There is no direct translation for the Pandoran words which left Ark's mouth, but the closest is, "Ow…my head…my fricking head."
The magenta Yoshi heaved some rubble off his torso, stood to his feet woozily, and looked around.
"Home, sweet home," he sighed.
He kicked the white and grey sand at his feet into a pile of blue crystalline shapes near him. Then he looked up.
"Maybe not," he mused as he gazed enraptured at the sky.
It wasn't the still blue sheet that made up the surface's sky. This sky moved; it flowed; it pulsated; it lived. Its lines seemed to burn themselves on the retina as the eye tried to catch the complicated lines before they re-shaped themselves again.
"Hey, don't do that, you'll go blind!" his brother called as he walked over towards him. "Apparently, its called crystal blue, and with the Gaia Stone, it makes up the sky down here. Learnt that in high school, while you…"
Lich's hand rested on his shoulder as his eyes looked into his with a mixture of pity and concern.
"Hey, remember I was at high school when it happened?" Ark smirked. "Besides, you get bored in an underground cave, so when assistance came, I took it."
"Assistance?"
Ark nodded.
"Where do you think I got this from?" he said, waving his spear to one side. "And my robots? And my…"
"I know where you got it from. You got it from them."
"Them? Ohhh…them."
Ark's smile was met by Lich's face, flushed with anger.
"You have been given an education, you have been given what you wanted…by the Dark Lich and Havering?!"
"So what?" Ark shrugged.
"So what?!" Lich screamed.
Their fighting had brought the attention of the others, and soon a little crowd gathered around them.
"Dark Lich and Havering teach you, they give you a spear and improved Mana Powers, a robotics laboratory, and they tell you to come after me and kill me, your own brother…and all you can say to that is 'So what?'! You make me sick, Ark, you really do."
Lich pushed Tob aside as he stormed away from everyone, and kept walking past rocks and crystal formations into the distance.
"Should we do something?" the Koopa asked.
"No," Ark smiled, though a little shaken. "If I know my brother, he'll come around. I'll take care of it."

Lich kept walking, his footprints leaving a trail in the sand.
"They'll find me," he muttered, looking behind him. "Too bad."
He looked ahead of him at the repetitive landscape of rocks, sand, and blue crystals, until a red glow lined the horizon. As he approached it, it expanded until he realised what it was - a bay of a lava sea.
"Well, volcanoes have to get their lava from somewhere," he muttered, and sat down behind an outcrop of copper sulphate.
The sea was still some distance away from him - he did not want to get too close to it for obvious reasons. He sat on top of a hill, the crystals blocking the light of the Gaia Stone. He closed his eyes for a moment, and took a few deep breaths before he retrieved his potosa from his Mana Storage, and blew.

"There he is," Ark smirked. "What did I tell you?"
"Should we all go?" Dragon asked.
"No, just me. I'll be back soon…" he thought about the distance and the persuasion he'd have to do, " …ish."
He got up and started walking towards the sound, using his spear like a hiker uses a stick. It made little furrows beside his brother's footsteps. It was easy with them, compared to these times in their childhood where he'd walk up a stream.
He was soon upon him, and he recognised the tune he was playing: Phantom and a Rose, one of his brother's favourites due to its sad edge. Perhaps now it had more significance with the years without him, and the time away from home…both of his homes.
"Ah well, let's see if I can still remember."

A tear welled in Lich's eye, and was ready to start its slow, trickling journey down his cheek. His fingers moved freely off and on those holes he could reach, with his thumb operating the bottom one by means of a key - the instrument was designed for those with four fingers. He stopped playing for half a second, as was now customary, half-expecting the entry of his brother's wagalbo.
And there was the entry of a wagalbo, its tinny violin-like sound sweeping across the landscape, rapidly approaching him. His next note died before it even left his lips as the music stirred memories of a childhood filled with happy company. He was already a bar into the music before he realised he had started playing again, the harmony of brotherhood seeming to give colour to the barren, blue, grey and vermillion landscape.
The final chord played, and Ark was beside him, looking down at him with a smile on his face.
"How long has it been since we did that?" he said.
"The last time we played together was," Lich shut his eyes and thought for a moment, "…the night it snowed."
Ark sat down beside him and stared out at the saffron sea.
"You still haven't lost it, Ark," Lich said.
"I had plenty of time for practise."
"Same. After you disappeared, I spent day after day up at the waterfall, just playing. Thank Undine for Syoro Toripe, else I might have killed myself. The thought crossed my mind many times, and I nearly did it a few times, I think it was."
A pink arm crossed his shoulders.
"As did I, Dyluck, as did I."
An orange responded likewise.
"We were never meant to be apart."
"No."
"If I have to fight Havering, will you be with me?"
"Absolutely."
"Promise?"
"As long as the Mana Tree stands."
"As long as the Elementals live," Lich finished off the promise.
There was a moment of silent contemplation before Ark said, "Let's go, the others are waiting for us. Fancy a play?"
"As always."
The two of them trotted back playing another Pandoran folksong, The Colour of the Summer Sky, as the crystal blue above swirled and writhed, innocent of season.