the chasm. "Look out!" he yelled to Zhao who was still holding onto him for dear life, but they were on them in an instant. The smooth mossy stones aligned themselves beneath Aroc and Zhao and began slowing their descent into the darkness. As they fell, they were swept into a gaping cave system full of shining stone. Brilliant firey oranges and golds glistened as the walls continued to crumble and spread apart. They held tight to each other and their mossy magic carpet as it bobbed and weaved through falling stalactites and giant crystal structures that were turning to dust before their eyes. Finally, as the roof of the cave began falling in, they were swept back above ground. In the light they could see now that they were riding no simple stones but a geode dragon! Judging by the look of the thick layer of moss covering each of his segments, Aroc noted this one had to be several hundred years old. Could a dragon have been surviving in hiding all this time? No time to ponder, the dragon was swooping low again. This time over the Rose Quartz Palace which was near falling into the still growing chasm. A deep, bellowing voice cried out above the wreckage "There, beyond the castle." Zhao and Aroc looked ahead to see the steel monolith they were approaching. It was as tall as the palace itself, wide at the base with a towering steel drum that jutted out of the mountains into the sky. "There are three more like this." The voice bellowed again. "Come find me, the Quartz King will show you the way." And then the dragon flew straight into the metal silo, in an explosion of steel and stone the machine began ripping itself apart, throwing metal and flame across the mountain, then nothing.
