It was crystal clear, and shone in the now diminishing light of the sinking sun with a beautiful pale blue green luminescence. Not really knowing why, Jed picked up a small stone and tapped the crystal on one of its flutes.

The concussion wave nearly knocked him off his feet, and a brilliant flash of light lit the area around far brighter than the sun could have done. The Shard was now a gleaming black, just like all the others which were scattered about the area, and Jed wondered what had hit the others to turn them black, and if it was still around.

He looked around to see if there were any more water clear Shards, but none were visible from where he stood.

With nothing better to do, he carefully picked his way through the rest of the Shard field, and gaining the next series of rolling gravel banks, saw the hills clearly outlined in the light from the setting sun, with the ominous black mountains silhouetted behind them, their peaks aflame from the scattered light.

They did not seem to be any nearer than before, and he felt a wave of despair wash over him as he realized he had misjudged the distance to his goal, or had been unknowingly going around in circles.

But the yellow stones had indicated the direction to follow, had they not? He could not be sure. Just what were they telling him to do? If anything. Perhaps they were just a freak of nature after all.

As he had thought before, given enough space and enough stones, a pattern or series of patterns, must emerge by sheer chance alone. So much for the ‘helping hand’ of the mystery entity who indicated directions with little yellow stones.

Jed walked on until the light became too low to travel safely, and then, as the sun finally sank below the horizon in a splash of brilliant colours, he chose a deep hollow between the gravel mounds for the night, and got his beaker out from the backpack for a long awaited meal, of sorts.