Chapter Text
The hot summer sun bared down on (Y/N) as they worked their morning chores on the farm. ‘After this, I can go to mine and look for it again..’ they thought as their chickens clucked about in the coop. They picked up the last eggs; the basket holding them all felt heavier than usual. It had been a few months since (Y/N) had first gotten the trio of feather friends, so their trust in the farmer must be getting stronger. (Y/N) smiled to themself at the thought and headed out to open the hatch for the chickens to roam freely in the makeshift pen with the cattle.
A mental to-do list popped into (Y/N)’s head, and they began checking everything off. The crops? Watered. Fishes in the pond? Fed. Excess trash? Cleaned up. All the artisan machines? Checked and taken care of. Then finally, the cattle and chickens. Fed, produce harvested, affection given, and let out into the respective pasture area. They sighed and returned inside to put the excess eggs and milk into the refrigerator. “Well, time to go digging again. Hopefully, this time, I can find it..” Trailing off, they gathered their necessary tools to mine and not die from the dangerous monsters there.
On the way to the mines, they saw their usual fellow townsfolk; Jack worked out front finishing up his ranching duties, and his son Kenny was also helping. Kenny smiled, waved to the farmer, and stopped them momentarily, receiving a bit of a huff from Jack. “Hey! You’ve been going around here a lot, huh?” His smile faltered a bit as he looked them over; the tiredness of work was evident in them. (Y/N) nodded, “Yeah, I’ve needed a lot of materials from the caves to upgrade things around the farm. My luck has been terrible, though.” That was a lie; almost everything they needed was up to date. Joko and Dinda were always kept busy with their new buildings and house upgrades, not that they were complaining.
Kenny was attempting to read them; he had gotten closer to (Y/N) but never could gauge them. He nodded and held up a finger for them to wait as he dug into his satchel. Soon after, he held out a small drink, “This is just something to help you. Take it easy in there, alright? Mom should be out there for a bit, so if you need help… I’m sure you can get her help.” Cautiously the farmer reached out to him and took the drink, then slipped it into a small pouch on their side. “Thank you, Ken. I’ll make sure to be safe, don’t be overworked either. I know Jack keeps you busy.”
At the mention of his name, Jack shouted from across the way, “I heard that! Kenny, get back to helping me out here.” Kenny sighed, fiddled with the strap of his bag, and tipped his hat to (Y/N), “And that’s my sign to get back to work. See ya around.” He lifted his hand in a slight wave and turned back around to avoid further chastizing from Jack. (Y/N) smiled and waved back, shouting to the older gentleman, “Don’t work too hard either, Jack!” With that, they continued their adventure off to the mines.
The day before, they had made some decent headway on the look for the particular material they were aiming for. Kenny gave them a slight sense of renewed hope in succeeding even though he didn’t know the whole truth about the extra work. Maybe if they can get it today, they can boast about it to him next time. (Y/N) pondered the thought and stopped in front of the cavern’s entrance. There was a moment of silence as they did some mental hyping themself up to counteract the high probability of failure, yet again. “I will find that tevandium today….”
“Tevandium? Why would you want anything like that old myth.” An older woman’s voice spooked (Y/N) as they jumped around, looking at the speaker. A sigh of relief passed over as it was just Kira; she stood a bit confused but smiled a little with amusement from the reaction elicited by her neighbor. “Don’t go telling me you have been out here every day for the past month looking for that stuff.” Kira’s stern look bore through (Y/N); her stare was like any mother’s; no use lying to her. (Y/N)’s shoulders slumped in defeat, and they nodded, looking off to the side, a bit embarrassed being caught like that.
“I have… but I can do it; I swear I feel closer to it every day.” Kira sighed and shook her head. The passion was there, but a hint of desperation dripped from (Y/N)’s words, and Kira knew it. She stepped closer and patted (Y/N) on the arm, who looked up at her, prepared for a lecture similar to Kenny’s horror stories. They instead were greeted with her concerned gaze, “Listen, kid, I don’t know why you are killing yourself over this. Must be a damn good reason to.” She paused momentarily, possibly expecting (Y/N) to answer the implied question for a reason; alas, nothing was said, not even a motion to speak. Kira continued, “I’ll be around today, ensuring nothing funny is happening. So I better not find you passed out in those mines, you hear me?”
It was a warning on Kira’s end; she didn’t like dragging injured explorers out of the cavern, bad on her back. Yet, (Y/N) could tell that was one of her many ways of showing she cared through that rough and tumble edge of hers. They nodded slowly, and a small smile crept onto their face, “I promise. In fact, I’ll do my best to keep the monster population down too.” Kira’s breath huffed through her nose as she ruffled the hair on the young farmer’s head. “Don’t get too big of a head, kid; I can still handle my own. Just because I’m retired doesn’t mean I stopped working. Now get going before it’s too late; I won’t be around all night.”
She honestly did care for (Y/N) in her unique way, and they knew this deep down. Hopefully, Kenny understands that as well, though living with them and having small interactions like this are vastly different. With a new pep in their step, (Y/N) turned around and rushed inside without another peep to Kira. They headed straight for the water mines; Rafael’s last mention of the tevandium came as he explained what an explorer told him, who said something about underwater mines. Each visit before came up with nothing, but there was another level, another chance; desperation was getting to them.
Hours into their exploration, a hoard of monsters had already scraped up (Y/N) pretty badly. The little food and energy-replenishing goods they brought were dwindling further. Just a little more. It was the mantra repeating in their head over and over. They cleared the area before attempting to search the pools of water scattered through the shaft. After believing they got the last of them, (Y/N) sighed and waded through the water, repeating the exact search as previously done on other levels. “There’s gotta be something here…”
They took a deep breath before dunking their head down and looking under for anything resembling what Rafael described. Again, nothing. (Y/N) returned, gasping for air; one of the only positive things from this search was their increased lung capacity. Being able to hold their breath longer made the whole dunking underwater easier. Usually, the first attempt in each pool of water was a bust, so they moved to a different section and did the same thing. Again nothing.
The boost of confidence was lost in the heaping losses; the searing pain of previous monster attacks wasn’t helping either. Another sigh, another wade in the waters. “Come on. I just know it’s here.” They took another deep breath and plunged into the water. The water was cloudy, probably from all the movement they caused walking over there. Then, as it started to clear, there was a small glimmer of something they hadn’t seen before. They hurried to clear off the material from possible mud, and the glimmer grew. (Y/N)’s heart started to race; this had to be it! The adrenaline rushed in their veins as they hurriedly began to dig the mysterious material out.
Their hands ached with the ferocious scratching, and in their desperation, the stone came loose, and the force at which (Y/N) was pulling at it threw them back. They gasped for air as they fell back on their behind and held what they dug out close to them. The rush of excitement was dulling as they sat there, not realizing how long they held their breath. It was to the point that their head felt like they were spinning. They lost track of time sitting in the water, having a death grip on the mystery rock and reveling in finally finding it. Then, the sudden sound of clattering bones brought them back to reality; it was new.
Chills ran down their spine, not because of the chilling water. They glanced over to the water’s edge and saw a floating blue skull; there was a soft movement to it idly in one spot. Perhaps it hadn’t noticed them yet. Another minute passed, and (Y/N) watched the creature; it still had not moved. If they were honest, they couldn’t fight it; they were weak from previous fights, and the water breathing also did a number on them. Panic started to set in; after all this time, they finally had a hold of the tevandium, and this thing wouldn’t keep them from it. They thought, ‘If I can get around it quietly… then maybe it won’t notice me, and I can get out.’
Further thoughts raced through their head and kept them still in the water, eyes stuck to the skull. Some of that adrenaline started to kick back in, and softly, under their breath, they said encouraging words to get them moving. The water sloshed around as (Y/N) got up, clutching their findings to their chest and dripping wet. The sounds roused the skull; it rattled, turning towards the water. (Y/N)’s eyes went wide as saucers as they made eye-to-eye socket contact with the creature. At first, it seemed like no acknowledgment of their presence was good. (Y/N) took a cautious step towards the water’s edge and never took their eyes off the floating skull. Again no signs of it. Knowing they were there, they took another step, finally standing on the dry land.
(Y/N) shivered from the cold washing over them from practically swimming in water. The stare-off continued between the two; (Y/N) cautiously took a step forward, then another. With each step, the skull just lazily floated, even appearing to nod off. It was fate that this was their first encounter with the creature. Everything was so uncertain about knowing how it would act or even react. Though with how it was going, the coast seemed clear as (Y/N) took more steps, becoming too comfortable with the floating skull.
The rope to climb out and the skull were so close. A moment of sudden weakness and desperation again struck the weak explorer as they hastily stepped past the skull and grabbed the rope. The tevandium was strapped to their chest now, and they just needed to climb. A searing pain shot through their shoulder as they held onto the rope, ready to climb. Unfortunately, their focus on escaping so soon made them deaf to the rattling bones that had its teeth sunk into their shoulder. The teeth dug deeper, drawing a bit of blood; (Y/N) screamed out from the attack and immediately began beating the skull until it released its death grip.
Their shoulder ached, and the tears from their teeth had blood seeping into their clothes. Little time was given to them as they attempted to climb the rope again; another strike from the skull hit their other shoulder. Similar in bite but more vigorous in the force delivered. (Y/N) clenched their teeth as they seethed in pain; climbing would be impossible at this rate, but they had to. Another round of wrestling the skull off was successful, with a stunned creature and a chance for (Y/N) to finally climb up. It was a struggle with two injuries affecting their shoulders, the pain felt unbearable, but just a little more, they kept telling themself.
The rattling of bones grew quiet as they kept climbing, not looking back. In no time, (Y/N) was at the top of the water mine shaft, gasping for breath as they laid out flat, trying their best to catch a break before going home. Everything was blurry, and the weight of the tevandium was heavy on their chest. “The tevandium!” They shot up, sitting up with a wince of pain from how quickly they moved, but a smile graced their face still. “The… Tevandium…” A sigh of relief was released from them, and a chuckle emitted as well. Silence also followed; Kira was nowhere to be seen. (Y/N) had not realized how long they were down searching, and when they had, the weight of exhaustion started to become heavy.
“Oh man, I need to get back home.” They talked to themselves as they got up and slowly moved out of the cavern. Met with the dark forest and sounds of the night, some fireflies floating around to provide minimum light. Luckily there was a mystical teleportation device of sorts nearby. (Y/N) They did not quite understand it all yet, but on nights like this, they were grateful and did not want to ask any questions. The trip home was quicker this way, and on arrival back, it felt like crawling was the only option for (Y/N) to make it inside their home. They passed out immediately after entering the house and lying on the bed.