Gah! I am so sorry it took me so long to update! There aren't many readers, I'm sure, but I hate leaving a story unfinished. This has been sitting in my computer for ages, I just never got around to completing it and putting it in the right order...

So anyway, a little more on the plot! Here we go!

"Ari! Could you grab those blocks of wood back there?"

"Mm! Yeah, give me a moment-"

"Ack- no! We need them now, this is heavy!"

Ari stood from her place by a tree and sprinted to the wood pile, forming a makeshift table under the two boys holding the large glowing stone. Mor stared at it with a furrowed brow and a firm frown, sweat dripping from his brow. Vreagon was too busy glaring at Ari. As soon as she finished (which was rather soon, he had to give her credit for that, at least) the two boys dropped the stone on it, heaving a sigh of relief.

"That was heavier than I thought it would be," Mor started, rubbing his hands with a wince as he eased the pain in the palms, a dark red line formed just across the center. Vreagon mirrored the action and huffed, tilting his hips before he leaned down to it.

Mor and Ari looked at him then at the stone.

"…what do you think it is?" Ari asked, her tone full of curiosity. Vreagon glanced up at her, but Mor responded,

"I don't know. I've never seen it before, and I've been all around. Where'd you find it, Vreagon?"

"In the mine. Way back in the mine, actually. It was guarded by a Creeper, nasty things…"

Ari shuddered and nodded in agreement, but neither man could know just why. Although, it was a commonly known fact that Creepers were nasty little things. With their constant frowns and their piercing red eyes and their hissing and-

"Anyway," Vreagon began again, and Ari snapped her attention back to him. "I found it by diamond and gold, but it's odd…"

"What?"

"When I touched both of them and then touched this one here," he started, frowning, "I thought that this was just regular stone. I don't need it, if you haven't noticed, we have plenty, but when I moved to take the diamond it literally crumbled. Same with gold."

Ari frowned, backing away from the thing quickly. "Don't touch it."

"Wh-"

"don't touch it!"

"…why?"

"If it dissolved diamond, then it isn't good! Throw it in the lake, toss it back in the mine, break it, do something! Just…. Just don't keep it here!"

Mor looked at Ari and back to his brother with a frown, standing slowly. "Maybe she's right. I want to know what it is just as much as you guys, but if it did that, then… maybe it's best if we just throw it away. We only just got settled, we can't afford to get uprooted again."

Vreagon looked at it and looked about to argue, his naturally curious attitude begging to find out just what this thing was, the fear in Ari's eyes and the worry in his brother's made him nervous. They were right – this thing… whatever it was… was bad news. He nodded softly in agreement. "Alright. So where should we tuck it away?"

Ari breathed out in the relief and shrugged, thinking quietly. "Hm… well, we could just… bury it. But then we might find it later and forget we ever found it before."

"I highly doubt we'll forget this thing."

"True…"

"I vote we just bury the damn thing. The sooner we get it out of sight the sooner we can relax."

"Wait!" Mor stopped the two and they looked up, "…should we really bury it in the town? What if it stirs up trouble somehow?"

Ari shrugged, "Well… Okay. I'll take it, then."

"Are you serious? Alone? You can't-"

"I can handle it, Vreagon, don't worry." The girl smiled and pat her friend's shoulder, and as the boy sighed, she wrapped one arm around each of their shoulders. "I'm not as weak and pathetic as you guys think~!"

Mor raised a brow but shrugged, nodding slowly and giving her a hand in lifting it. She grunted and winced, but refused to ask for help. Both boys watched her struggle out of town and crossed their arms, one looking at the other. "…we should keep an eye on her." Vreagon whispered, and Mor nodded, waited until the girl was out of sight, before they ran to the hill, watching her from a distance.

Ari stared at the block as she set it down with a gasp and hiss, her gloved fingers wiping across it. She pulled her hand back and-

Wait a minute.

Dust?

She looked down at her fingers and rubbed them against one another, frowning. Sure enough, dust sprinkled down from the friction onto her knees. Frowning, she reached back to the brown belt around her waist, pulling out a small cut of glowstone. She shined it on the top and, with the added light, could see the color beneath the thick coat of dust that they thought was only the coating of the stone. She knew she should leave it alone, should just bury it and get it over with, but the new development would eat away at her until she investigated it further…

She rubbed at the top vigorously, frowning deeply as she cleared away the dust. She watched the gray fade into black-

Wait. Black!

She reeled away from the stone in shock as the color seemed to move beneath the dust, and she looked away from it in fear, clenching her jaw. She stared for an extra moment before running back to town, grabbing a shovel, and rushing back, digging and digging until she hit more stone. She climbed back up (with only a little bit of trouble) and pushed the stone inside, watching it fall to the bottom. It cracked and the color faded into gray once more, and she pushed dirt over the top, marking it with a piece of glowstone. "There. That should do it." She murmured, holding her arms as a chill ran over her flesh. Sun was beginning to set – she hadn't much time left. She turned away and jogged back to the town, where Mor and Vreagon were coming out from behind one of the houses. She stared at them and frowned.

"I don't appreciate you two spying on me."

"We weren't. We were looking at something; we thought we saw something on the base of the house,"

"And?"

"False alarm," Vreagon kept calm, smiling at the girl. Ari nodded slowly, moving away from them and ignoring them as she stepped into hers and Vreagon's home, lying down in the bed. Vreagon looked at Mor, who frowned and watched the girl's departure with a tightened jaw.

"You think this is over?"

"…not by a long shot," Vreagon whispered, wishing his brother goodnight; and the two slept to the sound of crackling torches and soft whispers that both tried to ignore.