Penumbral

Chapter 10: Depths

Alimur opens his eyes and quickly raises from the bed, he was panting heavily and cold sweat ran down his forehead, "Another nightmare" were the words that crossed his mind, he used the bedsheet to dry his face and looked to the other side of the room where his Demi-Human friend slept peacefully, he smiled slightly before averting his gaze a bit further to the left, he was now looking at his new sword and with a quick flash of his memory he saw his old blade lying there, Aurora was gone and once he took note of it he started frantically looking around the room that was until his gaze reached his lap, wrapped around his legs he saw Mia peacefully napping while using her arms to hold onto his waist, Alimur knew this wasn't real, but even though he knew he still reached for his lover and tightly embraced.... nothing.... he cursed his mind for making it feel real, and cursed himself for believing it, soon the room returned to normal and he tried his best to gain some more rest before the expedition, a few hours pass and he hears a sweet feminine voice.

-Alimuuuur, wake up-

Alimur quickly lifted his upper body from the bed and frantically looked around, he soon comes to face Aurora that was standing with a hand on her hip.

-Another nightmare or?- She inquires with a concerned look.

Alimur places his hand over his eyes and lightly rubs them before answering -I woke up in the middle of the night, and saw... Mia... and just now, that's how she used to wake me up-

-I'm sorry, I promise I won't do it again- Aurora responds while putting her hand on the man's shoulder.

-It's alright, don't worry too much about it-

Aurora takes her hand away and gives a warm smile -So, ready for the expedition?-

-Yes-

-Good, Drodegan said they'd be waiting by the gurock pen-

Alimur nods, gets up and straps his sword to his back, the duo head out of the room and down the stairs to get some food, after eating they head straight to the mines, as they walked down the ramp the gurock pen was visible and five Stowrflings were leaning against the fence, two had greataxes and wore a black golden armor leaving only their mouths exposed, the other three wielded large pickaxes and wore steel chainmail along with a steel half helmet, beside them were two lit pole torches, as the duo got closer the five stone men stood straight up and welcomed them.

One of the warriors spoke -You two must be Alimur and Aurora, well, let's head out-

The duo nodded and followed behind the armored Stowrflings, the two warriors took point along the duo following closely behind and on the back were the three miners, one of the warriors held a torch and calmly navigated through the mines, the warrior with free hands starts talking.

-Drodegan hired us just yesterday, his last crew were a bunch of talcs and couldn't handle a mere cave dweller-

-Is the beast called cave dweller?- Asked Aurora.

-Not officially, we don't quite know what it is, the last group fled in fear once they heard a roar- Answered one of the miners.

-Our job is to take it down, we can think of a name once it's dead- The warrior torch bearer replied.

For a few minutes the only noises were the crackling of the torches and the groups feet against the dirt and stone, the almost deathly silence was broken as they passed in front of a tunnel and the miner holding the torch spoke up.

-This tunnel leads to the ruby geode we found, I participated of the group that found it-

-Quit your pride, that was weeks ago the damn thing is already cleared- One of the other miners responded, quickly shutting his partner down.