[Maruem]

Maruem had already had a decently productive day, getting in some nondescript work and making some decent coin from his labor, but a repeated cycle of uncontracted work and weakly negotiated pay was not a way to grow on its own. Certainly, the work was enough to sustain him, with savings on the side for another rainy day, but there was more to growth than just money. What Maruem felt like he needed now was materials and experience, and what better way to get either than by going out and hunting.

Maruem brushed the crumbs from his hands and sipped the last of the water from his mug, in the time since he first sat down it had gone from a crisp chill to only slightly under room temperature, but even still it was good refreshing water, and he savored it's freshness. His tan skin glowed as he exited the stand out into the early afternoon sun, and his sun bleached shirt sat as snug on his skin as ever, keeping no secrets about his physique as he stretched his shoulders one by own, his sculpted forearm muscles rippling under his skin like waves of molten iron, thick and powerful. He brushed his long hair back with his right hand and tied it into a bun with a spare bit of cloth to act as a ribbon and keep it out of his face for the coming fights.

He walked toward the gate of the gate of the city and donned his brigandine as he went. It was not much, but it was something to protect himself with, and he was not looking to throw his life away recklessly just to collect some extra materials. He pulled his lance over his back and hooked it onto his should with a little hitch he had attached to it for easier access. His novice dagger sat affixed in it's usual spot at his belt, hanging loosely.

He nodded to the guardsmen as he stepped out into the wilderness that was the unguarded land beyond the wall, and walked past the sweeping fields of gold and green as he made his way toward the Ciminian forest, though it was not a very long walk. The sky was a brilliant blue high up above, with scattered, puffy, and beautiful cumulus clouds lazily floating overhead as they drifted off over the horizon. There were farm hands tending the fields. Many had buckets strapped to their belts, which they would fill one by one with the pesky insects they gathered from their crops. Their sweaty shirtless backs gleamed in the sun, the dark olive of their skin glimmering from the moisture. This was back breaking work, but it was a necessary part of tending their crops as harvest neared. They could not afford to let the bugs eat up their hard work so close to the end of the season.

Before he knew it, Maruem became lost in shadow as he stepped into the shade of the forest while still admiring the workers for their dedication. He turned to face forward and narrowly avoided stepping face first into a young oak at the edge of the curved path. As he walked Maruem kept his eyes peeled. He picked up anything he stumbled upon that seemed interesting or useful and inspected the materials he was able to gather in such a way carefully, tossing anything he deemed to be less valuable than he had initially thought.

And then, there it was. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a brilliant golden flash. There, not ten meters away, standing in the middle of a small clearing, with visible rays beaming through the forest roof above, stood a golden sheep, happily grazing in it's luminous glory. If he moved, it would see him and flee, if he breathed, it would do the same, if he so much as thought of a hostile act toward it, he felt like the animal would disappear. He had heard legends of the golden sheep of course, especially their incredible aptitude for leaping away, but this one seemed surprisingly docile.

Maruem slowly walked closer, taking the greatest of care with each foot step. He silently offered whatever prayers he could muster in his incredibly focused state to the gods of stealth and luck and anyone else who would heed him. It wasn't enough. He felt something small give under his boot, and just as he processed how bad it could be, the slight sound of the snapped twig reached the golden sheep with a twitch of the ear. It started, and leapt up several meters. As Maruem watched it's legs tense for the jump his heart sank. He had lost it. But no, he had not.

As he watched it sail up into the air, it suddenly jerked to a halt and came crashing back down, a terrible bleating sound following it down. It had been tied to a nearby tree and that was what stopped it so suddenly. It landed with a dull thump on the soft soil and grass of the clearing. Maruem stepped out and began to comfort the terrified animal. He carefully inspected it and found that it's leg had dislocated from the rope suddenly tugging it down. He did his best to set the joint back into proper alignment with a firm tug that begot more bleating from the sheep. After it looked like it was in the right spot, he cast triage on the poor animal. It was more than was needed for the situation, but it helped to ease the pain quickly and calm the sheep down. It dashed to the edge of the clearing as soon as the pain left its leg, and it stared at him with hesitation as he pulled a handful of thick green grass leaves from the forest floor, offering them with an outstretched hand.

His hand shook a little as he noticed the large black scorpion in his palm, something he had mistakenly picked up along with the grass. he reacted as swiftly as he could and slid his knife between its tail and his wrist, a little drop of toxin flowing down the blade told him he had narrowly avoided disaster, or at the least a painful paralytic jab. In one rapid motion, he dropped his knife and flung the scorpion into a jar from his pack. With the thread secured, he put his dagger back at his side and took a deep breath.

The sheep, which had up until then been fighting him tooth and nail, seemed to slow its breathing. It was a notably kinder looking animal. It gingerly walked closer to him, and it became clear that it was not so much terrified of him as of the scorpion, though he was still an unpleasant intruder. But now, having healed it and removed the threat, the sheep came from the edge of the clearing and sat beside him, resting its head on his lap and accepting the handful of grass he offered it.

He patted the sheep's soft fur around it's head and pacified it with calming words and affirmations. While it rested there on his lap and gluttonously enjoyed the grass being handed to it, he looked for anything distinguishable as a tag or proof of ownership. The rope was of incredibly poor quality, and Maruem could not imagine where it had come from. The sheep had no tag on its ear or around it's neck, nor was there any marking burned into its flank.

"Who's are you I wonder, friend sheep? And why were you left all alone, surely you're more valuable than that, no? Would you like me to stay until your owne-" Maruem was interrupted by a whistle and groaned from the pain, even muffled as it was by this new worlds rules and damage reduction. He looked down to see an arrow had sprouted from his ribs, an arrow of goblin make.

Maruem coughed, and spat a spray of blood that had made its way into his mouth. He wiped the dribble of blood from his chin with the back of his hand and drew his spear. "No fair." He said to the hulking figure before him. It was a sight he was ill prepared for, but he thought he stood a chance.

Before him stood a massive goblin of dark green skin and huge stature. It easily stood 3 meters tall, and in it's hand it held a broken jagged club. It was noticeably injured, along with the few goblins that remained of its troop. Still. This was an Elite enemy, and he definitely should not be facing it on his own. If ever there was a chance to retrieve goods from a foe though, it was now. He could sell the loot from it, gain a golden fleece if he defended the sheep, he just needed to overcome this goliath... somehow.

It had nowhere near the usual fifty goblins with it. There were seven, all of them showing signs of combat, and the warlord was perhaps the worst off of them all, with deep wounds across his dark verdant flesh. This party had already seen much combat. Their one victory had been the golden sheep, and they left for gods know what reason, to hunt, to get the remainder of their troop. Whatever the reason, they had bloodlust in their eyes, and for all their injuries, it was clear they could still fight.

Maruem launched himself off the ground in a flash as two more arrows whizzed toward him. He landed on his right palm and held himself aloft on the one arm as the arrows flew harmlessly past him, as above so below. He flexed his arm and flung himself up onto his feet with his left arm still firmly holding the shaft of his spear. As he landed, he leaned hard on his spear, bracing himself as he tore the jagged arrow from his chest and roared bestially at the goblins.

Without so much as a gesture, he activated Accelerate and as a blur of desperate rage under insurmountable odds he charged. The Warlord, weakened as it was, was still an elite, it's reflexes were too good to chance a miss. Any slip up and he would be heavily punished by it's powerful attacks, and even one attack from the brute would make the whole fight a much more challenging ordeal. His eyes traced the battlefield and landed on the weakest looking of the goblins, one of the archers in the process of reloading.

First goal was to buy some time against the Warlord, so he dashed straight for it and ran up the trunk of an old collapsed tree from which he flung himself into the air with a powerful jump, activating Unus: Gigantes just before he leapt so that in connected the instant he was close enough to the leader. His shoulder slammed into it's face and the Warlord roared as it's crooked nose snapped and now dripped a stream of blood down its lip. Immediately the Warlord's face was decorated with seven shimmering blades of ice as Maruem used accelerate on Hailshot, the first stack of forma increasing the damage and making an already devastating shotgun blast all the more brutalizing. It was a good call to go for the instant acceleration, as right behind him the massive monster's tree light club crushed the air in a high pressure wave that tugged at the back of his clothes.

There was no room to breath with this enemy, but the Warlord would be more or less unkillable so long as he had allies, and with the two seconds Maruem had there was no time to think, all he could do was act. As tempting as it was to focus all his energy on a stunned and injured enemy, he could not afford to leave the other goblins to run wild and surround him while they were buffed by their commander. They were all still weakened, and he had fought goblins before, it shouldn't take much to make this a one on one.

The Warlord crashed onto the ground with a thunderous slam from the stunning shoulder strike and frigid blade explosion to his face, and Maruem used all the momentum to roll hard, straight toward the weakest of the goblins. Just as he began to roll off of the Warlord his spear danced behind him. His well timed cast of Duo: Castrum drove the tip of his spear into the soil at his side and it spun behind him in a wide arc, creating several large pillars of stone directly under the Warlord, who was launched up and crashed down on the opposite side of the wall as Maruem.

The momentum from the Warlord's fall was enough to send Maruem rolling straight toward the weakest looking of the goblins. Spear drawn he felt a few arrows whiz past him from the side and he stabbed forward with his buffed weapon and the spear aimed true, piercing the already weakened goblins throat as it vomited up a pool of blood from its ruptured throat. He forcefully jerked the spear out and at the same time his dagger pierced its temple with a sharp crack of bone. It fell limp and he charged the next one. An arrow caught him in the calf and he rolled for a moment but used his own momentum to roll back onto his feet. He swung his dagger down and cut the side of the arrow as he kept running, albeit more painfully and with a slightly slowed pace.

It was not enough for his second target to evade him. He began to cast Crystal Mountains as soon as the arrow hit him and as he neared the second goblin he also charged up Upheaval. His boot slammed it in the face and launched it hard against the tree directly behind it. Right as it hit the tree he stabbed it hard in the chest and it slummed limply, held up only by the long shaft pinning it to the tree.

Simultaneously, Maruem released Crystal Mountains to his right, the Warlord and two goblins becoming caught up in the wave of ice, partially walled off by the Duo: Castrum which had just about eight seconds left in its duration before it faded into nothing. Five goblins and a Warlord left, and he had five stacks of forma. He could do this. He used the disarray from the wave of ice to fire off a Forward Stride at one of the chilled goblins. The dart pierced the further of the two goblins after traveling the ten meters from his spear tip and it hit the goblin hard. The chill would take care of the rest of it's health very quickly. Four goblins and a Warlord remaining.

He had six seconds before his wall came crashing down. He cast Boomerang Weapon on his dagger and threw it at the second of the goblins that had been hit by the Crystal Mountains and began to run. Five seconds. He ran past his wall of stone pillars, some of which appeared heavily damaged, aiming to reach a goblin in the other direction. Four seconds. His dagger had struck the goblin, the blade combined with its chill status killing it instantly and projecting the blade on its way in a wide arc back to him. Three seconds. Three goblins and a Warlord left. The goblin he had targeted ducked under his thrust and jabbed his side with its jagged blade. He dagger returned to his hand and he received his seventh stack of forma. Two seconds. He spun in an arc following the path the dagger would have taken and smoothly leaping up, sinking his dagger into the back of the goblin's head as it was still untangling its blade from the cloth of his brigandine. One second. Two goblins and a Warlord remaining. He charged the wall of stone, casting his Tres as he ran.

The wall faded away. The heavily bloodied Warlord roared so ferociously the entire forest seemed to quake. It seemed he had activated Advance! to cause the remaining to goblins to charge Maruem. Immediately after the Ciminian Goblin Warlord dug its feet into the ground and swung hard with it's gigantic club It was using Overwhelm. It was not enough. Maruem began the animation of his Tres and it was too late for his foes. The two goblin spearmen attacked with all their might under the effect of the Warlord's Advance!, and the Warlord struck hard with his own Overwhelm attack, but Tres: Lanista didn't care about any of that.

The Tres effect of Unus: Gigantes activated and Maruem parried all the attacks with unnatural speed and precision, his spirit attackers mimicking his movements. As he demonstrated his blow for all three foes, the ghostly apparitions he had summoned mimicked the attack and pierced the two goblins and the warlord. The goblins fell, the Overwhelm just barely broke through the parry, and Maruem was hit hard and stunned, but he had stunned the Warlord and the goblins as well. The force of the Overwhelm was delayed, but as it hit Maruem, he was blasted back and slammed into a thick tree far behind him.

When he regained himself only a second later, his Alven blood speeding his recovery from the status, he struggled to rise, but slowly he regained his footing. His head was pounding, he touched the back of his head and it was warm with sticky wetness. Through his blurred vision he looked at his fingers and saw red. He looked up, and the Warlord began to rise. It was close, but Maruem had lost, he knew it. The Warlord roared and activated another Advance! and Maruem braced himself.

His spear had been launched from his hand, his dagger lie even further in the opposite direction. All he could do was hope his fists hit enough to kill the goblins and leave the Warlord to fend for himself, in his weakened state maybe some lucky adventurer could pick him off. He swayed, standing with his fists raised limply like a drunken fist pose, and as he braced for impact he stumbled to the ground. He pushed himself back up sloppily. They should have been upon him by now. He stood and weakly got back into his pose to fight, but looking up, the two goblins lie dead, arrows through the skulls from behind. He looked around shakily, and all he saw were some gleaming figures rushing from the forest. "The Cavalry's arrived... how about that." and he fell, crashing hard onto the forest floor.

In his stupor he heard voices shouting, a loud crash, cheers, shock, a pair of hands lifting his head, several more hands planted under him. There was a sense of immediacy around him, but it was distance, like they were touching his body, but he could only tell it was happening as if he were an observer, not really feeling it. And then everything began to get much closer very quickly. His head stopped pounding, his side and leg seemed to hurt less, and the original wound to his chest was ancient history.

He opened his eyes to a crowd of soldiers standing over him. A cheer erupted around them as soon as his eyes began to open. The healer kept his spell up and Maruem began to sit up off of his leafy bed of forest floor. "I don't know who you are, but you're very probably the most reckless idiot I've ever met. If I could have a thousand more of you Romalia would tear apart the Pontificate and the damn Venezian Navy with ease."

"I uh... They attacked me, I just responded accordingly. Can't have them stealing my Golden Sheep now can I?"
The commanding officer who had just spoken to him burst out with laughter. "Yeah, right, you did this for a legendary sheep that definitely exists." He shot Maruem a knowing wink.
"You didn't see it? It was tied up over th-" he began to point but his voice trialed off. There was no sign of the sheep in the clearing. Only a torn rope.
"Brother, I'll tell you this now, don't go pushing wild stories like that or people will think you're even more cracked than you are. Still though, we owe you one. We've been hunting that Warlord for a week, slowly cutting down his forces as we could while incurring as few casualties as possible. We finally got them whittled down to just under twenty, but he ordered his two hobgoblin subordinates to take half of the troops and waylay us. It was just enough for them to escape. We would have lost him completely if not for that final roar of his thanks to your stupid ass. How you managed to hold off a Warlord for any amount of time will always be a mystery to me. I don't want the story, it'll just make me sad, but I'll offer you this. We can take you to the edge of the city. We're not exactly welcome there but it's a risk that we can take for an idiot genius of the blade, or, we can leave you here and give you some of the spoils from the Warchief. You earned a gift, but we have more monsters to slay so take your pick quickly."

The spores in Maruem's flesh were already busily working away at healing up the rest of his wounds. His body would soon be like new. "I'll take the spoils. I came out to the forest today to gather materials, not to fight a behemoth and run with my tail between my legs."
The commander grinned. "I'd expect nothing less from an idiot genius. So be it." With that, he walked Maruem to one of their horses and pulled a sack from it's bag. "Your share." he said handing it to the Gladiator. Just as quickly as Maruem had accepted it, the Commander was on his horse. "Now then, we must away."
"I didn't catch your name sir!"
"I'm aware! Fare well Warlord Slayer!"
And after a few seconds of the thundering of hooves, Maruem stood alone again.

He walked over the the clearing where the sheep had been and sat with a loud sigh. "What the fuck was that... He wasn't wrong, I should have run. What was this all for? to protect a sheep that could escape on it's own? For greed and coin and materials that amount to nothing? Stupid, it was, just as the cavalier had said. But it was rewarding." He smiled to himself. He opened the sack to see what the mysterious cavaliers had deemed his fair share, it was enough.

He looked it over feeling quite pleased at the spoils. The sack contained some of the stuff they had retrieved from the Warlord, and some additional miscellaneous loot that he found quite generous. It contained the Goblin Warlord's Belt, his Crown of Greed, two long bits of sinew, and two wispy bits of a solid fog like substance which he later identified as Wispy Essence.

To add to it all, he had found a nice bone Needle, some herb he was pretty sure was Rosemary, some Pine Nuts, several different Dyeing Flowers, a slimy snail he learned was a Murexes Gigantes, and the Ciminian Scorpion earlier. All in all it was already shaping up to be a good day of gathering. He could give himself some time to fully rest up and heal before moving forward. Or so Maruem thought.

He hadn't noticed that he had company, but as he began to put the materials away, his had brushed something big, something soft. There, sitting at his side, was the golden sheep. It leaned in and rested its head on his lap again with a soft and happy bleat. "No way. What are you doing back?" Maruem patted the sheep on the head and smiled to himself. He Had a good opportunity now. He gathered some of the nondescript plants he had found as he had entered the forest and fed the sheep, who ate happily. As he spoke calmingly to it, he pulled out his blade and slowly slid it toward the sheep's chest.

One slice after another he carefully sheared the fur off as carefully as possible. The sheep seemed not to notice, carelessly eating and rolling over for him. At one point he thought it had even fallen asleep, so contented was it to be in the warm sun of the clearing with another creature that seemed not to pose it any threat. Maruem tugged the thick sheet of golden wool up and carved away more and more. It was a painfully laborious process, and he was absolutely certain not to nick the sheep's skin even a little as he worked. Eventually, after what seemed like hours of work, the sheet of golden wool came loose. He made sure not a single strand was lost as he placed the coat into his bag.

"Thank you, friend sheep, for your generous gift of company and luxurious wool." He said after he finished, patting the bare back of the sheep and it yawned sleepily in the warm sun, seemingly even more happy to be so much lighter and able to absorb the sun on its skin. If legend was to be believed, it would not be long before that wool grew back and the sheep would be fully prepared for the cold months to come.

Maruem stood slowly. "Your home is the wilds, and mine is the city, but I thank you once again. I want to see if there's any more I can gather from these woods, but you stay safe friend sheep, may you find only kind strangers and thick grasses." As if fully understanding the sentiment, the sheep leapt several meters up and was soon gone, far off into the distant depths of the forest. "Now, which way do I go?"

Word Count: 4360
Notes: Pre-rolled for ease of writing post, word count requirement has been matched prior to next post.
Rolls:
0wKtndVR1-1001-1001-1001-1001-1001-100
1-1001-1001-1001-1001-1001-100
1-1001-1001-1001-1001-1001-100·1-100·1-100·1-100·1-100·1-100·1-100·1-100·1-100·1-100·1-100·1-100·1-100·1-100·1-100·1-100·1-100

[Maruem]

~Mood Music~

Maruem stood for but a moment, watching the faint figure of the sheep disappear off into the distance. With the whole forest ahead of him, he had much land to decide upon for where he would go off to, and it did not take long to choose. He was not the indecisive type, and with scarcely enough time for a more hesitant man to scratch their head in consideration, he was on his way deeper into the woods. One could hardly call it instinct or intuition or anything of that sort. After all, he was not looking for anything in particular, what would intuition drive him toward if there was no goal. No, he simply had the freedom of will to go where the winds, or in this case clearings, led him.

He walked deeper into the forest and lost the sun quickly in the thick foliage above. There was still a glow around him, enough to see comfortably. He was not plunged into an oppressive dark forest, the Ciminian was nothing of that sort, but it was shady, breezy, comfortable almost, though notably chillier than the warm clearing the golden sheep had glittered in. Maruem looked around him at his surrounding and was disappointed to find little of interest. There were small twigs and stones abound of course, but little else of interest, and as he made his way deeper into the forest.

The soft, rhythmic crunch of long since fallen leaves and twigs beneath his feet was not his only companion in the stillness of the shaded woodland he so calmly traversed. Here and there rays of golden light, like the ichor of the gods, dripped between the leaves and bathed him in their warm life, and all around a captivating berceuse sung by the many birds hidden among the tree tops high above danced its melody down to him.

Maruem felt the fullness of the air here, a rich, clean, breathable air that almost left a chill in the chest, though weightlessly, completely unlike the heavy, dank stench of modernity tarring up the lungs which one experienced when stepping into their former worlds cities. His lung felt full enough to happily join in on the song of the birds, but he felt his lesser voice would only interfere with their melody and interrupt the peace of the moment.

Up ahead, the dense masses of the forest gave way to a hulking boulder of gray stone, heavily blanketed in thick moss and cloven in two by some long since fallen tree which now made up the rich soil from which saplings grew in its chasm. Maruem had found an interesting place, and who knew if this one did not hold some great riches which he could procure without disturbing the area too much. The crack in the boulder was certainly an appealing spot to look, things of interest like hidey holes as much as anything else after all, and that cleft in the stone was the perfect place for such things to fall into, or be broken out of by the break.

Before anything else, Maruem decided he had to secure the area. He was not looking to repeat the last engagement where he got so absorbed in the cute animal and loot he had found that he was oblivious to the threat immediately ahead of him. He too his time doing the rounds of the clearing, watching through the tree line for any movement. Far off in the distance on the north side of the clearing he saw some shaded, low standing, vague figure with multiple round bulges on its back. It was walking further from the clearing though, and had seemingly made no notice of his presence there. No fight with a giant ant today, he could save that for another day.

Walking the rest of the perimeter, Maruem saw nothing more of note as far as threats, and lowered his spear into his bag of hammer space. He did note a bush with small red berries growing from it. They were vaguely familiar though he couldn't name them. He felt a slip at his waist and swiftly retightened the slack line holding his dagger to his belt before it fell, and then gathered up a small cluster of the berries and poured it into his shirt pocket. Having found all that was of interest to his current goals along the perimeter, he began his more detailed search for anything interesting. He wanted to avoid disturbing the area as much as possible, just taking what he could find easily and leaving the rest to rot and grow as the nature spirits deemed right, so he began by searching around the bottom of the boulder.

Mostly, it was nothing of interest. There were plenty of boulder flakes and twigs, even what appeared to be an old abandoned nest, but most of it was just overgrown by moss. There was a portion of the underside that was obscured by an overhang of long moss, and Maruem gently brushed it to the side, curious of what may lie hidden behind. What he found with a little grey ball of spikes with tiny yellow splotches dotting it's fur and quills. "Oh! Hello there. Sorry to disturb you little buddy. I'll let you get back to your rest."

He was about to lower the moss and let the west european hedgehog go back to sleeping away the day or whatever it may have been up to under there, but he felt like it would be rude to leave without offering a gift. So Maruem reached up with his left hand while his right one continued to support the slackly dangling moss curtain. He gently lowered his hand and let the little red berries roll down in the gullies between his fingers, scattering a little as they hit the soft spongey moss near the hedgehog. "Sorry again for intruding. You have yourself a nice day little guy." He said with a friendly smile.

With that, he lowered the curtain and decided it may be more worthwhile to search the inside of the boulder. It was pretty easy to find where the moss was thinnest. It was a shady grove, so the moss could mostly grow anywhere, but it clearly grew thinnest on the south east where it appeared the morning sun was able to cut through the gaps in the leafy rooftop the best.

Maruem worked his way up the much lighter overgrowth, using the bare patched of exposed rock as his path up the huge stone until he reached the lip of the huge crack. He looked over the edge and saw lots of old fallen leaves. The moss was present around the lip and a bit of the ways into the crack, but it did not reach all the way down. Maruem lowered himself in, with one leg on either wall of the cleft stone. It was a tight fit, but he could easily access the bottom from here.

Brushing aside the leaves, he found that his fingers were suddenly very red at the tips. Blood? No, his health was full, never mind that he had not felt any pain. He raised his hand above the crack into the light and saw that it was not red, but a deep orange. Rust. Maruem brushed aside more leaves and was pleasantly surprised to find several huge hunks of iron ore with thin dustings of rust over the surface. Brushing them off with a spare rag he found that the rust was mostly gone and what he was left with was several large chunks of iron ore all fused together. Standing up it was clearly worth a lot of iron.

It definitely felt it's size, the thing was heavy, but fortunately it was more tall than wide, so Maruem was able to lift it enough to drop it into hammer space. He went to do the same with the other cluster but is was stuck in the stone. It had not been fully dislodged by the boulder splitting, so Maruem took to chiseling it out. Using the butt of his dagger's handle, he was able to chip the bits of rock around the perimeter of the ore vein. One chunk after another, they fell away and he was left with a few rocks to pick out of the gaps around the ore. He tossed them out of the crack and reached into the enlarged hole he had dug up. Shakily pulling out the heavy ore cluster, he lowered it into his pouch.

It was a lucky find for sure. Maruem replaced the leaves and reached up to the lip of the crack to hoist himself up and out. When he listed his body so his eyes were level with the top of the boulder he was met with a pleasant surprise. A familiar little hedgehog was standing there looking at him, its little nose quivering and its lips and snout stained red from the innards of the brutalized berries. It had some black dust on its paws too, and Maruem was curious what had brought it to him. He climbed up onto the top of the boulder and the hedgehog began walking back down atop the moss, seemingly leading him back to where he had first found it behind the moss curtain.

Once they were at the bottom the hedgehog climbed right in under the curtain and Maruem brushed it aside to see what was going on. In the little cave home, the hedgehog was scraping away at some black stone, coal. It appeared to be blocking off something, and Maruem had not noticed it when he first disturbed the hedgehog's home. As far as he could tell, the coal was not blocking the hole because of him, it seemed like an older collapse than that, but still, the little critter was relying on him, and he was not about to leave the little guy on his own.

Maruem reached into the little overgrown cave and grabbed the chunk of coal. After pulling it out, he saw the hole was still plugged. Another chunk and suddenly he revealed a different material blocking the hole. He pulled out the two large chunks and it was tin ore he had found. Quite the cache he had uncovered under this hole. The hedgehog pushed in a bit and then came back out, still looking crestfallen. What could possibly still be blocking its tunnel?

Maruem reached in and felt a fist sized round rock with a grove where his middle finger rested. He pulled it out carefully, and by all appearances, it was just a rock, albeit with a big crack around it in a ring. The hedgehog went into the tunnel and came back out looking much more pleased. Maruem had no clue how it's home had been clogged up so badly, but at least the little guy was suddenly in a very good mood. "Stay safe little guy." He said to the puffy pincushion before leaving it to it's private celebration in its cave. AS he walked away, his curiosity got the better of him and he decided to try splitting the round stone with the crack.

With his dagger in the crack, he twisted his wrist, and it split apart. A flash of brilliant blue light reflected of the sheet of multicolored gem inside. It was a brilliant Agate glimmering in the light.

Word Count: 1910
Total Word Count: 4360 + 1910 = 6270
Notes: Preroll, 1910 + 110 (left over from previous post) = 8 rolls

NWNA0enQ1-1001-1001-1001-1001-1001-1001-1001-1001-100·1-100·1-100·1-100·1-100·1-100·1-100·1-100