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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 5, 2024 14:52:12 GMT -6
But alas, she was stuck down here with Lincoln. He was strong, but not nimble in the slightest- and he CERTAINLY didn't have wings. He couldn't climb very well either- or at least, not this kind of wall. He was far too heavy for those rock spires. Chances are if he tried putting his weight on them, they would break and he'd plunge right through. Lucky for Fiera however, he wasn't stupid. Despite a large portion of this area being cutoff to her however, Fiera was still feeling enthusiastic about the place they had just come to. After all, it had access to the surface. That meant that every time it rained or flooded up above, it would all rush down here. It had been dry for a couple weeks however, so there was no standing water now- or at least, none that Fiera could see. That meant she was free to move about the area.
Fiera 20 Lincoln 28.0/30.0 5
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 14, 2024 10:50:30 GMT -6
Why was that access to the surface so important to Fiera? Well, all that water rushing down would gather in the center here- after running across literally everything on the surface of the stone above her. That was hundreds of feet worth of small pieces of debris being brought down, not to mention whatever was on “ground level” up in open air. That meant that any exposed gems, fossils, or surface goods were going to end up in one easy to search place at the bottom of this pit, ripe for the picking. As far as Fiera could tell, this place was relatively untouched too- she would be free to examine what was available at her leisure. With Lincoln’s help, it would be perfectly easy for the pair of them to dig through the rubble to find anything interesting that had been swept down into the mines with the summer rains.
Fiera 1 Lincoln 28.1/30.1 6
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 14, 2024 10:50:52 GMT -6
And Lincoln would help. He was a stubborn bastard, but only when it came to things he didn’t like. He had never been trained to pull a cart, so he wasn’t very pleased about having to do it now. But when it came to things like digging, which he greatly enjoyed, he was more than happy to obey Fiera’s orders and get to work. For now, Fiera wandered across the floor, looking for any piles of scree that they could dig through. Sure enough, along one of the bordering walls there was a huge, half-cone shaped pile of rubble and dust, washed down from the rain and building up from periodic rockfalls. “That’ll do.” Fiera muttered to herself, and ushered Lincoln to come closer. The lamadidron obeyed, eyeing the pile with an emerald green eye. Fiera walked around behind him, keeping an hand on his flank as she did so.
Fiera 2 Lincoln 28.2/30.3 7
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 14, 2024 10:51:09 GMT -6
After all, she didn’t want him misinterpreting any unexpected touches on her part as a sudden attack and smacking her away with his massive tail club. That would cut the journey to the mines short for both of them. Instead, she began unhooking the cart as she arrived at his flanks, slipping off the ropes and harnesses until he was free. Lincoln instantly stepped out of it, stretching as much as he could to show his relief. “You big baby.” Fiera snorted, cleaning up the various ropes and tucking them into the side of the cart. “It wasn’t THAT bad.” She said. Lincoln gave a plaintive honk in response as she finished cleaning up the cart before popping the lid off, revealing the emptiness inside. “It’ll be a lot harder to pull back UP.” She said with a smile, fully intending on filling the cart up by the end of the day.
Fiera 3 Lincoln 28.3/30.3 8
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 14, 2024 10:51:31 GMT -6
The humanish quickly yanked the cart over to the scree pile. Lincoln followed as well, and immediately seemed interested in the pile, gently scraping at it with one foot. “That’s the spirit!” Fiera said before pulling her shovel out of her bag. It rarely got a lot of use nowadays- normally when Fiera had something to mine, it was her pickaxe that got the spotlight, carefully chipping whatever it was out of solid rock. But the pickaxe wasn’t useful in all situations, and certainly not against a pile of loose chips of rock. Today was her shovel’s time to shine. Fiera got to work, plunging the shovel into the pile and slamming her foot down on the top of the blade to dig it in even further. Then she lifted out a heaping scoop of pebbles and slowly poured it off to the side, looking for any interesting glimmers within.
Fiera 4 Lincoln 28.4/30.4 9
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 14, 2024 10:51:50 GMT -6
It wasn’t the most sophisticated method of mining, but it would do the trick for sure. Lincoln seemed to pick up on what she was trying to do pretty quickly as well and began digging into the pile too, taking long, dragging scrapes out of the pile with his well suited claws. Fiera kept an eye on what he was kicking behind him as well, in case there was anything interesting in there. Sure enough, the humanish almost immediately dashed forward and snatching something out of the spray behind Lincoln’s claws before it could be buried by his next stroke. It was a bright red little gemstone, only as big as her pinkie, but a gem regardless. A carnelian, if she was remembering her gems right. She scrambled over to the mine cart to confirm, pulling her identification guide out of a pocket on the side. Yep, definitely a carnelian.
Fiera 5 Lincoln 29.0/31.0 10
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 14, 2024 10:52:08 GMT -6
Fiera gave a wry smile and tossed it into the mine cart. Hopefully it would be the first find of many. Lincoln had hesitated for a moment while Fiera ran into the path of his spray, but renewed his digging once she put the carnelian away. He was doing a much more thorough job of digging than she was, so Fiera decided to set her shovel down for now and sift through his cast-offs instead. It wasn’t too much effort- all she had to do really was to kick around through the piles he was digging up, seeing if there was anything interesting in them. Luckily all of these stones were quite small- some of them were borderline sand. But that meant she wasn’t likely to miss anything important. None of these were big enough to hide a geode or need further excavation to reveal something valuable within. What you saw was what you got.
Fiera 6 Lincoln 29.1/31.1 11
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 14, 2024 11:17:04 GMT -6
That being said, Fiera had to work fast. With each smooth stroke Lincoln kicked up a ton of pebbles, and it took every Fiera had to sort through them before they were buried again under another spray- or before one of the sprays caught her in the face. It didn't look like there was much to find for now though. It was mostly grey and brown pebbles, worn down from years of rainfall flowing over the scree pile, occasionally broken up by some piece of human(ish) junk like a candy wrapper or cigarette butt. There was even a fake- wait. Was it? At first Fiera thought it was just a trinket in the shape of a shell, but leaning down Fiera realized that the seashell she was looking at was, in fact, made of stone. "Oh, perfect!" She hissed in delight and snatched it up out of the spray.
Fiera 7 Lincoln 29.2/31.2 12
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 14, 2024 11:25:48 GMT -6
While the copper lamadidron continued to work, Fiera investigated the shell in more detail. Looking at it now, she was glad she picked it up- it was definitely a real fossil. Fiera was very quick to wrap it in protective paper and put it in the mine cart. Fossils were useful. VERY useful. She was amazed she found one so quickly and in such good condition, but she supposed it was just one object of many that could have been eroded out of the walls here. The use for it, of course, being the revival of fossil creatures. Fiera had two now herself, Sasha and Serendipity. They were quite small now, but both of them had proven very easy to train and were growing rapidly, easily outpacing her expectations. By the time they were fully grown, Fiera was sure they would be capable of wonders. Fiera could only imagine what sort of creature would come from this fossil.
Fiera 8 Lincoln 29/3/31.3 13
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 14, 2024 11:30:30 GMT -6
...And a few others. There was rarely enough genetic information in just ONE fossil to put together a creature. Maybe sometimes you'd get very lucky with a chunk of full amber, but with a dried up shell like this she'd need a few more to create a whole new fossil critter. She would have to check at home and see what she had lying around. For all she knew she already had enough of them for the process. Then she would have to make an appointment at the facility, bring them in, discuss marquise stones, figure out payment... ugh. Still, that would be a job for another day- for now she needed to focus on mining. The other things Lincoln was kicking up weren't all that valuable. A few tiny slivers of gems, but nothing that you could set into even an earring. They were practically sand, and not worth taking with her.
Fiera 9 Lincoln 29.4/31.4 14
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 14, 2024 11:40:07 GMT -6
Fiera felt her heart jump into her throat and a quick smile splash across her face as she saw a familiar yellow glimmer in the gravel however. She plunged her hand into it, not letting it get buried and pulled out- a chunk of gold! Finally, something of true value! It was only the size of a quarter and roughly spherical, but Fiera knew even such a small piece was worth an amazing amount of money. She turned it over in her hand, looking at it carefully, and... the smile started to fall from her face a bit. Something was... off... here. She had a sinking feeling, but she still ran to go get her identification guide to figure it out. Lincoln watched her retreat, slowing to a stop as she shuffled through the pages. No point in continuing if the humanish wasn't even going to pay attention to all of the great dirt he was flinging around.
Fiera 10 Lincoln 30.0/32.0 15
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 14, 2024 13:22:16 GMT -6
Fiera prayed she was wrong, but as she sifted further and further through the guide it became clear that she hadn't found a nugget of gold. Instead, it was pyrite- very similar in appearance, but not quite metallic and would eventually crumble away to dust instead of acting as a nice, flexible jewelry material. Fiera growled quietly, tossing it in the mine cart. It was still worth SOMETHING... just not a lot. She couldn't be disappointed it was garbage, but she COULD be disappointed it wasn't as valuable as she needed. She turned back to the pile of scree and as if on cue, Lincoln began digging again. At least one thing was working as she had hoped- Lincoln was pretty dedicated to his job today. "Thanks for your help, bud." Fiera said, giving him a pat on the flank. He honked in response, continuing to dig. She filtered through the stones with one hand, looking for anything good.
Fiera 11 Lincoln 30.1/32.1 16
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 14, 2024 13:27:56 GMT -6
She tried not to get her hopes up after that- she doubted she'd find anything super good after nabbing that fossil. She found a couple interesting tidbits- a rhodonite, a chrysacola, a sodalite. They were all very pretty in shades of pink and blue that stood out from the surrounding stones, which made it very easy for Fiera to pick them out from the crowd. But none of them were of particular value to her- anyone could find these gems down here. She wasn't much for handcrafting items or jewelrymaking- she'd let someone else perform that hard labor and spend her credits to buy the spoil of their labor. But that meant that these weren't too interesting. A few more credits in her pocket, but nothing more. She gave a slight hum of interest and deposited them in the mine cart. Then she returned to the pile kicked up, looking for more.
Fiera 12 Lincoln 30.2/32.2 17
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 14, 2024 13:30:18 GMT -6
There wasn't too much else of interest, but the next thing Fiera was able to find was a mind crystal. It was hard to miss- they were a bright, eye searing shade of pink and had an attractive quality to them. Like elemental crystals, they tended to draw one in, bringing them close and capturing their soul in some way... or in this case, their minds, she supposed. The rounder forms could be used to create nodes. She had a node of her own, but she knew that she could probably make another by now, she just needed the supplies... not that this would count. Unfortunately, the one she found WASN'T one of the rounder ones, but she had to admit it was fascinating. It was covered in delicate spikes and spines, and Fiera was amazed it had survived the fall all the way down here from wherever it had been unveiled.
Fiera 13 Lincoln 30.3/32.3 18
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 14, 2024 13:34:25 GMT -6
Despite the fall, it was in perfect shape. She had heard of these crystals having other functions, even if it couldn't be used for a node. She was sure she could find something to do with it, so Fiera put it in the cart with the others. From there, the humanish surveyed her findings. They were... acceptable. As to be expected from digging through a pile of gravel, Fiera hadn't found anything big. It was mostly little crystals, something you'd fix into a trinket. Not a ton either- she had only just barely managed to cover the bottom of the mine cart. Still, she was starting to get tired of searching, and she wasn't sure how much longer Lincoln's patience would last. Besides, even if she hadn't found anything especially fancy, there were a few good finds and enough credits' worth of gems for Fiera to call this outing a success.
Fiera 14 Lincoln 30.4/32.4 19
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