Lucky Souls
Chapter 7: The Mine
"Aye, but the mine isn't any place for a young'n like yourself to be wanderin'. Dark things be lurkin' in the shadows…" The filthy man explained to the tender youth before him, scraggly beard upon his face and not a tooth in his crooked smile.
Tsukasa let her gaze drift to the tunnel before them, it was mountain-sized, and for good reason, considering it led directly into one. Destroyed mine carts and equipment scattered across the ground, as if they were dropped while in the middle of arduous work, simply abandoned. Tsukasa hadn't been in Boletaria long, a day at the most, if that. She remembered journeying with her friends, a terrifying beast, and then darkness, ever-present and looming.
She had woken up at the foot of the mine, brought back to the waking world by a foul looking fellow, but he seemed to have a good heart. He had asked her how she found herself in such a terrible place, and in an even worse predicament, separated from her comrades, weaponless, and witless. Her only answer was to weep, she felt hopeless, but the man did not blame her, this girl was no older than his own daughter before she was lost to the demons, perhaps that is why he felt pity for her.
Tsukasa was presented with two options for proceeding, she could either join the man on his trek back to civilization, to the south, or she could go north, which would lead to the palace of Boletaria, her destination. The area was mountainous and not easily trekked, especially alone, and the journey both ways would be no doubt filled with peril. Tsukasa was no champion, and the demons would eat her alive in no time if she faced them by herself, the long journey to the palace would surely end her.
She just wanted to go home; she just wanted to give up. While the idea of finding her friends and sister did indeed rot her mind, she still considered going home the more attractive option. This is why it confused her even more, when with dried tears staining her pink cheeks, she decided upon entering the mine, finding her way through its hellish mazes, and getting to King Allant's keep to the north.
"I know…but, I have to." Was the only answer she could give to the man, and while he seemed very adamant against the idea; he knew he could do nothing to sway the youth's mind. With a weary sigh, he thought at least he could assist her on her quest, and gave the weaponless and witless girl a few provisions she might need. A sword, some food, and a cloak were all he could offer, he had a family of his own to feed, but the humble girl felt bad for even accepting these trivialities, so he knew attempting to give more would be shot down with a 'no' anyway.
Tsukasa said her goodbyes to the strange treasure hunter, and sent him on his way, gazing for a moment as he made his way down the steep slopes of the mountain and out of sight. She heaved a sigh of her own as she turned back to the dark entrance of the mine. The man had told her its story, that King Allant requested the mountains be swept for dire resources, but what they unearthed was anything but.
The deeper they dug into the great mountains of Stonefang, the stranger the experience seemed to get. What was supposed to be a simple excavation operation ended up being a slaughter, not by beasts or demons, but by the hands of men. The men had been overcome by insatiable greed, and in an effort to claim their own spoils, they turned on one another. What puzzled the great King Allant so however, was not that they were consumed by greed, but why they were consumed in the first place. Whatever they had uncovered in those dark tunnels, it had been enough to betray an entire nation and murder ones close friends and family, whatever they had found, it was no mere chest of gold.
Oddly enough, she was also told that the visitors to its depths actually increased after Boletaria was consumed by the fog, by fool-hearty treasure hunters and warriors alike, most of whom either returned empty handed, or not at all.
Honestly, the bow-haired girl thought the stories did nothing to wet her interest in the place, but actually turn her off to the idea of even glancing in its direction. At the thought of her own cowardice, she attempted to brace herself for danger, she couldn't afford to be afraid in these life or death situations, or she would be cut down like all the rest.
As she made her way to the dark entrance, her eyes gazed upon an unlit torch, which with a few scrapes against a pile of dry pitch she promptly lit. The dim torch did almost nothing to illuminate the blackness presented before her, and she was relieved when she saw that the lines of the tunnels ahead were strangely, well lit by torches and fires.
Her relief was stamped out as she heard the groan of a beast in the unknown, but what struck her most, was that it came from above. The quivering girl let out an 'eep' on queue as she noticed two gangly looking men above her, pushing against a boulder the size of a carriage.
Eyes so wide they nearly split from her skull, the young girl dropped her torch with a scream and ran head long into the mine, covering her head shamelessly as she plunged into the darkness. She didn't see it, but she sure heard the boulder as it fell gracelessly from its perch, smashing onto the ground with a loud thud behind her, completely blocking the entrance she had hoped she would be able to run out of should danger arise.
Fumbling in the darkness, she whimpered as she crawled herself away from the dust and wreckage of the boulder, which had obliterated several mine carts in its fall, and caused the entrance of the mine to do so as well.
As she slunk herself against the wall, her heart strings weren't just tugging at her, they were tearing away at her. She felt a warm tear slide down her cheek as she bundled herself against the cold stone wall. She just wanted her sister, to hug and hang onto her in these dark times, she just wanted anyone. She could hardly stand being alone in her own house, and here she was in the middle of the most dangerous place on their small blue Earth, alone, inexperienced and afraid.
Quick flashes of her fear spread through her mind, memories of how she had almost been the death of all of her friends, just because she couldn't get it together. She couldn't help it! Could they blame her? What normal person wouldn't be afraid at the horrors of this place? She felt so lowly compared to her friends, so out of touch with whatever they experienced as they cut down their opponents, as they lived their lives without fear, or at least not showing it.
Tsukasa was not a violent girl, she was not brave, she was not intelligent, she wasn't competent, she wasn't like her friends, no matter how desperately she wished to be. Her bright yellow bow sagged along with her face, which could only be described in one word, miserable.
While she wished for the things that would never be realities in her pitiful existence, her fists clenched in frustration upon the muddy floors. Her tears came to a grinding halt as she sat there alone in the darkness, pondering a plethora of things.
She couldn't change who she was, that just wasn't possible, but she could sure try. She thought of her friends, just as alone and afraid as her in this dreary land, and that is what set her off.
Slowly standing to her feet, she glanced around the corner and into the mine beyond, illuminated by torches and filled with destroyed, musky equipment. She gagged as she spotted the bodies, everywhere, probably belonging to the miners. She inhaled just about as largely as she could, and spun the corner as if she was attached to it, messily probing her hand around her belt searching for her blade, eventually finding it on the fourth try, and tearing it from the sheathe.
She didn't know what those husk-like creatures were that attempted to crush her on the way in, but something in her gut told her there was probably more of them, there always was. She took several steps into the main room, shaking like a leaf on a tree, her sword constantly jiggling in her hands like gelatin as she pointed it at every shadow that dared dance with fire.
The bow-haired girl couldn't help but whimper like a small pup as she heard a growling in the darkness. She nearly threw herself behind a nearby mine-cart, tipped over with its luggage showering the ground below. Slowly peaking over it, she saw a gangly looking thing, somewhat reminiscent of a Dregling slowly making its way out of a nearby door.
Like a Dregling, its skin was brown and rotten, barely hanging on the bones of the poor soul, but unlike a Dregling, this beast was tall, at least eight feet she guessed. Its head and gut were bulbous with fat, offset by its incredibly skinny arms and legs. Its eyes were golden yellow, and glowed like jewels upon its face, and slung over its shoulder was a pick ax.
She simply watched, still shaking with fear, as the beast slowly lumbered over to a random wall and began swinging away at it, chipping for the treasure that would never be revealed.
"A miner…" She whispered to herself, it was a miner, but that was the keyword, was. Whatever had happened to this man, he was no longer himself, just a shell, and a demon like all the rest.
She didn't want to fight the poor soul, then she would have to end up killing him, and she certainly didn't want that. She felt sorry for the shell as it mindlessly hacked away; continuing its work even after the soul had long left it, after it had become a demon. She knew she would eventually have to fight demons, to probably even kill them if she wished to survive, but she had no intentions of doing this now.
Slowly and quietly sheathing her sword, she lowered herself as low to the ground as she could go. Slithering like a worm upon the wet and dreary ground, she eyed the door the miner had exited from, and made her way over to it. Oddly enough, it had worked, and the miner continued to obliviously do his job as she entered the door as silently as possible.
Gently sighing, she actually let off a tiny grin, she had done good, maybe this was her expertise she thought for a moment. She was no good at direct combat, she lost her wits in a moment when her blade met her opponents, she had no spine. But when her opponents back was turned, when they didn't even have fighting on the mind, she found it much easier to decide on what route to take, whether it be combat or a hasty retreat.
Fumbling to her feet, she found that the door led to somewhat of a bunking area. Along the walls were lined the many beds of the many miners who no doubt worked here, she guessed that these little oasis' were probably positioned everywhere throughout the massive mine so workers could find food, bed and company at any time.
She couldn't help but choke as she saw pictures of families, friends, and homes adorning the many dressers. She wondered what the families must have gone through, not knowing the fate of their husbands and fathers when they never returned. The filthy man had explained that whatever occurred in the mine was completely covered up and wiped from the records, and no explanation was ever offered to the families of the deceased, just that the miners had gone missing.
She wondered if she would join the list of the missing, if she would just be another statistic, but cleaned her mind of such thoughts. She was down enough as it is; she didn't need to be even more afraid.
A creek behind her nearly caused her to crash into a nearby table in surprise, and instinctively, she threw herself underneath a nearby bunk bed. She shakily surveyed the area, and her petite frame went icy when she saw a bulky shadow cast from the torches, looming in the archway of the oasis door.
It was that beast, that husk of a miner. He slowly stumbled into view, his large flat-footed feet stomping on the ground as he made his way into the room. To still her breathing, the bow-haired girl gently covered her mouth, the exasperated breaths escaping it becoming harder by the second.
The smell was indescribable; it was the smell of age, mixed in with whatever aromas made their homes in this dark and dreary mine. It smelled of rotting flesh, salty almost, and it just reminded her of death, she did everything in her power not to gag.
She couldn't make a sound, not even the slightest breath could be exhaled, it would immediately allow her presence to be known. The miner didn't seem to notice her, and instead just made its way across the room slowly but surely, until it came upon a chest on the ground.
She carefully eyed it as it dug through the box, eventually coming upon a small grindstone, probably with which to sharpen its ax. It seemed these husks still contained some form of meager intelligence, or perhaps it was simply following what it remembered, what it had considered normal before the fog set in.
The beast continued its trance, but as she noticed, it stopped directly before the bed she was conveniently hidden underneath. She couldn't be so unlucky that she had made a noise, or that the beast simply wished to check underneath that specific area for intruders.
She waited silently, hand clasped over her soft lips like a lock, waited for anything to happen, but nothing did.
The miner simply stood for a moment before it turned to the door, probably leaving to return to its mundane and endless task of digging. Tsukasa waited a minute before even moving, and then finally allowed herself a gentle sigh, slowly attempting to crawl out from under the bed.
Before she could do anything, a hefty, rotten foot suddenly stomped down onto her outstretched arm, and saying that the bow-haired girl screamed at the top of her lungs would be an understatement.
Her eyes nearly tore themselves upwards, and she only screamed louder as she saw the miner looking down at her with its rusted jewel eyes.
The miner let out a dull groan as it slowly raised its pick ax to the air, ready to crush it down upon the feeble prey at its feet, but Tsukasa would have none of it. She wretched her hand from underneath the beasts foot and rolled out from under the bed, watching in horror at the delayed reaction of the miner as it drove it's ax into it, breaking the fragile piece of furniture into a thousand pieces.
Her vision blurred for a moment, and her heart was beating so fast she struggled to not pass out on the spot. She shakily pulled her sword from its sheath, rising to the beasts gaze as it slowly turned around.
It took a few steps towards the frightened girl, and that was all it took for her wit to dry up completely. Tsukasa dropped her sword on the spot and turned tail, nearly breaking the door of the oasis down in the process as she scrambled to get away, as far away as she could, anywhere that didn't have that monster.
To her horror, she found the area she had been in before was now full of miners, each one more rotted and decrepit than the last, slowly hacking away at the stone walls before them.
Where was she safe? In Boletaria, nowhere, and that was exactly her issue. She heard slow pitters of feet against wet ground behind her, and she slowly turned to face the miner.
He swung his ax once more, this time too quickly for her to respond, and screaming and flailing her arms, oddly enough worked. In her panic she caused herself to trip over a rock conveniently placed behind her, and she fell upon the ground hard, having a panic attack of the worst kind as the beast stood over her.
She shut her eyes in defeat, what point was there? She didn't have it in her to fight a demon, she couldn't even kill bugs that made their presence known in her room, and she always wanted to find a peaceful resolution to any situation. In Boletaria, the charity of peace seemed all but absent, and one couldn't talk their way out of anything, they couldn't peacefully resolve any conflict, violence seemed to be the only answer.
Her eyes creaked open; watching as the miner slowly raised his ax to the air, ready to kill her just as he had his dear friends when he was human. She didn't want to die; she didn't want to, she couldn't die.
Her body took over for her, survival instinct kicking in as she rolled out of the way as fast as she could, watching as the pick ax slammed hard into the ground, sending up dust and dirt in the process.
She was afraid, more so than she ever remembered, but she could not be, not in Boletaria. She had to toughen up, whether she liked it or not, or she would die here and now, before her journey had even begun. Her friends had resigned long ago that violence seemed to be the only option, but she had decided long ago that there were alternatives.
She couldn't kill this man, not directly, but he could die, and that was all she needed to know. She scrambled to her feet in an instant, running past the miner and back into the oasis, where she spied her sword on the floor. She scooped it up, running over to the door as fast as she could; she had to be quick with this.
She got the idea when she had tripped, it flashed into her mind, a metaphorical flame appearing above her head in response. She grabbed the nearest thing she saw, which happened to be a barrel of pick axes and tugged with all her might until it collapsed onto the ground, spilling them everywhere.
If her plan failed, she would be dead, but if it worked, the beast would be dead in her place. She slowly lowered herself onto the ground, until she was on her knees, and raised her sword in a slanted position to the door, this had to work.
The miner stumbled slowly as it yanked its ax from the ground, turning back towards its prey and continuing the pursuit, not caring if it was running, hiding, or fighting, it just saw a fresh soul.
Making its way to the doorway, Tsukasa couldn't help but smile inside as the beast mindlessly tripped over the pile of pick axes, almost as if it had seen them but paid no mind anyway. It fell, almost in slow motion, directly onto Tsukasa's sword.
The blade stabbed into its fleshy abdomen as it was skewered onto the point, slowly sinking lower and lower until the sword was so deep it tore from its spine, light purple blood gently squirting out in the process.
Tsukasa dropped the sword with a scream, and by extension, the miner impaled upon it. She crawled away and backed herself up against the wall, watching as the miner squirmed to remove the blade in its person, but failing.
She watched as it took its final few breaths before it succumbed to its wounds, and slipped into the release of death.
The bow-haired girl couldn't help it when a few salty tears slithered down her cheeks; she truly did feel sorry for the poor thing, even if it had tried to kill her but moments ago. In a moment of odd foresight, she realized the noise had probably alerted the other miners in the area, and decided she had no time to rest or grieve for the husk, she needed to keep going.
She carefully tore the blade from the gut of the miner, shivering slightly when she saw its fresh blood upon it, and slipped it back into her sheathe. Her suspicions were correct about the miners, they had come to check out the disturbance, but she had the upper hand of knowing how they worked now.
They were slow, and if she ran, they'd never be able to keep up. Spotting a nearby staircase, she ran up it as fast as she could, tearing up the ground as she sprinted as fast as she could, leaving the poor miners to continue their job for all eternity.
It wasn't long before she found herself in a completely new area, with one extreme change. It was hot, really hot, she found herself actively beginning to sweat as she walked deeper and deeper. Not only that, but it was covered by a gentle steam, misting the area and fogging the vision, it would be a dangerous trek indeed.
The walls were slicked with water, residue from the constant steam slowly dripping downwards. The area was lit, but not by torches, there seemed to be an ominous red glow in the distance, but she didn't know what it stemmed from, it was bright whatever it was.
Within the drips and drops of water from the stalagmites, the silent hiss of the mist, not to mention her own footwork and breathing, she heard something. It was faint at first, but it seemed to grow the farther she went. At first it sounded like the wind, perhaps from a crack in the wall, or maybe even a way out of this place, but the more she listened, this idea was debunked.
There was an almost melodic quality to it, and that's when it hit her, singing, it sounded like someone was singing. But who? Surely there was nobody alive in this place, or at least what she considered alive, to be of sound mind and body, which the miners certainly didn't qualify for.
"Hodo no naku…kumo to narinuru…kimi nareba…"
The singing seemed to be in some sort of exotic language, Tsukasa noted, it was times like this she wished she had actually listened a little more intently during school, like her sister.
"Mukashi no yume no…kokochi koso sure…"
The music oddly offset the creepiness that seemed to ooze out of the mine, it was haunting, but in a beautiful way. It came from the light tones of a woman, this much she could tell, and the sound seemed to radiate throughout the tight halls of the mine, slowly growing ever louder as she approached whatever was making it.
"Agakimi no…owasu tokoro wa…totsukuni ni…"
As she approached the red light, her eyes almost plopped out of her skull as she beheld what it emanated from. It was a pool of deep red lava, crusty rock dully floating on its murky surface; this was the cause of the steam and the light. The pool of lava seemed to stretch for at least several hundred feet, several hundred feet of bubbling, sizzling goop; she certainly wouldn't be going that way.
"Hi wa medetaku mo…sode o nuretsutsu…"
It was then that she noticed the singing seemed to be coming across the pit of lava, or that general direction anyway. Her suspicions were made known when she saw a shadow huddled to the ground on the other side of the lake, digging through some broken and forgotten objects on the ground. Was it a miner? Surely not, it probably wouldn't be able to sing, or at least not that beautifully, she thought with a small smirk.
Tsukasa knew it was a dumb idea, and that silence was supposed to be of the essence in any dangerous situation, but she just couldn't help herself, the singing intrigued her too much, she wanted to know who possessed such amazing pipes, and absent mindedly, she began hopping up and down and flailing her arms to and fro like a small child.
"Hey! Hey you!" She yelled out with a giggle, noticing that the figure suddenly halted in its singing and glanced upwards from the pile it was currently digging through.
The figure did nothing but turn to leave, and quickly Tsukasa noted, vanishing out of sight quickly as it had come. Groaning to herself, Tsukasa was a little disappointed, even if she probably shouldn't have been, ten to one says it was likely a demon anyway she thought.
At the word demon, she couldn't help but overhear a different noise behind her, but this sounded quite unlike the low, docile groan of the miners. It was a hiss, almost snake-like in nature, and turning to face it, she couldn't help but gasp.
It was a gecko, or would have passed for one at some point; she knew this because she had seen the creatures in a text at school once. Everything about it seemed to scream it was a gecko, just a normal gecko, except for the fact that it was nearly the size of a dog, and completely bathed in fire.
The beast hissed at her once more, and she wretched her sword out in response. It didn't seem to pose any threat, but she had to be sure, maybe it was just a dumb animal.
Her hope of the beast not posing any threat quickly vanished when out of the corner of her eye, she spotted several more of the fiery lizards climbing down the walls, dripping fresh lava off their frames and instantly frying anything they touched.
How was she to fight these beasts? There could be no way, her sword would melt on contact, and she'd probably end up burning herself as well. She surveyed her options, which were next to none, and decided to hightail it out of there.
She sprinted as fast as she could, almost dropping her blade when she noticed the beasts were keeping up with her, their stubby little legs working with the efficiency of a machine, their long tongues whipping around as their heads bobbed to and fro, lava dripping from their maws and sizzling the muddy ground at their feet.
Her running came to a sudden and unforgiving end when she nearly flew off a drop directly in front of her feet, she barely stopped quickly enough.
The drop led down deep, so deep she couldn't even discern a definitive bottom. The walls were lined with broken walkways, each one attempting to connect to the other, but age and destruction had gotten the best of them, rotting them away like the rest of the mine. Tsukasa mused that at one point, this was likely transportation into the deeper parts of the mine, but it seemed impossible to trek deeper at this point.
She turned at the sound of hissing, and found herself backed up against the cliff with the lizards slowly closing in, she was cornered.
She had no options, she couldn't fight them, she was done for. As she clenched her eyes shut and braced for death, she was startled when oddly enough, it never came.
The de facto 'leader' of the lizard suddenly leapt like a cat at the young girl, only for it to be suddenly impaled by a large, snarled looking arrow and flung across the room.
The bow-haired girl's eyes traveled to the arrow's launcher, which she couldn't clearly see, the figure was bathed in shadow, drawn bow in hand.
"Hey! You gotta jump if you wanna live!" The voice suddenly called out, and as Tsukasa noted, it was female, and extremely high-pitched, almost to the point of a child.
"W-What…?" The bow-haired girl mumbled as she turned to look at the pit, how was it her savior figured she might live? It was then that Tsukasa had a slim idea what she meant, even if her heart rocketed to her throat at the thought of it.
The stranger was asking her to make a leap of faith and attempt to jump onto one of the old, musty boardwalks below her, which was about a fifteen foot drop. Not only would she probably break her legs, have the board break and fall, and then die, she might just have a heart attack from the fall, pretty much anyway she looked at it the outcome seemed bleak.
"You're joking, right?" She yelled back hopefully at her savior, only to be met with a hearty laugh from the shadowy figure.
"Nope, 'fraid not! Trust me! Just aim for the center of the platform!" As she explained, the girl fired another arrow, which lodged itself directly in the skull of one of the lava geckos.
Tsukasa heard the squeal of the beast and turned around; noticing somehow that at least a dozen more geckos had showed up while she decided on a route to take. It seemed jumping was the only option, and focusing on the pit, she nearly heaved at the sight.
She tried to cut out her peripheral vision altogether, and just center on the closest platform, which even though it was the closest, was still quite the leap. Tsukasa recalled something from her school days, something about momentum being factors in distance. Turning around, she grimaced at the horde of geckos; she didn't really have a lot of room to make a running jump.
She'd need to make her own momentum, whilst standing still, and once again at the thought, she remembered something else from school, it really did come in handy sometimes.
Slowly, the bow-haired girl began to swing her arms back and forth like pendulums, slow at first, but soon enough she was doing it with alarming speed. While doing this, she gently bend her knees, her position had to perfect.
She wasn't an athlete by any means, and while she certainly wasn't out of shape, she wasn't exactly in shape for this type of activity either. Even people like her friend Konata, for whom something like this would be much easier, even she would still have difficulties attempting a leap like this.
Calm, she had to be calm. She couldn't let her mind wander to the dangers of jumping, but of her relief when she would gracelessly land against the hard wooden platform. She'd need to tuck and roll to avoid breaking anything, but most of all, she just needed to not think about it. That was probably the hardest thing, she mused, who doesn't think about death when attempting to jump into an endless pit?
She stilled her breathing, focused as much as possible, and drown out all sound. The light tug of the archers bow as she fired another arrow, the growl of a gecko as it's hide was pierced by a steel tip, the sizzling of fire at their feet, the drumming of her heart, it all stopped in an instant.
And then, she jumped.
Author's Note: Oh man, at first I really dreaded writing this chapter because it focused on Tsukasa, who I really never capture correctly, but then I started to really get into it. Unfortunately I had to end the chapter much earlier than intended, because I found a bit within that had too perfect of a cliffhanger, literally. I was sort of bumming when I didn't see any new reviews popping up for a few chapters, even if oddly enough as it seems, the farther my story goes I get more readers, they just don't review. Lo and behold my awe when I saw an extremely long, detailed and thoughtful review by a user known as LilithRyoko, which inspired me to all hell, I pretty much dropped everything and began the next chapter. The next chapter is gonna be somewhat of a gamble for me, because I don't really know who or what I want to focus on...eh, I guess we'll have to see. By the way this was the experimental chapter I had intended on implementing last chapter, but didn't. And if you don't remember, that was a chapter with as little dialogue as possible, which by the end, I was pretty proud of. I guess it wasn't nearly as difficult as I had imagined.
P.S.: The song that Tsukasa's savior sings is actually a real song, kudos to you if you know what it is, or understand what she's saying.
P.S.S.: Do I suck at writing Tsukasa? God dammit, give me a break, I'm trying here!
P.S.S.S.: REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW.
P.S.S.S.S.: Review, thanks. Hasta la bye bye!