The cave-in serves to develop Link and Malon a little more.
Chapter 12: Trapped
Days later, they mined again, continuing to excavate the gold pocket they had discovered. They soon had workers going in and out to assist.
Axel had returned two days later, saying that a boy matching Link's description of Fenwick had tailed him to Narsche, and he was forced to spend the night. Then he cut through the mines into the actual Thamasa Basin. Instead of going back, he went across the basin to Thamasa and spent another night. Then he used a different path to go around Draco Peak to get to Pravoka.
Axel had also carried a message to the governor of Crescent Lake. The message said to move Dalen to Karnak in the North Precinct of Cryonia. No sooner had the message been delivered than it was carried out.
Dalen had been moved away, under the guise of another trial, to take place at the capital of Cryonia, Tycoon Castle.
Axel, an explosives expert, accompanied them to work a day later. They had hit more rock and were needing to blow a passage out.
Axel had brought a remote bomb he had created.
"It works through magic. You have to prime the fuse, then get to safe shelter. Once you're safe, you use a special magic to light the fuse. And BOOM! You have a passage."
They agreed that it was a good idea, so they went to the area they had mined out.
"Alright, stand back." said Axel as he primed the fuse.
"I'll go find cover." said Rytex.
"No. I'll do it. The blast radius is huge. You won't know where to go."
He led them a ways back, further and further, until they were near the edge of the mountain.
"Why are we this far out?"
"I told you. The radius is huge. We won't be able to get out if we stayed that far in. Also, the blast of the explosion would be wide enough to engulf us. The safest point is a hundred yards further in, but we need to avoid being trapped inside the mountain."
Then Axel snapped his fingers.
After a second of delay, there was a loud boom, though because of the distance, it was muffled.
However, the mountain shook violently and the rocks began to fall, which they dodged.
But a large amount of rocks caved in over the exit they were near before they could get there.
They were trapped in the mountain.
"Crap! Crap crap crap!" said Axel, banging his head every time.
"Hey. Don't worry about it. We'll get out. We have to find the main entrance to the mine. Then we may be able to blow our way out. First, we need to drill a large enough hole for an air supply." said Exsan.
"Can't we drill our way out then?" asked Link.
"No. I made the drilling equipment. The bit will be worn down to the point where it can't function properly and instead of making a clean hole, we could possibly cause another, less severe cave-in, only, with us underneath."
"Good point." said Axel.
Exsan removed a large metal rod from his pack. It was about the size of his thigh. Magic made it spin at a ridiculously high speed, but it paid in wear and tear intensity. He spun it with magic and slammed the sharper end into the wall.
Progress was slow. The rod went further and further in, but it took almost ten minutes for the rod to break through.
Finally, with a loud crack, the rod burst through and stopped.
"We're good." said Exsan.
The hole was barely large enough for Link to fit his head through, but the wall was four feet thick.
"How is it that the rod is small, yet the hole is large?" asked Axel.
"The fast spinning causes enormous friction. The friction tears away large chunks of the rock with the detritus that fell."
"Ah."
"Now that we have an air supply, let's get back to the main entrance."
They retraced the path they had come to. However, the paths were convoluted. Cave-ins had changed the paths.
"Crap." said Axel again.
"Hey, don't beat yourself up about this. None of us expected it either." said Rytex.
They soon reached a part of the mine that had been unaltered. Luckily, it was unchanged by the tremors and explosion.
"I think I know where we're at." said Rytex.
"Where?" asked Link.
"We're near the beginning of the first explored part of the mine."
"That means the entrance should be this way, right?" asked Axel, pointing at a moderate incline that led into darkness.
"Yeah." said Rytex.
They followed it and soon arrived in the atrium of the mine, but a large chunk of the ground had been blown apart, the ground that remained was covered in rubble, and the entrance had caved-in also.
"So, do you think we can blow ourselves out of this one?" asked Link.
"Probably not. Axel's bomb rendered the whole mountain unstable. Another explosion could cause it to collapse if it's in the right area." said Rytex.
"And where would a right area be?" asked Link.
"Anywhere the explosion affected. We need to get people in town to dig us out." said Axel.
"How?" asked Link.
A muffled yell came from outside the cave.
"Wait. Exsan, drill out through the rocks." said Link.
Exsan drilled a small hole out using a smaller drill bit. The person looked through the hole at them. Link recognized the blue of Malon's eyes.
"Malon!"
"Link! We heard the explosion in town. Are you guys alright?"
"Yeah, we're fine, but we're trapped. We need... Rytex, who do we need Malon to get?"
Rytex recited a short group of names of the workers who were used to clearing rubble for mining.
"Alright. Be safe. We'll get you out of there."
She ran back to Pravoka.
"So, what do we do?" asked Axel.
"We wait." said Rytex, sitting down on a spot he had cleared.
Exsan sat next to him as Rytex sat across.
Axel shrugged and joined.
R&R