They
crested over a hill and below them a small mining town was spread out within
the canyon, but instead of driving into the town, Seth bared right and went
around the top of the canyon in which the town was sitting in. Seth stopped the
cart to a point level with the town, he got down from the control seat,
searched through one of the crates, and pulled out a mass of rope and clips. He
threw them off the back of the cart and jumped down off the cart. Seth then
proceeded to activate each of the mechanical braces from the carts underside.
Ellyn then spoke up “What are you doing?” she said, disembarking from the cart
herself. Seth walked around to the side facing the edge of the canyon, Ellyn
met him there. “Just wait, you’ll see” Seth said starting to tie some of the
rope to the cart. Seth then found the other end of the rope and clipped it to
something under his jumper. Ellyn just looked at him quizzically. He gave her a
wink and jumped off the edge.
“Seth!”
Ellyn called after him, she started walking towards the edge, then she heard
some rustling behind her and saw Acorn dragging some mess of leather, he
wriggled into it, shook it into position, and leaped off after Seth. Ellyn rushed
over to the edge, and saw Acorn gliding down with some sort of wing-set, and Seth
dangling off a bit of rope, securing it to some metal rings that were set into
the rock as he climbed down the face of the cliff, head first. Acorn had gotten
down to Seth and landed on his foot. Seth looked up at Acorn, and then saw
Ellyn looking down at him.
“Oh,
Hey!” he shouted up with a grin, and waved with one hand
“Yeah…
Hey, uh mind telling me now?” Ellyn shouted back, Seth held up one finger to
her, telling her to wait a bit, looked up and down the cliff, and once
satisfied he clipped the final part of the rope to the last metal ring. He
swung around so he was now head up, Acorn sticking to the sole of his shoe, as
he pulled himself up the rope, with surprising speed. He reached the top, and
climbed back onto the ledge, still clipped to the rope, Acorn now sitting on
his shoulder.
“Sorry,
what did you say?” Seth asked to Ellyn who was now standing with her arms folded.
“I
asked you what you are doing?” replied Ellyn
“Well,
this is where I get my Byronium!” Explained Seth, “it grows from rocks, and it
doesn’t just grow straight out of the ground, you have to go underground to
find it, or have a handy river to dig for you” Seth said, indicating to the
canyon behind him, “I guess you better come look, come on, put this on”
Continued Seth as he got another mass of leather from a pouch on the side of
the cart, he untangled it and Ellyn saw it was a harness, like to one Seth wore
under his outer clothes. She wriggled it on and pulled the straps tight, so it
fit her tightly; Seth walked up to her and clipped the rope to her, and clipped
another length to his own harness, and then to the main rope.
“You
ever done this before?” Asked Seth
“Do
you think I’ve done this before!?” replied Ellyn getting nervous as they neared
the edge. “Eh, I guess not” Seth said, “but there is always a first for
everything!” Seth said as he jumped off the edge again, but this time he was
tied to Ellyn, so she was soon pulled off the edge with him. “Seth!” Ellyn
screamed as they were freefalling down the cliff, she looked over to Seth who
looked calm as cookies, before they both came to a sudden halt as the rope
ended, Ellyn had the wind knocked out of her and was left dangling and gasping,
while Seth expertly swung himself into the nearby cave. Seth then proceeded to
pull Ellyn in using the rope tied between them, once Ellyn had gotten onto the ground;
she knelt over and threw up onto the floor, leaving a light brown puddle on the
floor. “Never….Ever….Do that again if you want to keep on breathing” Ellyn
panted at Seth, “I’ll keep that in mind,” Seth said as he offered her a piece
of cloth to wipe her mouth with. She stood up; wiping her mouth and looked
around at the cave she had been pulled into. All around it, a light green
crystal was growing out of the rocks, most of it was growing in shards about a
foot in length, but some spanned the entire cave, reaching from the ceiling to
the floor, of from wall to wall. Seth walked up to one of the clusters of
crystals that happened to be growing out of the wall. He then proceeded to use
a small pick-axe, which he produced from his bag, to chip off bits from one of
the crystals. He then gathered the shards in his hands and returned to Ellyn.
“Here,
try this” Seth said, holding out one of the crystals to Ellyn.
“Try
it? What do you mean?” She took the shard and studied it in front of her face.
“Put
it in your mouth, but don’t eat it,” Seth replied indicating with his hands,
what she should do. Ellyn looked at him unsure, but decided to trust him with
this, and placed the shard on her tongue. Immediately she felt a wave of energy
start to tingle her tongue, it tasted surprisingly sweet for a rock. Seth saw
her expression and decided to explain himself.
“This
stuff, Byronium, as you can see grows underground like other crystals, however
Byronium is what they call a “Kinetic Stimulant”, this is why you can use it to
power things that move, like my arm or cart for example.” Ellyn nodded, moving
the shard around in her mouth. “However, it can also be eaten, and when it is
eaten, it gives the person who ate it a huge energy boost, but if you eat too
much you get addicted to it, and can’t function without it.” At this point
Ellyn spat the shard out. Seth produced a mirror from his bag, and gave it to
Ellyn “look at your tongue” Seth said, and Ellyn stuck out her tongue,
revealing that it was now bright green, like the crystals. After the two of
them stopped giggling, Seth gave Ellyn a pick-axe of her own, then they
proceeded to start mining the crystals, Ellyn getting using small leather bags
to collect small bits of the crystals, while Seth was pulling large chunks of
the crystals from the wall and placing them in a large drawstring sack. When
they had filled their bags, they clipped them to their harnesses, and Seth
pulled on one of the ropes, and they started to slowly get pulled back up the
cliff face. Ellyn was glad that it was motorised as it seemed like it would
have been a long climb, especially with all the crystals they gathered. When
they reached the top, the rope continued to drag them across the ground to the
cart, when it stopped Ellyn got up and brushed herself off, Seth meanwhile had
dozed off in the afternoon sun, Ellyn poked him with her foot and he twitched
but did not wake up. She rolled her eyes muttered a “you gotta be kidding me”,
and picked up Acorn who had appeared with their presents at the cart, she
placed him on Seth’s face, and for a while, nothing happened Acorn just sat
there looking confused, while Seth began to snore. Acorn clearly did not
appreciate the snoring and began to lick his face. Ellyn started taking off the
harness. After his face was coated in slime, Seth woke up.
“Huh?
Wha?” Seth mumbled as he shook his head, causing Acorn to slide off. Seth
blinked at the light, and saw Ellyn standing over him in her ‘did you really
just do that?’ pose with her arms on her hips, head tilted slightly.
“O
hai” Seth said pulling himself up, Ellyn rolled her eyes again and climbed into
the cart, now free of the harness. Seth
joined her on the cart, and opened a large white box, Ellyn saw it had a thick
lining on it, and upon close inspection, she found that the inside of the box
was cold. From here Seth produced a loaf of bread and some sliced meat, Ellyn
didn’t bother asking where he got it from or what it even was, as she knew she
wouldn’t get a straight answer. Seth handed her two slices of bread with the
meat in between, and wondered why this was not done as often as it is. Seth
booted up the cart and they pulled away from the cliff edge and headed back the
way they had come from, back towards Macewood.
Comments
Post a Comment