Chapter Four- The Truth

For the next couple of months, Kano enjoyed it very much. She spent lots of time with Kenny, trying the impossible, and just goofing off. They had helped out every person who needed the help. They even helped slaying Elvarg, the green, monstrous dragon that roams about in Crandor. In the meantime, both of them had also trained very hard. Kano worked her way up as a level 38 and Kenny as a level 51. They had travelled every inch of Runescape, and became used to the landscapes.

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After a whole week in Karamja, they got to visit Falador. With Kano by Kenny's side, he told her, "Hey Kano, I need to buy a few things really quick at the general store."

"Okay, I think I need to buy a few materials as well."

At the general store, Kenny took longer than Kano had expected. On a newspaper stand, she picked up a newspaper and started skimming through it while she waited for Kenny. On the front page, she read, was about some major bank robbery at Draynor Village. Flipping through the pages, she saw the most beautiful thing in the world to her. It was a white party hat on sale. She stared in awe, hoping she would get to have one in the future. She didn't expect the cost to be too much.. until she read the bottom of the page that read the price.

"50 MILLION GP! WHAT! I'LL NEVER GET THE WHITE PARTY HAT THAT I WANT SO BAD!" Kano shouted in anger and in shock.

"What!" Kenny ran over to Kano after buying his materials, and looked at the page Kano was looking at. He was also very shocked.

"See!" exclaimed Kano, still very surprised.

"I know!" Kenny was also surprised as well, but when he turned the page, he saw an ad that had a red party hat for sale as well. Kenny gaped at the beauty of the picture of the party hat; it was something that he truly wished he had. But when he saw the price at the bottom, he thought he was about to faint!

"LOOK AT THE FREAKING PRICE OF THAT PARTY HAT! IT'S WORTH 20 MILLION GP MORE THAN THE WHITE PARTY HAT YOU WANT!"

Kano's eyes were glued to the paper, and she couldn't believe they were worth so much. A bunch of high levels of around 90 were snickering at Kano and Kenny. They all had a party hat set, which included every single party hats there were in Runescape.

"What are you laughing about!" Kenny flushed with anger once he saw the party hats on each of their heads. "Why don't you tell me why they're worth so much?"

A level 94 about the size of a football professional player cracked up. "Noob.. they are worth so much because they are one of the rarest items on Runescape! And if you plan on buying the red party hat that I'm wearing right now, you better be kidding, 'cause I know for a fact you wouldn't have that much money on you! And neither would your puny girlfriend next to you!"

Kenny couldn't take it any more. "She is not my girlfriend! And who would want to buy that stupid piece of shit anyways! I'm not that stupid to waste so much money on something that useless!" He couldn't take any more anger and ran towards the big guys. Something was holding him back, though.

"Kenny stop! They're going to kill you if you fight them! Just leave those jerks alone.. Let's go!" Kano had to drag Kenny out of the shop, which also caused them to be the center of attention at the general store. "Let's stop by the park for a bit. We're so worn out!"

"Alright.." Kenny muttered.

Just like when they first met, they lied down on the green grass and stared at the big, black sky. There was a long moment of silence. Finally, Kano broke that silence.

"So..umm.. how are we ever going to get that much money to buy those party hats we want?" Kano questioned.

Kenny frowned. "I don't care about it anymore."

"Yeah right, I'm sure you do. Just admit it. It's just that those bitches back there spoiled everything."

Kenny paused. ".. I.. guess.."

Again, silence filled the air around the empty park. All that was heard from was the old farmer watering his flowers and birds chirping.

"Well, the fastest way to make money is by using the skills." Kenny replied.

"I know that, but which one?" Kano asked dully.

"Hmm.. how about woodcutting? All you do is cut up some logs and you sell them to people." Kenny suggested.

Kano objected to his suggestion. "Ehh... I hate the thought of getting splinters, if that's all we're going to do to earn money."

"How about fishing?"

"I don't like touching all those icky, slimy worms to hook onto my fishing rod! Eww!" Kano got grossed out by that fact, so that was definitely a no for her.

"Jeez woman, is there any skill that would fullfill your 'special' requirements?"

Kano chuckled. She thought in her head, eliminating each skill that she couldn't possibly do to earn money. Kenny did the same. After a few minutes, Kenny spoke up once again.

"Well, there is mining.." Kenny didn't really want to finish up his thought.

Kano thought about that one time she saw the incident when the mine blew up. It was a horrible thought to think about.. What if that ever happens to us! Omg.. She couldn't resist thinking about something devastating like that.

"I know what you're probably thinking. You probably don't want to smell like coal and rock, and you might think the pickaxe is too heavy for you. So it probably wouldn't fit your requirements." Kenny joked.

"I didn't really think about that, but that's the least of my worries when it comes to mining. It's those.. unexpected explosions.."

Kenny stopped watching the sky and sat right-up. His face expression suddenly changed, as if he wanted to cry..Was it something I said?

"What's wrong, Kenny? Was it something I said?" Kano began to worry.

"It's.. nothing."

Kenny was thinking about a couple of depressing flashbacks that occurred three years ago.

"This is how you hold a pickaxe, Annie. All you have to do is mine on one rock until an ore comes out, you got that?" informed Kenny.

"Yes, big brother! I'm so excited!" exclaimed 12-year-old Annie.

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"Big brother! I have decided on an awesome goal! Wanna hear it!"

"Sure, what is it, Annie?"

"Someday.. I'm going to be the number one miner! I'm going to get level 99 mining!"

"Mhmm.. sure you will."

Annie pouts. "Just watch, big brother! I'm going to do it! I can just imagine being the number one miner..!"

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"Big brother, guess what!"

"What is it, Annie?"

"I got level 85 mining! I can mine that special ore you mentioned before.. what was it called again?"

"It's called the runite ore. And congrats! Let's go celebrate!"

"Thank you!" Annie replied, jumping up and down with excitement.

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"Annie, its already past midnight. Let's go to sleep and you can get your level 99 mining tomorrow." Kenny yawned and headed to his room to sleep.

"No! I want to get it now! I'm so close, big brother! I told you I'll be able to achieve my goal!"

"I'm very proud of you, Annie." Kenny smiled.

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"Attention everyone! I'm about to get my final level up!"

(crowd watches and Annie mines the last ore)

And the crowd goes wild!

"Yay, I did it! I got to go wake up big brother!"

BOOOM!

Kenny woke up when he heard the loud explosion. He knew that sound very well. It was another mining explosion. That didn't surprise Kenny.. but he remembered Annie was mining there!

"ANNIEEEEE!" Kenny pushed through a crowd of people, and went down the mining guild. All around him were people dead. He frantically searched for Annie.. He walked deeper into the mine and found Annie, covered in blood.

"ANNIE!" Kenny shouted in tears.

Annie was barely alive. "I... did... it... big... brother..." She took her last amount of energy to tell him that, and then she passed out.

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After remembering all those flashbacks with Kenny's little sister, he was found in tears.

"Omg Kenny! Seriously, what's the matter!" Kano tried to comfort Kenny.

Kenny calmed down and slowly told her everything from the beginning to end.

"Wow... I'm so sorry.. I didn't know mining was that important to you."

With a small voice, Kenny pointed out,"She would've been your age, if she was still here. You look so much like her as well... that is why I decided to go look for you again, after bumping into you here in Falador before I got to know you."

"Oh, I see now.."

"I want to try mining. I was never interested in it when my sister worked on it. She may have gotten to the last level of mining.. but she hasn't completed her goal yet. She wanted to be the number one miner so bad.. I want to get to number one for her."

"You're not going to mine without me! I.. I know this is all too sudden for me.. but.. I want to help you. Two heads are better than one.. right?"

Kenny laughed. "Yeah, I suppose so." Kenny thought for a moment. "Hey.. not only will we be able to achieve my sister's goal, but from all the mining.. we can use it to smith and we can sell it, like, create our own shop or something! Just imagine both of us opening a rune armor shop.. you'll be the smither creating the rune armors and I'll be mining away to help you smith! We can be so rich like that! And with all the money, we can split the profit and I'm sure we'll both have enough money to buy a white party hat for you, and a red party hat for me!"

"Wow! Great idea! Let's start right now!" exclaimed Kano, jumping with joy.

Kenny grinned. He could clearly see why Kano and his little sister, Annie, were so much alike.

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Author's Notes: The third paragraph from the end is almost exactly what my old friend OoGhost123 said to me. Those were the words of inspiration for me. And I still remember that exact day I became a true miner on Runescape.. October 19, 2004..

So how did you guys like this chapter? To tell me your opinion about this story, please review! Please and thank you!