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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 6, 2022 12:17:37 GMT -6
No, by far the biggest focal point of the room was the enormous nest in the center of it. Well, enormous in a sense. Fiera knew that the biggest creatures she had seen down here that might build a nest were the gem dragons. Tunnel worms weren't really the "nest building" sort- they were far more likely to just lay their eggs in a big gloppy pile. (Which was far from a pleasant thing to find down in the mines, Fiera mused.) Considering that gem dragons were the size of a housecat, this nest was huge for their purposes. It took up the majority of the floor, with Fiera having nearly stepped on it as she did her little stretching routine. About four feet across, it was made mostly of different kinds of moss and mushroom- some of the few soft things that a creature could find down here in the tunnels.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 7, 2022 9:17:54 GMT -6
That squishy center would have made it perfect for any eggs the creature laid- if gem wyrms and drakes DID lay eggs. Fiera couldn't really be sure- it wasn't like any of HERS were doing that. But the real centerpiece of this nest was the rim. The creature that built it had laid all sorts of glittering stones around the edges. Some of them were just particularly shiny pieces of rock or pebbles smoothed down in underground streams, but Fiera recognized quite a few of them as potentially valuable gemstones, already dug out and laid right at her feet. "Oh, now THOSE I can work with." She said to herself, crouching down to get a better look. She wondered for a moment what their purpose was- did lady drakes prefer males who could find better gems? She supposed that made sense- these rocks were also their food source, so the more a mate could find, the better.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 7, 2022 9:29:33 GMT -6
So the brighter, shinier rocks implied a higher quality food source. Fiera wondered how long then that this nest must have taken to make. And the lack of eggs (or any sign of use, really) implied that they hadn't yet found a mate to show it off to yet. Which meant that if Fiera decided to take these gems, she would be looting the hard work of a creature that undoubtedly put a huge amount of effort into this nest, slaving away over it for weeks... and now she was just going to take it to pieces. Was that wrong, morally? She put a finger on her chin. Yeah, probably. She was still going to do it, though. Free gemstones. Besides, this tunnel was right off of the main thoroughfare anyway. If she didn't do it, she was sure someone else would within a week- especially considering some people had creatures bred to hunt gems.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 7, 2022 9:31:36 GMT -6
Snowdrop wasn't one of them, but she was certainly happy to "help", batting gems across the floor as Fiera picked them up, putting the valuable looking ones in her cart. She let the tailypo continue to play with a little red one as Fiera went around the periphery of the nest, carefully picking up the gems while leaving the soft stuffing in the center alone. Even if she was looting this creature's home for everything it was worth, that didn't mean she had to completely ruin it. They could rebuild the periphery later, and she was still leaving them a couple of rocks. After a few minutes, the edge of the nest had been stripped of everything valuable, and Fiera had a decent handful of gems for her trouble. "Well that was easy!" She remarked to herself. "And I didn't even have to do any heavy lifting!" She said with a chuckle.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 7, 2022 9:36:12 GMT -6
She gave the cave another look around, glancing up at the ceiling and to the sides. There weren't any more tunnels leading further down, not as far as she could tell. And she didn't want to start hammering randomly at the walls. They were made of very hard stone for one- it would be difficult, unforgiving work, and she wasn't sure it was worth the effort considering that this wasn't a manmade tunnel. Chances are, there wouldn't be much of value here. The other reason was that she didn't want to stay here longer than needed and risk meeting the creature whom she had just robbed. The odds were stacked against her in that case- even if they didn't find out that she was the one robbing their nest, they probably wouldn't be happy to find a random creature ambling around their territory. Fiera wasn't in the mood to get bitten today.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 7, 2022 9:39:57 GMT -6
Snowdrop was pretty powerful by now, but Fiera didn't want to see who would win in a fight between a tailypo and a gem wyrm. So she decided to head out again, as uncomfortable as it was. "Come on, Snowdrop!" Fiera said, tugging on the narrow lead. The tailypo looked up from the rock she had been playing with begrudgingly, but followed along once she saw that Fiera was pushing the mine cart back into its tunnel, nudging it with her foot. She trailed along behind Fiera once more as the humanish slotted herself into the tunnel, feeling the rocks encroach on her back once more. Mining wasn't for the claustrophobic, that was for sure. Still, she had managed to make this work in one direction, so she saw no reason that she would get stuck coming back out again. Even as the tunnel narrowed, it didn't bother Fiera much.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 7, 2022 9:51:12 GMT -6
Snowdrop was surprisingly happy to follow along; Fiera was surprised that there was no resistance on her lead, and the humanish glanced back to make sure that she was actually following her and didn't somehow manage to slip the lead. Sure enough though, Snowdrop was following along... and holding the rock she had been playing with in her mouth. "Ah, taking your toys with you?" Fiera said with a wry grin, only for Snowdrop to blink up at her. If it made her happy, then sure she could bring it with her. Fiera didn't see much of a difference between the rock she was holding and all of the random bits of rubble and cast off surrounding them, but she wasn't about to argue. She was being awfully polite right now. With her spirits reassured, Fiera continued shuffling along back down the tunnel, keeping the mine cart gliding alongside her.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 7, 2022 9:57:00 GMT -6
Soon she could see a light ahead- and not just the light from her headlamp. She was pressed between the walls such that she couldn't reach her free hand up to turn off her headlamp as it was behind her head... and the other hand was holding the lead for the mine cart and Snowdrop by extension. If she dropped that, she wouldn't be able to pick it up again as the tunnel made it impossible to bend over. So she would just have to deal with her headlamp being on and not being able to see the room beyond. Which was fine by her- she already knew what was in it anyway. A dozen more feet and she was finally out, switching off her headlamp first thing. She was a bit dustier than when she first entered the tunnel, but she was a heck of a lot more rich too.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 7, 2022 10:00:40 GMT -6
Snowdrop padded out behind her, her wide mouth stuck in an almost perpetually smiling expression. You wouldn't be able to tell she had been in a dusty, dirty spot of the mines at all with how her coat gleamed. "...Good girl, Snowdrop." Fiera said, giving the tailypo a pat on the head. She had behaved very well back there, and Fiera definitely wanted to keep a lid on her more "mischevious" behaviors. If that meant giving her praise when she had done nothing but be generically good, then so be it. Snowdrop purred as Fiera ran her dusty fingers through the fur on her head, leaving behind ashy little spots. "Oh uh, oops." Fiera muttered to herself. She could give Snowdrop a good bath later... though the tailypo might not be too appreciative of it. But who knew, Snowdrop liked other forms of grooming- maybe a bath wouldn't be so bad.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 7, 2022 10:02:47 GMT -6
Fiera stretched and dusted herself off as she glanced around the cavernous main room of the mines, taking the opportunity to relax a bit while planning her next move. That tunnel had proven surprisingly profitable and with very little effort, but Fiera was sure that she wouldn't get that kind of luck twice. She was definitely going to have to do some real mining at some point. She looked at two tunnels on the far side, mentally flipping a coin between them. Inevitably, a lot of these tunnels were pretty hard to differentiate. One was probably going to be just as good as the other. Just as she was about to pick one however, she saw Snowdrop move suddenly out of the corner of her eye. She glanced down- a smudge of bright green flowed through her vision, and she realized that she was just picking up on the tail end of a gem wyrm crawling into the tunnel.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 7, 2022 10:04:57 GMT -6
She watched it go for a moment, wondering if perhaps she should try to tame it- until she remembered the nest back in the tunnel. There was no way that wasn't the creature she just robbed of all its valuables. "...Oooh, dear." She said to herself, and then began power walking towards one of the larger tunnels on the far side of the room. It didn't matter which one she picked, she and Snowdrop just needed to get as far away from the "scene of the crime" as possible. Snowdrop seemed eager to leave too, glancing back towards where the strange creature that had spooked her had disappeared. Apparently the tailypo thought the creatures made of rock were creepy- ironic, considering most peoples' perception of Snowdrop's own species. Soon Fiera had reached the mouth of the tunnels, and after a brief glance she went down the one on her left- it was closer.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 7, 2022 11:32:50 GMT -6
Despite her haste, Fiera didn't hear anything following her down the tunnel- a very good sign. Still, she wasn't about to let up on her harried pace, and she barely glanced at the tunnel walls as she passed them by. They were pretty standard, anyway. The larger tunnels like this that had been well carved and traversed usually had electric lights strung up along the walls to make it easier to see. The floors were often ground smooth as well for easier passing with mine carts so it was faster to get to the more lucrative parts of the mines further down. And finally, the ceilings had been carved out and high such that even your average uthax could pass through with no trouble. As she realized she wasn't about to be pursued, Fiera finally slowed down on the path, keeping an eye out for any place she could turn off.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 7, 2022 11:36:00 GMT -6
After all, now that the sense of urgency was gone the humanish could begin to think about where to go next. Despite the neat little pile she had already, she still wanted to find more gems on this trip, and she had plenty of places to look in. She glanced around- the walls of this tunnel seemed soft enough (a trait she could judge by the echo- the sharper the noise, the harder the stone. It had taken her a while to figure out HOW she knew this without testing the stone, but once she did it seemed simple.) to dig through easily, but weren't on the level of say, sandstone. It would take a decent amount of effort and she was far more likely to find gems and not fossils. Which was a shame in a way- she always did enjoy digging up a good fossil and trading it in for a new pet.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 7, 2022 11:38:17 GMT -6
But alas, she already had plenty of pets and she needed to focus on other things today. Even if she did dig one up, it would be in her best interests to sell it instead of keeping it for herself. Fiera passed by plenty of tunnels that had been carved out of the walls of the main tunnel, hearing the distant sounds of work within them. She wasn't going to try bumping shoulders with another miner. There was already a drought of elbow room down here and there was hot competition for the fruits of the earth, and so most people found it quite distasteful for someone to mine right next to you- vulturesque, if you would. So Fiera tried to give the other diggers a wide berth, and would snap at anyone who came near her. She had the right after all, in terms of etiquette. Or at least that was how she justified it to herself.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 7, 2022 11:44:59 GMT -6
Soon though, the tunnels she passed by had no sounds coming from them at all except for the tinkle of crumbling rock, the scrabbling of unseen creatures, or the sound of her own footsteps echoed back to her off of the cave walls. These were the ideals path for her to head down- she just needed to pick one. "What do you think, Snowdrop?" She said, turning to the tailypo. Might as well give her pet some input here. The little feline couldn't possibly understand what Fiera was asking of her, but all the same she seemed to have some idea of what was going on. Just like Fiera she was scanning those yawning holes in the wall, her ears flicking as she was no doubt hearing far more details than her owner's ears were picking up. The humanish was about to turn away and pick a random tunnel when Snowdrop suddenly stopped.
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