THE ARTIFACT

Log 7, Marbled Moles. The quartz piles in the crystal valley are starting to get larger meaning we must be near the center, the larger size and frequency of these crystals means that more animals use them in some way, a notable individual being the marbled moles. The marbled moles are small to medium-sized carnivores that make their homes beneath and atop the quartz deposits. They dig large burrows with multiple rooms that house up to twelve of them and will use the crystal itself as a watch tower. The anatomy of the marbled moles is interesting, the secondary forearm has dissolved into three fingers that aid in both grabbing onto the crystal and digging through the sand, the face is flat and elongated which is used for burrowing and pressing up against crystals, and they possess a sail for communication and heat distribution. The most notable feature however is their skin. The skin of the marbled mole resembles the crystal they lay on with the white parts even sparkling, but not only that, sand and dirt don’t stick to the skin; this is because they possess a special coat of mucus that prevents debris from latching on and ruining their camouflage, an additional aid to their camouflage is the ability to compress their bodies against the crystal making them almost impossible to see when camouflaged. The behavior of marbled moles is quite interesting. They have the most extreme case of sexual dimorphism I've seen on Murkosia with the females being large and having spade-like faces and the males being smaller and having thicker faces. This directly relates to their roles in the group; females dig the tunnels using their strong arms and shovel-like heads, they start with a large room for food and breading and end with making an emergency tunnel deep underground and further away from the crystal in case of an attack. The males stay outside on the crystal and act as lookouts for prey and potential threats; if prey is spotted close by, they will put their sail up and down to signal where it is, once signaled a small hunting party will quickly attack and drag the meal back to the burrow. The females are rare to see as they tend to stay in the burrow, the only times they’ll come out is to select mates or to take down a larger animal. They commonly prey upon gem crackers and cydropeds, however, a large group did take down a Troglodont.

Their skin reminds me of our moon.

Really? The moon here is more of a greenish teal.

Not this moon, our moon. The one Earth has.

Earth has a moon?

Of course it does, it’s big, grey, and has a dark side. Or at least that’s what I've heard.

Huh, I always thought that If Earth had a moon it would be made of things like copper, tungsten, and silver. I wonder if it’s still there.

Dad said it was.

Well, Dad said a lot of stuff to you so you'd go away, so, who knows if it’s true.

I like to think it is.

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