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Post by Fiera Ferella on Aug 3, 2019 10:08:26 GMT -6
She had been doing a lot of running about in the city lately. She was still a newcomer here, and it was difficult to get oneself established. She had survived by doing odd jobs and selling the fruits of her labors (gemstones from the mines and various doodads from the Eccentric's Mansion), but it was still quite a hustle to make rent. Her pets knew nothing of this, obviously- she made sure they wanted for nothing, and the results showed in their happy faces and eager body language. Despite that however, it was difficult to not feel tired. Part of Fiera longed for the easy days of her childhood, growing up in a big house with a rich family, wearing fine clothes and playing with nice toys. She frowned as she remembered how that was all a facade, however. Her family was nowhere near as nice as it claimed to be.
Fiera 18 Algol 7.3/7.3 [Post 18]
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Aug 3, 2019 10:38:08 GMT -6
The Ferella household was all pretty faces and smiles on the outside, but inside, the competition between Fiera and her siblings was brutal. She hated every last one of her brothers and sisters, but it wasn't necessarily their fault. Mother thought it would be best to pit them against each other in competitions to earn her love or just her approval, for the sake of 'toughening them up' and 'preparing them for the real world'. Well, turns out the real world sucked, and it sucked a lot harder when you didn't have family to rely on because you all hated each other. Fiera wiped her brow. Ugh. That was a bad train of thought. She was glad she got out of it at least, one way or another. Granted, joining a revolutionary movement, becoming an enemy of the state, and being exiled wasn't the EASIEST way of getting out but... she did.
Fiera 19 Algol 7.4/7.4 [Post 19]
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Aug 3, 2019 10:48:53 GMT -6
Now she was here, chopping away at a solid stone wall in the middle of some weird science and magic city in the middle of who knows where, covered in sweat, dirt, and dragon drool. And honestly? It felt pretty good. She might not be living the most glamorous life right now (though she was getting there. She'd get there. It was a goal.), but what she was doing was honest (well, mostly, she was trespassing in someone else's tunnel right now) and she was working her way up. Being able to do all of that without her mother breathing down her neck? Was a dream come true. She'd take any hardship if it meant not having to go through all the crap from back home again. She stopped for a breather, and smiled to herself. Even now, she was making progress- albeit in making a large hole in the wall and not anything emotional or fiscal.
Fiera 20 (Level up!) Algol 8.0/8.0 [Post 20]
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Post by Renathan on Aug 3, 2019 16:11:53 GMT -6
Another two incredibly interesting gems could be found; one pale and purple-y, and a nearly mossy looking stone. [11-20]
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Aug 4, 2019 12:12:53 GMT -6
Sure enough, as she worked, two particularly glittery stones came tumbling out of the wall. She examined both of them, pointedly ignoring the weird noises Algol was making behind her. She had already mined out several rocks already, of course, but these two seemed particularly promising, shot through with colorful veins of purple and green. She set them down in front of her and got to work, switching from her pickaxe to a smaller chisel, using her mallet on the end of it to chip off chunks of each one. She was very careful to not split them in half on accident. The larger she could keep them, the more valuable they would be worth in the end, after all. And while she liked gemstones of course, earning credits was the name of the game. She... wasn't too good at chiseling them out, however, and they looked a little rough.
Fiera 1 Algol 8.1/8.1 [Post 21]
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Aug 4, 2019 12:17:17 GMT -6
She groaned, turning the green one over. It was kind of square shaped now? She supposed she should learn some jewelry making skills next time she was in town- it might help her out with all this stuff. After taking off another chunk that was far larger than she wanted it to be, Fiera huffed and got out her tweezers and brush instead. It might take forever, but at least she wouldn't completely destroy them. She began to work, pulling off pieces, pebble by pebble, with the occasional entrance of the chisel just to make those pebbles easier to pull off. At some point during this process, Algol decided that he wanted to see what she was doing, and shoved his head under her arm, still drooling everywhere due to the rock still held in his mouth. She groaned as he sniffed loudly at the rocks she was working on.
Fiera 2 Algol 8.2/8.2 [Post 22]
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Aug 4, 2019 12:23:21 GMT -6
"Dude, come on, get off. You already have a rock." Fiera grumbled, trying to push his little brown nose back through the gap between her side and her arm. He resisted though, trilling as if this was a fun game. "Come on, NO." She said firmly, and Algol huffed, finally retreating. "Phew." She said. "Good boy, Algol." He wasn't listening anymore however, and had gone back to his game of chasing around his rock. Well, that was probably for the best, Fiera thought. She didn't need the sarane hatchling jostling her arm, causing her to break one of these entirely. They were certainly proving more difficult in comparison to the other gems she had found so far, which were either lying on the ground, or embedded in a rock that was easily broken open to retrieve its valuable payload. These, while clearly having something of value inside, were giving Fiera a run for her money.
Fiera 3 Algol 8.3/8.3 [Post 23]
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Aug 4, 2019 12:29:59 GMT -6
After a few more minutes of work however, Fiera was finally able to see parts of the gems proper inside the stones. The purpley one was shimmery and opalescent, looking almost like a deep lavender pool. The other was more natural looking, like a mossy stone turned to crystal, shot through with lighter streaks. Unfortunately, both still looked rather... messy. Bits of plain rock still clung to them, covering up parts of their beautiful forms and making them look rough and unfinished. Fiera continued with her work, gently chiseling off larger chunks and picking off smaller chunks with her tweezers, before brushing the dust off with her brush. Finally, she had them about as good as she could get them- until she got home and buffed them, however. Still a little messy looking, but it was clear what they were now, at least. Furthermore, they were both of a decent size.
Fiera 4 Algol 8.4/8.4 [Post 24]
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Aug 4, 2019 12:32:41 GMT -6
Yes, once she was able to polish them off, Fiera figured that both of these stones would earn a pretty penny in The Underground. She almost couldn't wait to show them to Kor. For now however, she popped open her mine cart again. She shoved Algol off once more- the hatchling's curiosity was relentless, and the cart was as of yet unexplored territory. Then, she placed the gems in safely with the others, closing the cart again with a satisfying click. Two more for the road! Happy with her progress, she put her brush, tweezers, and chisel away, and retrieved her trusty pick ax again. The vein in the wall was looking somewhat depleted however- would she even be able to find anything else in it? The shimmer she saw before had faded, and her flashlight didn't indicate much else in there. Ah well she thought, giving it another couple of good whacks. She'd just have to dig a bit more and see.
Fiera 5 Algol 9.0/9.0 [Post 25]
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Post by Renathan on Aug 4, 2019 14:41:04 GMT -6
The stone resembles a snowy night, perhaps; what a beautiful find! A rather decent sized hunk, as well.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Aug 4, 2019 21:29:27 GMT -6
Just as Fiera thought she could go no further, another hunk of stone fell out of the wall- with a beautiful, snowy blue stone embedded in it. She picked it up with wonder, turning it around. It was easily as big as the other two she had found, and even after she got out her smaller tools (the chisel, tweezers, and brush), she found it required little cleaning up. It was practically pristine! A fantastic find, all things considered. She happily added it to the growing pile in her mining cart. This trip was going very well- she had found as many gems in the first hours she had been here as she had found in the whole previous month! It was a relief, to be honest- it looked like the bad luck she had last month was finally clearing up. Or, perhaps, the bad equipment had been her problem.
Fiera 6 Algol 9.1/9.1 [Post 26]
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Aug 4, 2019 22:34:09 GMT -6
Regardless, she had the full set of equipment now, and it was certainly doing her well, if her haul of gems was any indication. Things were definitely looking up. Still, it looked like this spot had been just about worn out. That last blue gem stone may well have been the last of them. The vein she had been working on was now a two foot tall by three feet wide hole in the wall, about two feet deep as well. Moving her flashlight around, she could no longer detect any of that glimmer she saw before. Instead, the rock inside the gash was as dull as the stone around it, illuminated only by her flashlight. She supposed it couldn't be helped- no vein was infinite, and she had gotten a pretty good haul out of that one. It had done its duty, and now it was time for Fiera to move on.
Fiera 7 Algol 9.2/9.2 [Post 27]
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Aug 4, 2019 22:39:33 GMT -6
She swept her flashlight down the tunnel. It looked just like the rest of the tunnel, to be honest. Plain grey stone, with the LED lights attached to either wall. Not particularly exciting. She couldn't detect any more veins either, from what she could see. Perhaps they were further down- she was still pretty early in the tunnel after all, perhaps all the gems that were here had been mined for the most part, and Fiera had just dug out some of the remaining scraps. She crept forward carefully, with Algol following close behind. While the flashlight provided enough light when she was stationary, apparently when she began to move, the rapidly shifting darkness scared the small creature. As a result, he hugged close to his owner's ankles, making her practically trip over him in his attempts to stay near. She couldn't get that mad though- it was quite endearing.
Fiera 8 Algol 9.3/9.3 [Post 28]
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Aug 4, 2019 22:42:02 GMT -6
She tried to detect anything different as she traveled down the tunnel. The ground underfoot was mostly made of rubble from the walls. She was careful to keep a close eye on it for any attractive glints in the pebbles. After all, she had already found several gems like that. It was amazing what some people left behind, even if it was just an accident! Still, there didn't seem to be any in this immediate area. She did feel SOMETHING different about the walls however, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. A different texture? A different shape? Perhaps the person who had originally mined this tunnel switched to a different tool to dig it, but she didn't know enough about mining tools to say for sure. Overall, she was just left with a sense that the passageway was changing in some aspect. She'd have to keep an eye on that.
Fiera 9 Algol 9.4/9.4 [Post 29]
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Aug 4, 2019 22:44:23 GMT -6
And then it hit her. Literally, as it was, seeing as she felt something brush against the tips of her feline ears. She flicked them with irritation, and looked up- only to find the ceiling mere inches from her face. That was it- the tunnel was slowly but surely shrinking in diameter. She supposed that made sense- this tunnel had been dug out by, presumably, just one person. It wasn't going to be too deep, nor was it going to be too refined. The miner in question was likely going for distance, not comfort, and thus the tunnel shrunk to whatever space they could feasibly fit in and mine in at the same time. As a result, the further down she went, the smaller the tunnel would get. Not a problem for Algol of course, who was a fraction of Fiera's size, but she got the feeling it would get annoying, fast for her.
Fiera 10 Algol 10.0/10.0 [Post 30]
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