i think the sparkles are the best part, i love how the blue pops out of the image

It sure does! Great improvement

 Thank you :) I tried adding cliffs to the background and I added another shade to the sand as you suggested. I think it looks better now :D

Nice depth. Good job! The piece gets boring after a few seconds though. The background has no other cliffs on the horizon. Seems like we are at the brink of this alien world. The sand should have 1 more shade to it, just like the reddish cavewall. The slime could luminate light, making them have the lightest shade from the bg as outlines? Your dithering actually looks good. Hmh...