Book 2: Chapter 56: Natural Resource

Book 2: Chapter 56: Natural Resource

The stale air assaulted my senses, made even more noticeable by the fresh smell 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 metal sitting inside one of them. The metal was smooth and cold to the touch. Maria knelt down beside me, also running a hand down it.

“Silver...?” she asked, her voice filled with awe.

“I’d bet my good name on it.”

She quirked an eyebrow.

“You have a good name?”

As I scowled at her jest, Borks came 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 hammered 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 time, 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 shame we can’t see—we’ll have to go get some 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 came 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 me. 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 smell that seemed 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 smell can be a real curse sometimes.”

“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 moment 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 me, 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 formed a line. “Is something wrong?”

She bit her lower lip and turned away for a second, inspecting the wall. When her head spun back toward me, her always-bright smile was back, and she grinned at me.

“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 smell.”

I barely heard her; there was something on the wall behind the lizard. I stepped over one of its forelegs, taking care not to touch it. Borks and Maria came with me, the former 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 time. 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 meant 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 metal 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 me when our gazes met, and I took a deep breath, not averting my eyes.

“What are you thinking?” she asked, echoing my words back at me.

“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 mean 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?”

Something flashed in her eyes, but before I could answer, a two-meter long dog right out of a nightmare came bursting through the door. Borks shook, his snake tail whipping the doorframe 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 me to it.”