Timestamp 76th of Summer 515 AV
This is why only a select few were allowed to work on the front line team.
The day had started out pretty normal. Well as normal as days could be working at the Coalinga mines. Up early, down to the mines, started work. It had been five days since Zephari was assigned to work on the front line team working the bottom of the mine. She was the designated geologist, and so was the one who directed the workers where to mine. So far it had been very smooth, with only a single small wall collapse, with nobody even being near it.
The crew now had two tunnels heading in opposite directions from the main room where the great left descended into. Each of those tunnels branched out into three more, heading away from the main chamber. Four of the five tunnel directions had been determined by Zephari's original survey, the other two were done by the foreman overseeing the crew.
Zephari was working in the second northwest tunnel today. This was the tunnel that she had started because of traces of calcite and topaz in one wall. Due to the hard work of her friend Havar, and reimancer, the tunnel had made good progress, reaching almost thirty feet in the direction that she had indicated. The crystal deposits had indeed grown richer the further they mined, but were still not rich enough to actually bother extracting. Wanting better results, the foreman had requested she help with this cave today, to make sure it was worth spending manpower to continue mining.
This was a little nerve wracking, as if it turned out that it wasn't worth continuing, this would count as a failure on her part, but it did mean she got to work with Havar. When she first learned he was also on this team, she had hoped to work with her child-like friend, but her surveys kept her busy, and unable to do any actual mining. So this was a nice change of pace.
Arriving at the head of the tunnel, as always Havar was already here and working hard. It still made the benshira jump whenever she came upon her friend, simply due to his size. But she quickly got over it and approached him, calling his name in an attempt to get him to stop hammering away at the wall.
"HAVAR!!!." she eventually had to shout to get his attention. He looked back, the same dimwit look on his face that he always had. "Sorry Zeph, how long were you there?" he asked, opening his hands in a welcoming gesture. Normally when people did this it was nothing to think of, but Zephari knew that she was about to be almost killed.
Her suspicions were proved correct as he took on step over to the comparably tiny woman, picked her up, and gave her a massive lung crushing hug. By Yahal when will he learn to not squeeze so hard! Once dropped, taking a breather for several ticks, she asked "How's the tunnel coming along? Still finding more crystals?"
Taking her lantern, pushing past Havar, she ran her hand along the newly exposed wall that had just been uncovered. Holding the lantern close to the rock, she could see that the calcite was still larger than the last time she had checked this tunnel, but even the largest chunks would barely make an accent gem on a small ring. The tiny dots of yellow and green said that there was still topaz, so there was yet hope for this.
"I assume the foreman told you about his impatience?" she asked, turning to Havar. Her expression showing her irritation at the situation. "Yup. How much bigger do we need to find though?" he responded, looking less irritated, more just confused. "These are still shiny"
Taking her pick, Zephari gouged out a chunk of rock that had some of the larger pieces of crystal. Opening the lantern to allow for better light to examine them closely. "If only it was so gods damned dark down here. We aren't even a hundred paces from the main tunnel which goes all the way to the surface, but there is no trace of any sunlight." she complained, grabbing Havar's lantern.
Each crystal was about twice the size of a grain of rice. Now if kept raw, these could be used, but due to the nature of calcite, it had to be cut, often to less than a quarter of its original size. So these were simply too small. In order to be of any value, they needed to be at least three times this size. Zephari didn't even bother examining the green and yellow glimmers, as they were so small you could barely tell they were crystals at all.
"In order to make an real money, we need to find ones at least the size of my small fingernail." she explained, showing her pinkie finger. She knew crystals like this existed in this mine, she had mined them herself. But these were all pretty consistently the same size, meaning they weren't in the right layer yet. "We probably have to go at least another ten feet. How fast can you do that buddy?" she asked, hoping he would have a good answer
"I should be able to do that before lunch". he said, a broad smile on his face. There is no way... Well actually now that I think about it, he probably can. Freaking giant. And with that, Zephari moved out of the way, and let him start smashing away. He used the fine point of his pick, because now he could just break off huge chunks, and shove them back to Zephari, where she could break them for him. They settled into a rhythm, where it would take the benshira about the same amount of time to break each chunk into carryable pieces as it took for the Akalak to break off each chunk.
With this, they made immense amounts of progress, having to take breaks every four or five chunks to carry the rubble out of the tunnel. Just as lunch time arrived, they reached twelve feet, and something was weird. Havar grew hesitant to strike the wall at full force.
"Whats wrong buddy? We are doing so good, and it is almost time for break." she said, giving him a weird look, one eye raised. He was normally so powerful with his strikes, and went at his with with gusto. "Weird noise." he said, taking a swing with his pick at the wall. With the first swing Zephari didn't notice anything strange. However as he continued to swing, she noticed that alongside the normal metalic clang, which echoed through the tunnel, there was a second, far quieter echo. Telling him to swing harder so she could hear it more clearly, she put her ear to the wall next to him.
The impact wracked her brain, but her hearing remained sharp. The impact was normal, but the sound afterwards was very, very weird. Each ping of the echo was clearly mirrored, but within the wall, not the air of the tunnel. As the echo continued, the mirrored echo changed as it dissipated, as if the mirror echo was in a different place.
"Keep swinging, but carefully. I think there may be a cave." she said, her voice very stern and solemn. He took two more good hit against the chunk he was working away. Upon breaking, the chunk, rather than falling towards Havar, fell into the wall. A rush of air flowed from the new hole in the wall, blasting Havar and Zephari with a gust of cold, damp air. "Guess I was right."
This is the color of speech.
This is the color of others speech.
This is the color of thought.
This is why only a select few were allowed to work on the front line team.
The day had started out pretty normal. Well as normal as days could be working at the Coalinga mines. Up early, down to the mines, started work. It had been five days since Zephari was assigned to work on the front line team working the bottom of the mine. She was the designated geologist, and so was the one who directed the workers where to mine. So far it had been very smooth, with only a single small wall collapse, with nobody even being near it.
The crew now had two tunnels heading in opposite directions from the main room where the great left descended into. Each of those tunnels branched out into three more, heading away from the main chamber. Four of the five tunnel directions had been determined by Zephari's original survey, the other two were done by the foreman overseeing the crew.
Zephari was working in the second northwest tunnel today. This was the tunnel that she had started because of traces of calcite and topaz in one wall. Due to the hard work of her friend Havar, and reimancer, the tunnel had made good progress, reaching almost thirty feet in the direction that she had indicated. The crystal deposits had indeed grown richer the further they mined, but were still not rich enough to actually bother extracting. Wanting better results, the foreman had requested she help with this cave today, to make sure it was worth spending manpower to continue mining.
This was a little nerve wracking, as if it turned out that it wasn't worth continuing, this would count as a failure on her part, but it did mean she got to work with Havar. When she first learned he was also on this team, she had hoped to work with her child-like friend, but her surveys kept her busy, and unable to do any actual mining. So this was a nice change of pace.
Arriving at the head of the tunnel, as always Havar was already here and working hard. It still made the benshira jump whenever she came upon her friend, simply due to his size. But she quickly got over it and approached him, calling his name in an attempt to get him to stop hammering away at the wall.
"HAVAR!!!." she eventually had to shout to get his attention. He looked back, the same dimwit look on his face that he always had. "Sorry Zeph, how long were you there?" he asked, opening his hands in a welcoming gesture. Normally when people did this it was nothing to think of, but Zephari knew that she was about to be almost killed.
Her suspicions were proved correct as he took on step over to the comparably tiny woman, picked her up, and gave her a massive lung crushing hug. By Yahal when will he learn to not squeeze so hard! Once dropped, taking a breather for several ticks, she asked "How's the tunnel coming along? Still finding more crystals?"
Taking her lantern, pushing past Havar, she ran her hand along the newly exposed wall that had just been uncovered. Holding the lantern close to the rock, she could see that the calcite was still larger than the last time she had checked this tunnel, but even the largest chunks would barely make an accent gem on a small ring. The tiny dots of yellow and green said that there was still topaz, so there was yet hope for this.
"I assume the foreman told you about his impatience?" she asked, turning to Havar. Her expression showing her irritation at the situation. "Yup. How much bigger do we need to find though?" he responded, looking less irritated, more just confused. "These are still shiny"
Taking her pick, Zephari gouged out a chunk of rock that had some of the larger pieces of crystal. Opening the lantern to allow for better light to examine them closely. "If only it was so gods damned dark down here. We aren't even a hundred paces from the main tunnel which goes all the way to the surface, but there is no trace of any sunlight." she complained, grabbing Havar's lantern.
Each crystal was about twice the size of a grain of rice. Now if kept raw, these could be used, but due to the nature of calcite, it had to be cut, often to less than a quarter of its original size. So these were simply too small. In order to be of any value, they needed to be at least three times this size. Zephari didn't even bother examining the green and yellow glimmers, as they were so small you could barely tell they were crystals at all.
"In order to make an real money, we need to find ones at least the size of my small fingernail." she explained, showing her pinkie finger. She knew crystals like this existed in this mine, she had mined them herself. But these were all pretty consistently the same size, meaning they weren't in the right layer yet. "We probably have to go at least another ten feet. How fast can you do that buddy?" she asked, hoping he would have a good answer
"I should be able to do that before lunch". he said, a broad smile on his face. There is no way... Well actually now that I think about it, he probably can. Freaking giant. And with that, Zephari moved out of the way, and let him start smashing away. He used the fine point of his pick, because now he could just break off huge chunks, and shove them back to Zephari, where she could break them for him. They settled into a rhythm, where it would take the benshira about the same amount of time to break each chunk into carryable pieces as it took for the Akalak to break off each chunk.
With this, they made immense amounts of progress, having to take breaks every four or five chunks to carry the rubble out of the tunnel. Just as lunch time arrived, they reached twelve feet, and something was weird. Havar grew hesitant to strike the wall at full force.
"Whats wrong buddy? We are doing so good, and it is almost time for break." she said, giving him a weird look, one eye raised. He was normally so powerful with his strikes, and went at his with with gusto. "Weird noise." he said, taking a swing with his pick at the wall. With the first swing Zephari didn't notice anything strange. However as he continued to swing, she noticed that alongside the normal metalic clang, which echoed through the tunnel, there was a second, far quieter echo. Telling him to swing harder so she could hear it more clearly, she put her ear to the wall next to him.
The impact wracked her brain, but her hearing remained sharp. The impact was normal, but the sound afterwards was very, very weird. Each ping of the echo was clearly mirrored, but within the wall, not the air of the tunnel. As the echo continued, the mirrored echo changed as it dissipated, as if the mirror echo was in a different place.
"Keep swinging, but carefully. I think there may be a cave." she said, her voice very stern and solemn. He took two more good hit against the chunk he was working away. Upon breaking, the chunk, rather than falling towards Havar, fell into the wall. A rush of air flowed from the new hole in the wall, blasting Havar and Zephari with a gust of cold, damp air. "Guess I was right."
This is the color of speech.
This is the color of others speech.
This is the color of thought.
