The stale air assaulted my senses, made even more noticeable by the fresh sll of rain I’d been running through for the past half hour. The storm raged outside, filling the cavern with its roar.
I’d accidentally obliterated a stack of boulders in my misadventures, and I reached a hand out, running a finger along the vein of tal sitting inside one of them. The tal was smooth and cold to the touch. Maria knelt down beside , also running a hand down it.
“Silver...?” she asked, her voice filled with awe.
“I’d bet my good na on it.”
She quirked an eyebrow.
“You have a good na?”
As I scowled at her jest, Borks ca between us. He was a golden retriever once more, his immaculate fur dry after transforming. He sniffed the vein of silver, his nose inhaling and exhaling rapidly. With a nod of his head, and let out a quiet, affirmative ruff.
“That’s...” Maria swept her wet hair back, squeezing it absentmindedly. “That’s a lot of silver.”
“No kidding...”
I looked at the stones littering the floor, spying a few more flecks of it. I stood up, braced the boulder, then hamred down on it with the bottom of my fist. It shattered beneath my strike, and I grabbed the vein of silver before it could hit the floor. It was as long as my forearm, as wide as my finger, and a hand-span deep. Chunks of dark rock clung to it, making it appear like a regular stone if viewed from certain angles.
For the first ti, I gazed at the surrounding cave. The ceiling was half again as tall as I was, and twice as wide. Marks marred every surface, cutting lines through the hardened rock.
“What made this...?” Maria asked, craning her neck to follow my gaze.
“Humans, most likely. Or an awakened creature with sharp claws, but my money’s on humans. What good would a spirit beast have for ore?” I squinted down the tunnel, its sides fading from view the further it got from the faint light of day. “It’s a sha we can’t see—we’ll have to go get so torches before we...” I trailed off as I felt a pulse of energy from Borks.
He reverted to his base form, his snake-tail twitching in concentration. The shadows crawled toward us, oozing across the ground and toward his feet. The darkness shrouding the tunnel slowly bled into him, his body going the color of night. I blinked and rubbed my eyes, but I definitely wasn’t imagining it.
“Damn, Borks,” I said, peering down the now-visible tunnel. My canine friend was like a puddle of void and I reached a hand out, half expecting my hand to go through him, but it ca to rest on his head. “You are such a good boy, you know that?”
His inky, snake-shaped tail wagged beneath my praise.
“Shall we?” I asked, holding a hand out to Maria.
Her wide-eyed gaze drifted up to . She slapped her cheeks, her shock diminishing with each strike. She reached a hand out and laced her fingers in mine. “After you.”
We set off down the tunnel, Borks lighting the way by absorbing the very shadows into his body. The deeper we got, the staler the air grew, and I couldn’t help but scrunch my nose as the sickly sll that seed to engulf us.
“You know,” Maria said, holding her nose, “I’m grateful for all the changes becoming a cultivator did to my body, but the enhanced sense of sll can be a real curse sotis.”
“Uh-huh,” I answered, holding my nose and grinning.
Ahead, just outside of the circle of light created by Borks, the tunnel split. As we got to the crossroads, I paused for only a mont before continuing straight.
“We should just follow the main path for now,” I said to Maria, giving her hand a light squeeze. “I don’t want to get us lost in a mine—that would make for a terrible date.”
“Oh, it’s a date, is it?” she asked, arching a brow above a smirk.
“We’re holding hands, aren’t we?”
“I thought you wanted to hold my hand because you were scared.”
“Well, that too.” I shrugged. “But why can’t it also be because I’m interested in you? It’s a win-win.”
“You’re interested in , are you?” She turned forward, gazing into the darkness.
While her question matched the joking tone we so-often communicated with, there was a hint of... what was that on her face? Concern? Sadness?
“Oh course I am.” My mouth ford a line. “Is sothing wrong?”
She bit her lower lip and turned away for a second, inspecting the wall. When her head spun back toward , her always-bright smile was back, and she grinned at .
“It’s nothing—I was just kidding.”
I was just considering pushing further when she let go of my hand and dashed forward. She bent down to pick sothing up, and my eyes focused just in ti to see the handle of a pickaxe disintegrate in her hand.
“Gross...” she said, rubbing the fibers on her swimrs.
I reached down, picking up the head of the pickaxe. It was heavily rusted, and what remained of the handle fell away, the force of gravity enough for it to fall free.
“Well, I guess that confirms it was humans that made this.”
Maria reached out and brushed a finger along the pitted tal.
“How long has this been here?”
I hefted it—it was still extrely heavy, the bulk of its structure remaining.
“I have no idea. I’d assud the tunnel had been here for centuries, at least. The wood has rotted to nothing, but then shouldn’t this pickaxe have rusted away, too? It’s super humid in here.”
“Maybe we need to ask the blacksmiths?”
“Or Ellis,” I replied with a smile. “I’d be shocked if he hasn’t read at least twenty books on smithing, tals, and corrosion in general.”
“Good point,” she agreed, giving a brilliant smile.
As we continued, I dared to hope that we’d find what I was looking for. As we ca across another pile of pickaxes, the chances increased. The tools were strewn across the floor in a chaotic jumble. Maria rubbed her chin, eyes drifting from each of the tools.
“What are you thinking?” I asked, recognising that she saw sothing I didn’t.
“They’re just... discarded.”
“Yeah, but they’re just pickaxes, aren’t they? What’s so surprising about them being dropped on the ground? It’s not like they’ll break.”
Maria shook her head.
“They’re tools, Fischer. Can you imagine my dad or Barry leaving their prized hoes in the field? Can you picture Fergus just dropping one of his hamrs on the ground? Or Brad leaving his shop without putting each chisel where they belonged?”
“Huh. I hadn’t thought of it like that…”
“Even if they were just regular people forced to do the work by their lord, they’d have an overseer that ensured the tools were cared for. I can’t imagine why they’d just abandon them.”
A possibility crossed my mind, and I beca acutely aware that we were far beneath the earth in a confined tunnel. The mine—that a. The tools used to harvest materials had been discarded as if the occupants left in a rush.
“Maybe we should turn back...”
As we’d been speaking, Borks wandered down the tunnel, his nose held high and twitching as he sniffed the air. His body went rigid, his midnight hackles rising. A low growl ca from his throat, and I was at his side in a mont.
“What is it, Borks?”
I stared down the tunnel where he was looking, but couldn’t make out a thing in the murky shadows beyond his range. Maria joined us, and I ushered her behind with one hand. Borks strode forward slowly, his head held low and the sa deep growl coming from him. We followed, both of us poised for violence.
Sothing ca into range of Borks’s light. The mont it did, he went absolutely ntal. He barked and snarled, his teeth bared and shoulders flared. I squinted at the gigantic scaled head, waiting for it to lunge, prepared for its attack, but then I noticed the sunken cheeks and hollow eyes. Breathing a sigh of relief as the adrenaline still coursed through , I lowered a reassuring hand to Borks’s back.
“It’s alright, mate. The thing is dead.”
He was still on edge as we strode toward the body. It was a lizard, and it was gigantic. It reminded of the videos I’d seen of komodo dragons back on earth—if a komodo dragon was the size of a fully grown saltwater crocodile.
“Well, I guess that explains why they ran,” Maria said, letting out a relieved laugh.
“No kidding...”
Borks’s hackles were still raised as he bent to sniff it, his loud huffing the only sound bouncing off the mine’s walls. The lizard’s skin was almost completely intact, only marred by what had likely been a vicious wound to the top of its head. I poked at the skull beneath, finding a deep cut in the bone.
“So, they wounded it and sealed off the mine,” I deduced, standing back up and stretching.
“It has to have been an awakened creature, right?” Maria asked.
“I’m guessing so... what do you reckon, Borks?”
He let out an affirmative ruff, still sniffing at the reptile’s bones.
“You’re a good guardian, and an even better boy, Borks.” I rubbed his back in an attempt at reassurance, but he remained alert, his eyes pinned to the lizard.
Maria let out a sharp sniff.
“That also explains the sll.”
I barely heard her; there was sothing on the wall behind the lizard. I stepped over one of its forelegs, taking care not to touch it. Borks and Maria ca with , the forr lighting the way by absorbing the shadows. Ochre-colored rust covered a patch of wall, the face seeming to have wasted away with the passage of ti. Drawing back the pickaxe I held, I drove it into the stone, careful not to strike too hard and cause a collapse. A chunk of rock as big as my torso fell away, and when the dust settled, a broad grin spread over my face.
“It looks like silver isn’t the only thing this mine produced.”
The deeper we had traversed into the earth, the more the surrounding rock took on a reddish hue. Thanks to the stones I’d used to construct the rock wall from my shores, I now knew that a red tint ant it was high in iron. Beneath the chunk I’d carved away, the rock was a dull gray, flecked with small spots of... what had Ellis called it? Hematite?
I turned to Maria just as she recognized why I was so excited.
“Is that what I think it is?” she asked.
“We’ll have to check with Ellis and the smiths, but yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s iron ore.” I ran a hand over its cool surface. “If so, we might not need to rely on tal from the capital.”
***
Maria and I had a quick shower and changed as Borks ran off to fetch everyone.
I exited my bedroom just as she stepped from the spare bathroom, her damp hair the only remaining evidence of our torrential adventure. She smiled at when our gazes t, and I took a deep breath, not averting my eyes.
“What are you thinking?” she asked, echoing my words back at .
“That I’m not sure you’re allowed to look so cute after getting caught in a storm.”
She rolled her eyes, but the smile remained.
“Is that what you say to all the girls?”
“If by all the girls you an Sergeant Snips and Corporal Claws, I absolutely do—with completely different intent, though.”
She laughed despite herself, covering her mouth with the back of one hand.
“Oh? And what are your intentions?”
Sothing flashed in her eyes, but before I could answer, a two-ter long dog right out of a nightmare ca bursting through the door. Borks shook, his snake tail whipping the doorfra and making the whole house vibrate.
“Careful there, big fella,” I said, laughing. “Don’t want you tearing down the building by accident.”
His tail wagged and tongue lolled as he changed back into a golden retriever. Another figure burst through the door, heaving with breath and eyes manic.
“Whoa, Ellis—you right, mate?”
“Where is it?” he demanded, his jaw swinging and hands twitching.
“The mine? Not far to the sou—”
“The body,” he interrupted, taking a step forward, his finger curling at his side. “The lizard. Take to it.”
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