Digging in the mines

by **Coren** on August 13th, 2012, 8:53 pm

16th summer 512 AV

Coren had switched his normal heavy cloak and his ever familiar mask for a pair of cheap pants, leather boots, a second hand tunic, thing he wouldn't mind ruining with the impending hard work in the iceglaze mines. The only exception was his ever present mask that covered his face, but he guessed it probably would come in handy to repel dust if he helped clean the rubble.
After a short walk from his temporary home he arrived at the mine located just a small distance behind the iceglaze hold, the mine was a hive of activity now that the mineral had finally settled down enough for the recovery of the bodies and the restoration of the mine to be possible without the risk of bringing the rest of the mine down on them.

Coren walked through the bustling activity, looking for anybody he should talk to for helping out in the digging. He didn't have to look for every long before somebody took the work out of his hand and approached him.
“Hey you! You here for helping out?” one of the iceglaze's asked him, He gave a short nod in reply.
“Go see the foreman Lor'eno then. He will tell you where to go and what to do. He is over there.” the miner pointed towards a table where a few vantha where discussing something before he went back on his way.

Coren didn't have to be told twice and quickly made his way over towards the table. Small snippets of the discussion reached his ears. Something about priorities and unstable zones.
“Excuse, me?” Coren interupted the conversation, letting the eyes of the men rest on him for a while. Curious what he had to say. “I heard you where looking for people to help repair the mine...” As soon as those words where out of his mouth the men perked up and quickly interrupted him
“yes,! We could use all the help we can get around here. I'm guessing you never worked in a mine before?” Coren barely managed to get a nod in before the man began talking again.
“Well then. We always can use people who shovel the dirt and rubble that the miners remove into the wagons. Its hard and mind breaking work, but if we can always use more of those since it frees the skilled people up for the actual digging.” The man waited for the man's reply.
“I'll help out. Don't have much else to do.” The foreman's face lit up with a smile at his approval.
“Well thats settled then.” The man waited for him to say his name. “Coren.” “Coren, there is a shovel in the storage, then go to the deepest level. Just say to the first guy there that you are there to shovel the rubble and he will tell where to shovel.”

After that the foreman turned back towards his work, leaving coren to his. He trudged away from the table and towards the storage shed and began to look for a shovel.
As he was searching through the storage for his tool. Some worrying thoughts began to spin through his head, his mask protected his lungs from dust and other objects. But what about his eyes? They where completely open to dust and other things, things that could blind him for a moment. And to be honest, he didn't want to be blinded even temporally.
He looked over his shoulder, seeing that nobody was entering the room before he put his attention to his hands and took a deep breath as he called upon his djed pulling it towards his hands and slowly began gathering it in a thin layer that would cover both his palms and the fingers, when after a short while he had gathered enough he put his palms together, pressing and willed the djed to bond with the other djed before pulling his hands away from each other again, willing them to form a sheet in between them. He gave it a quick once over for any holes. Mending them with a small bit of his attention when he found them. When he judged it good enough he spanned the layer of djed over the upper half of his face commanding the djed to stick to it with nothing but his will.
After that he gave the silent command for it to repel dust and other small irritants, then he grabbed the first shovel he saw and walked outside of the storage shed.

by **Coren** on August 15th, 2012, 1:50 pm

When Coren had descended only a few meters down the main shaft he couldn't help but feel how eerie the place was even with it bustling with activity. Mayor parts of the the mine where still collapsed and he saw a pair of vantha a, thankfully covered up, corpse out of one of the side tunnels but even that didn't help much to prevent bringing up a gruesome image of a half frozen and crushed corpse that was dug out from underneath a heavy heap of icestone after lying there for a season. He shivered slightly and kept his eyes firmly on the path to his destination down below. He didn't need to see another sickening sight like that, he wanted to keep his breakfast in his stomach.

After a few more chimes he finally arrived at the very lowest accessible part of the mine and tapped the first miner he saw on the shoulder.
“Don't you got anything better to do then tap me on the shoulder?” The man scowled as he looked at whoever was distracting him from his job. Coren barely resisted rolling his eyes at the man's unfriendly behavior.
“The foreman told me to come down and say to the first miner I met that I was here to help with shoveling the rubble in the carts, saying that guy would know where I should go help.” Coren said in a deadpan voice.
“Oh, the guy's on the third tunnel could use somebody to help, just go over there and help shovel whatever rubble they manage to pull out of the way in the cart, when its full bring it to the main shaft pull it up and make sure you can push back an empty one to your post. Now get to it.” The man explained in the same irritated tone as he pointed coren towards his place.
Coren bit back a sharp retort and just made his way towards the tunnel he had been pointed at by the grumpy miner.

The sound of pickaxes ramming their way through the hard miniral and other sounds of labor intesified as coren got closer to his destination. When he took the final corner he saw the people he would have to work with, two people where cutting rubble lose with a pickaxe while another one was shoveling up the rubble in the cart. The one with the shover looked up from his job for a while as he saw him approach and send him a questioning gaze.
“I was sent here to help out.” he answered the silent question. The man nodded. “Thats about time, we have been falling behind.” the man with the shovel gave his curt reply before focusing back on his job. Coren took a better grip on his shovel and followed the man's lead, dumping the rubble in the already half full cart.

by **Coren** on August 16th, 2012, 8:41 pm

Coren's back was aching, his calves where burning, he thought his hands would fall of any moment and he thought he had overworked muscles he didn't even have as he was climbing the stairs back towards the surface, only the promise of a soft bed at the warrens keeping him on his feet. He knew that working in the mine was though and backbreaking work. But he didn't think it would be this though. All in all, he was glad that the day was finally over.

The other miners he had been working with where snickering as the newcomer tried to drag himself up the stairs. Before one just shook his head and motioned to a mate of his. Both him and his mate grabbed him under his arms.
“Easy fella, we got ya.” Coren blinked in confusion before looking towards the guy who had talked to him. He towered over the vantha“Now don't give me that 'I can make it up to the top myself' look. You are almost dead on your feet for morwen's sake.” The vantha said with a grin as they climbed the stairs, letting a few of the other miners pass.
“So My name is Nohad iceglaze. I haven't seen you in the iceglaze hold as long as I lived there so I doubt you are one. So why are you working in the mines when you aren't really cut out for the work.” The vantha said in a blunt but kind tone. “I'm coren.” Coren replied in a tired voice, not mentioning the name of his hold, it wasn't as if he was welcome there anymore anyway. “I'm working here because I honestly don't have anything else to do at the moment and I thought I could help the rest of avanthal a bit with some work in the mines.” Nohad didn't say anything about him leaving out the name. He probably heard some rumors and made the connection with his name. Strange that the man hadn't dropped him yet though. A small scowl formed underneath his mask. Probably afraid he would pop his head of if he did so.

“Well that is a good goal. Helping out other people.” Nohad continued, seemingly unaffected by coren's weird behavior, though his buddy suddenly had an apprehensive look on his face. “And with reall hard work to, not like some of the other vantha who think playing a few tunes on their music instruments is helping out. Lazy vagiks they are.” The man continued to ramble in a goodnatured tone of voice as they ascended the stairs, after what felt like hours they exited the mine and went into the fresh air. “Can you get home by yourself? Or Do I need to get a wheelbarrow and cart you home?” the man joked as he set the tired man down on a crate. “That won't be necessary.. I'll just rest up a bit and go on home.” The man nodded. “I'll come down to check on you anyway. Just to see you haven't collapsed.” The man gave a cheerful wave as he departed towards his home. Leaving a tired coren behind.

by **Valkyrie** on August 20th, 2012, 3:51 am

As Coren rested on the crate he heard the sound of a man whistling a slow tune coming up through the mineshaft entrance. The sound came closer and closer until a tired looking Lor’eno appeared at the opening. Dark smudges beneath his eyes gave away how difficult the mine collapse weighed on him. The entire mine and its workers were his responsibility and now a good portion of his crew lay dead beneath the icestone. It was a tragedy for all of Avanthal.

Lor’eno looked up at Coren and smiled briefly. His smile gave way to a tired sigh as he approached the other tired Vantha. Nearing, his stood above Coren and they looked at each other in silence for a few moments before Lor’eno addressed him.

“You did good work today. Its hard work and there are things down there that aren’t easy to see. Try to get some decent sleep tonight. Have a hearty meal on me.” Lor’eno said quietly and reached into his pocket. He pressed a few gold coins into Coren’s hand and patted him on the shoulder before leaving the masked Vantha to his own thoughts.

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Coren :

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