Chapter 1

The cold wind whips past my hair. It funny how such a wind would make most shiver and wish to be in warm weather again. But to me this kind of weather is something that soothes me. This cold air doesn't make me cold, but it makes me calm. A hand comes and pats my shoulder before leaving. I turn around and see a miner, ready for his shift letting me know its time to go. I grab my pick that I buried in a stone by my feet and turn to go inside. The city is bustling, with the roar of voices, of feet, or people at work surrounding it. I follow the miner that called me and see the rest of the crews standing ready. They are divided by colored suits, knowing who goes to what level. Greens are the ones that stay closest to the surface. Blues go below them by three. Reds go below Blue by six levels. And yellows are the ones that go the deepest. They venture past where the light can touch. They go where the beasts that grew in darkness live.

I look down my armor and a patch on the shoulder piece that is all four colors. I am a miner, though not only a miner. I help in exterminating what threatens the lives of the men down there. I have my pickaxe, but it is also my weapon. "Oi, fighter, whats the mission today!" A dwarf with a beard that hand down to his gut, walks up to me with a stubborn look on his face. He wears a yellow suit, with a red beard and a pick that has an ax head on the other side. "We go down, we mine some ores, and we fight whatever lies below." He smiles and pats my arm,"That's right brother! Rock and Stone!!!" He yells it for all to hear and they cheer in as well. They all raise their picks in the air as a salute. I do the same, raising my pick in the air to salute them back. The bells ring and we head into the mines. I head in, ducking below the support beams to not hit my head, while the rest simply walk in as they are short enough for the support beams. I enter one of the elevators and the red suits pile in with me. One presses the button on their way in and we drop down to level 19. We gather iron from this level. It was we need for out tools and weapons.

The elevator shakes a little, as the descent is a little bumpy. Then abruptly, it stops and the door opens. Everyone files out, while I walk out last and slowly scan my surroundings. The dwarves get to work as I stand by for a minute. I walk past them, down the tunnel and am hearing....something. It is a light and distant scratching, maybe something is tunneling? I ready my pick. The sound comes closer. I can hear now the stone breaking. I stand still. The wall break open, with a hole that allows whatever is tunneling to exit. Its too dark to see right away, but it looks like a person. I take a step back, getting into a combat position. I hear a low growl before the thing that tunneled towards me leaps out of the dark and latch onto my body. It starts to rip at my armor, wishing to get at my skin. I don't allow it though. I drive my pick through its skull and feel the ripping stop. The beast's body goes limp against me. I slowly drag them off and see there is no damage done to my armor. Only scratches and scrapes. I toss the body aside, seeing the corpse lie there. It was pale, lifeless, with sunken in eyes that were yellow. It had long appendages and ended in claws. The torso was skinny, being able to see the ribs of the creature.

I stop for a moment as I look at it. I pull out a small notebook that I kept at my side and slowly start to sketch out roughly what it looks like, making small notes to the side on its details and how it acted. I close the book, and turn back to the others. They are happily mining away, unaware of what had just happened. I can hear them whistling and singing as they swing their picks into the rock that lines the walls. I grin a tiny bit before catching myself and stopping. I turn back to the creature and see its still there. I then hear a sound. Another sound, like the same from before when this thing came up.That same sound of scratching and clawing at the ground so that it may tunnel. It's different this time. There are more.