Valgrim woke up in his new house feeling quite refreshed.  His straw was comfy and he had actually gotten consecutive good nights of sleep.  It helped that some of the animals had learned to cook so he didn't have to, even if their tasts were a bit...gamey

He stretched his arms out, stood up and put on his hat, then knelled down for his hour of prayer.  When that was done, he left his house to find some food.  

The little village was going quite well now.  As he walked down the path between the houses, he smiled at the animal/people moving around, some taking the time to grunt or growl in his direction for greeting.  He headed toward the building delightfully known as "Food Place".  Animals had a delightful naming sense.

His breakfast was delicious, though the animals could only make basic stew.  It was much better today, he only felt slightly nauseous.  In the end, only mild stomach cramps went with him as he left for work.

Not even the sunny sky blinding him could ruin his good mood, his sleep had been to needed for that.  So he walked with a bounce in his step toward the mines and was looking forward to it, when a huge explosion rocked the land.

(Imagine this as the first episode of Archer Vice- lol)

Having a rude awakening from his mood, Valgrim jumped off his back and ran to the mines, for that was where the noise had originated from.  As he approached the mines as fast as his little legs could carry him, he saw the dust pouring out of the entrance.

Since the mines were started, it had become a small maze in itself.  The original cavern was where the Hydras had been fought, still half underwater with the lake entrance closed off.  No mining went in that direction.  Two of the original exit tunnels had collapsed, leaving the lone entrance near the village.  Due to the original lack of tools, the mine itself had not progressed too far underground.  The primary need had been for stone after all for the bridge and castle, so the walls were dug out so the stone could be removed.  The original cavern was much bigger now, with the new additions resembling a room filled with pillars that connected the ceiling with the ground.  Once Brutus managed to make tools, Valgrim had enchanted them to cut through the stone, making it easier to dig into the harder ground.  Once it was realized the former Hydra nests had metals and gems, they had begun to dig toward them, with 3 major diagonal tunnels dug into the ground, leveling out every 20 feet.

The actual cavern was about an hour's walk from the entrance to the cave, so Valgrim jumped into one of the carts set aside at the entrance and quickly enchanted it to move on its own.

Moving at top safety speed, it only took Valgrim 15 minutes to travel to the central cavern.  Arriving, he saw workers running from one of the mine shafts, dust still heavy in the air.  

He jumped out and ran to the mine shaft.  The animals didn't have a supervisor when he wasn't there, so he had to figure out what had happened on his own.

When he got to the shaft, he saw a mole and a female human crying at it, trying to move the rubble from the hole.  The mole was having trouble moving anything and the female's hands were bleeding.

Valgrim knelled down and grabbed the girl, turning her to face him.

"What happened?" he asked urgently.  She cried and shook her head, not answering him.  He shook her again and stared into her eyes directly.  "WHAT. HAPPENED?"

(Animal language remember) "Sniff, working, rocks fell, mate trapped."

Valgrim nodded.  He understood, and turned his gaze to the shaft.  It wasn't completely blocked off, but there were plenty of stones and rubble to block off the exit.  He calmed his mind, and cast a summoning spell.

Calling upon his connection with his god, he summoned 2 small earth elementals.

As soon as they came into being, he directed them to absorb and redistribute the rubble.  As soon as a big enough opening was revealed, he jumped into it, falling into the dark.

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He did a rolling landing, minimizing injury to his legs and got up.  "Light" he muttered, and a small orb of light appeared in front of him.  Spending most of his time in the sun had damaged his dark vision, but the light gave him full clarity of his surroundings.  

The tunnel divided here at the level off, making a fork in the road that led farther in.  The right tunnel had ended due to the harder rock, so they had continued down the left one for mining.  It was completely sealed by boulders.

Marking his body with magic, he merged with the stone and moved thorough it, it's feeling to him like being in water.  He slowly made his way to the other side, poking one eye through first to see what was on the other side.

He first saw the blood.  It covered the floor, marking the tunnel as death's newest domain.  Large parts of the ceiling lay on the ground, like sleeping children wrapped in bundles.  The scene was surreal, interrupted only by the site of arms from underneath the rocks.  The miners had not been so lucky.  

He counted at least 4 bodies, and was glad the rocks covered what they looked like now.  He came through completely, slowly making his way past the tragedy.

It was strange thought, the rocks that had crushed his workers were in perfect shape, almost like they were cut.  A quick glance up showed holes in the ceiling that matched the shapes of the boulders.

He grew concerned, this was not a natural phenomenon.  He inspected one of the arms on the ground, it had claw marks.

"Not good" he muttered, "This is very not good."  As he inspected the slashes, he heard a groan from further down the corridor.

Walking briskly, he rounded a corner and came across a boar leaning against the wall.  He was bleeding from his gut, and a trickle of red dripped from his mouth.  He locked his eyes weakly on Valgrim, his breathing slowly becoming more shallow.

Valgrim knelt and listened to his last words.

"....Alive..."

The last wisp of breath left the boar's body, his head falling unobstructed onto the floor.  Valgrim nodded, he heard and would act.

He put his hand on the ground and sent a pulse of magic into it, listening for echos.  He got 10, coming from further down the tunnel, and another one heading toward them.

He ran down the tunnel as fast as he could, channeling his priestly magic to heal his fatigue.  He caught up with the 10 the same time as the other being.

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

His workers were huddled together in  a small alcove, dug into the wall for emergencies.  They were scared, but alive.  He took stock of his surroundings.  There was nothing else in the tunnel, and the area was littered with various rocks of different sizes.  

He moved into the alcove, inciting a gasp from the scared workers, but they quickly calmed down after realizing who he was.  He looked around, noting that they had no life threatening injuries, and asked, "What happened?"

A grizzled looking human spoke up in animal tongue, "Digging good.  Dug out hole, hole lead tunnel.  Monster come tunnel."  he shivered, wrapping his arms around his legs.

Valgrim grew more concerned.  Animals didn't describe things well, especially new things.  the word "Monster" stood for a lot of things, from Brutus to their hunger.  Still, he understood they had found something.

After reassuring them, he left the alcove, but not before sealing the alcove with a rock wall, complete with air hole.  He treaded more cautiously now, making his way to the end of the tunnel.  

What he found surprised him.  The miners were starting a new descent tunnel, but they had accidentally made an opening into a pre-existing tunnel, which could only mean one thing.  "Ah crap." he said, "An under tunnel."

This was one of the original tunnels under ground, the same kind that Valgrim and comp. had used to travel to the surface.  He had thought they had all collapsed with the earthquakes, but apparently not.

"Che, looks like something survived." he observed, taking note of some bones in the tunnel.  Normally, he'd leave and go get back up, but he didn't think he could protect himself and 10 scared miners from an obviously deadly predator.

He cast protective magic on himself, and jumped into the tunnel.  

The air was stale, filled with old bones and unidentifiable liquid.  He bent down and inspected a bone.  It was scratched, similarly to the arm he had looked at earlier.  The bone also had another interesting tidbit, a tooth was lodged in it.

"F@@k." was the only thing he could say looking at the tooth.  He recognized it, and it resonated with a bad feeling in his heart.  It was the tooth of a crawler beast.

A crawler beast was an underground predator known for it's vicious attitude and trap abilities.  Most likely, it had sneaked past the miners, set the rock traps, then killed a few and dragged them back to it's lair.  The unfortunate living miners then fell to the trap.

As he put the bone down, a low growl emanated form behind him.  It rolled across his ears, raising all the hair on his neck.  No thought passed through his head as he threw himself to his left his all his power.

A huge body flew where he just been standing, crashing into a pile of bones.  Valgrim threw up his wards, and sent a blast of fire at the shadow.  The shadow moved onto the ceiling, and Valgrim could make it out clearly now.

The crawler beat was long and skinny, two legs and two arms ending in sharp talons.  It was covered in thin layer of black hair, and had bluish skin.  No nose on it's face, instead having two slits, and above them two black eyes that stared deep into Valgrim's soul.  It's mouth was filled with small, sharp teeth, and it's head had short spiky black hair.  It drooled as it stared at Valgrim, regarding him with a chitter.

It immediately launched itself out of Valgrim's sight, disappearing into the darkness again.  Valgrim put himself in a battle ready position, calmly observing the surrounding.  His eye twitched, and he cast a rock blast behind him.  A shrill of pain wailed, and he looked.

The crawler's arm laid on the ground, cleanly amputated by the rock blast.  Then Valgrim felt his wards shatter as he was thrown across the lair into a pile of bones.

He groaned and propped himself up.  He felt a few broken ribs and his left arm wasn't moving.  He looked up, trying to regain sight of the crawler beast.  He picked it up, it was slowly moving on the ceiling toward him.  He began muttering chants under his breath, focusing his remaining magic into his workable arm.  

The crawler beast launched itself at Valgrim, only to crash head first into the tunnel wall.  It crashed to the ground, dead, as the room shifted.  Valgrim smiled warily, a small trickle of blood coming down his mouth.  Illusion was not his best magic, but he could confuse the senses for a small moment.

He dragged himself up, and shot the corpse a few more times.  Some crawlers could play dead, so it payed to be sure.  He healed his arm and ribs best he could, but it still really hurt.  Healing was great, but it couldn't take away the pain.  He also made sure to cut it's head off.  It would be useful later.

He made his way back to the alcove, freed the miners, and returned tot he surface with them.  The female at the top began crying in happiness on seeing her mate, but the mole wept in sadness.  Her mate had not been so lucky.

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"Uhhh, what a day." Valgrim moaned into his dinner.  He had spent the rest of day dealing with the fallout of the mine incident.  Brutus had shown up as he got out of the mine.  He had quickly explained to Brutus what had happened.  Brutus had then gone into the mine and made sure there were no other beasts.  

Valgrim then had to deal with a mob of angry and scared animals.  The prospect of death after being in peace for a month had really freaked them out.  He had had a heck of a time keeping them calm and not leaving the kingdom.  He then had to give funeral rites to the dead miners with pyres.

Then, he had to meet up with the rest of the group to discuss the new discovery.  If a crawler could survive for a month to be released by miners, then other beasts could still be alive in other un-collapsed tunnels.  He would have to use more of his time now to scout out the ground before new tunnels could be made.

He moaned again into his stew.  This time, he made his own to prevent bathroom errors.

Brutus snorted, a little amused by Valgrim's troubles, if not sympathetic.  He was sad about the miner's death, but not so much to dwell on it.  He had seen enough death in his life.

Valgrim looked into the air and said, "What else could go wrong?"

His thoughts were interrupted when a very distressed, yet excited, dwarf burst into the room.

"Oy Valgrim, ders a girl hu won't change back!"

"..........sh$t"