Day 11, Week 1 - Into the Halls

[Corporal Light]

An hour later...

“Well… this appears to be the site…” Ballad said, folding up the map and sliding it into his coat.

“About damn time…” Danish said, sighing as he gripped the reins of his oxen mount.

The duo slowly moved up the hill, parking their respective mounts near the bottom of it. They were in a large valley, which the map had signified as “The Hill’s of Maiden’s Blessing.” The valley was between more than a dozen hills and inclines, several of which holding vast amounts of pine trees. These pine trees were scattered in clusters around the valley, some alone, others within groups. They had entered the valley from its east, right through a tall forest that surrounded the whole landscape. They had immediately taken sighting of a small hole near one of the nearby hills and had moved towards it. The hole, as the green man had guessed, was man-made, and clearly the entrance to the mines.

Should be relatively simple… he thought, holding his hand back to stop Danish from moving ahead of him, go in, grab some cobalt, and go kill a wampa. Whatever that is.

“Ya do know what yer doin’, do ya?” The religious dwarf said, crossing his arms. He scoffed as the green gunsmith simply lowered his hand, blatantly ignoring him and his question. He sighed, shaking his head as they entered the mine.

----------------------------

The first thing the duo had noticed was that it was dark, a fact that was obvious to Ballad. He hadn’t thought that his dwarven ally had figured it out until he had asked in a very disgruntled manner for him to please get a light out so they could be able to see without tripping over their own feet. The gunner had gladly obliged, mostly because he had a point in saying that it was foolish to traverse the mines without any kind of light source. He had taken a few minutes of his time to construct a torch made out of a small stick, some fabric and some wick. He had then covered the fabric with the wick before striking it against the walls of the mine, lighting it up.

With the torch in use, it was far easier to discern their overall surroundings. The had already walked a fair distance into the mines, enough so that they could no longer see the entrance. The roof of the caverns were held up by wooden supports, some of which holding up a pair of metal lanterns that had been turned off. Some of these supports were also cracked, as if straining under the weight of the roof, an observation the green recruit took note of. Below their feet, aside from the compacted snow, was stone and sets of railroad tracks for minecarts.

During their traversing of the caverns, a thought encroached the gunner’s mind. As he walked, he turned towards his dwarven escort, asking him a question.

“You don’t, um… happen to know what Cobalt looks like, do you?”

“Yer sayin’ ya don’?” He replied, his eyebrows cocked and his eyes widened.

“I am a candid individual, and I must inform you of my lack of knowledge on the subject of this Cobalt.” The gunsmith said, looking away as he felt his cheeks start to burn a little bit. How could a logic spirit not know what Cobalt is? It boggled his mind how he had never in his lifetime heard about it!

“Damn… that’s a first from ya,” The escort said, not taking note the not-so-subtle attempt on the sharpshooter’s part to hide his embarrassment, “fer a second, I was thinkin’ Inanna wasn’ gonna answer my prayers that the recent troll recruit didn’ seem to know everythin’.”

The gunsmith let out a small sigh, shaking his head. He remained quiet, though. As much as he wanted to punch the dwarf in the face for what he just said, he was better off just sticking to the deal he had made with him. He was his only real bet on navigating the land, anyway.

Passing through a long hall with two minecarts standing next to each other, both empty, they continued their conversation.

“Truthfully, do you lack awareness on the subject of this Cobalt, o dwarf?” The gunsmith said, stopping at an intersection between two darkened halls.

“Does it matter? Not like I’m the one gettin’ recruited,” He said, tugging on Ballad’s coat as he tried to move towards the hall to his right. He pulled the green inventor towards the left hall, whom grunted as he brushed his hand off.

“Well, you are my guide, sir sentry.” He said, sliding his hand across the brims of his coat, “isn’t this what you were assigned for?”

“Look, troll, I didn’t ask to be assigned for this at all. I’m only here because f-... the old man wants me too. That’s literally all ther’ is to it.” The dwarf replied.

“Then why are you a sentry?”

“Better than bein’ a soldier.”

The virescent gunsmith paused, turning towards his escort with his eyebrows raised. "What?” He said, his tone incredulous.

“Look, I already told ya I only signed up for sentry duty fer two people, alright? Ya can thank the old man for it, but he wants me to be a regular ol’ soldier just like him. Well…” He said, glancing towards the ground, “truth is, I don’t care much for the war. Inanna wouldn’ want me to. I only took up sentry duty cuz it was the best o’ both worlds, understand?”

The gunsmith was well and truly speechless.

“I’ll take yer silence as a yes,” He said, “anyways… let’s go find this Cobalt..”

Quest: Into the Halls
Word Amount: 964
WAY Surpassed Word Limit

I promise I will actually fill some of the quest requirements next post xD