time for this [freja]

[rinne01]

although he didn’t go to the mine much in person nowadays, dylan always relished the opportunity to do so. as much as a fish sought the ocean as its home or a bird the sky, so did he find solace in the cool damp caves. seeing as it was sunday, he had closed the shop up and went out – pickax, chisel and helmet in hand – and went to go search. or rather, follow a rumor. he heard in whispers that someone may have opened up a new vein of tourmaline, and if that was the case he wanted to stake his claim first, or at least make sure they weren’t fleecing him.

that statement may have been more literal than the man realized. as he trudged up and over the rocky hills that marked the entrance to the mine, a faint sound trickled into his ear over the wind rustling the trees and grass. “was that a… baa?” dylan craned his neck and saw something he should’ve expected but didn’t otherwise. a small fluffy animal bouncing over the precarious rocks as if it had nary a care in the world.

“a… goat?” dylan stared quizzically at the animal, who returned the look before dropping its head and chewing contentedly on a strand of grass. “where’d you come from?” he dropped down on his haunches to get on eye level, unaware of the small blonde woman approaching behind him.

[freja]

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[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][cs=2] She always seemed to lose those goats of hers. Usually it was a playful or curious kid that ran off but today, much to her panic, her favorite nanny Elle that had escaped. She was worried because the goat was getting old and she might not be able to get around as well. Besides, she had no idea where Elle would even run off to, so searching for her lost and favorite pet was a dubious task. She asked to see if anyone had seen a goat running around and after a bit of disheartening bad luck, she finally got a tip saying that a gray goat had ran off in "that" direction, "that" being the way the person had pointed. Elle had some gray in her goat so Freja made the logical assumption that it was her goat, and took off in the direction she had been pointed to. She continued down the road, calling the goat's name to no avail. When she reached the end of the road, a sign informed her that she was about to enter the mining district. Freja was a good way from home but she had to keep looking. Maybe her nanny goat had wanted to go climbing, for some reason. That would make sense, the mountain was close by, after all. Entering the mining district she looked around until she could hear the the faint call of a goat. Gasping she quieted down, trying to listen as hard as she could to tell what direction it came in. Turning towards the mine she approached quietly, not wanting to startle the goat or muffle the sounds of her cry. When she rounded the corner there was a man kneeling down in front of the entrance to the mine, and to her surprise and joy, Elle was standing in front of him, tentatively taking a few steps forward to sniff his hand and find out who he was. She slowly approached from behind, a smile forming on her lips as she got closer to the goat. All the panic washed from her and relief flooded in. The goat was safe! Hoping she wouldn't startle Elle or the mysterious man, she cleared her throat gently. "Um, hello," she said softly. "I believe you've found my goat."

tagged: dylan words: 381 notes: eeep sorry this took a while <3 made by habbue

[rinne01]

dylan looked up. coming over the hill was a woman, an unfamiliar one at that. she looked pretty young, almost immature, with short blond hair, overalls and a farmer’s tan. that pegged her as one of the many ranchers that dotted sepalum’s outskirts. by that logic, he further guessed that the goat chewing its cud in front of him must have been hers.

she was kinda cute, too, but not necessarily in a “i want to get in your pants” way. more in a “you look like a little sister to me” kind. besides, looked a few years younger than dylan, and that would be terribly awkward. only one of his four siblings was a girl, and if dylan remembered correctly, she’d probably be somewhere be around the mystery woman’s age right now. it made a momentary pang of homesickness flutter in his chest: he hadn’t seen home in so long, or at least what he could call “home.” after his brother died, the family was significantly shook up, and he didn’t know which of the two remaining mckenna siblings, if any, had followed in his footsteps and left since he’d been away.

“i believe you’ve found my goat.”

“that i did,” he said evenly, despite being a bit startled by the suddenness of the words. they sprung forth unannounced, like passing drizzle on a summer day. “though i can’t say i’m much of an animal person, so maybe you should handle him? her?” as if to punctuate his statement, the shifting of dylan’s weight must’ve startled the goat. it let out a surprised bleat and dashed out from the space between dylan and freja, running down into the mouth of the tunnel.

“great. see what i mean?” the words were in jest but only half-insincere. he wasn’t entirely looking forward to having his free time being diverted to go look for an errant goat, but dylan couldn't just be a dick and let the girl wander into the mines herself to find it. especially because her general bearing suggested she didn’t go down there much. “c’mon.” he proffered a hand to the girl. “you still haven’t told me your name, anyways.”

[freja]

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[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][cs=2] Freja was about to correct his pronoun usage - or rather confirm one, as he had offered both, when Elle got startled and darted into the cavernous opening of the mine that was before them. It felt like the light at the end of the tunnel shut off as she saw the goat's retreating form go into the darkness, the bleats getting quieter as she took off. The blonde woman started, wanting to go after her but pausing. Her goat was a fast runner in her older age...and while Freja could keep up, she didn't know the mines at all. What if she got lost and got trapped in one of those gas pockets, or whatever they were called? She could never resurface. The thought of never being able to see her friends again saddened her a bit. When she turned back to the man, he was motioning for her to come with him to the mine. A small, relieved smile graced her features, realizing that he was going to help her. Taking the offered hand, she stepped into the mine, looking around curiously as she avoided a few loose rocks, so she wouldn't fall. "Oh, I'm Freja," she said quietly. "I have a ranch up the road and I raise goats...usually the kids get out and run away but I've never had Elle get away from me before," she said quietly, shutting up when she realized she was rambling. Clearing her throat, she looked up at him again, though it was a bit difficult to see in the dim light of the mine. "Thank you, for helping me with this," she said, trying to sound as thankful as possible. "I didn't catch your name, either..." He didn't look very familiar, but she didn't leave the ranch much. It was hard enough to raise the goats and keep the flowers alive day in and day out, so she didn't make many trips to other parts of the peninsula. If she needed any supplies she got them delivered or just stopped by Mr. Narcissus's shop, as it wasn't too far. The man, though, looked at home in the mine so she assumed he worked here...or at least spent a good deal of time in this area.

tagged: dylan words: 375 notes: eep sorry this isn't the best, my head kind of hurts made by habbue

[rinne01]

“i’m dylan. dylan mckenna. own the mine shop around here,” he said, thumbing over his shoulder in a general gesture. “guessing you don’t come out this way much.”

the cave air was moist and hung heavy in the air. the difference in pressure gradients within and without caused slight gusts of wind to ruffle dylan’s hair, the phenomenon most people conceptualize as the cave “breathing.” he never thought of it like that. it was more like pulling to him. thousands of little, invisible hands, all of which pulled and beckoned people to explore and find glory.

or maybe lose themselves underground.

he shook his head silently to dislodge the thought. stop it, dylan, stop it. this is no time to be thinking about these kinds of things. best to focus on the matter at hand.

“anyways, if you knew the caves better than I think you do, I’d suggest splitting up. however,” he continued, “that’s rarely a good idea, even with significantly more experience. thus, you should probably stick with me.” fumbling around his belt loops, dylan pulled out a small lamp and twisted it. a bright, almost harsh glow filled the caverns, illuminating the faces of the two young explorers.

“shall we continue?”

(sorry for it being short and shitty! D:)

[freja]

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[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][cs=2] She smiled a bit as he introduced himself, following him into the mine. It felt a bit damp, leaving the bare skin on her arms feeling a bit dewy and uncomfortable, but she'd keep pressing on to find her goat. It was worth it and it wasn't like she had to walk around alone, anyway. Freja was more than thankful that she had come across Dylan, especially since he seemed so knowledgeable with the area. "I don't really come down this way much, no," she said quietly, though her voice still reverberated on the cave walls. There wasn't much down there besides them, at least at this point, so everything seemed open and empty and echoey. "I haven't gotten in to mining, I just tend my ranch and take care of my goats...but they always seem to get out." There was probably a spot in the fence that needed patching, but she had been so busy with everything else that it was hard to get around to doing it. Now that her favorite goat and pet had gotten out, however...maybe she really just needed to make time to go around the perimeter of her fence and fix whatever hole could be there. Things started to get darker and Dylan got a lantern from his belt and turned the light on, the bluish glow of the light brightening up her surroundings. There were some rocks scattered around and some stalactites and stalagmites that had formed, but they were the only sentient beings around that she could see. "Right, let's keep going," she nodded, waiting for him to lead the way. She didn't know anything about the cave and just felt more comfortable with him leading.

tagged: dylan words: ?? ?? ?? notes: here you goooo <3 made by habbue

[rinne01]

“mmm. i’m afraid i can’t help you too much if your fence is the problem.” dylan shrugged his shoulders. he was never too good on hands-on activities that didn’t involve breaking things. (mostly rock and that kind of stuff. don’t get the wrong idea.) “besides, you sound more than capable of doing repairs by yourself.” he now vaguely remembered seeing freja at the store only once or twice before, mainly when she needed to get crushed limestone or something. from what he could tell, she was pretty independent, although much of their business was brief and cordial. but now…

“stop.” dylan let his footsteps fall silent as he halted and shined the flashlight down the tunnel. “this is new.” there was a sudden cutoff as the tunnel dropped down. loose rocky rubble formed a long slope down. although the wooden beams bracing the walls ensured there was little chance of a further collapse, he hadn’t remember seeing it all last time.

he started down the slope, but then paused for a second and turned around. “grab my hand, okay? if you’re not too familiar with the caves i don’t suggest you do something like this alone.” to keep his promise, dylan reached his non-preoccupied hand out, hoping she wasn’t think he was acting weird or anything. (although he didn’t know why that would happen.)

[freja]

She smiled a little bit, taking his statement as a compliment. Or, something like that. It wasn't an insult, in any case. Repairs usually weren't difficult, but they were time consuming. It was times like this that she wished she had a horse, or something, so she could just ride around the perimeter instead of walking. It would probably cut the time in half...but alas, she was horseless, so walking would have to be the way she went.

She was lost in thought about fence repairs when Dylan suddenly told her to stop, shining his flashlight in a different direction. Freja snapped out of her daydreams and came to a halt, kicking up a few rocks in the process that rolled and skidded forward...down a long slope that she hadn't even seen. If Dylan hadn't stopped her she could have gone tumbling down the slope and really hurt herself.

Thankful that he knew what he was doing, she took his outstretched hand, not thinking anything of it. In other circumstances she might have had a blush color her cheeks but right now she was just worried about her goat's safety. What if Elle hadn't seen the slope and had fallen and hurt herself? The young rancher instantly began to worry.

But, to either alleviate her worries or just make her more afraid, she heard an echoing 'baa' from within the cave. Without realizing it she squeezed Dylan's hand, taking a sharp intake of breath. "That's her...oh, I hope she's okay," she said, voice quiet and trembling, just a bit.

[rinne01]

the pair took the slope slowly. dylan went down at an angle, gripping freja's hand tightly in his right and shining the flashlight ahead in the left. this portion of the mine was excavated so well that there wasn't any outstanding rock clusters on the wall. that might, however, have been why the collapse happened. they made a slow zigzag, connecting the most stable rocks with their path. it was tedious, but because of dylan's care they only stumbled a few times.

eventually dylan and freja made it down, and he let go and turned forwards. "see? that wasn't that bad." his voice was calm but with a slight tinge of uncertainty to it. if that collapse had been any worse, it was very possible that they would've had to wait until they could get formal support, and that would have taken days. freja's goat would be long gone by then.

"i'm sure she's fine," dylan said to alleviate freja's worries. "if i remember correctly, this is the last real tricky part before we get to the great hall." he shined the light forward and canvassed the ceiling of the tunnel with the beam. luckily the crossbars were thicker here, so there was little fear of any collapse here.

dylan suddenly looked around, uttering "also, do you hear that...?" there was the faint sound of bleating echoing off the rocky walls.