hard labor {Ean/Aiyana}

Spoiler:

Ean walked carefully down the canyon slopes toward his destination. His new employee, Aiyana Shuer, was keeping pace behind him in a rather perky and pleasant mood. Ean was heading towards the mining site headed by Ironfeld Ironworks. He occasionally did work for them and in return they paid and gave him a healthy portion of the ores they mined for the day. They were really only interested in the iron to oxidize into steel and even then he was able to get some of that too. Well, it was a good day overall.

Ean didn’t need to get too far to get to the mining site as they arrived to the cave outskirts where some of the regular miners were stationed outside taking a break. They recognized Ean and a few made a catcall towards Aiyana as Ean gave a wave to the head of the place, Mr. Jones. “Yo! Vanguard! Here to work again?”

Ean gave a nod as Jones let out a laugh. “And whose your friend?” He asked as he noticed Aiyana.

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word count: 176

Now THIS was exciting! Not only was she a mage for Lamia Scale, making money as she completed jobs in their name, but now she had a legitimate job with someone from the guild! She had walked into his shop upon noticing it one day, and here she was working for him now! The young women felt accomplished with how her life had been going so far. Becoming a mage, meeting her best friend Mao, and now a job that she felt she was going to do great at!

Now Ean and her were walking towards some mining site whose company her boss did work for in exchange for some pay and metals. She had never really done any kind of work like this before, but it was exciting to think about none-the-less. She happily hummed an upbeat song as she kept pace behind the silent blacksmith. After a short amount of walking the mining site came into view. As they arrived, a few catcalls were made at the woman, filling her with pride as she waved back with a smile and a wink. Ean waved at a man, whom held an air of importance around him, before introductions were made.

"I'm Aiyana! New hire for 'The Front Line!" The introduction was given energetically, her body moving left and right as she squeezed her eyes shut in tandem with a big smile. Her necklace swung like a pendulum, the limiter being on for this mission to keep her from the temptation of using her stronger spells to make her job easy.

The young woman would stay happily swaying like that, until Ean did his business he needed to do before they began their tasks they were here to do.

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Word Count: 289

Jones let out another laugh. “Really now? Well I’ll assume this is your first time in the mines. Grab yourself a hard hat from the pile and a pick axe before heading in,” Jones explained. “As your wandering around the cave, keep an eye out for ore veins. Well, Ean here already knows what to look for. The rest is self explanatory. Hit it with the pick, carry the ore deposits to the nearest cart, and push the full carts out here. We’ll be giving you some of the ore and a bit of coin for your troubles,” Jones finished.

By the time Jones had finished Ean had a hardhat, gloves, and waited for Aiyana to grab some before heading to the mines. It was a simple enough job. Although Jones was leaving out the big if. “Also be wary of the Iron Eaters.” Ean said quietly to Aiyana before giving Jones a glance about not telling her about the albeit rare, but dangerous threat that was in the mines, in this particular canyon.

The young woman nodded her head to agree with the man's statement about it being her first time in the mines. She had never really done jobs that required physical labor, at least this kind of physical labor. After listening to the rest of his little voiced tutorial the girl quickly found a hard hat, placing it over her hat she always wore. With that part of preparation complete, the girl went and grabbed a pick that was short enough for her small stature. It was surprisingly heavy for size of it, a light grunt leaving her as she hefted the item over her shoulder to handle it better.

Now that she was ready, Aiyana met up with Ean so they could head into the mines. In a whisper her boss gave her a warning about Iron Eaters, apparently some kind of creature inside the mines. It wasn't until they got to the entrance of the cave that she spoke up to ask about them, before Ean guided them into the cave where he felt they should start picking away. ”So what are the Iron Eaters, anyway?” The question was genuine, having never laid foot in a mine, nor ever talking about them, left her in the dark in everything on this kind of job; save for what Ean would teach her as they went.

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Word Count: 225

“Ant’s that live in and feed on the ores. If you break ores they’ve made nests in they’ll swarm and attack,” Ean replied as they head into the mines. “Be careful.”

Ean ventured further into the mines past a few other miners who were actively working until he came across a brown vein of his own that wasn’t too far from the carts. Since it was Aiyana’s first time in the mines he didn’t want her over working. They’d still need to walk home and he wasn’t interested in carrying her. “Here,” Ean said as he faced the vein. It was a copper vein he also picked for the same reasons. Copper was fairly soft compared to other ores so it would be easier to mine for a first timer. Ean didn’t waste any time as he used both hands to lift the pick over his head and slammed it into the brown vein, breaking chunks of the mineral filled earth off that rolled toward his feet.

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word count: 167

The member 'Ean Vanguard' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

"Well, that sounds...pleasant." The ants didn't seem like the kind of thing you'd ever want to meet, especially in a swarm. After telling her to be careful, Ean led her into the cave past other miners that were already there. After a short while Ean stopped them near a brown coloration of rock that was kind of near the carts they were to put the mined chunks into. Only saying one word, before showing her what to do, the silent man raised his pickaxe before plunging it down into the ore. Chunks of rock and mineral broke off, falling to the ground and rolling to a stop near Ean's feet.

'Well, it doesn't seem TOO hard.' At least, that's what the girl thought BEFORE she hefted her tool into the air a bit too high. This resulted in her almost going down backwards, had she not shifted to the left with the pickaxe. In some, strange, twist of fate, the young woman's mistake ended up with her plunging the tool into the vein at a pretty fast speed. The ore not only broke, but shattered up into the air as well as breaking up at their feet.

”Oh my gosh I'm so sorry I didn't mean to do it please forgive me Ean!” The words just flew out, her face turning bright read in embarrassment as she half-turned left and right while looking down at the ground.

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Word Count: 237

The member 'Aiyana' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

Ean was relatively surprised Aiyana had that much force. I’m certain the miners nearby were even more surprised, or they just assumed she used magic of some sort. Ean didn’t believe that was the case though, them believing and her using magic at all. The surprise was written all over their faces. “It’s fine,” Ean said as he picked up some of the rocks and threw them into the nearest cart. “The Ironworks is going to remove the metal from the rock anyways so it’s not too important to be gentle. It can always be melted and recast into ingots,” Ean replied, giving his employee a short explanation that holding back wasn’t to important. “Just don’t hurt yourself.”


Ean figured he should show Aiyana exactly what they were looking for as he pointed to the thin veins and small lumps of ore in the wall. “Look for where the coloration is different more immediately and see if you can find a few veins of your own,” Ean explained and instructed. The color didn’t really matter too much. It was usually a grey color unless you were dealing with copper, in which case it was a reddish brown.  Ean decided to walk around and find the nearest ore vein and just continue working while keeping a close eye on Aiyana. Ean didn't really want her going to deep into the rock and hitting a nest or just overworking so keeping her to the more visible ore and vein deposits was the best decision.

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Word count: 252

The member 'Ean Vanguard' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

She felt a lot better after Ean told her it was fine. Upon looking up, the color still slightly there as she looked at him, she noticed everyone seemed surprised with her. She really had not meant to hit as hard as she did. It was mostly they way she had almost fell that caused the pickaxe to strike with more power than she could do unassisted by her bandages. If she were to do that, which was well within her powers of the holder magic the bandages wrapped around her allowed, the young woman could probably put most of them to shame.

Deciding against that, she stayed the “learning pupil” while her new boss told her more about what to do. After the quiet man walked away, his second tutorial at mining complete, the young woman decided to try again. Now that she knew the weight of the weapon she was swinging, and what to aim for, the job became slightly easier. She raised the weapon up, but not as high as before, and swung it down at the reddish-brown coloration in the rock. Some of it chipped away, but not enough to her satisfaction. She wanted to do GOOD at this, and that's what she was going to do! A few more repetitions of the swing and a decent amount of the vein she was hitting crumbled into chunks, the back of it apparently not as strong as where she was hitting. Using her bandages to be useful, and making it easier on her, she picked up all the pieces with them and controlled the linens toward the carts to drop them in.

With a smile on her face Aiyana continued at a pace that wouldn't exhaust her, but one that would be considered manageable for one new to this stuff.

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Word Count: 303

The member 'Aiyana' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

Aiyana seemed to be getting by on her own just fine. As the day went on, Ean went about his business without overexerting himself. He was able to dig out the whole array of what this mine had to offer. Ean thought it was too bad they didn’t find any Pyrite, the fool’s gold, in the mine. If they did the miners probably would have had a field day playing Aiyana for the fool and on the way back Ean would probably have to explain she was played and about as rich as a hobo.

At least he wouldn’t have to hear her crying the whole way home as he put the last of the ore he mined onto the cart and started pushing it out. “Aiyana,” Ean called as he passed by to let her know they were leaving. On the way out, Ean got a few farewell from the miners before getting the cart out. Once the cart was out, Ean turned to Aiyana who should be right behind him. “Go on ahead, I’ll catch up,” Ean told her as he walked over to Jones to wrap up and get their pay for the day.

Jones let out a hearty laugh as he and Ean had a short exchange and money changed hands before Ean walked away to catch up with Aiyana. Ean had changed addresses from this visit to the last so Ean wanted to give the business partner the new address. Jones would have the ores shipped to his store once they were in a usable condition. In their current state was coated in rock and dirt. When they arrive in at the shop they would be well shaped ingots. Ean didn’t have a smelter to make his own so Jones would make them and ship them to him.

Ean caught up with Aiyana and gave her a pat on the shoulder from behind before dropping the money in her hand. “Here,” Ean said. He was back to his quiet self now that he didn’t have to teach Aiyana anything. “So how was it?”

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word count: 348

The member 'Ean Vanguard' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

The rest of the day in the mine went off without a hitch. There was a moment where Aiyana had to pause for a few minutes, to catch her breath as she massaged her own shoulders as they got sore. Other than that the young woman managed to get a decent amount of mining done, for a newbie at least. It was as she dropped some more chunks into the carts that Ean walked past and spoke her name to get her attention. The man started to push the cart towards the exit, signifying the end of their day of mining. This also meant that she should probably follow, figuring her boss would leave her alone in the cave if she didn't.

Once out the blacksmith turned to her and suggested that she start heading home, saying he would catch up to her. ”Is it that obvious how tired I am? I thought I was hiding it pretty well...' She nodded her head in understanding as she suppressed a yawn, she really was tired after all. She wasn't upset with herself though, she realized as she started walking away, as she wasn't used to this line of work just yet. The sounds of laughter were heard behind her as she continued at a slow pace, her legs lagging a bit slower than her brain wanted them to move.

Before long Ean had caught up with her, a pat on the shoulder before placing the jewels she had earned in her hand. He seemed to be back to his quiet, bland, self by now and asked a four word question before going silent to listen. ”It was kind of tough. I'm definitely going to be sore in the morning, and not from the usual reasons...” With that, the two of them headed back to the shop, one unwilling to talk and the other getting too tired to talk as much as usual.

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Word Count: 321