Alphine sluggishly opened his eyes to the rocky ceiling above, It consisted of multiple shades of brown, you could tell it had a harsh time standing the test of time by the multiple cracks that were blatantly obvious to see.

Alphine’s staring contest with the rock that acted as the ceiling was interrupted by loud sound of snoring that came from the bed across his. What person, nay demon could be making such sounds out of their face hole, Alphine thought to himself.

He turned to his side to see what monster he was caged in with, was it a three headed ogre, a dragon perhaps the Boogeyman however it was far worse, it was the kid that stole his pickaxe the day prior, sleeping on his stone slab like some bear.

Alphine sat up on what the guards decided to call a bed and looked at the snoring pile of moss across him. “How is one creature able to produce so much noise?” he thought to himself. Just then the sleeping princess decided to wake up. He looked up to see Alphine staring at him.

“Sup du-” Alphine was cut of by the kid. “Why are you here?…children shouldn't be in tough places like this.” asked the kid in a more serious tone. “Well the guard pointed me to this cell an-” Alphine was cut off once again “No I mean why are you in the mining caverns” replied the dark haired kid.

“Well believe it or not but I didn’t have much of a choice in the matter” Alphine replied “I was walking around in the desert, got knocked out got interrogate by a Loli then teleported over to the caves” he added. The kid across him looked at Alphine and asked “What’s a Loli”, “Something that will put you in prison.” Alphine replied.

“Are you perhaps talking about the Warden, she’s the one in charge of putting people into the caves” The kid said. “Yeah same thing happened to you?” Alphine asked, realising the answer he was about to get. The dark-elf kid sighed “Yep, few years back, the village I lived in was attacked by the slave traders most of the kids managed to run however me and my little brother weren’t so lucky, we got sent down to the mines by order of the Warden,” he clenched his fists hard, almost as if he was trying to strangle the air around him.

The chat between Alphine and the kid was cut by same ringing sound as from before could be heard all across the cave. A guard called out “Right everyone out of your cells, gets your grub.” The cell doors were unlocked and a stampede of footsteps could be heard.

Alphine was walking alongside the dark haired kid to what he assumed was the food area. “Ready for another tough day, Alvar” a voice called out mockingly. “You bet I am!” Alvar called back. Alphine looked at Alvar, his cell-mate, he wondered how such a clear insult flew over their head.

Not wanting to upset Alvar, Alphine decided to not tell him that the voice behind them took what the Irish would call a piss at Alvar’s sake. The two reached the food area. Alphine looked over to Alvar and asked “Once we get our food, mind me sitting with you?” not wanting to be the same kind of loner he was in the past.

“Fine, I guess it’s better than you getting yourself lost,” Alvar said looking straight ahead. “Nice he isn’t totally against people” Alphine noted to himself. After what felt like hours Alvar got his food, then it was Alphine’s turn to get his portion of food. He closed his eyes and when he opened them he couldn’t believe what ungodly thing he saw, the funky mushrooms he saw in the corner of his cell looked better than the abomination they decided to place on a plate.

He looked down in disgust at his portion of green goop he was served. The smell the goop gave off could be classified as a act of nasal assault. Then he looked over to the next thing on his plate a small slab of what looked like concrete however it was worse it was hard-tac.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Alphine looked around the room for any sign of his cell-mate. It wasn’t so hard to find him amongst the crowd because of his distinct spiky afro. Alphine sat on the ground looking at his “food”, he wondered if he would be healthier by not eating it however his thoughts were cut off by Alvar.

“It’s mashed Cavesprouts and a slab of dried Mossbread.” Alvar explained seeing Alphine look at his food the way someone would look at their dog it they shat on the carpet. “It looks like it will hurt me though” Alphine replied still looking at the food. “Well if you want to be tough you have to eat tough meals like this!” Alvar said gulping his food down.

Alphine thought to himself “It’s not like I ever cared about health, however if I want to make it out of this cave, I need to eat this food so I can survive.” Alphine looked at the goop and Mossbread, he was determined to eat this meal. He opened his mouth and poured the sludge down his gullet then he grabbed the Mossbread and proceeded to shove it down his mouth, he held it shut as the food went down into his stomach.

Through some divine miracle Alphine didn’t regurgitate it. He look up to Alvar and gave him a thumbs up. “Uhh good job man” Alvar replied, giving a thumbs up to Alphine. The oh-so-familiar ringing sound was heard “Right everyone, get to work!” a voice called out.

Alphine and Alvar started making their way over to the mining area. While the two were walking Alphine turned his head to the side to see a sick looking slave not mining, Alphine wasn’t a doctor by any means, however he could tell something isn’t right when the slave skin had fifty shades of green, red dots of varying sizes dotted the slaves body. Alphine realised that if he didn’t find a way to escape he could also end up like that.

Alvar looked back at Alphine “Hey kid, stick close to me, you’re not tough enough to mine by yourself!” Alphine decided that he won’t argue with Alvar. The two walked over to the row of pickaxes, Alvar inspected them closely and saw one that was fairly small atleast compared to the others.

Alvar tossed the smaller pickaxe over to Alphine, as for himself he took one of the larger ones, much to Alphine’s surprise Alvar held the pickaxe with ease. Alvar looked at a piece of rock and said “Alright kid, I’ll teach you the proper way of swinging a pickaxe, just look at what I’m doing.”

Alvar held the pickaxe in both hands “Firstly, make sure your arms are as far away from you as possible...” Alvar lifted the pickaxe way over his head “Make sure to bring the pickaxe over your head so you can swing at the object with greater force, however if you pull it too far back your balance will be off and you’ll fall.” Then Alvar brought the pickaxe down with such force that the ground bellow him showed a few cracks.

“Now it’s your turn kid.” Alvar said looking expectantly at Alphine, he walked over to a pile of stones. He clenched his leg muscles, he tighten his grip on the pickaxe. He lifted the pickaxe over his head then with the strength of a twelve year old he struck the stone with such force that it made him jump slightly.

“I guess it isn’t too bad, for a child that is!” Alphine was satisfied with the half complement he received from Alvar. The two started mining away at the rocks, however the image of the sick slave surprising didn’t disappear too easily from Alphine’s mind. Then Alphine made his decision he wasn’t planning to stay here in the caves for any longer he was planning to break out. He took a deep breath, realising that it would be too hard to do alone as he looked over to Alvar and whispered into his ear.

“Are you crazy!” Alvar whisper back.