Day 119: Iron ore tedium

     I didn't feel it yesterday while I was actually working hard, but waking up this morning was one of the most painful experiences of my life! All of the stress and strain my body and muscles have endured over the past few days have finally caught up with me, and spending an entire day doing manual labour harvesting iron from dense stone, after spending hours rowing back and forth just made matters worse! I felt a lot better after having something to eat, and stretching a little, and was soon accompanied by the others. UOPETA and THEROS a lot chipper than I did for some reason, but then again, we all took to different types of work differently. Oddly, as I sat there eating, Chiron came from my room, and sat beside me, panting happily... I had neglected Chiron quite a bit recently, but what with the recent work being dangerous - and destroying portals wasn't any less so - I hadn't really had time to bond with him. Then again, it seems that might not have mattered, as he had bonded surprisingly well with Hermes and AMPHIS. Hermes was AMPHIS' tame wolf, and as he spent a lot of the time in the library cataloguing the new information we retrieved, he had become to be around Chiron a lot. I began to wonder if it was worth bringing Chiron and Hermes with us into the cliff mine for some exercise. I'm sure, as long as the entrance remained closed, and THEROS and UOPETA didn't mind, they could come along. I would have to ask AMPHIS as well, and run it by COLUS, but I honestly couldn't see the harm in that... After finishing breakfast, I went to find COLUS, and asked him.

"I don't know... What has AMPHIS said?"

I hadn't managed to ask him yet, but I was under the assumption that he wouldn't mind too much, provided Chiron and Hermes remained together at all times.

"Well, provided AMPHIS is okay with that, I see no harm in it. As long as they remain inside the cliff mine."

I went off to the library to find AMPHIS, hoping that he would be fine with it. To be honest, I can hardly see him saying no to that idea, as it would be a form of exercise for them. Going down to the lowest level of the library, I found AMPHIS at a desk, with Hermes at his feet. The moment Hermes saw Chiron though, he was up and alert, tail wagging, and panting like mad!

"Oh, hello Syeonyx. What brings you down here?"

I put the suggestion to AMPHIS, and as predicted, he was completely okay with it.

"I don't see why not. Hermes barely gets much in the way of attention and exercise anyway. It'll be good her them both to get out of the base, and out into the world for a few hours... Take this with you though. You may need it..."

I received the ball that AMPHIS held out to me, and put it into my pocket. Happy that AMPHIS was aware and also happy with the arrangement, I went back up the stairs to the top of the library, followed closely by Hermes and Chiron.

     We had all left our tools back at the cliff mine as there was no need to keep taking them back and forth if they were secure for the night. The dogs were loving being outside! So much so, getting them to just follow us was proving to be a little bit of an issue, but we got there eventually. Flicking the lever hidden in the base of a small stone niche, the stone wall before us parted in the middle, lengthways, and slid apart to reveal our hidden cliff mine! After a little apprehension, we managed to coax the wolves in through the entrance, before closing the door again.

"Right, let's get to work!"

Taking the ball out from my pocket, I threw is against the far wall, which caused Hermes and Chiron to bound after it excitedly! Hopefully they would amuse themselves for long enough with that, leaving us to do our job. Grabbing my diamond pick, I joined THEROS and UOPETA in the shafts below. I had decided to choose the right shaft, for no reason other than because I could... It was hard, tiring, dirty work, but we knew it well, and we did it without moaning. We had extracted a lot of iron yesterday before we had even started on our own individual shafts, and it could only get better from here. We could hear Hermes and Chiron playing happily above us, and the best bit was they could act as security! If someone was outside the door, they would let us know...

----

     We had been mining for some time, and making excellent progress! It seemed that my efficiency in mining had dropped somewhat, as I had begun to lag behind UOPETA, although THEROS was behind me... We had stopped to have a rest, to store the currently collected iron, and to check on Hermes and Chiron. They were asleep in the corner beside the chests, the ball tucked under Chiron's head.However, they awoke when they heard us, and oddly became instantly alert and excited again! After storing the iron ore, we settled down for a rest. Chiron and Hermes weren't having any of it though, and demanded that we play ball with them! Picking up the ball from between Chiron's front paws, I threw it the length of the chamber, and watched as he and Hermes bounded after it! It took about five minutes for them to retrieve it and bring it back, whereupon I repeated the same action.

"How did you come to meet Chiron then? Was it the same as AMPHIS with Hermes?"

I didn't know how AMPHIS had come to have Hermes, but I can only assume something similar happened. I explained that I had noticed a lone wolf wandering around close to my area, and I managed to entice it closer to the house with meat. Eventually, after some chance meetings, and it growing bolder, it decided to stick around, almost like a dog, and I eventually decided a name would be nice. I doubt that Chiron even understood or responded to his name I had allocated, but it was a way for me to refer to him, and the name had stuck for some reason...

"Yeah, a similar story to AMPHIS. He had spotted Hermes as a pup; it had become lost from the rest of the pack, and he just took it under his wing. He's known Hermes for quite some time actually... years!"

After a little while longer making a fuss of Hermes and Chiron, we went back to work, extracting iron.

     We became a little too involved in mining, and when we decided to throw in the towel for the day, we realised it was already dark! Luckily Hermes and Chiron were already tired, and were being surprisingly cooperative. After leaving the tools near the iron ore stores, we left the mine, and headed back to the base with the wolves. The others were still awake which allowed us to inform OROTHO and COLUS how much progress we were making.

"It sounds like you're getting a decent amount of iron for us to work with. We're hoping to transport some of it down into the base tomorrow which will enable us to create the panelling and security doors for the tunnel entrances and wall."

"Found any gold yet?"

"OROTHO, we haven't gone down that far yet! Give us some time to break through the dense stone first..."

We each went off to our rooms, with me being followed by my own entourage of wolves... It was odd for both Chiron and Hermes to follow me into my room, but AMPHIS seemed fine with it, provided they were both happy. The moment I opened the door, the crawled into the corner of the room, and promptly fell asleep. I had a feeling I would be the same, as soon as my head hit the pillow...

Syeonyx signing off