Beast Tamer (Ongoing)

3 | Beast Tamer

~An obscene about of time in a plane later~

The plane had finally landed and even with the breaks in between, Mwezi's behind was sore. Her knees popped more often than she would have liked. Everyone made their way off the plane and had gathered their bags from the storage compartment. "Alright everyone. Good news, bad news! Bad news, we have another hour of travel time. Good news, it's on a helicopter!" Irdum said and everyone groaned knowing full well that was not such great news. "Aw well I've never been on a helicopter before so it should be fun" Mwezi said mostly to herself but Irdum caught what she said. "Ah Mwezi there's the spirit!" he said with a chuckle. She rolled her eyes and giggled herself as the helicopters approached from the distance. "Alright everyone, get your things, anything non-essential will go on the secondary copter with the rest of the security team. Once the helicopters landed, luggage was sorted appropriately and everyone was on their way.

The ride passed a lot faster than it seemed since Mwezi was excitedly taking pictures most of the time or intently listening to Irdum's stories about the village and lands they passed over. "And here we are ladies and gentlemen, the forgotten mines of Mesopotamia." Irdum announces. There were hills of stone and sand as far as the eye could see in varying shades of brown and gold. There was a warm breeze blowing the sand around creating small funnels here and there while the locals hired to help had already begun setting up equipment that had clearly been sent ahead of time. "Now I will turn it over to Irina, our resident mine exploring badass." He joked and everyone chuckled. "Alright everyone please understand these basic rules and it will make my job of saving your lives that much easier. All of you will have what we call a Firedamp whistle. It will track the gases in the air around you as you travel through the tunnels of the mine and measure the different gases in the air. Should, for some reason, you are in an area where there is a dangerous gas that is flammable, like methane and/or dangerous to you by simple inhalation, it will go off like a smoke detector. Immediately hightail it out of wherever you are and utilize your walkie to let us know so we can avoid that area or acquire proper gear, depending on the gas that is detected." Irina instructed. "Please wear your luminescent vest and hard hat at all times. Use your chest mounted flashlights at all times. Any issues please contact us!" she added and everyone gave an okay.

"I guess you get to sit pretty and have fun." Mwezi joked with Irdum and he laughed. "Nonsense. It wouldn't be a proper gentleman if I left a beautiful lady such as yourself go alone." He retorted with a cheesy grin. She groaned and laughed, "Hey Dr. Gundua can you show me on the map where the gems were found?" Mwezi asked desperately trying to get out of an awkward situation. "Oh yes of course!" she replied pulling out a map and unrolling it over a storage crate. "Alright so we're here and the offshoot shaft we need you in is here." she said pointing to a dead end that was a few turns into the tunnel. "I can take her, I've been there a few times." he offered and Dr. Gundua nodded. "Then it's settled. Mwezi you have your guide and we have work to do! Alright people let's get on with it! I want everything photographed and documented. Now let's go make history!" She gave a pep speech and everyone scattered to do their jobs.

"Welp this way, beautiful lady." Irdum said playfully as he put out his arm for her. She giggled and hooked her arm into his following him down the paths to her future jackpot. 'I'm doing it mom, dad, memaw...' Mwezi thought to herself, holding back her tears of remembrance and joy. "Hey you okay?" Irdum asked, tapping her hand on his arm. She nodded, "yeah just silently praying to my parents n grandma. Letting them know I made it." she replied. He nodded with a sad smile as they made it to the cave.

"HOOLY SHIT!" she whisper yelled. "This is like. The greatest find ever but also super wrong." she said her hands gently caressing the stones. "What do you mean?" he asked. "None of the stones here should have formed here. They're not native to this area and this mine wouldn't have been enough to produce them."she replied, getting to the back wall. "BISMUTH!?" she squealed. "Heyheyhey. Be careful you don't know where that's been." Irdum warned. "In the dirt..." Mwezi replied. "Okay yes but seriously at least use gloves." he retorted. She sighed and put on her gloves as the bismuth popped out the dirt wall easily. "Jesus it's super warm." she said tossing it between her hands like a hot potato. "Hey you heart that?" she asked as she started hearing an unknown language on the wind. 'Wait. Wind!? In a mine!?' she started to panic. "Hey Mwezi just drop it!" Irdum called out grabbing her arm. There was a strong gust of wind nearly knocking them over and then it stopped as if it never was. Once mwezi fixed her hair she looked over at the entrance of the cave to see a bright light.