Spawn of the Outworlder

Chapter 10-So Far Away, We Wait For the Day

Bethsheba Goldbeam felt a chill creep down her spine as she applied the last of the tracking gel along the mining cavern floor. Her hand still carrying small traces of the thick goo, she stepped backwards as she saw the gel begin to erode the mountain ground beneath it. Burrowin' in, just like pop said it would. The cavern echoed with the sound of the dissolving rock. The gel was a welcome convenience for the elven girl as her arms and shoulders carried quite a bit of scars and callouses from having to dig ditches along the ground to ensure moisture did not collect within the mine.

"Stuff's workin' like a dream, pop."

She looked back as she spoke to her father, Hosea Goldbeam. He was much shorter than his daughter, although her lengthy elven figures gave her quite a bit of height over him, as well as most humans. Beneath their miner's caps, both shared dark red, curly hair, although her father's skin was fair, while hers was brown like her mother's. His face was hard with dark rings that hung beneath his eyes and a cold gaze. Troubles of the town are gettin' to him. Wish he'd listen to me about this.

"Ain't gonna mean nothin' if we don't find somethin' soon," he replied, his voice low, carrying the drawl native to the settlement. "Already got people minin' for us without pay. They got families to feed and they can only wait so long. If only that damned Drake–"

"We can't afford to worry 'bout the Drake, pop. Just gotta focus on minin' where we can an' hope we hit pay dirt."

Hosea let out a great sigh, his eyes closed in hopes of clearing his mind. "You're right, Betsy. I know. Just frustration' to think about. The answer being so close an' so far."

The Nightpeak Mountains were once home to many a rare gem and ore, drawing the attraction of the Empire. They offered grand sums of gold and silver for any who would take on the daring task of retrieving it. The work was dangerous, but the rewards were massive. Rewards that drew Betsy's mother and father to the mountain long before she was born. Rewards that soon dried up once the mountains had been picked clean of its major deposits and only those buried deep within the mountains remained. For all of Betsy's life, the materials gathered, while nowhere near what they once had been, were more than enough to support the small mountain settlement of Shinedale. Until the Drake arrived.

Having made its nest in their prime mining locations, they were forced to abandon their work stations. The Empire offered little help, the materials recently having lost their luster after their discovery of a new material, Ferrum. With their gathered gems and ores now worth dramatically less, they were forced to sell their findings to those who could not afford to convert to the Empire's more versatile material. And their purses were hardly any more full than those of Shinedale.

As such, the settlement was forced to search through the lower parts of the mountain to mine over the areas already scavenged in hopes of finding some overlooked mother lode that would keep them afloat.

Hosea pointed to a small dig mark within the wall, no bigger than a pea. "Old man Suncrest made that when he dug there. Back in the day, he swore there was some grand cavern a' rubies an' emeralds here. Poor bastard never found more than a few pieces a' fool's gold. Ya know why?"

"Cuz he stopped diggin'--" Betsy began, familiar with how her father's stories tended to end.

"Cuz he stopped diggin', that's right. Don't see what good rubies and emeralds would do us right now, but I'm certain they left sumthin' behind in these caves. We just need to find it. Now, come on."

Hosea gestured for his daughter to follow him out of the cavern into the midday light of the Nightpeak Mountains. The two now stood before the entrance, the sizzling of the tracking gel behind them growing louder. "Take a few steps back, kiddo."