“I hate this!” Bryson complained loudly as he made his way through the boreal forest, clambering over a fallen tree.

“You were the one that volunteered.” Viola called back to him a little further ahead of him.

“I should’ve said no.” Bryson grumbled. He trudged through the muddy ground as he recalled the reason why he had joined Viola for this ridiculous jaunt into the wilderness.

Viola literally two days before she was supposed to leave suddenly decided that she would like to travel through the forest. Not just any forest, but through a section of contamination zone.

For what reason? To mark down potential mana mines that the Coldwaters could establish. Viola told him that it was one of the tasks that their parents had and she volunteered to complete the task. Bryson, stupidly decided to help. They took an airship over and landed down and now were travelling across searching for one of these said mines.

It was the strangest thing these mines. Due to the contamination zones being contamination zones all that excess mana that saturated the land made it difficult for scanners to pick up mana veins. But all of a sudden after a forest fire followed by a heavy storm a large enough chunk of mana ore was uncovered on the surface. The scanners picked it up and several people became very interested with the prospect of setting up a mine in this forest.

Once they discover and verify the location, the Coldwaters would contract a mining company to begin excavation. There was a small nagging feeling to both Viola and Bryson that something could potentially be amiss. But Viola decided that it was worth the risk and Bryson joined just in case something was amiss. Not that Bryson would ever admit it of course.

“I don’t get why we have to walk.” Bryson grumbled, “We have cars and hovercrafts for this.”

“We don’t want to attract too much attention. There are plenty of contaminated creatures in this area still.” Viola said.

“Then what’s the point of bringing the protection.” Bryson asked as he jumped over a puddle.

“Front is clear!” Spencer called out in front of them scouting ahead.

“I still find it weird that he was the only one available.” Bryson muttered. Still, Bryson was impressed by how ready Spencer was to accept this request. No days off for him apparently.

“You don’t think that it might be a setup?” Viola asked.

“Maybe.”

“Which is why I recommended bringing that armour along.” Florence Marsh said taking the tail of the travelling group. On her back was a massive bag twice the size of her that she carried with no issue. She wore white silk gloves, a navy-blue uniform with gold buttons and a Breton hat. Her eyes were a bright red and hair lightly pink, she was a bit of an odd sight to see.

“We couldn’t bring the armour along. Mother nor Sable are here. It only listens to them.” Bryson said as he looked up to see a boulder taller than him blocking his path. Personally, Bryson was relieved that they didn’t have it with them, the thing just felt off.

“Then we should have brought them along.” Florence said as she caught up to Bryson and picked up the boulder and placed it to one side.

“Mother wouldn’t come, she gave the job to us, and Sable was told she needed to train. Gilles is still upset over the tournament, also complaining to our parents over getting an early allowance.” Viola called back.

To pay for the shield. Bryson thought inwardly, “Besides this is only a small area of contamination zone. Unless every creature attacks us together, we’ll be fine.” Bryson said as he continued forward.

“It’s never bad to be prepared.” Florence said as she followed behind.

“Which is why I brought you along.” Bryson said.

“I’m not as strong as that thing.”

“Yeah, but you can actually think.” Bryson said looking back, “Well, as limited as your one-track mind could think. But the medical knowledge is useful.”

“I appreciate the compliment.” Florence said monotone.

“Whatever.” Bryson said as he turned his attention back towards his sister, “So what’s the plan exactly?”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“We find the location then we mark down the area and how big it is then head home. It’s simple.” Viola said, “Now come on already, I want to get this done today.”

***

“There it is.” Spencer said as he passed some dense foliage into a clearing. Before them was a large amount of hilly land that had been cleared through the fire and storm that passed the area.

Scorched trees that had been uprooted away by the wind lay scattered on the floor. Large chunks of the earth itself were torn from the ground and exposed stone underneath. Mana stones. Bright blue veins glimmered from under the sun.

“Ah, we found it.” Bryson said looking down.

“Let’s go.” Spencer said bounding ahead of them.

“Hey, we never did talk about if this really is a set up from the bitch in the sky.” Viola said grabbing Bryson before he could follow.

“Language.” Bryson said.

“Bryson.” Viola said not amused.

“We don’t know for sure.” Bryson assured her, “Besides I’ve been told to roll with the punches when it comes to these types of things.”

“Roll with the punches? By who?”

Bryson said nothing as he followed Spencer down. Viola annoyed looked over Florence who stood at attention.

“Do you have any idea what’s he talking about?” Viola asked Florence.

“Yes.” Florence said with a nod before heading down to follow Bryson.

“Unbelievable.” Viola muttered to herself as she joined the others.

“So what do we do now?” Spencer asked.

“You and Bryson go and try to figure out how big the area is me and Florence here will check for depth and density.” Viola instructed.

“Why do I have to walk around the place?” Bryson complained.

“Because I only brought the one scanner.” She said.

“Why would you only bring one scanner?”

“Because I have you.” Viola said with a smirk.

“This is child labour.” Bryson grumbled.

“Thanks for the assist!” Viola said waving at him as he and Spencer moved away from them.

“What does Lady Viola mean by that?” Spencer asked.

“I’m really good at finding magic.” Bryson said.

“Cool. So where do we go?”

“I guess we secure a perimeter.” Bryson said as he stared at the floor to track where the mana stones stopped, “All this mana infused soil is a pain to scan.” Bryson complained.

“Oh hey, Bryson?”

“It’s Lord Bryson. But what is it Khan?” Bryson quickly corrected. Don’t seem to have any issue with how to address my sister.

“Ah sorry, but I never really understood why people don’t just use the area in the contaminated zone to harvest mana more often. They only use it if they find something like a potential mine.” Spencer asked as they walked and marked the area.

“Because it’s not worth it. It takes more mana to draw out the mana from the dirt than what would be produced.” Bryson explained.

“I see.”

Bryson was able to notice the minor differences between the area with the extra strong mana and the regular mana-infused soil that covered this area. It was difficult and Bryson sometimes lost track of it, but he could see it. Looking upwards towards the horizon he could see that these mana ores went quite the distance. With a tired sigh he marched forward.

***

“Okay, that should be that.” Bryson said as Spencer marked the final area of interest.

“You sure took your time.” Viola said.

“Yeah, yeah. You done with your section?” Bryson said.

“Almost, one last thing.”

“What?”

“Just need to check the exact mana density of the stone on the surface.” Viola said handing Spencer a chisel that had been magically enchanted, “Just need a fist-sized piece.”

“Right away!” Spencer said taking the chisel and bounding over to a large, exposed piece of ore.

As he stood in front of the rock he looked around the ground.

“What’s wrong?” Viola shouted to him.

“Uh, nothing! The ground just feels a bit weird here!” He shouted back.

“What is it extra muddy?” Bryson asked as he looked down at his own boots that were caked in mud.

“Uh, no. Not really. It’s just feels weird.” Spencer said still looking around the ground.

Bryson looked over to Florence, “You have any idea what he’s talking about.” He asked. Her response was with a simple shake of the head.

“Anyways don’t worry about it.” Spencer called to them.

Walking up to the rock he used the chisel and broke a piece off the ore. Turning around he held up the piece to show them when the rock he mined from suddenly had a large crack appear on it.

Spencer turned around to stare at it in confusion before the ground opened up and swallowed him and the cracked mana ore. The three watched in disbelief as they fell into a hole that suddenly appeared.

Bryson and the others quickly ran over to the spot where Spencer fell. Looking downwards they saw that a ravine was below where Spencer stood. It was too deep and too dark for them to see anything down below.

Florence made sure to place herself in front of the other two with her arms extended out to stop the two Coldwaters from getting too close to the hole.

“Is he alright?” Viola asked.

“I can’t see.” Florence replied.

“Bryson, you see anything?” Viola asked.

“Hmm. I don’t know.” Bryson said, as there was too much mana around the area for him to see or sense Spencer’s presence, “I doubt the fall would kill him though.” Though I want to verify that quickly.

“We’ll need to go down and get him out.” Florence said.

“How are we supposed to do that?” Viola asked.

“We can make some rope with the environment.” Florence offered.

“How?”

“Many of these trees have strong and long roots, we can gather them together and make a rope so that we can easily make it up and down.”

“Alright do that.” Bryson ordered, “In the meantime I’m going to check on him.”

Florence looked quizzically at Bryson, “How?”

“Like this.” Bryson said as he jumped down the ravine himself.

“Bryson!” Viola screamed out shocked.

Florence looked down eyes widened momentarily in shock before turning back to her usual stone-faced expression. She readied to jump when Viola grabbed her collar.

“Oh no you don’t!” She hissed, “I need one of you idiots up here to help. What good will the three of you be down there? Go start digging up roots!”

“Fine.” Florence said after a moment of angered silence, “He can be so dumb.”

“I know right?”