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Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2024 20:59:47 GMT -6
He had no interest in the hole once Alma set him back down, merely coiling up to enjoy his fresh meal as she stared at him. “Here’s to hoping I never run into the big versions of you.” Alma muttered before turning back to the hole with her flashlight. She suspected she wasn’t going to like what she saw at the bottom, and that Jeff was going to turn out to be more suited to hunting things that moved through the earth rather than the rare metals and stones trapped within it, but she wanted to check regardless.
She did regret it.
Alma turned her attention to the rocks and dirt kicked up by the worm as he had tunneled, deliberately not looking into the hole as she let her nausea subside. When she found nothing but more of the common stone surrounding her, she swallowed and pointed the light down the hole again. In the churned, red earth below, she could make out the same pinkish bits catching the light, and she knelt down to get a better look. Ignoring the smell and the blood, she could see that the bits looked to be crystal rather than, well, something much squishier. They remained hard and stone-like as she reached down to grab them, and she was very happy to find that the worst looking bit appeared to just be some rhodonite. [Jeff-8.0 | Alma-269.0] 40
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Post by Deleted on Jul 5, 2024 16:09:49 GMT -6
Alma took her new batch of gemstones back to the cart, stepping around a comatose Jeff to hoist herself over the pit wall. It was not a ton of gems by any means, she had seen some miners return home with sacks bulging with rare stones and rune-carved beasts, but the little worm inside the cart seemed happy to accept the new handful of stones. It did not hiss or grumble at her at least when she opened the lid, and it had gathered them to the meager pile quickly enough. It was hard to tell what a rock was feeling. As Alma closed the lid on its carved face, she wondered if it was somehow easier to pick out emotions in the rock-eater than her flesh and blood companion for the trip. Or maybe it was just easier to pretend when the creature had a mostly normal face, one with two ‘eyes’ rather than a head crowded with them, and a mouth shaped like one rather than a tooth-filled tube. 41
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Post by Deleted on Jul 5, 2024 16:10:00 GMT -6
Alma slid back down to the floor of the pit, narrowly missing Jeff. The worm showed no interest in moving beyond the slight pulsing of his body as he digested his newest meal. “Hope it wasn’t somethin’ rare that you decided to much on,” Alma said, “because losing something like a black sarane whelp to yer appetite is the sort of thing that’d get you fed to…to.” Alma paused, idly brushing some of the dirt from her gloves as she thought. “Well, dunno if I have a bug eater big enough to want you, but I could always chop ya up.” Alma shook a finger in mock warning at the worm, who continued to ignore her.
Giving up on Jeff, and deciding she’d bring something with a bit more of a face next time, Alma went back to her chosen wall. If Jeff could find some nice stones on his way to lunch, surely she could find a few of her own. 42
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Post by Deleted on Jul 5, 2024 16:10:11 GMT -6
With no sign of anything rare jutting from the surface of the wall, Alma rolled her shoulders and picked up the pickax. “This look alright to you Jeff?” she asked without turning to face the worm. He made no reply. “Right, looks good to me too. Lots of bones and gems hiding in this one.” Alma swung the pickax at the wall, a small amount of stone shattering beneath the pointed tip.
From there, without roaming mine-dwellers or sudden tunneling from Jeff, her mining trip took a turn for the incredibly boring. She struck the wall again and again, until a nice assortment of debris piled up at her feet and her arms felt like overcooked noodles. Then she crouched down to paw through the rocks for something, anything that looked to be more than just more rubble. When that failed, as it often did, Alma reached for the shovel and shoveled the dirt and worthless rocks off to the side. 43
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Post by Deleted on Jul 5, 2024 16:10:22 GMT -6
It was times like this that she envied the dynamite users, the miners who had their own little guild and were partially responsible for all the shored up, heavily worked tunnels. She had heard the stuff would explode and shatter tons of stone at once, caving in the area it had been tossed so that the miners could just dig through the remains. She had also heard it had a tendency to collapse tunnels far from where it had gone off, which is why she avoided it as she avoided simply digging into random walls outside of the larger ‘cave’ sections. There was no point to having a ton of gems at her fingertips if she was going to suffocate in a minute or two.
So she continued her work until the time spent digging through rubble felt too short, and she climbed back up to the cart. Jeff followed her, then briefly lunged ahead, devouring some pale things with too many legs that had climbed onto her cart. 44
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Post by Deleted on Jul 5, 2024 16:10:45 GMT -6
The shovel proved to be just as good scraping away the almost invisible webbing as it had been clearing piles of rubble, and she stabbed it into one of the latter when it began to resemble cotton candy. Jeff had been rolling across the dirt, all but a few hairlike strands drifting free of him to settle on the ground, and she would gladly accept his expertise in dealing with cave spider silk.
After a brief period of stirring the rubble with a ridiculously large ladle, Alma set the mostly cleaned shovel to the side and opened the cart. The wyrm showed as much life as the stones it was guarding did, and she was able to take out her wrapped meal and water with minimal fuss. “Might head back up soon, rent space in a cabin.” Alma said between bites to Jeff. She’d gladly part with a few credits to sleep somewhere less likely to kill her. [Jeff-9.0] 45
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Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2024 12:17:52 GMT -6
The tough meat ensured the meal was eaten slowly, regardless of whether Alma wanted to savor the taste of boiled boot soles or not. The bread was a little softer once she broke the crust, and practically melted once she poured some water inside of it. Without a healer on hand, whether magic pill or beast, she’d gladly stick to chewing things that felt related to the stones surrounding her. Well, not gladly, but she would tolerate it over dying somewhere in the dark, unable to protect herself.
Jeff showed no ill effects from his many-legged meal, and Alma chuckled before tearing off another piece of meal to chew until she got bored. “Too bad I ain’t got a stomach like you. Then I could just eat bugs or somethin’. Save a ton.” She chewed in silence a bit longer, then added for the sake of any fate or god listening, “Nah. Like cake too much.” 46
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Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2024 12:18:05 GMT -6
Swallowing the piece of leather took a bit of bread and a generous swig of water, but Alma managed it until the last of the cheap jerky was gone from its wrapping. An apple finished the meal off, blessedly crisp and tasty, and Alma threw the core next to Jeff’s head. The worm twisted and stared at the immobile remains, then shoved his circular mouth full of flexing teeth over it. It was food, not as good as things that moved and bled, but it was no less than the moss he would scrape away should he become hungry enough.
Alma watched the worm shred the core, once again glad he was just big enough to threaten rats rather than humans. She waited a minute after the seconds it took for him to devour the treat, then stood up with a sigh. “Enough resting and eatin’. Bit more to do before we head back out, Jeff.” 47
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Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2024 12:18:20 GMT -6
Jeff showed no preferences to staying longer or heading out now. “Guess it don’t really matter to you when you got all them spiders and stuff to eat, huh Jeff?” When he agreed with her by continuing to do nothing, Alma drummed her hands against her thighs as she walked over to the pit. “No offense, Jeff,” Alma said as she stopped by the edge, looking down at the rocks and work that awaited her, “but I think I’ll see about bringing better company next time.” He did not bother to even twitch when she looked over at him.
Alma sighed, then climbed back down into the hole, arms protesting a little more than when she had started the day. She had the start of a decent haul so far, with a wyrm that was sure to sell for a nice chunk of credits to a shop if nowhere else, but she wanted a few more stones before they left for the day. 48
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Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2024 12:18:31 GMT -6
Not that she intended to spend another day with Jeff, the amazing tunnel worm who was just in the mines to find and eat the most mundane creatures he could, but she had plenty of other critters she was considering bringing. Like, if she wanted something to protect her while mining that was stronger than a wet noodle and actually had a face, she could try one of those giant, poisonous winged rats. Could even train one to watch her back down there.
Alright, she thought as she picked up the pickax to renew her assault on the wall, maybe she would not go that far, but the little long moles seemed friendly enough. She did not notice as Jeff slipped down the wall behind her, the noise of metal on stone hiding the squeak of a scout who had returned to investigate the collapsed warren, and Jeff’s enthusiastic shredding of the rat. 49
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Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2024 12:18:50 GMT -6
By the end of the day, or by the time her arms and body decided it was the end of the day and the unseen sun’s location be damned, both human and worm were largely content. Alma had found a few more stones hidden in the wall and in the chunks knocked from it, and chiseling them free proved to be not so difficult as long as she was willing to take a decent amount of stone with her.
Jeff was similarly pleased with his haul, though he had already forgotten about all of it. He was full, his body had minimal lingering pain from his earlier, also forgotten, struggle, and he would have been glad to wait beneath the earth until another meal skittered by. He struggled a token amount as Alma grabbed and secured him, then drifted off to dreamless sleep as she checked that all her finds and tools were likewise in their places. Once that was done, she could finally leave. [Jeff-10.0] 50
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Post by Silver on Jul 14, 2024 19:30:59 GMT -6
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