The mine is large, with a wide opening in the mountain side. Ground floor is rocky and uneven. The sky is blue, and there is a gentle breeze blowing through the dust.
The mine entrance is empty and desolate. Walls are rough, with the stone unevenly stacked. The ground is a rocky orange, with loose gravel scattered around the entrance. Air echos off the stone walls and ceilings.
Lyrian examines the area and there are no tools, or mining equipment visible in the entrance. Faylin faces the inside and feels the slight breeze blowing from deeper inside the mine, cool and damp. She notices the small abandoned building in the entrance, and there's no answer from her knocking.
"No one's here," Aleena says, facing the mine entrance and left behind scaffolding.
"Well, of course there's no one here. They were all eaten by the dinosaur," Faylin says, entering the mine.
Aleena rolls her eyes, "that's not funny human."
"I'm not joking," Faylin says stopping her tracks. "I'm serious. I'm going to kill this dragon, and we're going to mine this cave. I need the coin, and I'm tired of your wet smelly dog arse. You can stay out here if you're too chicken to fight a dinosaur."
"You've got guts to talk like that to an elf. Especially one like me," Aleena snickers. "You better learn to watch that mouth or someone is going to take a fist to it one day. Human scum."
"Come on, guys," Lyrian tries to say calmly. "Let's just get this job done and get out of here."
Faylin, Lyrian and Aleena enter the mine. The cave is dark and cold, but lit dimly with torches. It's quite ominous. Although Faylin's determination is written with her walking ahead. She's ready to get back to work.
The three walk into a cavern with Limestone stalagmites and stalactites growing from the ground and ceiling. Faylin lights her lantern with the scorch of a match and glances around the dim cave getting darker.
"I see tracks, human," Aleena says looking to the dusty ground. Faylin turns and gives a glare, but Aleena goes on. "If I can find it, it'll be easy to take down. Unlike what happened to the hunters back home," she says, her eyebrow raising at the snide hint of the last few words.
"Stop bringing that up. I told you it came out of nowhere," Faylin scorn. "They attacked my arm. How was I supposed to defend myself?"
Sounds of a low horn grabs everyone's attention. From low to resonant, it is a simplistic dinosaur call, wailing it's voice. All the hair on Aleena's arms stand at the ambience. "It's nearby," she whispers. Faylin draws her hammer. Lyrian lifts his hand in defense and Aleena draws her bow. They move slowly through the cave, Faylin and Lyrian moving as Aleena stays on alert.
"It's close," Faylin says, holding up the lantern.
The group moves into a large cavern where mine cart highways are interconnecting. And right at the entrance, is where a large dinosaur is laying. It's huge and it seems to be sleeping. It's back is fully armored like layers of studded leather as hard skin, and has bludgeoning mace-like tail. It's almost fully armored besides the belly and underneck. The dinosaur is on four legs, but curled up in a slumber.
Around the dinosaur, is a couple of dead bodies, one of a human and two dwarves. Wounds give it away that they have been beaten to death trying to fight it, but have also been bitten.
Aleena looks at it in amazement, but keeps an arrow ready. "Amazing..."
Lyrian flips through the pages of the book. "It's called an ankylosaurus!" he whispers to them.
"Great now let's slay it," Faylin says impatiently.
"It's armor is very strong. Even a black dragon's breath won't pierce that armor. But look, you two can see right under that armor is it's belly and it's soft." Lyrian explains.
Faylin looks closely, examining the armor, "you mean a precise blow?"
The ankylosaur inhales deeply, frightening everyone. Faylin almost falls over from her knees shaking in surprise and fear. She tries to regain her footing and her grip on her hammer.
"We don't want to wake it," Aleena whispers.
"Y-yeah, you can say that again," she stutters.
The ankylosaur rolls to the side and exhales with a slight lazy grunt.
"It's strong armor makes it slow, but that thing looks quite heavy. It's an herbivore," Lyrian explains. "It only eats plants."
"Preposterous, why is it eating humans and dwarves?" Aleena questions, noticing the bodies around it.
"I'm sensing magic Aleena," Lyrian adds. "Someone must've enchanted the dinosaur into attacking the people."
"What are you talking about?" Aleena says.
Lyrian whispers, "there's some sort of enchantment, a magical energy coming from that thing. It might've come from it's food. It must be from whoever's been feeding this thing." Lyrian closes the book.
Aleena furrows her brows in uncertainty about the situation. She turns to Lyrian and keeps her voice quiet, "Are you saying that someone is feeding it and is making it kill the miners? Someone is actually behind this?"
"I think that might be a possibility, your necromancer maybe?" Lyrian replies. "Let's just try and focus on killing it for now. Then we can worry about who's responsible."
Aleena hesitates knowing her dilemma of killing harmless animals. Her memories suggest of how she was treated once and can't bare to do the same to another. She knows the barbaric costs of nature and what it will do. Aleena bites her lip and she is shaking, "wait! Can you dispell this magic?" She stops Lyrian from getting closer to the beast.
"I-I can't, I don't know how," Lyrian answers. "My powers only allow me to detect and manipulate rock, I don't have the ability or power to dispell the magic."
"So we don't know if it is even evil or not?" She looks at the beast in sympathetic horror. Aleena gulps, "it has no reason to be here in the mines, and the necromancer can control any dead or living being as a puppet." Aleena faces the two, "we have to find another mage to help it."
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"Wait! What?" Faylin stops and raises her voice. "We don't have time to leave! What about my weapons for the Avesian army! What if this creature kills another innocent person!" Faylin snarls, "It has no control, we must stop it!" She starts walking to the ankylosaur to kill it, "if there's magic involved, that mage isn't here anyway!"
Aleena grabs and yanks her arm and has pulled her hammer away from the creature. "Don't be such a fool Faylin!" Aleena scolds, "if you're willing to hurt this animal you're no different from the corrupt nobles or even this necromancer."
Lyrian gets closer to the two flipping more pages in the book, "Aleena, this animal is supposed to be extinct and-"
"Quiet human!" Aleena turns her head.
Faylin pushes Aleena away from her, and holds her hammer to her chest. She growls in Aleena's face, but Aleena just glares, "I won't hesitate. Don't get in my way, Aleena. I'm tired of these dinosaurs killing innocent people! Human or not. We can't afford to let them keep hurting others just because of the stupid ideals you have."
"This is murder! Have some respect! It's under a spell!" Aleena continues.
Faylin yells back, "it's an animal! Not a human! Not an elf! An animal! And you know it, so don't act like you don't know!"
Aleena draws her bow and nocks back an arrow at Faylin in anger. "I don't kill innocent beings. They deserve life as much as you, me or anyone! Now back down human!"
"Put that arrow down or I'll shove my hammer so far down your throat it will come out your arse," Faylin threatens Aleena and focuses back to the sleeping ankylosaur.
Aleena pulls the arrow farther back. "You put your weapon down or you're dead you greedy wretch," Aleena shouts.
Faylin jumps, coming down and smashing her hammer down across the face as it honks in pain. The armor of the beast has a crack. Faylin prepares another swing and a sudden rock hard tail wacks her across. She has been crushed against the wall of the cavern with another swipe. Faylin is yelling in pain, and is holding her bleeding head.
Aleena stays frozen in shock. Lyrian moves passed her and starts using the earth and rocks around the cave to rise from the floor, smashing against the armored beast.
Aleena puts down her bow and stays silent, starting to cry but Lyrian and Faylin ignore her. She just stays in place and watches, trying not to watch the horror unfold.
The beast hobbles towards Faylin who is down on the ground and unable to stand up. Lyrian runs over and tries to stop the ankylosaur. As he raises the rocks around the ankylosaur, he crushes the beast in rolling boulders. It honks it's horned voice like a cow, and it's strength is enough to escape the rock.
Faylin lays still and the beast is on top of her, a grimy foot on her leg. However, she manages to still move her arms and is pounding the beast along the face with her war hammer. She struggles but Lyrian gets back behind the dinosaur and crushes the tail under heavy weight.
The beast is immersed in dirt clouds as Aleena watches and rolls tears down her cheeks, "please! It didn't want to hurt us! Stop this now please! It can't help it!" She covers her pointy ears and closes her eyes tightly, but she still can hear the horror happening.
It roars in a low funneling wail at the pain and feels helpless knowing it can't move it's tail. The cave begins to shake upon Lyrian. Lyrian has it's tail trapped with large rocks and immobile, giving Faylin a chance to escape it's heavy foot.
Faylin stumbles back, but regains her balance and starts a flurry of swings at the face, cracking the armor, crushing bone, more and more with each hit.
"You don't know the agony this animal had!" Aleena cries, "this wasn't even its original environment and it's forced to survive!" Aleena shouts, crying.
"Stay out of the way Aleena, I almost got it," Faylin yells through the chaos, swinging more and breaking skin off it's face as it loses life. It's about ready to pass out into a coma.
Aleena stands angry at her response. Her head is down, yet her eyes are clearly focused. She feels left out from the fact that no one has considered her values. Faylin and Lyrian are at an advantage, and they will kill this dinosaur at this point. She nocks back an arrow and launches it in the back of Faylin's shoulder blade.
Faylin shouts in pain, the arrow hitting deep in the blade. She winces and grabs her shoulder in pain. Blood oozes down her leather armor, and she stumbles back again in the rocks and falls.
Lyrian is in the back, still holding the rock on the trapped ankylosaur.
Aleena widens her eyes to Faylin and flares her nostrils in a string of breaths over gritted teeth, "you should be ashamed, these dinosaurs were living in their environment, doing no harm to you or I and then the necromancer comes along and poisons them, turning them from harmless dinosaurs to vicious and feral creatures. It wasn't his fault! You never understood nature like I have! If I have to kill you humans to protect my home then so be it." She readies her bow for another arrow at Faylin. Faylin jaw drops in horror.
Lyrian is in panic, seeing Faylin fall down, and his fear for her is getting to him. He knows he can't let the ankylosaur escape. "Damn it!" Lyrian lifts the boulder up and bashes the rock on the ceiling cave, collapsing the cave to kill the creature.
Lyrian runs and quickly picks up Faylin, dodging the crushing rocks around. All three of them run with rocks falling apart behind them. Rocks drop through plummeting mine cart highways and scaffolding. Crashes of raining rocks shatter at the floor around Lyrian who is trying to keep Faylin safe. Aleena is behind him, jumping over rock and explosions of descending debris.
The avalanche is consuming the creature as it follows slowly with it's short stubby legs, and the group sprints to the entrance.
Dust closes the cave and rocks settle to the ground, rolling off each other. The crashing is getting quieter and the cave-in is still.
The group stands in front of the mine entrance, panting heavily as they watch the cave in settle. Aleena falls to the floor on her hands and knees. She weeps with her hands over her face. Lyrian sighs and sets Faylin down, who holds her wound, whimpering in pain.
"Faylin I'll get a cleric to heal this," Lyrian says.
Faylin nods, "it's not too bad, I can barely feel it."
Aleena looks back to the mine and frowns. She walks back over to the cave in, and she just stands, her head hanging down in sorrow. "It's all over now. That animal is dead."
Faylin, who has a deep wound, glares at the elf. "It deserved that," Faylin hisses. "I don't regret it."
"But, if the animal wasn't enchanted by some mage, it probably didn't do anything to harm anyone!" Aleena cries. "It was you who disturbed it, like the typical barbaric human you are!"
"Animals kill other animals, they hunt and eat other living things," Faylin tries to argue back, but stumbles while Lyrian catches her.
"And now that creature will never get to see another sunrise," Aleena says in a low tone over choking her words. "Intelligent beings like us are supposed to care, not cause harm. You've learned nothing Faylin."
"You're in no place to judge, you almost killed me for the gods' sake!"
"And you deserved every lost drop of blood from that arrow, you murderous, disgusting..." Aleena growls and walks closer, "cruel...horrible...evil...human, trash!"
Lyrian stops Aleena from getting closer to Faylin with a hand at her chest.
"You're sick! All of you! I'll be leaving Limerock as fast as possible to return back home to my people. I'll deal with this necromancer alone. It seems I cannot trust humans after all, as long as they are ignorant and selfish, I don't think you've earned the title intelligent," Aleena hisses at the wounded Faylin.
Aleena turns to Lyrian, "and you, the real killer of that innocent creature!" Aleena continues to threaten him, almost hyperventilating from the shock, "you will suffer just like her!" She snatches the book of ancient dinosaurs from his side.
"If you want to call yourself a man, you better leave her before it's too late," Aleena says walking away.
"Aleena no!" Lyrian turns her around with his hands on her shoulders. "That creature is supposed to be extinct. This creature is changing your environment to a point where it is making other species of animals and plants that live now, extinct."
Aleena listens with tears forming in her green eyes, "what do you mean?"
"Did you let me talk before? No! You told me to be quiet while you call Faylin human trash. I was trying to to tell you this, it's messing with our current evolution. So it doesn't matter if it's a herbivore, it doesn't matter if it is just minding it's own business. It's, not, supposed, to, be, here!" Lyrian raises his voice getting in her face. "If you're any kind of woman, you'd listen for once," he snaps back, and she's stunned from the comment.
She pulls the book under her arm. Aleena stares into his green eyes, tears streaming from her face. Her face turns from sad, to clenching her fists, then to sadness again as she releases her hands. She pushes past Lyrian and stomps her way back to town.
"Wait!" Lyrian shouts to Aleena who's in the distance, but it's too late.
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Ankylosaurus
image [https://i.imgur.com/a8bzH5E.png]