"See? You had your armor ready and everything. This plan was bound to come together easily." Townsend said brightly, gently nudging me with his shoulder. He tossed me a loaf of bread and we started into the woods. He had moved through with his little plan much more quickly than I would've liked. It's not that I didn't really expect it. His eager nature had always woken me up at the crack of dawn and made me work through crusty eyes and a lack of sleep. He was already wearing his armor, had crafter two diamond pickaxes with diamonds I didn't know he had, and had said "let's go!"
"I'm hoping you realize we're going to be in the dark with mobs…vicious mobs?" I emphasized my worry and slowly ate my bread. My stomach wasn't settling properly and, again, I blamed it all on Townsend. He was so carefree and sure of himself. He was like a damned Crafter!
"Stop freakin' worrying, Burt, okay?!" He exclaimed, suddenly turning toward me and stopping me in my tracks. "You've become an even bigger scaredy cat the older you've gotten. This is why the Crafters call us cowards! Don't you want to prove them wrong?!" He practically yelled at me, his tone echoing across the trees. Now I was unsure of his state of mind. He didn't want money. He wanted to prove that he was better. Now that he had showed me his true intention and the true meaning behind his enthusiasm…I wanted to be a part of it. I wanted to prove those arrogant bastards wrong!
"Yes, I do, Townsend. Let's do this. We're not cowards and we will not run home squealing like the animals they think we are." I said, clutching the pickaxe he had given me, and grasped his arm tight. Townsend's disappointed glare turned to a joyous, triumphant smile as he gripped my arm.
"Yeah, there's the Burtow I know! Come on! Head long into danger!" He cried as we descended into the cave. With a torch in hand, I went first into the darkness, being the lookout for us both. It didn't take long to hear the moans and groans of the dead, but it took longer to find out where they were hiding.
The halls twisted and turned, deeper and deeper below the ground. I could feel the pressure changing and my ears were starting to pop. Just as I was able to release the bubbles in my head, a zombie hissed forward almost inches from my face.
That day, we learned that pickaxes can be as useful as swords to fight back the monsters. I had driven the sharp point of the tool into the zombie's head, lodging it into its brain. As I prepared to swing back up and smash it in the skull again, its spine detached, and its head came clean off. Its body collapsed and the head grunted a few times before dying. I was happily surprised that I had killed it all on my own, but it wasn't the only creature we faced on the search for lava and water. Spiders, skeletons, more zombies…it never seemed to end. Townsend was having the time of her life slaying every creature in our path. I already wanted to go home. My adrenaline fueled courage was all gone and I was ready to get out of the cold earth.
Just as I had opened my mouth to voice my defeat, I saw a glow coming from the bottom of a steep drop. I looked down the hole, Townsend following suit.
"I think we finally found some lava." He said optimistically. Frankly, I figured he was right, but it really seemed like we were heading into a whole new set of dangers. He started to dig a staircase-like decline down and I followed slowly behind. The closer we got to the bottom, the more I was certain I could hear the bubbling of magma. Townsend jumped from the low ledge and ran ahead of me, leaving me to frantically catch up. We both stopped in our tracks at the magnificent sight the orange glow revealed itself to be. The narrow hall had opened up and showed the grand cavern we had been searching for. I wasn't sure how far the cavern went, but narrow land bridges and long ridges showed to be the only paths while everything in between was hollow and empty. Sprawling below the enormous expanse was an equally enormous lake of molten lava. I stood there, mouth wide open, marveling at the beauty of it all. Townsend took me around the shoulders, startling me at first, then bringing a smile to my face.
"This is what we've been missing. It's…amazing, isn't it?" He said thoughtfully. I admired it a little more, then nodded in agreement.
"It sure is…" We didn't waste time getting to work. It took us a while to get a bucket of water, finding that a spider's nest rested right above the only waterfall within reach. It isn't easy to fetch water when it is also raining spiders. Poisonous spider, I may add.
Once the eight-legged nuisances were dealt with, the rest of the process seemed to move smoothly. Townsend dumped the water across a large chunk of the lava lake. Steam loudly rose up to the top of the cavern, nearly burning us both as we looked over. A lot of light was extinguished, but that was where I came in. I set up a large perimeter of torches around our dig site, lighting it up to the point of it almost being day all the way down in the earth.
Let it be known that I am a hard working person with the scrawny arms of a young girl. I tried my damnedest to keep up with Townsend in his fast he was excavating the black rock, but obsidian is one of the hardest substances in the Overworld, maybe in the universe. It didn't take long before I was sitting on a ledge, wiping the sweat from my brow.
Townsend and I sat on the edge of our huge obsidian pit. We had dug it into a bowl shape, which in retrospect was probably not the wisest of choices due to the fact that it felt like we were cooking ourselves in our bowl. We were sweating like crazy, incredibly thirsty, beyond tired, and we still had to climb back up.
"We need to get out of here. We have a pretty good haul. I could really go for a good chicken dinner right now…baked potatoes sound nice, too…" Townsend said, his stomach suddenly growling so loud I was sure the whole cave had heart it. I chuckled and stood up, stretching my legs.
"You sound tired, my friend. Don't tell me you're quitting now." I sneered. He gave a sideways glace and shook his head.
"I'm not quitting. We've been down here for hours. Like any normal person, I'm tired. Let's get going. We've got enough obsidian to build a couple houses." He said pulling himself out of the bowl pit. It took us less time to get out into the sunlight, and all the while up, we discussed how people could've simply used clay bricks for their fire places. We came to the conclusion that people simply were bored with what they had. As we stepped into the sunlight of the surface and our hooves touched lush grass, we fell down and took a long breather.
"So," I started, "What are you going to do with your money if this works as well as you think it will?" Townsend looked up, pulling his snout from the dirt and resting his head on his hands. He seemed to be caught off guard by the question. I simply assumed he would've known and planned for something that he wanted.
"You know, it never occurred to me I would spend it on anything. I never really thought I'd have enough money to be proud of anyway, let alone spend it." He said. I nodded in agreement. He and I had discussed a lot about where we would go in our lives. Didn't get much farther than having a roof over our heads, having enough food in our stomachs and our pantries, and maybe settling down to have a family someday. We always brought up family last. We didn't want that kind of responsibility yet and we didn't think any girl would like us enough to even get ten feet near us.
"Maybe we'd have enough to make bigger houses. I would love to expand." I said, imagining my dream house. He sat quietly and day dreamed with me. It seemed that that was what our hearts were set on; new homes.
At the dream of our new abodes, we rushed back home and searched for a vendor that would buy our obsidian. Unfortunately, we couldn't find a single one that was willing to pay more than iron. We weren't going to sell for anything less than diamond and emeralds. It looked like it was our job to sell our own wares to the people.
Townsend spread word around town about how we had acquired enough obsidian for every villager to have their own modest fireplaces of their own. I kept it all in my house, using my storage cellar. I was hoping that word had spread far enough that it had actually spread to the far villages. I wondered if the Crafters or Testificates had already heard. I was truly curious, if the Crafters had heard, if they were impressed that two pigmen had done it. I hoped so.
Every five blocks of obsidian went at either two emeralds or three diamonds, depending on the quality of the pieces themselves. Townsend and I were truly stunned on how much people were buying. One instance in particular, a Testificate had bought three hundred pieces. What he was going to do with it, he didn't say, but whatever it was he was truly eager about it.
After a short three days, our stock was gone and Townsend and I were sitting on a hefty pile of gems. Then, as we started counting, I saw the greed start to cloud my dear friend's eyes…