Soft humming could be heard and a warm summer breeze blew loose dirt in lazy tendrils across a wide expanse of flattened land. Stretching for miles in each direction, distant steep green hills outlined an unnatural square shape around this area. The hills towered above the sunken land, their precipitous inclines giving them the likeliness of walls. Flowers of seemingly every variety bloomed along their hillside. Poppies, daisies, roses, dandelions, and much more. The vibrant colors of these flowers created a stark contrast with the material present at the base of the hills.

It was marble. Immaculate, painstakingly polished marble. The bright sun overhead reflected brilliantly off its surface. There were no impurities within the marble. Not a single speck of dirt or a granule of granite was encased in the opaque mineral. It was as if an omnipotent being had taken pure white snow and compressed it until it had hardened into a rigid material.

At the very center of this area stood an object which was an oddity among oddities. It emerged seamlessly from the marble and protruded upwards for hundreds of meters. The hills which surrounded the area looked like mere mole hills in comparison to it. A pulsating pale blue light was emitted by it, causing the marble surrounding it to adopt a faint blue color. It was luke-warm to the touch and the mineral its rugged exterior was composed of was a translucent crystal. A strange type of liquid which was the source of the soft humming could be seen under the thin veneer of this crystal.

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Standing next to this unworldly object were two people whose dull normality seemed out of place. One was an old man, weathered by the elements. His face, wrinkled and pitted, was as rugged with imperfection and his arms and legs were as thin as sticks. He wore simple cloth clothing which was grey and uncolored by dyes. His blue eyes had a startling intensity to them and he was talking intently to a small child.

The child he was talking to was bursting with excitement but otherwise normal. Running here and there with unbridled enthusiasm, the nonstop motion of the child served to emphasize the apparent rift in age between the two. Despite this, there was a certain connection which could be sensed in the pair. This was not merely because they wore similar clothing or because they talked so intently to each other. This connection pervaded their very being. From their eyes to their arms to their legs to their movements, everything one of them did would remind any observer of the other. It was an uncanny resemblance.