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Post by Noa on Dec 4, 2019 15:25:11 GMT -6
Whatever it was, it wasn't one of those tunneling worms that people sometimes found down here. The biggest ones could create tunnels about the size for a person to go through, but they were generally uniform in width, and almost perfectly circular, even if their walls weren't smooth either. This was more likely the work of something digging with implements, or at least with claws and the like. It was hard to tell which exactly it was just by looking at the markings in the rock surface here.
The gargoyle certainly seemed to be having no trouble going along the tunnel as it wound through the rock. Its smaller size helped with that, but more to the point, it was capable of moving well on a four legged gait as well. Aster, who preferred to move upright, had to hunch uncomfortably over to proceed through the tunnel, which slowed his progress.
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Post by Renathan on Dec 4, 2019 18:04:48 GMT -6
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Post by Noa on Dec 4, 2019 19:12:45 GMT -6
The gargoyle at least seemed to be aware, after a while, of Aster's difficulties and discomforts, and slowed its progress so that Aster could better keep up with it. Not that there was anywhere else for either of them to go at present, seeing that the tunnel was only narrow enough for one of them to pass at a time, and there were no further branch points as far as Aster could tell. For better or for worse, they were stuck with one another. But if there was a branch point and the gargoyle was too much ahead of where Aster was, that might cause some problems down the line. And regardless of whether the issue came up, Aster was glad for that sense of consideration. Too long a time spent with Cinna had ensured that he felt, keenly, the difference it made between when it was present and when it was not.
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Post by Noa on Dec 4, 2019 19:14:02 GMT -6
That was why, at first, Aster hadn't thought much of how the gargoyle paused. It was only when he had nearly run into the gargoyle that Aster finally came up short, staring at it in mild confusion. The gargoyle wasn't looking at him, however, which was Aster's first clue that there was something else afoot. Instead, it was looking at the rock itself, and as Aster watched, its head inclined first to one side and then the other.
It was almost like watching someone listen for a sound whose origins they weren't quite certain of, angling from one side to the other to try and better triangulate its location. But then, considering what magic tended to feel like for Aster, maybe that was exactly what the gargoyle was doing. Maybe valuable stones sounded the same way to it that magic sounded to Aster. He wouldn't have been terribly surprised it that were the case.
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Post by Noa on Dec 4, 2019 19:14:50 GMT -6
And now he had even some hope of posing the question to the gargoyle at some point in the future. It was intelligent enough to give him a detailed answer, and he hadn't despaired yet of finding a way that they might yet communicate with one another. When that day came, Aster would have a lot of things to ask the gargoyle. Maybe he ought to consider starting a list, just so he didn't forget all of them.
Aster had been mining long enough to know to let the familiar take its time and figure it out though. It wasn't like he was going to be able to do anything of any use before that point. He could have started taking out a pick and hacking his way into the stone, but that would just end up being a waste of time and energy when the familiar would have pinpointed a more specific area to dig in a few more minutes.
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Post by Noa on Dec 4, 2019 19:16:07 GMT -6
Not to mention that it might have disrupted the locating process that the gargoyle was engaged in, which would just be a case of Aster shooting himself in the foot, wouldn't it? He would take more time, and the gargoyle would take more time too, and in the meantime it might find it in itself to get upset at him for jumping the gun in such an unnecessary way too.
And after a moment, the gargoyle did seem to reach some sort of conclusion. This time, it turned to Aster with more confidence, though it went to the buggy first, locating the pick and handing that over to Aster. It closed his fingers around the shaft of the tool the same way that Aster had done for it when he had asked it to hold the torch. Aster felt the corner of his mouth tug upward in a slightly wry smile.
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Post by Noa on Dec 4, 2019 19:16:55 GMT -6
Well, there were worse things for it to mimic, he supposed, even it in this case it was a bit unnecessary. "Where am I digging?" he asked, instead of wasting time dwelling on that. The gargoyle's choice of tool, at least, was helpful. It knew what they needed better than he did, in this case, and Aster was all too happy to take its advice as far as that went.
The gargoyle, satisfied that Aster knew what he had to do, now guided him to a specific part of the rock face, and indicated with a pointed finger where it wanted Aster to put the pick. Aster set the tip of the pick against the spot that the gargoyle had indicated, and looked to it for one last confirmation that this was what it wanted him to do. It probably was, but better to be safe than sorry before he started.
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Post by Noa on Dec 4, 2019 19:19:36 GMT -6
The gargoyle gave hirn a single nod, a gesture that reminded him yet again about its intelligence; that wasn't a feature that Aster had taught it, so it must have learned it through observation. Aster gave it a nod in return and said, "Alright then. Here goes nothing, I guess."
Hefting the pick, he took a swing at the rock, not thinking much about what he was doing. After all, it was just striking stone with the pick. He had done that plenty of times, enough times, in fact, that it was honestly kind of boring. His body had memorized the movements involved, such that he could probably have done it in his sleep by now, if it was merely a matter of striking the stone over and over again with a pick.
But this time, when his pick hit the rock, the.. resonance of the stone against the strike was different.
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Post by Noa on Dec 4, 2019 19:20:32 GMT -6
Or maybe resonance wasn't the right word for what was happening, but whatever vibrations he felt coming up through the pick at the moment of impact, that was different from what he was used to. His eyes widened, and he looked back at the gargoyle, not sure whether he ought to feel surprised.
It wasn't, to be sure, a world shattering revelation. But it was just far enough removed from the norm that he had noticed, and it felt just odd enough that he was curious about what it was. The gargoyle, however, seemed completely unfazed by what had just happened. Evidently this was all within its own expectations when it had asked Aster to strike that specific spot. An onlooker might have said that it was possible that the gargoyle merely hadn't noticed, but Aster wasn't so foolish as to think that himself. The gargoyle was a creature of tunnels and dirt and stone.
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Post by Noa on Dec 4, 2019 19:21:26 GMT -6
There was no way it hadn't noticed. The gargoyle's countenance had become rather more businesslike in the time that Aster had looked away. It had no time, at least for the moment, to allay whatever incredulity Aster might have been feeling. It was time for the two of them to get to work, and in the spirit of that, it wasted no time in pointing out another place for Aster to strike. This time, Aster did it without waiting for confirmation. They had already worked out that this was the cue that the gargoyle was going to give him. To do so again would be to waste time for them both. Again, there was that strange sense ol resonance. It wasn't as acute this time, and it wasn't as surprising as he had half expected it now, having already felt it once. But he was still curious as to what was happening.
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Post by Noa on Dec 4, 2019 19:22:41 GMT -6
And he hoped that he would be able to find out sooner rather than later. From there, they fell into a rhythm, where the gargoyle pointed out spots and Aster struck with the pick. It got to the point where it almost started to feel mindless again for Aster, despite all the excitement of the beginning. It just went to show that the exciting part about mining was the finds, rather than the process. The process, Aster could have done perfectly well without. It wasn't necessarily always strenuous and difficult, and sometimes they lucked Into something the way they had done with the caches, but when there was work to be done, it really was pretty dull.
But then something dramatic did happen again, after all that pointing and digging. Just when Aster least expected it, the whole wall that they'd been chipping away at suddenly fell in all at once.
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Post by Noa on Dec 4, 2019 19:23:36 GMT -6
Aster yelped, and sprang back before the rocks could fall on him, dragging the buggy out of the way as best he could. He hadn't done anything for the gargoyle, but even in retrospect he felt that this wasn't an issue. The gargoyle could dig itself out of a rockslide perfectly well, and probably it had been expecting this to happen too. If it happened to get crushed under a rockslide of its own creation, then that was its own fault, as far as he was concerned.
Still, as the rubble cleared, he looked around for the gargoyle just to make sure that it was alright. He had escaped relatively unscathed; the climb earlier had done more damage to hirm, which was in itself negligible. His reflexes and inherent speed had been just enough to get him out of the way of the most dangerous rocks that had been falling from the collapse.
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Post by Noa on Dec 4, 2019 19:26:05 GMT -6
And if his clothes were a bit dirtied for the experience, well. No one wore their nice stuff to go stomping around in the mines, if they had any sense to them.
Their equipment, too, was no worse for wear, as he had been able to drag it out of harm's way before the worst of anything had fallen on it. The buggy itself was pretty sturdy, and could take a few light knocks, even if it couldn't have taken a direct hit from a boulder to its exterior.
He needn't have worried about the gargoyle though. Not a moment after he had started looking, it turned back up in the form of the sound of moving rocks. Aster stood, dusting himself off in the process, then craned his neck to see if could spot it based on the direction of the sounds he was hearing from the big pile of rocks.
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Post by Noa on Dec 4, 2019 19:26:54 GMT -6
The rubble from the fall of rocks had clearly settled, so whatever was still moving had to be the gargoyle, right? Or possibly some other denizen of the mines that he had disturbed, but he was reasonably sure that it was just the one cluster of moving rocks, and therefore most likely the gargoyle, anyway.
He chanced upon the moving rocks, which were fortunately within his own reach. Leaving the buggy behind, he scrambled towards it, heaving the first one that came to hand with as much strength as he could manage. It wasn't that he honestly thought the gargoyle was stuck, but just in case it was.. Too many rocks weighing down on top of it would be an Issue even for a gargoyle, wouldn't it?
A little more digging, and he unearthed a wing, flailing about as soon as it was freed from the rocks holding it down before.
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Post by Noa on Dec 4, 2019 19:27:43 GMT -6
Aster thought for a moment that maybe it had gotten stuck after all, despite not being deep enough down for that, but a moment of observation told him that the flailing wasn't the kind that a creature asking for help would be making. It looked more. directional, if not regular, as if the creature in question was struggling to pull something out from where it was lodged somewhere below.
Moving faster now, Aster shifted the other rocks around the gargoyle so he could get a better look at what was happening here. Sure enough, when he unearthed enough of the gargoyle to 5ee what it was doing, he saw its arms buried in still more rock and tugging at something that wouldn't come tree. Aster didn't need to ask. He put his hands on the same chunk of rack that the gargoyle was tugging at and threw his weight against it.
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