Geology 1 -

Leo stopped fidgeting. "Fire?"

Leo's eyes went wide. "A snail? On a mountain?" geology 1

She looked from the fossil to the distant peak where the granite began. "So you see, Leo, this mountain isn't one thing. It's a library. The bottom floors are fire and strength. The middle floors are mud and time and ghosts of the deep. And the top…" She looked up at the jagged peak. "The top is the latest chapter, still being written." Leo stopped fidgeting

"A planet’s temper tantrum," Elara said. "Then, it cooled. Slowly, secretly, miles beneath the surface. Crystals like these—quartz, feldspar, mica—had time to grow, to hold hands, to become this." She tapped the granite. "Hard. Strong. The basement of the world." On a mountain

She scooped up a handful of the sandy soil. "That's Geology 2. Rock, returned to sand. But we're not there yet."

Leo grinned. For the first time, the mountain didn't look like a place for a picnic. It looked like a story waiting to be read.