The Galanimel Ruins

In the middle of nowhere there's a group of five women, two men of unknown origin.

They're at the moment moving in a gigantic forest, where ruins can be seen that's overgrown with vegetation. Enormous trees that's so tall that their tree crowns are blocking out the sun, only a few gaps of sunlight came through when the tree crowns weren't thick enough.

The wildlife roaming wild; rare animals and monsters that are rarely seen roams while getting fattened on the unnatural nature of this forest.

The group that's traveling in this forgotten place are wearing all kinds of armor and clothes.

Leather, plate, chainmail and cloth.

Backpacks that are filled with all kinds of overstuffed equipment. Food, shovels, pickaxes, a tent, bedrolls and other essentials.

They have been traveling on foot because this forest is no place for mounts; many impassable paths, roots that came out of the ground blocking off certain passages, which only could be traveled by squeezing through the roots.

Weapons that're ranging from an engraved sword, two shields, dual longswords, a string-less bow that's tied together to a quarterstaff. Two axes that are in different sizes, and daggers that're in scabbards, which are hidden throughout the body, only in desperate moments are they drawn.

The wilderness is no home for the weak, that's why they're so heavily armed with armor and weapons. There are full of dangerous animals and monsters roaming about, which they had seen. They had met on the way here, a monster that was chasing after an animal, but luckily it didn't turn to them.

For it was a creature that reached five meters in height, and ran on four stomping legs. It had large horns, big tusks and razor sharp teeth. The monster was so terrifying that it would make any seasoned party of soldiers think twice before battling such a creature.

The group had been so relieved that no battle for their lives occurred, with that kind of monster.

They continued on their journey further into the forest, moving slowly as they carried all of those equipment and weapons. They stopped suddenly where ruins that's overgrown with vegetation. The group wondered what's going on, but then an excited voice asked:

“Is this the spot?”

“Yes, this should be the location,” someone replied that's holding onto a map.

This group is a bunch of different races that're ranging from two Dwarves, male and female, to Humans that're male and female. And three more females that're a Half-Elf, a Halfling and a Beast that looked like some kind of mix of a black cat and a Human.

The group stands there waiting for one of the designated leaders to speak, and then the female Human shouted out:

“We'll set up camp here and tomorrow we'll begin to dig!”

The group then started to set up the camp, and as they finished, the men and women went both to sit and talk by the fire they had lit or did whatever needed to be done. The Beastwoman wasn't the chatty type, so she's at the moment scouting the surrounding area for anything that could harm the group, but nothing showed up that could be considered dangerous.

The Beastwoman is sitting there on a huge tree stump that's five meters in height. She's currently looking over the encampment with her yellow slit eyes. When she's sitting there she looks like someone who's ready for anything, always on alert.

Coming from the Beast race her build is very muscular, but yet she's got a very slim leaned build. Her height reached 180 cm when she stands at her tallest. Her whole body looks like a Human, she has a light skin tone. Her fingertips has sharp black-gleaming claws, same with her toes. Her face has a mysterious look to it, but her oriental eyes with slit yellow pupils, made her also have a somewhat vicious look to her. Her mouth has sharp teeth and fangs that she has concealed to make herself less beast-like.

There's no fur, only her straight black hair that's reaching her slightly large bosoms, and her eyebrows which are very thin. She got pointy cat-like ears, which is sitting higher on the top of the head than normal Human ears. One would think that she would have a tail, but must people that comes from the Beast race doesn't inherit tails, it depends mostly on the parent's genes.

As she looked at the various races chatting by the fire, the Halfling began to move towards her direction. The Beastwoman inspected the Halfling that she's traveling with.

She reached almost a meter tall, and she looked exactly like a Human, but smaller. Her skin is in a pale light color. She has a slightly plump body, and her breast size is rather non-existent. She has curly straight dark-brown hair that's reaching to her shoulders, and eyes that're also in a dark-brown color. Her face has a very caring look to it, very mature.

She’s older than me too, the Beastwoman thought. She isn't happy to be the youngest in the group, but the others didn't know her age, only she did.

As the Halfling noticed that she's looking at her, the Halfling opened her mouth and shouted with a cheery voice:

“Aynthia I brought you something to eat! ~.”

Aynthia stood up and jumped down from the tree stump with ease. She frowned.

Did I do something to make her act so friendly towards me? She thought, because she didn't like to socialize with other people. She liked being alone when they didn't need her for anything.

Aynthia then said with an irritated voice: “Diana, you keep pestering me with food, but I can take care of food by myself.”

“But you seemed hungry just sitting there all alone~,” Diana said still in her cheery voice.

She just stared at the Halfling that's called Diana and lets out a sigh, then she said:

“If you don't have anything other than that watery thing you call food, I'll go and scout the surrounding area...some more.”

Diana was just on the verge of saying something, but didn't get the chance as Aynthia vanished with high speed into the forest. Diana who's holding a bowl of soup just stands there with a surprised face, then gave out a small sigh and went back to the encampment.

She sat down by the others, and lets out yet another small sigh, she then said in a sad voice:

“She's still not warming up to me, even after four weeks.”

“Humph! Don't worry about that, the Humans hired her only because she's a good fighter, and fighters don't need words they need strength, which she's got plenty of!” the male Dwarf said in a high voice.

As the people began to talk between themselves, the Human female came out of the single tent that's erected, and said with a demanding voice:

“Listen up people! Tomorrow we'll start to dig, I'm handing over the responsibility with the excavation to you Dwarf, don't disappoint me.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it Human girl. I'm the finest there's when it comes to excavation, everything will go smoothly! I have dug all across the known continents! My skills are praised in every Dwarven household; both above and below! Indeed I'm the very best!” the male Dwarf said proudly as he boasted his achievements nonchalantly.

The female Dwarf just looked at him in embarrassment, as she knew he hadn't even done more than one successful dig. But only she knew that, and the others didn't.

The two Dwarves had gotten this job in a hurry, because they're in dire need of gold coins. Why they needed the gold is because they wanted to settle down and start a family of their own. She had finally convinced the male Dwarf to do it. But as broke as they are, they needed this to be a successful dig, though they have already been paid, so if this dig turns out to be a waste of time, she wasn’t worried.

That Human girl just throws gold in random directions, and we just happen to catch it, not our fault if this will turn out bad, the Dwarf female thought.

“This will be very dangerous, as we have no idea what we'll find down there, but there's definitely something down under here, because there's a large spike of magic, I can feel it very strongly,” the Half-Elf said with a worried voice.

“Yes, there's definitely something down there, I'm sure of it,” the Human female said, “Because... Well, I read it in an old book, which had been translated from Elvish to our language, and it said,”

“The Chamber of Whiteness lies deep beneath Galanimel Ruins. There you'll find the Elves’ most treasured possession, your salvation.”

“The location of this treasure was also in the book. That's why we have come so far; this is the Galanimel Ruins, and it should be around here, where the chamber must lie. But enough! We didn't come here to talk about how I found it, just do your jobs!”

She went on this journey only because she read it in an old book? Stupid Human girl, the male Dwarf thought.

She lets out a tiring sigh.

“Alright then, if no one have anything further to add, I'll go and get some sleep,” the Human female said. She then went inside the tent as she got no answer, followed by the Half-Elf after she said with a smile:

“I'm also tired, so I'll get some sleep too, goodnight everyone.”

The others just responded with: “Goodnight,” as she went inside the tent too. The others who’re still by the fire just continued to talk between themselves.

“We better be prepared for tomorrow. Whatever we'll find down there, we must be prepared,” the Dwarf female said with a slight worried voice.

“Ohh! Don't worry my honey puff, I won't let anything happen to you,” the Dwarf male said with a childish voice.

As the male Dwarf said that, both of the Dwarves looked into each other’s eyes, and as the male Dwarf is leaning in for the opportunity to kiss her, she pushed her palm right in the face of the male Dwarf and said:

“I told you to never say that in front of other people, it’s embarrassing,”

“But honey p—*smack*,” Male dwarf rolling.

He got a punch right to the kisser; he tumbled back three meters, and hit a large tree branch.

The male Dwarf now enjoyed his forced sleep.

“Whoa! Take it easy will you, we got no time to act like children!” the male Human said with a surprised voice.

That was a good punch though, he thought.

“*Humph* Well, it's time for sleep. Wake Thren and make sure he isn't dead!” the female Dwarf said with a high voice while her cheeks are puffed out.

As she went into the tent, Diana followed suit with a yawn without saying anything, she wasn’t surprised by the punch...surprisingly enough. The Human male walked over to Thren to see if he is okay, and as he approached, the Human male asked with a worried look:

“Thren, you okay?”

When he said it, Thren's eyes popped wide open and replied with a pained voice:

“Ugh, that hurt. But! I would expect nothing less from my lovely stone-maiden, though it was a softer punch than the usual punch, haha.”

“Y-Yeah she does have that strength of hers, here take my hand.” the Human male said with a slight laugh.

As the Human male reached out his hand, Thren gladly accepted the hand and said with a kind voice:

“Thanks Jack,”

“Anytime Thren” Jack responded with a wide smile.

The forest is full of dangers so they had to keep a roundabout watch. Every two hours one person would switch to take over the other person's watch, but that job fell upon the two males in the group. It's rather unfair, but the two males just went with it, without complaining.

Jack is sitting there on a large tree-branch that has been laid out to sit upon. He just sat and waited, watching the lit fire; his azure-blue eyes reflecting the burning light. He scratched his short natural slicked-back blond hair with one finger, while thinking.

He thought about his predicament that he has put himself in: I shouldn't have left without telling anyone, such stupidity. At least I could've told her about me leaving... He sighed. But I couldn't just let that girl go by herself with those two.

Jack is at the moment sitting in his full-plate armor, that has yellow lines on every edged surface and border. The plate is in a blue color with greaves, gauntlets, pauldrons, boots and a breastplate that's got an emblem of a tigress's head that's blue with stripes of yellow. He has a helmet, but it's lying beside his backpack. The helmet has blond feather ornaments that's sticking out at the top of the helmet, making it look very majestic.

It also has a visor.

The whole plate armor is in a very medium build, as it's Jack's. He has muscles, but the muscles are rather medium sized, as if he had trained them, then lost weight, then gained weight, then yet again lost weight to gain the most powerful build of muscles, through mobility and endurance.

Jack looked at the little hourglass that he had put on the large branch that he's sitting on. When the last of the sand dropped down from the top of the hourglass he looked towards Thren.

“Hey wake up, it's your turn to keep watch, I'm dead tired... Thren wake up.” Jack said with a tired voice as he gave a slight yawn.

“Wah wha?! It felt...like I only slept for two hours,” Thren said as he awoke drowsily with a grumpy voice.

“You did sleep for two hours...” Jack said as he gave a smiling sigh.

“Oh... Right, it's every two hours haha, well, you can go to sleep I'll take it from here.” Thren said with an embarrassing laugh.

They then switched places.

Jack walked over to his bedroll, which he had rolled out when they were setting up the camp. He took off all of the plate armor he had on; he now only have the inner clothes, which has straps that would hold up the plate armor.

He laid down on the bedroll and drifted off into darkness.

As Jack began to sleep, Thren went over to sit on the log that's by the raging fire, which lit up the entire camp with its golden orange light. He gave out a big long yawn with his mouth opening as wide as it could, he then closed it. He scratched his black-haired head and his black thick beard simultaneously.

Scratch, scratch, he gave out yet another long yawn.

Thren is taller than most Dwarves, he reached 150 cm. Normal Dwarves only reached 110 to 130 cm at tops, so he's considered very...very tall among his people.

He's also very broad and has large bulging muscles, which could be seen as he's wearing his dark-reddened chainmail set.

How he got the Dwarf female as a lover, was only because she too is tall for Dwarf standard. She reached 140 cm, and as she didn't want anyone that was shorter than her as a mate, she roamed through the known continents, when she reached her mature age.

After years of searching she found Thren, but he didn't want anything to do with her. But after a couple of beatings from her, he surrendered himself to her whim.

Then their blissful relationship bloomed through domestic violence. They've been together for ten whole years, ever since her first conquering of Thren. At this moment they're 40 and 30 years of age. Thren being the older.

Thren just sat there on the log staring into the campfire, he reached to something that's beside him.

Just as he’s about to take a sip of water from a small bag that's made of some kind of animal skin, faint sounds come from behind him and it's just getting closer and closer. He's currently sitting faced towards the sound asleep Jack and the ladies' tent. He tensed up and gritted his teeth together.

His hand went to his axe that's lying beside him; just as he's going to grab the axe and meet the creeping monster behind him, Thren got startled when he heard a female voice instead:

“What're you trying to do?”

As Thren turned around, he felt relieved that it's only Aynthia standing there behind him and not the terrifying monster he had thought up in his Imagination. He lets out a big sigh of relief and said:

“Phew, it's only you Aynthia, you scared the chainmail out of me. I thought that it was some kind of monster coming up behind me.”

“Hmm,” Aynthia hmmed as she looked around the camp that's currently dead silent. Only the blazing fire could be heard.

Jack had awoken from a sudden Dwarf, but he just kept on trying to fall asleep again when he saw it was just Aynthia that had come back.

“Everyone...asleep... ...I'm not tired yet, so I'll go back to the forest and do some more... Scouting,” Aynthia said with a sighing voice.

“Scout some more? Don't you ever get tired of being on alert all the time?” Thren asked with a somewhat annoying voice.

“... Better that, than to be dead,” Aynthia responded with a voice of displease as he had said something that gave her a slight frown.

Are they not glad that I do this for them, so they won't get ambushed by creatures? Aynthia thought as she frowned.

Thren just looked at Aynthia who frowned and he noticed that she's carrying two rabbit-like animals on her shoulder that're attached to two strings.

“Dinner huh?” Thren asked with a smile.

“This? No... I have already eaten so you can take them. Maybe you can use it for...tomorrow,” Aynthia said with her sighing voice as she took a hold of the rabbits.

“Oh, much appreciated,” Thren said with a gratifying smile.

Aynthia gave a quick nod, and threw the rabbits to the ground and went back into the vast creeping dark forest.

“Hmm... She’s much easier to speak to than I thought,” Thren said as he got to know her a little bit better.

As the night turned to day, you could hear that the Dwarf Thren is giving orders to the group about how they should excavate: “Put your backs into it! We won't rest until nightfall! You! More digging less sipping water!”

“There are indications of earlier digs here, but it doesn't look like they got anywhere. Well as you said Human girl, it lies deep beneath the ground, so put your back into it, and stop taking so many breaks!” Thren shouted with a pleasing grin.

“Tch, whatever Dwarf, it's you who should do more digging, and less talking!” the human girl shouted angrily.

Everyone contributed to the dig in one way or another, and as the hours flew by, night began to set yet again.

The group discussed about how it went today while they ate, but nothing special was said, other than a few angry words that got thrown here and there, between the Human girl and Thren, while the Human male tried to calm the Human female as she got angry enough to start shouting.

When the blissful discussions and the eating ended, everyone went to sleep.

The sun came through the cracks of the gigantic tree crowns. The group woke up and started to dig yet again, after a couple of hours, you could hear a loud *Klink* as one of the pickaxes hit something hard.

As they cleared all of the dirt and stones away, what they saw is.

“Wah! This is! Pure white marble!” Thren yelled as he looked at it with awe.

“White marble, what's white marble?” Diana asked questionably, as she knew nothing about stonework.

“Pure white marble is rare, very rare. This is the first time I've ever seen white marble in this kind of pure state. We normally only see regular white marble, but this is so pure that no veins are visible,” Thren said as he looked at the white marble with eyes of excitement.

“Rare?” Diana said as her eyes also began to shine with excitement.

“Hmm, but not that durable it seems” Thren said as he looked closer at the white marble.

Everyone is currently standing on top of the white marble, suddenly you began to hear a *Crack*. Just when the crack sound is heard, the white marble started to break apart and started to fall.

Just as the group fell into a big hole, Aynthia jumped away and landed by the side of the big hole and just asked normally:

“Are you alright down there?”

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