Another day, same as all the previous ones. Only today, it was raining—a bad day for the workers. The cold emitted by the magic stones was already unpleasant, but the rain brought a chill that made the atmosphere even worse. Grumpy as usual, the workers were even grumpier now, the mood in the cave dampened further by the weather.
Bok, however, remained unaffected. As always, the silent dwarf hummed and whistled a tune that echoed throughout the cave, and curiously, the rhythm of his tune seemed to guide the miners' pickaxes, as if they were marching to the beat of a drum. Bones found it strangely comforting, distracting him from the dreariness of their endless work.
And so, the routine continued: digging, loading soil into carts, digging again.
Though Bones felt light-headed, he pressed on. His single meal of the day, which he called "DayFast," that had to sustain him through the long hours ahead.
Bones let a sight and went back to digging, loading soil into carts, digging.
After a few hours, the trio took a break as usual. It was during these breaks that Bones felt both anticipation and embarrassment.
"Lil' skinny Bones! Come share this sandwich!" Nok shouted with his hearty laugh, pulling out what to Bones looked like a treasure—three sandwiches.
"Heh," Nok chuckled, pulling out a jug of wine and smashing it loudly on the ground.
Bones' eyes widened at the sight. Usually, these dwarves would only bring pale bread along some cold water to wash it all down. But today was different. Sandwiches filled with meat! Even Bok, who rarely shared his homemade dwarven wine, had brought some.
"Ya little rascal! You thought we wouldn't know it was your birthday yesterday, eh? We brought something special for ya!" Nok grinned widely, slapping Bones on the back.
"How did you know?" Bones asked, his heart warming with the gesture. He felt like he was back at the monastery, celebrating his birthday with fire chicken.
"The stars," Bok muttered, pointing toward the cave's ceiling.
"The stars?" Bones echoed, confused.
"Lad, don't mind him! Some dwarves have special eyes for reading the stars. Everyone's fate is tied to that starry sky," Nok explained as he pointed up. There was no starry sky above them though, they were deep inside the caves of Albatar.
Before Bones could dwell on the strange comment, Nok handed him a sandwich, and Bok poured him a glass of strong red wine. The sound of light rain outside mixed with the laughter of the dwarves, creating an oddly peaceful moment in the otherwise harsh cave.
After a few moments, Nok rummaged through his satchel and pulled out a small, worn book. "Ah, almost forgot! We got ya somethin' else too. A lil' book we found buried deep in the mines. Thought maybe it could help ya, maybe even get ya outta here faster, eh?" He winked, handing the book to Bones.
Bones stared at the gift, his fingers tracing the rough, weathered pages. The words inside were incomprehensible, written in a language he couldn't decipher. But something about the book felt… important.
"This is..." Bones' eyes widened when he saw what he had in hands.
"It's Rut's" Bok snorted under his beard.
It was no other than that one person who managed to trick the mine's sensor and escaped from the empire.
"Thanks," Bones muttered, tucking the book into his pocket. A gift like this was rare—more precious than he could express.
They continued to eat and laugh, though Bones couldn't shake the strange sensation the book had stirred in him. He noticed Bok staring at him again, silent and watchful, but this time there was something deeper in that gaze. Something that made Bones' skin crawl.
After the break, it was back to the grind. Digging, loading soil into carts, digging.
Bones felt light whispers in his ear, but when he turned to Bok, the dwarf remained silent, only humming his usual tune. The whispers continued, strange and indistinct.
"You guys really don't hear that?" Bones asked, half-expecting a response.
"Hear wut?," Nok asked, giving him a strange look as he loaded another cart.
"Nothing," Bones laughed it off, convincing himself it was just the rain playing tricks on him.
The shift ended, but the rain still hadn't stopped. Bones, unable to leave, persuaded the guards to let him stay in the cave until the storm passed. As long as no one was trying to steal from the Empire, the guards didn't mind.
Bones leaned against the cave wall, listening to the rain. "This might take a while," he thought, closing his eyes. He didn't realize how exhausted he was, and soon he drifted into sleep.
In his deep slumber, the outside world shifted. What had been a simple rainstorm intensified into a full-blown tempest. Thunder roared, and lightning cracked the sky, striking a nearby boulder and sending a massive chunk of it crashing down, blocking the cave's entrance.
One of the guards, startled by the sudden chaos, shouted to his companion, "Go inform the superiors! I'll stand guard!"
Meanwhile, deep within the cave, the magic stones flickered with unprecedented brightness, as though they were absorbing the energy of the storm. The whispers around Bones grew louder and more distinct, almost as if the storm had awoken something ancient in the cave.
A dark purple ball of energy materialized out of thin air in front of him, growing larger by the second until it shot straight between his eyebrows.
Bones jolted awake, overwhelmed by pain that seared through his skull. The whispers now roared in his mind, repeating the same words over and over. The agony was unbearable, but within it, there was something else—a surge of power, fleeting but powerful, as if for a brief moment, he could soar into the stars.
Just as the storm reached its peak, the magic stones in the cave exploded with light, then plunged into darkness. The storm outside ceased as suddenly as it had begun. Silence followed.
Bones gasped for breath, trembling from the aftershock of the strange phenomenon. The pain faded, leaving behind a strange sense of... power. For the first time, he felt connected to something beyond himself, as if the land itself had recognized him.
His hands trembled as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the book that Nok and Bok had gifted him. To his shock, the once incomprehensible words had begun to glow faintly, shifting and rearranging themselves before his eyes.
The whispers returned, clearer now, echoing in his mind like a command from the depths of the earth.
"Chosen one… dig deeper."