After this, I'm actually getting to the better parts of the story. That's good. I think. Well, anyway, just hang on, and please review. I would really like one. Just no hate, please.

Cheers!

~Ice.


Chapter 12

Sassy was positively revelling in the fact that the tools were back. Now she wouldn't stop jabbering on about all the jobs that could be completed and whatnot, and it all became so irritating that Marcei was incredibly tempted to stuff her fingers in her ears and call it a day. But she held out. Barely. Eventually though - thankfully - Sassy finally stopped and went back to business that actually mattered. Marcei had been absently sitting on top of the crates, not really listening to anything at all by this point, and keeping an eye out for, ahem, people.

A rather hassled looking goblin jogged over to Sassy and muttered something to her. She nodded, and muttered a few things back. This muttering went on for a few minutes, and by that time Marcei hadn't been able to repress an eyebrow that insisted on making its way up her forehead. After a few minutes, the goblin went away, and Marcei swivelled her position on top of the crates, so that she was lying on her front, her head propped up in her hands. She gave Sassy an inquiring look. 'Well?'

Sassy gave a bit of a grin, and looked up at her. 'Great news! Foreman Dampwick has uncovered a cave full of kaja'mite on the island! What are the odds?'

Marcei promptly choked. 'What? But, Kezan was the only place that had kaja'mite!'

'The only known place,' Sassy corrected. 'Of course, there's a downside. He took some of the survivors with him to help mine the ore, but none of them have made it out.'

Marcei grimaced. 'Well, that's nice.'

Sassy shrugged, a bemused expression on her face. 'Crazy as it sounds, the foreman said that there are monkeys in the cave... with mining picks! They're mining the kaja'mite! How is that even possible?'

'It's not.'

Sassy gave her a fair point sort of nod, and continued. 'Can you head over to that cavern? It's uh -' she thought for a moment, and pointed south-east. '- that-a-way. Dampwick should be outside. Don't count on it, though.'

Marcei shrugged indifferently, and got to her feet, flipping off the crates and landing beside Sassy. She looked to her right, roughly where the mine should be. Sure enough, she could see the edge of some rough, bamboo fencing. She gave Sassy a brief nod, and started to jog up the beach.


After about a minute (the mine was actually pretty close) Marcei spotted Dampwick pacing back and forth outside of the mine entrance, looking stressed.

'Dampwick!'

He turned around and his eyes widened with surprise when he saw her. He grinned.

'Boss! Er, well, I guess you're not the boss anymore, but still, good to see you!'

Marcei skidded to a stop next to him and looked around. A lamp post had been set up behind them to brighten the area when the jungle restricted sunlight and crates had been piled up along the fence.

'Sassy said you were having trouble.'

Dampwick shook his head ruefully. 'Can you believe it? We've got a cave full of intelligent killer monkeys mining kaja'mite!'

'Mining? So, Sassy wasn't joking?'

'Mining. And they're killer!' He sighed. 'It's just horrible. I think they're all dead. How will I get the kaja'mite out of there now?'

'Your miners?'

He shot her a look that said duh. She rolled her eyes.

'These monkeys are just not natural and I'm sure it's because of the kaja'mite!' Dampwick grumbled.

'Well, yeah. What monkeys naturally mine and harvest the most valuable ore in the world? No normal one, that's what.'

Dampwick looked as though he could quite happily whack her over the head. With something heavy.

'None of my miners have come back out. I don't have many left! You can see my predicament, Marcei.' He lowered his voice. 'These guys are nowhere near as good as my old group of jungle trolls.' He got a far-away, dreamy look. 'Ah, those were the days.'

She resisted the temptation to roll her eyes again.

'Maybe you can escort my last miner here through the cavern and keep those monkeys off of him?' Dampwick said. A very frustrated look came over his face. 'We need that kaja'mite!'

'Yeah, yeah,' Marcei said, waving him off impatiently. 'Where's the unlucky bugger?'

'Wait! One more thing.' Dampwick jabbed a thumb towards the cave. 'Apparently there are strange cave paintings and other artefacts all over the cavern. Do you think you could use your belt-mounted KTC Snapflash camera to capture images at the designated spots? Keep your eye out for anything interesting. The more information we have, the better.'

'My what, now?'

Dampwick rolled his eyes and sighed in exasperation. He tapped a funny little device on Marcei's belt that she had never really used before. She hadn't bothered to figure out what is was, and never had a cause to use it. She unhooked it.

'This is a camera? And it was waterproof?'

'Obviously. Anyway, I'm sure that Sassy will want the intel.'

'Yeah, fine, whatever. Got it. Where's the miner?'


Marcei followed the miner into the cave entrance, helping him push an empty cart for the ore. The goblin grumbled to himself, muttering a few choice words about Dampwick and where he could stick his kaja'mite. Marcei looked around. Crude bone fences lined some of the walls, and torches sat in brackets every twenty metres or so. The majority of the ore deposits nearby had already been mined and, unfortunately enough, she could tell why the other miners hadn't made it out alive. In her direct line of sight, she could already see three dead bodies.

The goblin paled slightly and looked around, before turning to Marcei. 'Okay, here we go. You're gonna cover me, right?'

Marcei nodded and slid her knife out of her belt. He grabbed his pickaxe out of the cart and carried it over to the nearest deposit, right underneath some sort of painting. 'Ack, do I hear monkeys?'

'What?'

'Over here.'

Marcei walked over to him. The closer she got, she could hear a faint sound. 'Monkeys.'

The miner shrugged and started hacking at the kaja'mite. Marcei angled the camera and took a snapshot of the painting just above it. She couldn't quite make sense of it, but . . . was that a turtle?

The miner grunted in irritation. 'I can't get anything else out of this one. The monkeys got the most of it.'

Marcei nodded, and started shoving at the cart. It started rolling on its own down the slight slope and skidded around a corner.

'Hey!' the miner shouted, running after it. 'Get back here!' He disappeared around the corner, and Marcei heard him swear loudly. She ran after him.

Two grey monkeys were swinging at the miner with their pickaxes, baring their teeth and snarling. He swung his own axe and planted it straight into one's stomach, ripping out its insides. It dropped dead. Marcei adjusted her grip on her knife and ran down to them, yelling loudly. The other monkey turned to her and howled. She lashed out at it and made a long gash down its arm. The monkey snarled and made to hit her on the head. She dodged and slashed at its other arm, so instead she was hit with the flat side of the pickaxe.

She groaned. Her head was pulsing and colours were swimming in and out of focus. Damn it. She was going to have a concussion after . She honestly didn't know how to tell a concussion from a migraine, so . . .

She reached over and ploughed her knife straight into the monkey's chest. It howled and fell to the ground, twitching. Marcei groaned again and slumped down against the cave wall. The miner cocked his head to the side, studying her for a minute, before shrugging and turning around to mine an ore deposit. After a moment, he spoke.

'Did I ever tell you that I was a mid-level accountant with the company back on Kezan? I worked for you for years. Do you even know my name?'

Marcei winced and raised a hand defensively. 'Look, dude, I don't really care at the moment, because I think I just lost a good deal of brain cells. I'll figure your name out later, okay?'

The miner grunted indifferently and continued hacking at the kaja'mite. A sharp wave of pain pulsed through her head and she held back another moan. Bloody hell. And there were probably more monkeys. Fun.

'You know, there's a painting here,' the miner stated bluntly. Marcei raised her head and saw on the wall opposite some fuzzy black and red drawings. Well, they probably weren't actually fuzzy, but that was the best she could see. She grunted and pulled out her camera, taking a rough picture of them. The miner grumbled. 'What I wouldn't give for some explosives right now.'

Marcei stood up, her head clearing slightly. 'I'm gonna scout ahead. See what I can find.'

The miner nodded and continued hacking at the ore. She pushed off the wall and stumbled further down the cave. She saw a few more monkeys, but not even wanting to bother this time she pulled out her shotgun and killed them all from a distance. So much easier.

She rounded another corner and could hear some grunting. But it didn't sound like the monkeys. As she got closer to the noise, it became more definable as chanting of sorts, but not in any language she knew. She pressed herself against the cave wall and moved slowly along it, and popped her head around another corner.

There was a big stone altar with a flat surface. A giant rib cage hung over it like a canopy and everything - the altar, the floor around it – was stained with blood. A dead body was lying on the rock.

Marcei started forward, but then she heard the chanting start up again and she leapt backwards. She poked her head around the corner again.

There was a stumpy, tanned figure facing the body on the altar shouting incantations and waving its arms. Black and purple sparks shot from its fingers.

'Eht oosta Volcanoth!'

What, now?

The dead body was engulfed in purple flames and started to pulsate. Marcei didn't want to see the result of this. She pulled out her shotgun and shot the creature through the head. It dropped without another word. Marcei gingerly stepped out from behind the wall and made her way over to the figure. Huh. A pygmy. She prodded it with her foot. It didn't move. She took a better look at it. It was dressed in crude clothing made from some sort of scaly hide, and various bones and skulls dangled from its belt. She was pretty sure he was a witchdoctor.

She turned over to the body on the altar. It was an orc. The fire had dissipated leaving him remarkably undamaged. A waterlogged journal was clamped in its fist. She prised it out and flipped it open.

Her first question was, "orcs can write?" The story however, was rather interesting. The orcish was smudged and barely legible, but she managed to discern the important information.

Apparently, like the Trade Prince's yacht, the orcs were fired upon by Alliance warships. She did hear several stories about how the yacht did pass before an orc ship right before the Alliance opened fire. Maybe they were firing at the orcs instead of the yacht?

She crossed her arms and grumbled. Stupid orcs! They got her sunk!

A yell came from another end of the cavern. 'I've got enough kaja'mite for now. I'll make my way out on my own. Thanks for the escort, Marcei!'

'Yeah, that's fine!' she bellowed back. She looked back at the journal. Sassy would want to see this.

She had another look around, before remembering that she had to take a picture of the altar too. She turned around to leave, and made her way back down the tunnel. At the corner, she looked up. She wasn't entirely sure how someone had managed to put a painting on the ceiling. Nevertheless, she took a photo of it.


Back outside the cave, Dampwick was both surprised and relieved that Marcei and the miner made it out alive.

'We've hit the mother lode!' he cheered. 'Now, what's all this about a pygmy witchdoctor in charge of the monkeys? Is he dead? Because if he's dead, then legally I can stake my claim . . . not that I wasn't going to do that anyway. By goblin law, all kaja'mite belongs to us!'

'Yeah, I know that. He's dead.'

Dampwick grinned and climed on top of the kaja'mite cart, clearing his throat. 'On behalf of the Bilgewater Cartel, I lay claim to this mine!'

'That's nice.'

Dampwick rolled his eyes. 'Go back to Sassy. Stop harassing me.'

Marcei rolled her eyes in return. 'Whatever.'

Sassy was back at the yacht, sitting on the partially demolished deck, staring glumly into space. Marcei plopped down next to her. She looked up.

'Marcei, you look like you've been spelunking.'

'Yeah. Check these out.' She passed Sassy the camera.

'What are these?'

Marcei recounted her story as Sassy looked through the photos.

'Clearly that pygmy witchdoctor is from some new race never seen before. They must be the ones that painted all of that stuff in the cavern. I'm not sure that I like what you're describing.'

'What do you think?'

'It sounds to me like they're paintings of them and us on an island with an exploding volcano.'

'What? Another volcano?'

Sassy grimaced. 'Just our luck.'

'And this too.' Marcei passed over the journal. 'There are orcs around here somewhere.'

Sassy flipped through the book, her eyes skimming swiftly over the pages. 'Orcs? They were sunk and stranded too? And now the Alliance are on the island?' She looked up. 'Do you think they're going to kill us?'

Marcei shrugged.

Sassy chewed her lip, looking thoughtful. 'I think it's time for a little sitdown with these orcs.'