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Post by Fiera Ferella on Dec 31, 2023 19:18:32 GMT -6
Fiera turned to her lamadidron. "Well, what do you think? I- oh." She said, suddenly cut off as Krista started making a beeline for the right path of her own regard. "Well, I guess that answers that, then." Fiera muttered, yanking the mine cart along behind her in an attempt to keep up. It was awkward with one arm being yanked towards her pet and the other dragging an unwilling wheeled device behind her, but she managed it as she finally dragged it onto the smoother ground of the path. "Ugh, finally." Fiera said, keeping a firm grip on the lead so she could catch her breath for a moment. When she was done she started up the path again, but she quickly noticed something a bit... off. She sniffed at the air a bit. It felt especially humid, and she noticed that the tunnel was curving around as they walked.
Fiera 17 Krista 7.2/9.2 32
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Dec 31, 2023 21:18:43 GMT -6
Soon it curved until they were moving parallel to their original direction, and Fiera started to have a sinking feeling about all of this. The path they walked soon opened up more and more until it was a full room- with a massive, steaming pool in the middle. "Oh... geez." Fiera said, looking across it. It was a full hot spring- something rare at this level of the caves, but a hot commodity given that some people believed they had healing effects. Krista snorted and backed away from it- she clearly wanted nothing to do with this boiling pit. Fiera couldn't blame her, given her breed. "How about I check it out myself, eh?" She said, giving Krista an affectionate pat on the head. Then she leaned down to tie the glacier lamadidron's lead around a rock. She gave it a sharp tug and sure enough, it didn't budge. She was free to investigate.
Fiera 18 Krista 7.3/9.3 33
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Dec 31, 2023 21:23:59 GMT -6
With her pet safely restrained, Fiera ambled her way along the edge of the hot spring. Normally these were split up into separate pools, different upwellings into an uneven surface, but an apparently pre-existing basin in this room had produced a single large natural pool. Fiera tapped on a bit of hardened calcium on the edge of the pool. Pretty, but not particularly valuable. Still, this pool was interesting enough to investigate on its own, and Fiera soon saw something interesting on the far side- a splash. She got closer and sure enough, there was the noise of trickling water and ripples in the surface on this side of the pool. Perhaps a creature of some sort? Fiera peered deeper into the water, shining her flashlight in to get a better look, only to see the water disappearing into a hole near the bottom of the pool, swirling around in a spiral before sinking out of sight.
Fiera 19 Krista 7.4/9.4 34
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Dec 31, 2023 21:28:48 GMT -6
"I wonder where that's going..." Fiera muttered to herself, before realizing with a start. She did that. She pounded a hole in the wall trying to get a geode out, and now all the water was pouring out through it. A perfectly good hot spring, ruined. She glanced back at Krista. "I do believe I have made, as the kids say, a 'strategic whoopsie'." She said at the lamadidron before running back and retrieving her lead. "This could have been nice, but at least it now has, ah, ventilation?" She said, trying to justify it. It didn't work. "Whatever. The point is, we'd better scram before anyone else notices and realizes that I did that." She said, glancing back at the spring. Once she got past the bumpy part they had just passed through and sloshed through some hot water, it was pretty easy for Fiera to return to the surface- hopefully with nobody the wiser as to what she had gotten up to on her trip.
Fiera 20 Krista 8.0/10.0 35
(Fiera takes Krista and leaves the mines.)
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Post by Silver on Jan 6, 2024 7:16:57 GMT -6
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Mar 5, 2024 15:04:17 GMT -6
Fiera slipped down into the darkness with Mango riding quietly in the mine cart behind her. She didn't have much on her mind today other than minding Mango and mining gems. She had just sold a ton of them at The Underground, and while her wallet was heavier now, her metaphorical mine cart was not. She did certainly need the credits, but that meant that she now had to restock her stash, and she wasn't looking forward to it. In her opinion she had way better things to be doing- mostly training Mango for the tournament- which meant that doing anything else was a waste of time. And yet... she realized that she could just as easily go mining WITH Mango, so it wasn't too much of a let down. "Get in, get some more gems, and get out, right Mango?" She said, looking over her shoulder at her pet. Fiera 1 Mango 8.1/10.1 1
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Mar 5, 2024 15:07:43 GMT -6
Right now he was trembling, but not out of fear... well, not necessarily out of fear. He was still a bit of a wuss. Instead, the minecart was bouncing over various small stones and unevenness in the path beneath them, making his huge head jiggle around like a bobblehead. Other than that though, he didn't seem to be in much distress- until they entered the main thoroughfare of the mines, the central room underground before it split off into tunnels. There were already at least a dozen other people here, some of them chatting, some of them tallying up the goods they had found, some of them preparing to go deeper. All sorts of creatures followed them as well, mostly gem familiars but a few of them pack animals or tracking creatures. Mango shied away at the sight of them, not being used to seeing working animals in his day to day.
Fiera 2 Mango 8.2/10.2 2
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Mar 5, 2024 15:10:33 GMT -6
Fiera couldn't help but sigh. "You're going to have to get used to it Mango, you aren't the only creature in Pethia." She said disparagingly, and then thought to herself And you'll see far tougher in the tournament. But, she couldn't be TOO disparaging of her pet. He had already improved greatly from the little trembling beast she had first brought home, and was now happy to follow her around outside instead of shying away from every leaf blowing along the sidewalk or waving strand of grass. She just had to keep introducing him to new situations and he'd be braver in no time. As she thought that however, a nearby miner dropped a hammer accidentally and it clanged loudly against the ground, the sound echoing around the walls of the cave and right into Fiera's ears. She pressed them back, irritated at the loud noise before looking back at Mango.
Fiera 3 Mango 8.3/10.3 3
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Mar 5, 2024 15:17:53 GMT -6
Sure enough, he had retreated further into the mine cart as well, the sound having affected him even more. Fiera's ears were sensitive, but she was still only a humanish- she couldn't imagine how much more loud that must have been for him. "Let's get out of here, Mango." She said, and tugged on the cart's lead once more, pulling it down a random tunnel. There wasn't anything to be found in the main hall anyway- they'd be better off finding a quiet little corner where Fiera could mine in peace and Mango could adjust himself until he was comfortable. It didn't really matter which tunnel down she picked- they were all carved out pretty much at random, and all of them were likely to lead to SOMETHING interesting. This one didn't seem too special- medium density rock, no immediate signs of ore or gems. Pretty standard, but maybe she'd find something further down.
Fiera 4 Mango 8.4/10.4 4
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Mar 5, 2024 15:21:40 GMT -6
One thing she WAS noticing was that this tunnel was awfully steep. The further the walked, the more she realized she had to drop the lead on the mine cart. She did, and instead placed her hand on the front of it to keep it from rolling away ahead of her instead. Mango popped his head up and sniffed at her hand, but she couldn't take the time to stop and pet him right now. If it got away from her, it would end up... well, somewhere else very fast. Frankly, she had to wonder who would dig the tunnel like that. Normally mining tunnels were long with very slight slopes, allowing someone to dig out a maximum amount of material (and thus maximize their chances of finding something interesting) and making it as easy as possible to get back to the surface, even if you were laden with a large amount of rocks.
Fiera 5 Mango 9.0/11.0 5
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Mar 5, 2024 15:23:42 GMT -6
Instead, she found herself struggling to not slip down the slope, with Mango staring at her uneasily. Perhaps this was a bad idea- should she go back up? Even if she DID find a lot of gemstones and ores down here, it would be hell to get it all back up again. And yet... part of her still wanted to continue. Well, gravity definitely did. But chances are if she was being put off, a lot of people out there were less determined than her. Which meant that not many people had actually been down here, which meant that it was potentially quite untouched. She had the opportunity to find a lot of goodies right now- was she going to pass it up? Of course not. This was Fiera Ferella we're talking about- never one to back down from a challenge, even when everyone around her was literally begging her to.
Fiera 6 Mango 9.1/11.1 6
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Mar 5, 2024 15:53:17 GMT -6
And so Fiera allowed the mine cart to continue slipping down the slope in a way that she hoped looked controlled but really looked more like desperate floundering. Mango didn't seem to know whether he should be supportive or to panic- all of this was very strange to him. The sights, the smells, the other animals- there wasn't a single familiar thing here except Fiera, who was otherwise occupied. So instead he sat there in the minecart, curling his tail over his hooves and hoping things looked up for him soon. Fiera soon found that even though the tunnel was steep, it was at least straight so she could simply half walk, half slide straight backwards until she reached some manner of bottom. She knew it had to level out eventually- the tunnel couldn't go on forever. Or at least, it would finally stop at some point and she could get her bearings.
Fiera 7 Mango 9.2/11.2 7
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Mar 5, 2024 15:55:24 GMT -6
Sure enough, the ground eventually started smoothing and leveling out after what she guessed was around fifty feet. The tunnel was somewhat narrow here, with the ceiling just a foot or two over her head. She couldn't hear any other miners though, which was perfect- she enjoyed having her privacy down here. Having more than one person just made the whole situation a noisy, unbearable affair, even if it was someone she liked. Which, admittedly, wasn't a lot of people. As she tromped around the tunnel, she found it opening up into a more natural cave. Had someone just mined out wildly and hit it, or did they have a creature of some sort that guided them to it? It seemed a very odd tunnel to lead into a place like this, almost like it was dug with purpose to get its digger here as fast as possible. She hummed, thinking.
Fiera 8 Mango 9.3/11.3 8
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Mar 5, 2024 17:50:41 GMT -6
She had been "guided" in a particular direction sometimes as well, but that was usually the work of an elemental crystal. Their relentless humming had a tendency to vibrate in one's mind until they sought them out, if just to get the damn things to shut up already. So Fiera had often ended up making some pretty erratic tunnels to get to them in her time mining. But the sheer length and depth of this one... either this person had just kept finding elemental crystals, or there was one that was so massive- or perhaps so powerful- that it had an enormous range to compel someone to dig so far for it. Fiera couldn't even imagine such a thing. Looking around though, there didn't seem to be anything like that here now, and she felt none of that magical hum burning under her skin. If there was a crystal here once, it was long gone.
Fiera 9 Mango 9.4/11.4 9
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Mar 5, 2024 17:56:05 GMT -6
"What do you think, Mango? Smell anything?" She said, turning to her pet, but he merely tilted his head slightly in response, still not really understanding what they were doing down here. She asked it mostly rhetorically anyway as she scanned her surroundings. Fiera took the cover she had over her crystal torch off- she kept it covered in the upper levels because the lamplight was usually sufficient, and her torch was... bright, to say the least. It had a bit of a tendency to blind people if they looked at it for too long. It wasn't an issue to Fiera because their eyesight came back after a few moments, but it had netted her enough complaints that she didn't want to deal with that she decided to keep it covered until she got somewhere darker. As she took it off, the cave they were in came into full view.
Fiera 10 Mango 10.0/12.0 10
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