Interesting Rocks

Writers: AL, Eimi
Date Posted: 28th July 2008

Characters: Zebrekhan, Lidrin
Description: Lidrin finds a strange rock and Zeb takes an interest in it.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 11, day 1 of Turn 4

His mother wasn't far. In fact, she and his brother were still within
sight, so Lidrin didn't feel guilty about wandering a bit away from
them. He glanced back and saw his mother watching him, but she didn't
say anything. He knew to be careful around the water, and he was a
good swimmer, so if he fell, he would be fine. His mother, of course,
still kept a close eye upon him, but Lidrin, confident that he
wouldn't get yelled at because she could see him, turned his attention
back to the water.

He reached in and began to splash a bit, enjoying the coolness of the
liquid on his skin. He stopped after a moment though when something
caught his eye. Something was shining, dancing with the sunlight that
streamed down from above. Lidring reached in and plucked the object
only to find that it was just a rock. He was about to toss it back
into the water, when he saw it shining again on the edge and he turned
it over. Strange. A shiny gold tendril wound its way across the
surface, spreading like a wave on one end of it.

"What have you found there, little man?" an older gentleman asked as he
waded through the water towards the young boy.

Lidrin tilted his head back and blinked up at the man who towered over
him. He straightened, though kept his gaze upon the fellow. "Just a
rock." He muttered, finally looking back down and turning it over in
his hands.

"Oh no, son, that's not just a rock. Can I see it?" the man asked,
holding his hands out to receive it.

The boy eyed the man with suspicion, but slowly handed over the
rock. "Okay."

Zeb turned it over in his hand. "Oh, now this is a lucky find," he
smiled approvingly as he dipped it once more in the water to rise away
a bit of the sand. "I think this was probably washed down here from
the big river."

"What?" Lidrin stood on his tip toes, attempting to get a better look
at the rock. A lucky find? What was so good about it? "What is it?"

"The Ancients called it 'Tiger Iron'. This stone would be very
beautiful if it were polished up." And would make quite a stone for
setting into a piece of jewelry, no doubt.

"Tiger Iron?" He'd never heard of it, but it sounded intriguing. "Why
was it called that?" Maybe he could get it made into jewelry for his
mom.

"Why?" Zeb asked with a chuckle. "I don't know. Why is a dragon
called a 'dragon'? Or the sun called 'the sun'? It's just a word."

"Oh." Well, he supposed that made sense. Sort of. "Mama would like
it. Do you make jewelry?"

"No, I don't. But I could polish up this rock and make it beautiful
for you, if you like. Then you can see what it really looks like."
Zeb was curious himself. Perhaps there was a source of Tiger Iron
upriver somewhere. It was rare, but the beautiful bands of color made
it valuable for setting into jewelry.

"Okay!" That sounded like a good idea. "Can I get it tomorrow?"

Zeb chuckled, shaking his head. "No, I'm afraid it will take a bit
more time than that. Polishing a stone takes time. Do you want to
see what a polished stone looks like?"

"Yeah." Lidrin lowered himself back down for his toes were getting
sore. "You have one?"

"I do," he said pointing to his belongings left well above the water
line. "I have some in my sack up there. Do you want to come see?"

Lidrin turned back to see his mother watching him. He'd still be in
her sight, but he also knew she was wondering who he was talking to.
"Hold on." The boy raced back to Kitali and bent over, talking to
her. A few glances at Zeb later, Kitali nodded and Lidrin turned and
rushed back to the older man. "Okay!"

The geologist gave a nod and wave of acknowledgement to his mother as
he waded out of the warm waters and walked towards his sack in the
sand. "All right, young man, here we go." He opened a pocket on the
side and dumped its contents out onto his banket. Several shiny,
polished stones fell out. He picked up one with bands of differnet
colors of green. "This is called Malacite, and its where we make the
copper that we use to carry electricity from."

"Wow..." Lidrin crouched down and stared at the stones. "I didn't
know that's how you made that stuff." The boy reached out to
carefully finger the material. Then he pointed to another shiny
stone. "What's that one?"

"This one is called 'Jade'. It's pretty, isn't it." Zeb picked it up
and placed it in the boy's hand.

"Yeah, it is." Green was a nice colour, he guessed. "What about this
one? And that one?" Lidrin hadn't realised how nice stones could
look. "Did you just find these in lakes like the one I found?"

"I traveled to many places looking for rocks. These are some of my
favourites. This one," he said, picking up a deep black stone with
flakes of white on one edge, "is called snowflake obsidion. I found it
on a dead volcano. And that one is petrified wood. It was actually a
tree once."

"Wow. A real volcano? And that was a tree?" How could a rock once be
a tree? That didn't make sense, but the volcano sounded neat.
"Didn't you get burned?"

"No no. A dead volcano hasn't had lava for thousands of turns, and
never will again. It's finished. They are perfectly safe. Though I
have climbed active volcanos too."

"You have?" Lidrin's eyes fairly popped out of their sockets in
shock. "How did you not get burned? Wasn't it hot?"

"No, I didn't get burned. But I also didn't get too close to the hot
part. And not all volcanos look like volcanos. Some look just like a
mountain. Those volcanos are sleeping, we call them 'dormant', but
watch out if they wake up because they can make 'giant' explosions."
Zeb spread his arms wide to emphasise the point.

"Wow!" Lidrin inched closer, as if he feared that he might miss
anything the man had to say. "Did you see one explode?"

"No, I wouldn't want to be there when one exploded." Though Zeb's
curiosity definitely yearned to see such a sight, he also knew just how
unpredictable and deadly one could be. "I have seen the effects of
large erruptions, though. I've seen boulders the size of your whole
weyr thrown miles away. But I've only ever seen a volcano cough out
steam and ash with my own eyes."

"As big as a weyr?" Lidrin turned and tried to imagine a rock that
size that would be as big as the quarters he and his mother and
brother shared. But he couldn't. It was just impossible.
"Wow...really that big?" He turned back to the man, his face eager.
"What else have you seen?"

Zeb smiled at the young boy's eagerness. "Let's see... I've seen
beaches with black sand. I've seen Canyon's deeper than the Weyr's
cliff face. I've gone into caves that are darker and deeper than the
most secret places in the Weyr. I've crawled through abandoned mines,
and I've rolled down sand dunes taller than a queen dragon."

"Can you take me to see them?" Lidrin just couldn't imagine all these
wonders, no matter how hard he tried. They sounded really neat and he
wondered if his mother would let the man take him on a trip to see
them. They could ask a dragonrider and see all of them in one day!

"They're a little far away," the geologist said, not wanting to make
any promises. "Maybe someday, when you're a little older. Your
mother might worry if I took you to a volcano now."

"But we could go by dragon." Lidrin suggested, hoping the man might
change his mind. "We could see all of them in one day and be back by
dinner!"

Zeb smiled patiently, not wanting to curb the boy's enthusiam, but also
knowing it was impossible to show him all he had seen in a lifetime of
travel in a day. "I still think your mother would be worried about you
traveling to a volcano. I bet she'd let you when you're a bit older
though. But perhaps I can show you some more of the rocks I've found
some time. Would you like that?"

"Yeah, I would." Lidrin nodded. What other sorts of rocks were out
there? He glanced down at the rocks the man had scattered. The man
hadn't even explained half of them. It was then that Lidrin realised
they didn't know each other's names. "I'm Lidrin." He turned and
pointed toward his family. "That's my mom and Talvan my brother."

"My name is Zeb. I'm a geologist." He held his hand out to the boy.
"It's nice to meet you, Lidrin."

Lidrin took the hand and shook it. "Nice to meet you Zeb. When can
you do mom's rock?"

"Well," he said, picking up the unpolished stone once more. "I can
polish it. I could also cut it if you want and we can see what's
inside. It might be even more pretty inside."

"Really?" The prettier, the better. "Okay. How long til I can get
it?"

"It will take some time. I have machine that does it. It won't take
as long as if you had found this stone in the dirt, but it will take
some sevendays. You can help me, if you like."

"Really? Where? How?" The idea of helping Zeb with the stone seemed
even more exciting and he could tell his mom that he helped to make it!

"In my work room. I teach geology in the Weyr. We have tumblers
there. Those are machines that slowly turn the rock with sand and
water. It's almost like what the ocean does, but faster."

"Oh." Lidrin had never even heard of a machine doing that sort of
thing before. "Okay. How do I find you? When can I come?"

"Come on. Let's talk to your mother and ask her permission first. We
don't have to tell her about your special stone though," he said with a
wink as he put it in his pocket. "It will be our secret."

"Okay!" Lidrin turned and began to walk to his mother, turning back to
make sure that Zeb was following. Who knew rocks could be so
interesting?

Last updated on the July 28th 2008

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Interesting Rocks