The Castle's Cleaning Lady - Twisted Wonderland Reader insert

Chapter 9: Zero brain cell gang

"So this is Dwarfs' Mine... It used to be prosperous thanks to magic crystal mining but..." Deuce peered around at the area of the entrance to the Dwarf's mine. The area was self-explanatory, abandoned, overgrown and decaying. No one had been here in a while. Nothing seemed to reside apart from a cottage with a trailing mossy stone path leading to the front door, a decaying door that was clinging to the frame by its rusting hinges of the decoloured walls.
"Uuuuhh... Feels like something could jump out..." Grim huddled in the crook of [Name's] neck, hiding his face from the eerie surroundings. [Name] piqued a brow but said nothing and began to fearlessly stride towards the derelict house.

"Oh, there's a house back there. Let's go ask them about the mine." Ace said, following [Name].

[Name] scoffed, slipping past the rotting door into the abandoned building.

"No one lives here dummy. It rather reminds me of Ramshackle dorm... Just more... tragic really. This is a house, not a dorm where people come and go through the years... Did the crystal economy really go that south?" She mumbled to herself idly as she peered around the overturned room, holding her fist to her mouth anxiously.

"What crap are you mumbling?" Ace teased, snickering as [Name] stuck out her tongue at him.

Wooden furniture was half-eaten by termites, and spider nests burrowed in corners as new creatures reclaimed the abandoned home. Some vines and weeds probed out between the crumbling floorboards - in a way, nature was reclaiming the home for itself.

"I guess it's abandoned. It's a mess in here." Deuce voiced.

[Name] shook her head. "Good grief wasn't that obvious."

"Aren't the tables and chairs on the small side? Are they for kids? One, two... There's seven! So many!" Ace proclaimed, counting the 7 scattered chairs around what seemed to be a table with his pointer finger.

"This was probably a lively home when Dwarfs' Mine flourished." Deuce ducked under a rather large cobweb in his way and delicately tugged on [Name's] collar before she mindlessly walked into one herself. She gingerly smiled at Deuce, he was quite a gentleman... She pushed a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Thanks, I wonder what happened to the people living here after the crystal stock crash..."

"They did what they had to. After all, magic crystals are found inside coal. For now, let's just go check it out." Ace curled his hand for everyone to trail after him and, like little ducklings, they did. After some further wandering in the vicinity and [Name] cleverly following an unused and broken railway track, they meandered to an ominous opening in the side of a mountain, and under the arch of an oak tree's roots, a dark tunnel way. This was the mine itself.
[Name] gulped.

If the crystal was anywhere, it was down there.
"W-We're gonna go in that pitch-black hole!?" Grim shrilled in [Name's] ear and she shoved him off her shoulder. "Hey!"
"Scared? Lame." Ace smirked with a teasing quell in his voice. Grim jumped at this, whipping to glare at Ace.
"Naanh!? I'm not s-scared at all! I'm taking the lead! You guys follow me!" With a flex and arch of his cat-like spine, the blue blaze in Grim's ear grew brighter in radiance and he took the lead, advancing with as much confidence as he could muster. The three humans glanced at each other and shared nervous smiles at the cat's stubbornness before pursuing his lead.

For a while, they simply walked in Grim's blue glow. It seemed like an endless void of darkness with the cave having only a few dull and unappealing crystals differentiating the endless stony walls. [Name] was slightly anxious, her face creased into an uneasy frown.