"Why are we doing this again?" I hear my little sister, Lisa, ask for the seventeenth time.

"Cause it's fun!" I reply as I pick up another cool looking rock to throw into my canvas bag. "Besides, you were the one who wanted to go rock hunting with me," I reply back.

Lisa frowns, "well… Yeah, but that's because I thought we'd actually be hunting rocks," she replied.

I cock my head to the side, "aren't we doing that right now?" I ask back.

"No, like hunt rocks that… are alive?" Lisa explains.

I laugh, "rocks aren't alive, Lisa. They're rocks; nothing but a dense mineral consisting of various things of the Earth," I explain.

Lisa looks annoyed, "so why do you call it rock hunting?" she asks.

I pick up a deep red rock and walk over to Lisa, "because, I'm hunting for the most… Interesting looking rocks," I say as I plop the rock into her hands. "Therefore, it's a hunt," I conclude.

Lisa examines the rock and then looks at me, "you have way too much fun with this stuff, Jack," she replies with a smirk.

I smile, "yeah, I do," I admit. "You could too if you just give it a chance," I insist.

Lisa sighs and then looks to the nearby river that's a couple of yards away, "well, can we look for rocks by the river, then?" She asks.

I hesitate, and then look at the fairly wide river; the water flowing and flowing at a brisk pace. It's embarrassing to say, but even at age 14, I still haven't quite figured out how to swim. "Lisa… Let's just stay away from the river for now. There are plenty of rocks over here," I reply motioning away from the river.

"Oh c'mon, I'll be fine," Lisa whines back.

"Lisa, no." I firmly reply.

Lisa crosses her arms. "Just because you can't swim, doesn't mean I can't be allowed by water!" she shouts.

I silently grind my teeth, "Lisa, I'm in charge of you. That means you have to listen to me," I firmly say.

Lisa then gets off the tree stump she was perched on, "what if I don't want to listen to you?" she squeals, and just like that, she starts to run toward the river.

My brotherly instincts kick into high gear and I start to chase after my 9-year old sister. "Lisa!" I shout. She just turns her head and blows raspberries at me, which just motivates me to run faster and catch her before she goes into the river. Then, right when I think I'm too late, Lisa stops at the edge of the river and freezes. Seconds later, I finally catch up to her, only for me to see why she froze. It was at that point we both see the most obscure thing we've ever seen.

Slightly submerged on the shallows of the river, Lisa and I gawk at this surreal looking rain-drop shaped rock that appears to be contained inside what the two of us can only guess is a yellowish, semi-clear, round rock. For a while we just stare at it, it's quite literally like something we've never seen before.

"Jack, what kind of rock is that?" Lisa finally speaks.

"I-I'm not sure, sis," I admit. "I'm not even sure if it is a rock…" I continue.

Lisa kneels down to observe this strange… artifact more clearly, I immediately do the same, "well, can we take it with us?" Lisa asks.

"Yeah," I almost immediately say, trying my hardest to curb my interest. "Do you need help with it? The thing's almost the size of a kick ball!" I say.

Lisa places both hands on the yellow artifact and almost like there was no effort done lifts up the artifact right over her head. "Whoa, this is one light rock," Lisa says quietly.

"Really?" I ask in disbelief as I place both my hands on the artifact and prepare for the weight of it. Then, once I have it in my hands, it became apparent: this rock, or whatever it is, is really, really light. "Incredible," I whisper under my breath as I hand it back to Lisa.

"I wonder," she says as she brings the artifact to her waist and then suddenly let's goes of it with both of her hands. I wince at the anticipated thud of the artifact but the thing, it never dropped. It levitated, right where my sister let go off it.

My eyes widen, "what is this thing?" I ask extremely slowly and in complete awe.

Lisa quickly backs away from the artifact and scurries behind me, "I don't think this is a rock, Jack," Lisa comments now being visibly spooked.

"No way," I agree as I handle the artifact with one hand and hold Lisa's hand with my other. "Let's go home, Lisa. It's getting late," I declare.

Lisa nods, "but don't take that thing with you. It's scaring me," she admits.

I empty out my canvas bag and gently place the massive artifact in it, barely allowing my bag to close up, "what if I make sure it doesn't go near you. Sounds fair?" I ask.

"Alright, alright, fine. We have a deal," Lisa agrees. "Now can we go home?" She asks as she starts tugging at my sleeve.

"Sure. Just don't tell any of this to dad," I say.

Once we get home, we're immediately greeted by our dad. "Hey kiddos, did you have fun rock finding?" He asks us with a big smile.

I lightly chuckle, "it's called rock hunting, dad," I correct.

He taps himself on the forehead, "oh, of course, how could I be so wrong. How was rock hunting, then?" He asks once again.

"Well-" Lisa starts as she looks at me. I slowly nod. "It was so much fun!" she continues.

Our dad laughs, "That's good to hear! You guys scoot upstairs and change, I'll be serving dinner in a few, alright?" he says.

"Alright sounds good, see you in a few dad!" I say as I swiftly run upstairs gripping my canvas bag super tightly.

Once I make it to my room, I close the door behind me and plop on my bed and carefully take out the thankfully still intact yellow object. I place the artifact on my bed and just stare at it, with my curiosity and genuine interest of the object now really showing.

I bring my head close to the object, "what on Earth are you?" I ask.

I begin to tap on the artifact, but as I do so I begin to notice yellow ripples forming with every time I tap the object. I stop tapping and the ripples stop forming. I then just let the object sit there, and as I do so I notice the rain drop shaped rock within the yellow of the artifact, sort off, floating up and down. Like that the inside of this rock is filled with some sort of liquid. I lift a finger and start to press on the artifact. As I put more pressure toward it, I notice the yellow substance of the artifact starts to slightly warp.

I raise an eyebrow and remove my finger, "it's like lemon Jell-O!" I exclaim to myself. I go to my study table and grab a sharpened pencil. I go back to my bed and start to slowly bring the tip of the pencil closer and closer to the artifact, until…

"Jack! Time for dinner!" I hear my dad call.

"Fungus." I curse quietly. I put down the pencil, cover up the artifact with my canvas bag, and then start to make my way down the stairs. Once I make it to the dining room table my dad eyes me up and raises an eyebrow.

"Didn't I tell you to change, Jack?" he asks me. "Even Lisa changed into her pajamas," he says motioning toward her

I fake sigh, "yeah you did. I forgot. Here, I'll go change now," I reply as I get ready to leave my chair.

My dad places a plate of spaghetti in front of me, "no, it's okay, you can change after you eat," he replies.

"Darn it," I think. "Alright," I comply.

I eat my relatively large plate of spaghetti as quickly as I could, and after a silenced burp from me and dodging a few small talk questions from my dad I excuse myself and proceed to go back upstairs. I for the second time close my door behind me; I uncover the artifact and pick up my pencil once again.

"Here goes nothing," I say to myself.

I bring my pencil tip closer and closer to the artifact and once the tip is an inch or so away from the object. I jerk the pencil forward.

Suddenly, after an audible pop, the yellow substance of the artifact disappears! The rain drop shaped rock stops levitating seconds afterwards and plops onto my red bed sheets. My eyes widen as I drop my pencil and now become apparent to me that the rock that was in what I thought was another rock is actually blue!

I look at the deep blue rock now on my bed sheets, just gawking at it like how Lisa and I first saw it, but this time I'm much more captivated. I've never seen a rock so smooth, shaped so elegantly, with a color that's so… comforting.

I pick up the rock, and begin to the feel it. I notice just how smooth it is, how there's not a single rough edge or fault, every part of it melded together so nicely, like the rock was professionally cut. I examine the rock more in-depth and notice how it refracts the light coming from my bedroom lamp. Whatever it was doing in that yellow… bubble? It really preserved the rock well!

"What an amazing rock," I murmur to myself. "Definitely going in my collection," I say proudly

I gently place the rock on my dresser and finally start to change into my pajamas. I change into my bright yellow t-shirt coupled with my navy pants. Once I'm done changing, I dump my clothes into my laundry bin and start to leave my room to tell Lisa about what I just found out about the rock.

Then, right when I twist my doorknob I notice the rock on my dresser begin to… Glow!? I make my way to the rock slowly, but once I make it to my dresser the rock proceeds to levitate to the height of my room as its glow begins to get more and more intense.

I clench my teeth, "what is happening?" I question now thoroughly freaked out.

Then, the rock stops glowing, right when I begin to feel relieved all of a sudden it flashes an electric blue light that engulfs my entire room. I collapse onto the ground and I try shielding my eyes as I do my best to still focus on the rock. Suddenly, I see a humanoid body begin to form around the rock. As the humanoid figure begins to become more and more defined the electric blue light that the rock initially gave begins to fade out. Within seconds, the light completely subsides and just like that I see a tall, slender, blue-dress wearing lady standing right in the middle of my room.

To Be Continued…