Chapter 5 The Mithril Mines
Hour after hour, mile after mile, Vincent followed their trail. He didn't know how long and far he traveled before his weary body could stand it no longer and he collapsed.
The ground was warm and soggy after the rainfall. He struggled to push himself back up, but his exhausted limbs didn't have enough in them. He had no choice but to remain there, in that field, his body pressed into the muddy earth.
This is pathetic, he thought angrily, I go to take on the bad guys and end up dying before I even find them. I'm gonna get eaten by a monster.
It was a known fact that the rolling hills and plains of the Overworld were filled with viscous beasts of every variety. Vincent had left Kalm with nothing but a paint-gun, which he had discarded hours ago. He fell into a fitful slumber, expecting never wake up again, so you can imagine his surprise when he opened his eyes to find himself staring up at smooth rock.
"Finally, you're awake," said a nearby voice, "I was afraid we were gonna have to bring you to a doctor, and everyone knows how damn expensive that can be."
A girl stepped into Vincent's field of vision. She was fairly short and thin, her red hair chopped off at her neck. She was dressed in a variety of bright colors and high brown boots. A knife and several pouches hung at her waist.
She pressed a hand against Vincent's sweaty forehead. He jerked away, fairly freaked out by now.
"Okay," she said, stepping back, "Snippy aren't you? Well, your fever's disappeared. You can thank me anytime."
Vincent sat up. The blanket he had been sleeping under slipped off of him to reveal that someone had removed his shirt. He quickly pulled the blanket back up.
The girl giggled. "Calm down. You're wearing pants, or at least you were last time I checked."
Vincent looked up in shock, but then saw that she was joking. He smiled. The girl seemed to take it as encouragement.
"I'm Kai," she offered, sitting down on the foot of the bed.
He instinctually moved away a bit, but answered, "Vincent."
Kai got to her feet and crossed to the other side of the cave. Her numerous bracelets and bangles jingled as she poured something from a china picture into a small earthenware cup. Vincent glanced around at the rest of the cave. Its walls were covered in tapestries and fabrics, colorful and expensive looking. They clashed oddly with the rugged lodgings.
"Here," Kai said, sitting back down and offering him the cup.
Vincent took it and sniffed. It seemed identical to coffee, except that it was blue, not brown. He took a sip and spluttered. It was hot, though there was no steam rising from it.
Kai laughed again. Her voice was rough and mature-sounding for someone of her apparent age and stature. She got up once again and began to dig through a chest pushed up against the rocky wall. She pulled out something and threw it to Vincent. It was a shirt, deep crimson, and shining in the light of the torch that burned close to the ceiling.
"What is this?" Vincent asked.
"A shirt," Kai answered shortly.
He had realized that without her help. What he meant was, 'why are you giving this to me?' Everything was suddenly happening so fast; waking up in a strange place with a strange person inside it, who seemed to have a thing for jokes.
"Put it on," Kai prodded.
Vincent slipped the shirt around his shoulders and buttoned it up to his chest. It was cool and slippery, like liquid spun into cloth. Nice? Yes. Practical? Probably not. He was accustomed to heavy, homespun clothing designed for hard labor and made to last for a long time. He noticed that Kai's clothes' material was similar to the his own shirt, though she probably looked a lot better in it than he did. All his life, his father had gone on about how much more useful practical things were than attractive things. He used to joke about he had been extremely lucky to find Vincent's mother, who was both useful and attractive.
Vincent smiled as he thought this. It was a sad expression, one concealing the pain that was trying to force its way from his chest. It must have been reflected in his eyes, for Kai furrowed her brow and put a tentative hand on his knee. He swatted it away and stood up, furious with himself. He had almost gone to pieces. He backed up into a far corner where to walls of the small cave came together.
"Fine," Kai said, turning her nose up, "Don't take my sympathy."
"I didn't ask for it!" Vincent snapped back. He slid down to the floor. Maybe if he made himself as small as possible, he could disappear. If he tried hard enough, maybe he could keep at bay the grief that threatened to overwhelm him. The room bled into itself as his eyes filled, but he wouldn't let them escape; he wouldn't cry in front of a girl he had never met before. It would be as bad as crying in front of Scarlet…
As the memory of her flashed through his mind, Vincent felt a new emotion rear its head: rage. His hands shook as he saw Gon once again, lying dead in the street. He saw Scarlet standing above him, holding a smoking gun. But no, he couldn't let the anger take over him, not yet.
With a great effort, he fought his emotions back down. He would have his revenge, but in order to do that he would have to find a way out of wherever he was, and to achieve that, he would be forced to cooperate with whoever the hell this girl was. He looked up at her. She was perched on the side of the bed, her hands absently stroking her silky scarf.
"Sorry," he muttered, getting slowly to his feet, "I'm alright now."
Kai searched his face. "Good," she said finally, with just a tinge of injured pride in her voice. She turned back to the pitcher of coffee stuff and poured some more of it into the cup. Handing it to Vincent, she said, "Drink more, it may look like crap, but it really is good for you."
Vincent reached for it, sighing. "Fine, but if I have a caffeine high later, don't blame-," The cup slipped from his sweaty palm, bouncing as it hit the ground. He and Kai looked at each other, then bent down at the exact same time to retrieve it, which resulted in their heads banging together. Vincent reeled back into the cave wall and fell to the ground with a bump.
"What's all the noise?"
A young man had stuck his head the through the opening to the cave. His hair was the same hue as Kai's, and his dancing green eyes had the same shape. He was dressed in similarly colored fabrics and scarves, though in a much manlier fashion. He grinned as he saw Vincent and Kai on the ground.
"I keep telling you, my dear sister, no raping the patients!" Kai looked up and immediately chucked the cup at the man.
"Feisty!" he laughed, barely dodging it. He smiled towards Vincent. "Glad to see you're up and screwing around with my sister."
Vincent jumped quickly to his feet. "W-We weren't doing anything!" he said angrily.
"It's okay," Kai whispered, fighting down a giggle, "He's kidding." To her brother she said, "Can I help you, Kioko?"
The man sidled into the cave. "I was coming to tell you that you should eat something." He turned to Vincent, grinning slyly. "You know, she hasn't left you since you were brought in. Kai's got a thing for pretty boys." Kai made a rude gesture in response to this.
"Pretty boy?" Vincent repeated, his face turning red.
For some reason that Vincent couldn't fathom, Kai seemed to find it extremely funny. She ducked her head and giggled, leaving the two boys to raise their eyebrows in confusion.
"Women," Kioko mouthed, his eyes dancing. Vincent laughed. These two were treating him like an old friend, and they had scarcely met him twenty minutes ago. It was a huge transition; having your entire world torn apart in a night, and then waking up to find something entirely different staring you in the face. Vincent found himself taking a liking to these strange pair immediately, though he wasn't usually an over-trusting type of person. And you never knew. Maybe they could help him with his little revenge venture.
A great booming gong suddenly sounded from somewhere. Vincent jumped. The acoustics in the cave made it impossible to tell how far away it had come from. Kioko and Kai both turned to the rock doorway.
"That's the dinner bell," Kioko announced.
"Really?" Vincent asked eagerly, suddenly realizing how hungry he was.
"Yep," Kai said, "This place is frigging huge. There has to be something to call everyone the hell in."
They left the cave, Kioko leading the way. It opened, not to the outside world as Vincent would have expected, but into a large network of tunnels. It was, as Kai had aptly put it, "frigging huge." Kioko lead them along and seemed to know exactly where he was headed, regardless of the numerous twists and turns. Vincent was glad that someone knew where the heck they were headed, as he would have been immediately lost. For awhile, he tried hard to memorize their route, but quickly had to admit defeat and just follow willingly. Luckily there was plenty to look at. The caves were an incredible natural wonder.
They passed through tunnels so small that they had to walk single file, and through caverns so huge that Vincent felt as though he were about to have an attack of acrophobia. At one point they crossed a natural stone bridge under which a white river rushed. Stalagmites dripped fetid water to the tunnel floor, jutting down like the jagged teeth of some giant beast. Vincent was wondering just what this place was, when they came upon the most incredible sight yet.
One of the longer tunnels was lay completely under a blanket of blue-green crystal. It was like stepping into a hall of mirrors. Vincent watched his reflection bouncing along millions of surfaces, which made him feel faintly sick, so he stopped. The tunnel glowed with a strange green light and the air tasted strange.
Vincent suddenly realized that it wasn't the bouncing images that had made him sick, as a wave of nausea flowed over him. It was like some kind of strange fume was wafting into his system, making his head swim and his muscles tingle. He stumbled and fell to his knees, the ground swaying underneath.
"Get up Vincent, it's only Mithril," Kai said, as she and Kioko pulled him up by the armpits.
"Mithril?" Vincent asked foggily, trying to make himself move forward. It felt like he was trying to walk through pudding.
"Yeah, it's what the Mithril Mines are named after," Kioko answered, his hand still on Vincent's shoulder, "It's a really powerful substance, valuable too, but it can only be harvested by a powerful mage, or someone with powerful mage materia."
The word 'materia' jerked Vincent from the fog he was still marching in. "You guys don't use materia?"
Kai shook her head as Kioko spat on the ground. "That's stuff made by the Shinra, we don't like Shinra. Besides," she shrugged, "Hardly anybody can use it yet so it's not worth much."
A few moments, they had left the hall of crystal behind. Immediately, Vincent felt better. He glanced at Kai and Kioko, neither of which seemed to have been affected by the mithril at all.
"So what's it used for anyway?" he asked.
"It's a performance enhancer," Kioko said knowingly, "You can make some kind of drink thing with it that improves your reflexes and stuff, and just being around it makes you smarter."
"Which is why we're so intelligent," Kai said sarcastically.
"What? Why doesn't it work?" Vincent asked, confused.
"Because," Kai answered with a little skip, "Magic doesn't work on the Mirads of Mithril. We've been exposed to a magical substance for so long that we're immune to it."
The Mirads of Mithril. Weirdly, it stirred something in Vincent's memory, as though he had heard tell of Kai's people before. But that wasn't very likely; he would have remembered a race living inside a mine.
"Oh, here we are," Kioko announced.
They had come to the opening of an enormous cavern, bigger than any they had seen yet. It was filled with people. They were all dressed similarly to Kai and Kioko. The smoke of cooking fires curled up to the ceiling of the cavern, escaping through small holes in the rock, through which light entered in its turn. Strewn around the cave were all the signs of a rich existence.
Silks and rugs were strewn about on the rocks, while various nick-knacks were heaped in small piles. Meat roasted on spits over small cooking fires. Gold hoops glittered on the people's ears and jewels glittered around their necks. It was an entire (wealthy) tribe living in the mines.
And suddenly, Vincent understood who these people were. And he realized where he had heard of them before. A couple seasons back, Kalm village had been attacked. In just two days they had been hit by several offensive strikes. They raiders had stolen food, valuables, livestock, and even several children. And now Vincent had found them.
He had walked into a den of bandits.
Well, not exactly walked into, more like brought into. They were a dangerous looking bunch, he saw as he followed Kai and Kioko through the cavern. Many of them were tattooed and scarred and some had eyes or fingers missing. All the finery they sat among must have been the takings from the last raid they went on.
True, Vincent was no longer lying in a heap on the plains, but this wasn't the best situation either. From the looks of things, he had been pulled out of the frying pan and dumped in the fire.