I sighed, cracking open another small boulder, and finding no trace of the stone I wanted. I had asked Chelsea, who gladly accepted, to watch over the ranch for the day so I could go mining. I had left around 6 in the morning, knowing that it would take a while to find the elusive pink diamond, yet it had to be nearing dinner time, and there was not even a sign of one being near by. I had hoped to suprise Sabrina with the rare stone, knowing that she wanted one because all the times she told me how wonderful it would be to get just a fragment of the gem. I smiled, thinking about the beautiful smile that would no doubt cross Sabrina's face when she saw the present.
Scanning the floor of the mine, I sighed again, seeing no rocks. Swapping my hammer for the hoe, I began digging. Luckily, I didn't have to dig long before I found the staircase to the next floor. On my first mining trip, I had wondered how stairs wereplaced just under the surface, but I now took them in as a common occurance. Walking down them, I swapped tools back. Pulling my cap off to wipe sweat off my forhead, I walked over to the closest boulder I saw. Slipping it back on, I lifted the hammer above my head, bringing it down with full force. The rock shattered, leaving a pile of rubble and a junk ore. I picked it up, but promptly threw it over my shoulder as I saw it was nothing I wanted. This process repeaded for the other 25 boulders in the area, all yielding nothing unusual. Again, I began digging until I found the staircase. I went down to the next floor, the 150th by my count. Again lifting the hammer, I was about to bring it down, when something glittered in the corner of my eye. Lowering the tool, I looked over and saw what I had been looking for all day. There, just past another boulder, was a pink diamond, barely peeking out of the black rock!
Pushing past the oncoming fatigue, I ran for the stone, jumping over the rock in the way. 'Finally! After being here all day, I find what I want! I can't wait to see the look on Sabrina's face when I-' My thought was cut off as I landed, but kept falling past the rock. The ground had crumbled out from underneath me, dropping me down a floor. At the last second, I threw my arm up to catch myself, but I grabbed loose dirt, so the fall continued. I screamed, not knowing what else to do in the situation. Suddenly, my chest made impact with the ground, knocking the breath out of me. I shouted again as a sharp, searing pain ran through my leg, then everything went black.
I woke up Goddess knows how long later, covered in rubble. I rubbed the dirt out of my eyes, attempting to see where I was. My memories came flooding back to me, and I remembered everything. I attempted to brush the dust off of my hat, but lifting my arm caused an intense pain to shoot through my side, 'I must have broken a rib' I thought to myself. Knowing that I should go have Doctor Trent examine it, I attempted to push myself off the ground. this caused an even worse pain to rack my left leg. Twisting to examine it, I saw a boulder from the above floor laying on my calf, blood seeping through my overalls and puddling on the ground. I layed back down, my chin resting on the ground.
There was no way I could get the boulder off from this position, not with my injuries. Worse yet, my leg must be fractured, if not completely broken, so even if I did manage to get it off, there was no way I could make it back to the surface. 'Now there's no way I can get that diamond for Sabrina...' I thought. 'Sabrina...what will she think if I don't come back? And its not just her. There is no way Chelsea can run the farm by herself...if I dont farm, the island has no food. The villagers would be forced to buy overpriced food from the city...and no one has that kind of money...except for Regis and Sabrina.' Again, my thoughts returned to the young woman. She may have been picked on in her childhood because of her glasses, but to me they just complimented her beauty. The way her black hair fell across her perfectly round face, her shyness and quiet voice just adding to her cute charm. 'I never even got a chance to tell her I love her...'
Ignoring the pain it caused to do it, I turned to look back at the boulder again. Renewed hope came to me as I saw a faint pink glittering in it. Using what little strength I had left, I set the bottom of my right foot against it and pushed. Hissing in pain as the large rock rolled across the rest of my leg, I heard the thud as the boulder rolled off my leg and onto the ground. I crawled over to the spot a few feet away to where my hammer had landed. I Picked the tool up and crawled back to the rock, my left leg trailing behind uselessly, causing pain with every pebble that rubbed up against it. I used the arm that was still useable to hammer away at the stone. Rising to my knees, and struck one final blow, both the boulder and my hammer shattering. I fell back onto my hands, sifting through the rubble untill I saw the gem I was looking for. Sticking the gem into my rucksack, I pushed myself onto my feet, but promptly fell back down as the pain shot through my leg again. I looked around, and saw the staircase leading back to the surface. I crawled towards it, and when I looked up it, all I saw was an infinite amount of stairs looking back at me. I was almost dicouraged, but I remembered the diamond in my sack. Remembering my reason for surviving, I shook off the fatigue and began to crawl up.
After crawling up more stairs than I could count, I finally made it to the surface. Sticking my head up above the final layer of rock, I saw none of the miners that usually loitered around the cave. I felt the hope draining away for the upteenth time that day, when I heard a voice muttering in the darkness from outside. I immediately recognized the deep voice, plus there is only one person that would hang around the mine this late.
"Regis!" I shouted with all my strength. "Help!"
I heard the voice stop, and then heard loud steps echoing around me. Suddenly, I was blinded by a light coming from the entrance.
"Mark! Is that you, m'boy?" The light swung around, and I saw that he was holding a flashlight. The beam landed on me blinding me again. "My Goddess, what happened to you? Forget that, I have to go get Dr. Trent!" The man started to head back to the opening of the cave.
"Regis, wait." I groaned.
"What is it lad?"
"When I get to the hotel...bring Sabrina." Confusion crossed his face, but he nodded and left. Shortly after, everything went black.