Shimmering Rocks

The sun was high and the air, moist, humid, unbearable to some but to this fluffy little group it was actually quite comfortable. Pebble took charge at the front while Tilly and Latte strayed a bit further behind. The Oviraptor was more curious than the others one could say, her gaze stuck on the rocks of the cave they were entering surrounding them. Her distraction though would cause a small hindrance as Tilly not noticing bumped into her by mistake. 

“Sorry about that!” Latte apologized, Tilly smiling gently reassured her she was okay and helped her regain her balance, laughing at their silliness before they heard a shout from ahead.

“Eureka!” A stunned Pebble shouted, the other two dinosaurs gathered their footing and set out to see what had caused Pebble to react in such a way, stopping to bask in the beauty that was before them.

A small hole in the roof of the cave revealed the moonlight shining just above them. Its beam reflected off a water pool in the center of this cave and all around them? Beautiful sparkling crystals of multicolored rock. Some hanged from the ceiling like chandeliers, it was like looking straight into a geode but this cave was the geode.

“It’s beautiful…” Tilly commented in awestruck. Looking around her she waddled to one side of the cave and ripped a crystal off the wall and placed it in her bag, noticing instantly the hole that she had left was already being regrown and replaced by another crystal. “Whoa that’s freaky.” She commented, backing up to rejoin the group as Latte and Pebble were already gathering crystals of their own.

“Wow, can you believe it? A whole gem hidden from us and it’s not even that far from the rest of the group.” Lette chimed, digging into the wall with her long talons to rip apart some smaller crystals that were just beginning to bud.

“Something about this place is almost magical and yet also enchantingly familiar.” Pebble muttered gently, a little to himself as if he were lost in thought. “Don’t you guys also get that weird familiarity?” He asked, looking back at the other two who shook their heads.

“Well whatever you got going on rock dude-“ The comment from Latte received a snort from Pebble in disapproval, “Let’s start gathering these to bring back to the main group. We could use some of these as decorations, I mean look at me!” Latte jumped up on the edge of the inner pool cave letting the moonlight truly reflect off her crystals. Now adorning her left they shined a beautiful array of pinks, yellows and blues as the others basked in awe.

“Let me try this too!” Tilly said, teasingly shoving Latte aside who huffed to be taken out of the spotlight. Positioning herself in front of the pool now Tilly’s crystals shined a beautiful mix of whites, oranges and red to pinks. Smiling to herself she thought the colors were very fitting, it was almost as if these colors represented a part of them. “Come on Pebble you have to try now too!”

Pebble hesitated for a moment, still lost in thought on earlier's epiphany he shook his head and smiled. He wanted to entertain his friends, after all they did come here to have fun right? Taking his spot there Tilly and Latte once where he propped himself up and watched his colors flash blue, yellow and white. Interesting for such a monochromatic raptor he thought to himself. 

“Whoa. That’s cool. I wonder what these colors mean.” Latte thought to herself, the other dinosaurs pondered for a moment too if this had any significant meaning to them.

“Maybe it’s a reflection of who we are? The colors only activate us, maybe we’re special to them?” Pebble suggested, looking at the other two to see if they would agree. 

Smiling Tilly nodded. “I think that’s a great observation. I mean it would make sense, after all these caves are quite mysterious.” She agreed, her feet digging into the floor as she waddled over to another side of the cave and tore off some more crystals to take. “Well we don’t have all night and by the way that moon is looking to hide behind the rest of the cave roof we should start hurrying it up.”

“Right!” Latte and Pebble both said in unison, running to other ends of the cave they both tried to tear off as many rocks as their bags could hold before the moon had completely disappeared to leave them in the dark. The gentle chime of the crystals hitting each other was relaxing to them and before they knew it their bags were full and they were heading back out to the exit. 

“Well I think that was a wonderful experience!” Latte piped up once more, a wide smile adorned her face as she looked at her two friends.

“I have to agree I feel like I learned a lot more about myself today.” Tilly agreed, smiling at her friend as the two chatted away the rest of the night.

Pebble stared back at the cave they were coming from, that strong sense of familiarity and a sudden fear of the unknown weighed heavy on his mind.