Hornfels is a metamorphic rock. He was born nonfoliated but instead of taking the normal jobs for nonfoliated metamorphics, he wanted to be a knight. He went through rigorous tests that evil nobles setup so that he would give up on trying to be a knight. Even though he sometimes thought of giving up he never did and that was when a nice noble decided to make him a page. He is still learning the ways of a knight.
The reason why he wanted to be a Knight of the Metamorphic table was clear, everybody wanted to be like them. Battling the forces of the Scorching Knights as well as the fame and fortune. Being a Knight is not all fun and games though, they have to work hard and study hard in order to maintain their position. Hornfels goes against the tradition of the Metamorphics by trying to be a Knight even though he didn’t have the correct parallel bands on him in order to be a knight.
Hornfels was just walking along the River of Change when it happened, the acid rain came pouring down. He had no protection, he couldn’t do anything about it. It rained on him as he felt the effects. The river flooded and then carried him all the way down. He had no idea what was happening, all he could hear was a loud whooshing sound. That was when it happened, the pressure. He knew he got out of the river when he landed into the soft earth, but that feeling was about to end soon. He started to feel the pressure, other rocks falling on top of him. It was starting. He was being reborn. The cementation had already started and when he was finally able to see he felt many times lighter than usual. Nothing felt the same but somehow he was able to control his body perfectly. That was when he realized, he wasn’t in the riverbed but instead he was in a comfortable bed in a home. The house was not made the same way that houses were built in the Metamorphosis Kingdom. That meant that he was in a different kingdom. If it was the Sedimentary Kingdom he was fine, he wouldn’t be with the barbaric Igneous Kingdom folk.
“Are you finally awake boy?” An old lady said. She had a light exterior.
“Yes but many I kindly ask who you are and what kingdom I am in?” Hornfels asked her.
“I am Dolomite but you can call me Dolo” She said. Even though her small size gave away her age she still acted like a young lady. “You are in the Sedimentary Kingdom. You have come to the right place, this isn’t called the City of the Wanderers for no reason. You can stay here as long as you want.”
“But I am from a different Kingdom and I desperately want to get back.”
“Oh my, you must be a Detrital one. That is not good. Most rocks here are Chemical or Organic so you must say that you are Chemical not Detrital. Nobody will want to associate with you if you say that you are a Detrital rock, after all they are made from other rocks. We consider that cannibalism. If you want to leave then you will have to go to the ‘New Rock, New Life’ office in the east. They have all of the information on how to leave. They are also all Detrital rocks so you won't have to hide it there.”
“Thank you Miss Dolo. I will take my leave here if you will allow it.”Hornfels said.
“Of course…”
“Hornfels”
“So you are from the Metamorphic Kingdom I assume?”
“Yes I am miss”
“Ahh, so good luck Hornfels and have a safe trip.”Dolo said as she waved Hornfels away. The east was directly right of him as he walked by the town he saw many rocks doing as they pleased, dancing, singing, playing with toy swords, lots of things. None of them seemed to have a single care in the world. He continued to walk east until he saw a office building that had a sign that said “New Rock, New Life” in neon red colors.
“Good afternoon. I was wondering if there was a way that I could get back to the Metamorphosis Kingdom.” Hornfels told the rock behind the counter.
“Ahh, well boy you have come to the right place.”The rock replied. “I am Novaculite and I am the owner of this place. We were just about to go on our fourth expedition to the mountains in order to find the legendary ‘Pits of Transformation’”
“The pits of what?”
“Slate explain it to him”Novaculite said
“The ‘Pits of Transformation’ are a group of pits that are fabled to be able to allow someone to go to a different kingdom if they wanted to. We have deduced that there is a chance that we might go to the Igneous Kingdom but we would most likely go to the Metamorphosis Kingdom where all of us are from.” Slate explained
“In addition to that we found that the pits are most likely somewhere near the borderline.” A random rock said.
“That is right Gneiss”Novaculite said.
“I have a question, Slate were you planning to become a Knight?”Hornfels asked
“Of course” Slade answered in a sad tone.
“That is why we will find the Pits of Transformation, so we can all return to our old lives in the Metamorphosis Kingdom.”Novaculite said. The next day they went into the mountain. They thought they found nothing until Hornfels pointed out that one of the parts of the wall was lighter than the rest. That meant that it was not as old as the rest of it. Novaculite called some of the slower members of the expedition team up front with the tools to try to break open that spot. After it was opened a huge room was staring at them.
“Woah, this room is larger than I ever imagined. I knew there were many pits but I didn’t think there were this many” Novaculite said. The pits were huge and spread out very far. I had no idea that the mountain was even this wide. I decided to jump down first. I went into the first one that I saw, or at least I walked to it, but a pit opened up underneath my feet and the last thing that I heard was the scream of the other metamorphic rocks. I felt it, it was very hot. I think it was below 250 kilometers under the earth. That meant that I was no longer a rock. I was magma. I was under the earth when I felt it, the magma started moving quickly and i was forced up into the air. I felt myself cool off as I flew into the water. This time when I woke up I was in a river with lots of rocks staring. They were mumbling about who they should adopt. I felt a lot heavier than I used to. There were lots of other rocks around me. I saw that most were the same color as me. Since I was shot out of a volcano I guess that I was in the Igneous Kingdom. Farewell dreams of becoming a knight. I fell back asleep but this time when I awoke it was to a friendlier face. I guess not all of the Igneous Rocks were bad.
“Feeling better? I guess so since you’re awake. Well my name is Rhyolite. It’s nice to meet you. So are you ready to meet your new family? Oh did I forget to mention that you were adopted by my family. Get ready for some intense training because everyone is a Scorching Knight in our family so you will have to be one as well.” Rhyolite said all in one breath. Hornfels had no idea what to say so all he did was nod. As Rhyolite gave him a tour of “his new house” he saw others there. They all looked like the Sedimentary Rocks but with a little more experience showing on their faces like they had recently seen a relative be weathered completely. He walked to the long dinner table that was in the living room. The living room was connected to the kitchen so that bringing food in and out was easy.
“What time is it?” He asked
“It’s dinner time so sit your but down”An Igneous rock answered for Rhyolite. Lost for words he sat down as the Igneous rock told him to.
“So newcomer, do you have any experience as a Knight when you were a different kind of rock?”The Igneous rock asked him. He wasn’t sure if he should answer that or not. If he answered yes then they would probably throw him into the lake. If he answered no then they would find out that he was lying and throw him into the lake.
“A little bit. I was a page in the Metamorphosis Kingdom.” He hoped that he picked the right decision.
“That makes things easier. Tomorrow Rhyolite will continue your training as a page.” The rock said.
“Okay, of course I will teach you how to be a page. I did teach Gabbro over there. Where are you in your page training? Oh never mind I will just find out myself”Rhyolite said.
“Good luck kid”Gabbro said. Over the next three months Hornfels trained rigorously on how to be a knight. Then after his fourth month he finally became a Scorching Knight. Then the Igneous family started bringing him to the conferences about what to do about the Metamorphosis Kingdom. He felt guilty about joining the Scorching Knights when he was really a Metamorphosis Rock, or at least he used to be. After that the three Kings meeting was up. The three kings of the three kingdoms would meet in order to talk about peace. he would be brought there.
“You Metamorphosis Rocks always invade our territory while calling us the bad rocks!” The Igneous King said.
“We need that land more than you! We have more inhabitants than you so why should we have the same amount of land as you!?” The Metamorphosis King said. The Sedimentary King just stayed quiet because none of this affected him. Hornfels thought about this problem and then he thought of a solution.
“May I speak?”Hornfels said
“Of course”The Sedimentary King said.
“Why should there be a border? I have been to all three Kingdoms and I always think, aren’t those walls unnecessary? For you to have to change your very being in order to enter a different kingdom is just wrong. That is what I think.” After that speech Hornfels stayed an Igneous Rock as well as a Scorching Knight and a treaty negotiator. He helped the three kingdoms combine into one huge one where everyone was happy living together. In the end, he never got to be a Knight of the Metamorphosis table but being a Scorching Knight was just as good in his eyes.