Part 6

Knights had started to get annoyed from walking through tunnels for a good ten minutes. This resulted in a sigh of relief when the small girl in front stopped walking.

However, this short period of relief was quickly demolished when he heard that cold, grating voice pierce his mind – the ‘guard’.

Knight found himself at a dead-end; a jagged, black wall standing in front of the trio. It was as if it was asking them to try and break it. It didn’t care, it was endless.

“Oh...fuck” Knight let out an exasperated groan as the realisation of what this meant, hit him, thinking back to the miners before and the intensive labour he was about to be put up to. His earlier assumption was indeed correct.

Knight shifted his view towards the disfigured half-giant, noticing two small pickaxes in each hand. Well, they were small in proportion to the giant, they were probably the normal size for a normal human.

As if to answer Knight’s glare, the creature threw one towards him, resulting in him stumbling back. It’s hard to catch something properly with only one hand, after all.

However, the peculiar thing was, Knight still couldn’t make out the face of the thing, or what was obscuring him from doing so, all he knew was that it had slimy, grey skin. There could be no question about the light like before, it was definitely bright enough. Maybe it’s face was covered by the tunnel-cast shadows., however, it was more likely that it had no facial features at all, especially considering this wasn’t your normal world.

After throwing one at the ordinary boy, the creature proceeded to lazily drop the reaming pickaxe onto the small girl, making her fall to the ground in the process. After all, she was about half the size of Knight, never mind the giant.

Ah, I see. Oh, I see. Well, I see you then… Quite a prick we have here. He concluded whilst observing the black, rustic pickaxe. Though maybe all the inhabitants of this shit hole are like that...His hope for a fun adventure was dwindling every second he spent in this new world.

The handle of the pickaxe was a ghostly white; it felt extremely soft in Knight’s hand, yet, at the same time, it felt rough and sturdy. It was a surreal contrast one would never normally experience. It was as if it was ethereal, and although it was delicate, it created a rough feeling with every swing. He couldn’t believe it was a dream anymore, why would he dream about an ethereal pickaxe of all things; even if this some sort of nightmare inflicted upon him as some sort of punishment, why would whoever inflicting it be so pedantic to create this preternatural pickaxe, a normal one would have sufficed.

As Knight, putting his mind of the strange details of the item, continued struggling at swinging the pickaxe in the air, and the girl got back to her feet, the cold voice entered the heavy air once again.

“Krow” with these foreign words, a strange black light appeared from the splatters on its deformed armed. Knight watched the black glow form a quaint light on the roof of the rocky tunnel, inadvertently lowering the brightness of the other tunnel lights. What was the point of that…? Knight thought, ignoring that the inexplicable cover of his face hadn’t vanished.

After what seemed to be the creation of a new light, the giant thing stood against the wall, as if it was expecting Knight to do something.

Wondering what it was, and still hoping it was not to waste away mining, he looked over at the small girl, noticing that she had begun scratching away at the black rock; barely enough to make a quivering sound as the metal end touched the rock.

Damn. So, we are actually supposed to do this huh? Knight's thoughts then led to his previous experience with this strange being, remembering the unstoppable, brute force. Well, I don’t want my head to be used as a basketball, so I’ll have to do this I guess…what a bother.

With that perturbed thought in his head, he started mining away at the black rock just as the girl did, yet he was making a fair bit of progress with each swing. They really aren’t bothered about the outcome of this labour, are they?

After five minutes of mindless and useless swinging, Knight began contemplating the point of this cumbersome labour and was thinking about asking the thing that was still stood against the sidewall.

Yeah, better not. He decided, after taking one glance to notice the tensing of the giant’s fist.

Knight still had the memories of his arm being popped out of place, and his head being ever so close to becoming like a snail’s shell. So, it was quite understandable why he had come to this conclusion, even ignoring the giant’s obvious threat. Although even if he happened to change his mind and had chosen to ask whatever the thing was that was guarding them, he wouldn’t have been able to. In the minutes after the clench of his fists, it had apparently disappeared as the messed half-giant was not stood against the mined rock. Nor was it anywhere to be seen.

Though Knight didn’t realise this as he had returned to idly mining the hard, black rock.