Part 17: The Orc Mines

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🗣️ "Is ... is it ... dead?"
Celina, still with a strong need of throwing up, barely responded.
🐺 "What do you fucking think"
Kael was the first to step out of his giant grass blade, as he slowly approached the black-stained ground where the eye-invaded goblin exploded.
The sunset light made the imagery ever so slightly more tolerable to look at.
🗣️ (This black substance could help us understand them better)
🐺 "Kael stop, what are you doing"
👻 "You're not planning on picking up that goo, are you"
🐺 "Leave that alone, we're no longer in danger so don't put us in unnecessary danger. For all we know, that goo could infect us"
🗣️ "It's gonna be fine, the only way I've seen the infection spread is when they inject one of their many eyes into a victim's body"
🐺 "Leave that alone. Now"
Kael ignored their request, the pursuit of knowledge was too tempting not to do something about it. He reached onto his pouch hoping to find something to pick the substance with. Nothing to be found, the jar he used to have was given to Andrew to make him blend with the vampire clan alredy. He looked around. No cottonvines nearby to knit.
🗣️ "Well there's gotta be some way to pick this up in a non-risky way. Fine, I'll let it be, but just because I don't have anything to pick it up. Let's keep going, the townsfolk could need help"
Celina knew how decisive he was about this, and decided to make a backup plan in case he tried to pick it up some time again.

As they started walking towards the Flame Canyon, the night began.
🐺 "Connor" - she whispered - "are you okay with this 'experiment'?"
👻 "Absolutely not" - he whispered back - "but what can we do? You know how independent he is, I don't think we'll be able to talk him out of this"
🐺 "We'll come back here once we're done with this Orc visit, so if he tries to pick it up somehow, you'll possess him and I'll tie him up with some vines"
👻 "Got it. Anything so that we don't get that nasty goo to our base"
Kael picked up a stick from the ground, tied some leaves to its top and crushed a magmaleaf onto it, lighting the way through the night.
Celina had no need for it, as werewolves have a keen vision that allows them to see in the dark. But Connor did need it as much as Kael.

They arrived at the Flame Canyon after some time traversing through the Titanic Hollow. The Orc Mines were inside, visible from the entrance of the Canyon. They started their descent, and the heat started to get them. Being the Flame Canyon, all the lava at its bottom heats the air up just enough to be uncomfortable but survivable. The human had no choice but to leave the torch behind, any extra heat would just make them even more uncomfortable, and the lava gave enough light to not need one anyway. The more they descended, the less moonlight got to them, as the ceiling above deprived it from getting inside the canyon. At last, they arrived at the Orc Mines inside the canyon. The orc guards immediately got into a hostile position, but didn't move from their location.
🐲 "What do you want" one of the guards said.
Kael cleared his throat.
🗣️ "We heard the goblin town evacuated here after being attacked. We're here to investigate and help them"
🦎 "Kael?" - a goblin showed up - "what are you doing here? Did you go to the town?"
🗣️ "Yeah, we found a small group of survivors there, they told us we could find the rest of the town here. Is everyone alright?"
🦎 "Guards, let them in. Come on, we're this way"
The guards left their hostile position and opened up the way. The minecart system was not as robust as it used to be, but there was a clear improvement ever since the zombie army destroyed it the last blood moon.

🐺 "I was told the minecart system was super elegant and complicated. It looks a lot simpler than I expected"
🦎 "Yes, they used to be a lot more robust. The orcs initially refused allowing us here as they were still rebuilding them. I was told a zombie army attacked them and raided all their magmabushes. It was after we finally calmed our panic and explained the eye-invasor problem that they agreed to help. No one is safe from them, after all"
👻 "I thought goblins and orcs hated each other"
🦎 "Not at all, we treat each other more like distant cousins or simply strangers rather than enemies. They are an over-natural form of goblin, after all, so we have a lot in common"
🗣️ "Just a small reminder, vampires and werewolves are an over-natural form of human ... But they also eat humans on a daily basis"
🦎 "Right, but orcs however, don't eat goblins, so we're fine here. I don't think we'll be leaving anytime soon, as there have been more sightings of eye-invasors. This is getting out of hand"
They finally arrived to a large room-like cave compartment inside. All the goblins from the town were there. Kael counted 38 of them, including those still as refugees on the mayor's hut back in the town, for a total of 5 losses. Despite this, Kael was expecting things to be worse.
🗣️ "Hey can you help me get a jar or something to hold water? I lost the one I had" Kael whispered to the goblin. He was well aware his clan wasn't buying any of that 'pick up the black goo' plan.
After some small chatting with the townsfolk, he got a small glass bottle that he quickly hid away in his pouch before neither Celina nor Connor could see it.
🗣️ "Hey everyone, how many eye-invasors were there?"
🦚 "Well, I saw 3 of them, an entire family was infected"
🦆 "While we were on our way here, someone got infected too!"
🗣️ "That checks out. That means there's still 4 eye-invasors on the loose"
🗣️ (That explosion ... why did it explode? Did it somehow remember her doll?)
🗣️ "Who were the infected ones? Does anyone remember any object they were attached to?"
Suddenly, a voice spoke from the ceiling.
🍒 "I think they really liked Blood Cherries. I could be wrong though"


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