74th of Spring,
So it turns out the Coalinga Mines are not only dangerous because its a mine. The previous day, one of the "cerulean" workers in the mine went crazy, grabbed a club and went on a rampage. Luckily Zephari had been working in one of the lower levels of the mine, but she had helped with the recovery. Four Akalaks were injured, and one human was killed. The Akalak cerulean who had gone crazy was also dead, a rock spiked through his head by one of the reimancers who worked in the mine. Everyone in the mine that day dropped whatever they were working on to help clean up the mess.
It was horrible, their were blood stains all over the floor, bits of blue skin were hanging on some sharp edges on the wall. Zephari's job was finding blood stains and breaking away the rocks that were stained.
Afterwards everyone was sent home, and the mine was closed for the night. Everyone was told not to return for a few days so that the officials could do an investigation. Zephari spent that night drinking at the Blue Bull, as did many others, thought it was not a happy night like it usually was. Everyone at the bar that night was almost entirely silent, including Havar, who was usually very jolly and constantly laughing. The group of miners had one drink each before heading home, rather than the usual three or four.
So today Zephari was still off work, and she was badly stressed out. The other human miner who had been killed was only killed because he was unable to defend himself. The Akalaks had the advantage of pure size and strength, but Zephari only had her skills to work with, and when it came to combat, her skills were worse than sub par. She had used her pick ax as a heavy pick for defense a few times in the past, but it was only ever in small skirmishes with a robber or some one trying to harass her, never some one trying to outright kill her.
So today she set out into the forest around Riverfall to get some more practice, and to figure out if she needed to learn an actual weapon. In her mind a pick ax would make a fine weapon with some practice. The heavy head and somewhat sharp point was able to break rocks, so in theory it could do severe damage to a person. She had seen people in the past using a more weaponised version of a pick, but those were entirely metal, handle and head. Maybe they had a leather handle for comfort but they were almost entirely metal, where as her mining pick had a larger heftier head, and a light wooden handle.
She headed to a secluded area on the city side of the river, not wanting to bother getting on the ferry to cross the river. She walked up along a fairly well worn game path heading into the forest. She wasn't paying any attention to her surroundings, so she just kinda wandered. Eventually she came to a clearing that was made by a ring of trees and a large boulder on one side. It seamed like as good a place as any so Zephari stopped there for a quick rest, sitting on a smaller rock next to the boulder.
She pulled her pick out from her belt loop it was kept in and examined it. It was perfectly designed for mining, the handle having a slight curve to assist with sliding your hand down the handle as you swing downward. Ninety percent of the weight was in the head, which helped immensely with driving the pick through the cracks in rocks, but Zephari quickly realized that it would work against her swinging it at a moving object.
Wanting to test the theory, she stood up and walked to the center of the clearing. She had never done this type of practice before, so she just winged it for the first strike. She drew the pick ax over her shoulder like she would if she was mining, her left hand at the bottom of the handle, with her right hand near the head. She brought it down hard at a right to left diagonal strike, sliding her right hand down along the handle to increase the speed of the strike, just like you would if you were hitting a rock.
But she wasn't hitting a rock, she was swinging at thin air
This is the color of speech.
This is the color of thought.
So it turns out the Coalinga Mines are not only dangerous because its a mine. The previous day, one of the "cerulean" workers in the mine went crazy, grabbed a club and went on a rampage. Luckily Zephari had been working in one of the lower levels of the mine, but she had helped with the recovery. Four Akalaks were injured, and one human was killed. The Akalak cerulean who had gone crazy was also dead, a rock spiked through his head by one of the reimancers who worked in the mine. Everyone in the mine that day dropped whatever they were working on to help clean up the mess.
It was horrible, their were blood stains all over the floor, bits of blue skin were hanging on some sharp edges on the wall. Zephari's job was finding blood stains and breaking away the rocks that were stained.
Afterwards everyone was sent home, and the mine was closed for the night. Everyone was told not to return for a few days so that the officials could do an investigation. Zephari spent that night drinking at the Blue Bull, as did many others, thought it was not a happy night like it usually was. Everyone at the bar that night was almost entirely silent, including Havar, who was usually very jolly and constantly laughing. The group of miners had one drink each before heading home, rather than the usual three or four.
So today Zephari was still off work, and she was badly stressed out. The other human miner who had been killed was only killed because he was unable to defend himself. The Akalaks had the advantage of pure size and strength, but Zephari only had her skills to work with, and when it came to combat, her skills were worse than sub par. She had used her pick ax as a heavy pick for defense a few times in the past, but it was only ever in small skirmishes with a robber or some one trying to harass her, never some one trying to outright kill her.
So today she set out into the forest around Riverfall to get some more practice, and to figure out if she needed to learn an actual weapon. In her mind a pick ax would make a fine weapon with some practice. The heavy head and somewhat sharp point was able to break rocks, so in theory it could do severe damage to a person. She had seen people in the past using a more weaponised version of a pick, but those were entirely metal, handle and head. Maybe they had a leather handle for comfort but they were almost entirely metal, where as her mining pick had a larger heftier head, and a light wooden handle.
She headed to a secluded area on the city side of the river, not wanting to bother getting on the ferry to cross the river. She walked up along a fairly well worn game path heading into the forest. She wasn't paying any attention to her surroundings, so she just kinda wandered. Eventually she came to a clearing that was made by a ring of trees and a large boulder on one side. It seamed like as good a place as any so Zephari stopped there for a quick rest, sitting on a smaller rock next to the boulder.
She pulled her pick out from her belt loop it was kept in and examined it. It was perfectly designed for mining, the handle having a slight curve to assist with sliding your hand down the handle as you swing downward. Ninety percent of the weight was in the head, which helped immensely with driving the pick through the cracks in rocks, but Zephari quickly realized that it would work against her swinging it at a moving object.
Wanting to test the theory, she stood up and walked to the center of the clearing. She had never done this type of practice before, so she just winged it for the first strike. She drew the pick ax over her shoulder like she would if she was mining, her left hand at the bottom of the handle, with her right hand near the head. She brought it down hard at a right to left diagonal strike, sliding her right hand down along the handle to increase the speed of the strike, just like you would if you were hitting a rock.
But she wasn't hitting a rock, she was swinging at thin air
This is the color of speech.
This is the color of thought.
