Shadows in the Valley (3)

A few hours later, Aka left the great elder's house with some difficulty using the staff he had obtained at the cost of his bed. The sun was shining overhead, forcing her to use her free hand to create a shadow between her eyes and be able to glimpse what was happening in the town. Usually at this time of day the town is in a state of tranquility, most of the inhabitants are resting after the exhausting first day of the day before resuming their work, but at this moment all the inhabitants were running from one side to the other with carts, pickaxes, sacks and multiple boxes, all heading to the western part of the town. Anyone would claim that the villagers were preparing to leave at any moment if it weren't for the fact that all the carts, sacks and boxes were empty and even Aka could swear that he had seen some villagers removing provisions from their homes only to throw away their food with in order to get another empty bag or box.

One would think that the townspeople have lost their minds but given the situation their behavior is understandable. According to the great old man, everything happened in the wee hours of the morning, while everyone was preparing to start their work, a loud roar was heard followed by a strong tremor. Turning towards the direction of the sound, a large column of dust could be seen coming from the entrance of the town, in the small strait that allows all the inhabitants of the town to leave Bur and go to the big city. Everyone's reaction time varied, with the great elder being the first to head to the entrance of the town, fearing that something had happened there.

With the great old man on his way, everyone present in the town began to head towards the same destination without hesitation, making their own conjectures about the cause of that noise and what had happened at the entrance to the town. With murmurs, everyone arrived at the entrance of the town only to be petrified by the image that was painted in front of them. The entrance to the town, which had served for decades as the only point of communication with the outside, now had a large number of rocks of different sizes that prevented the safe passage of anyone. Faced with such a scene, only one phrase could form in the minds of all those present: perdition.

After a few moments of silence, a burly inhabitant took the first step forward with the intention of starting to remove some stones, hoping to be able to solve the big problem that everyone was witnessing. He certainly made it to the front before a soft, weak hand touched his shoulder and stopped him.

– Great old man. What is the problem? I just…

– I know what you are trying, but the problem is what will happen if you keep moving that rock – said the great old man with his staff pointing towards the sky.

By turning their gaze to the sky, the people understood what the great old man meant. Multiple rocks of different sizes blocked the entrance in such a way that removing any of these even by accident would cause a large collapse that would definitely end the lives of those present, and even so they would not know if this would solve the problem given that the rocks that covered the strait seemed to touch the clouds. It was as if the god himself had descended and cut the tip of the mountain so that it would fall and cover the entrance to the town.

Among all, the most affected was the great elder. He knew that in this situation they could do nothing but emigrate from Bur. Although he could go and request support from the king, currently the prince was the one in charge of the kingdom's business and it was publicly known that despite being a person who likes to show off his assets and treat everyone in a friendly manner, he would He would extract every last drop if he noticed any weakness, which would mean that all his people would be in debt for life, becoming permanent slaves to the kingdom.

While everyone was mourning, one of the town's business managers approached the fallen rubble, curious about a peculiar rock that caught his attention.

– What are you doing Kitu? – The great elder asked, knowing that given his personality he would not do anything reckless.

Ignoring the great elder, Kitu slowly approached the rock that had caught his attention. The rock appeared plain, with no apparent eye-catching apart from some faint reddish lines similar to granite, a common mineral in the area. When you touched the rock and concentrated on the touch, you felt an almost imperceptible tingling, only captured if it is what you would expect to find. Kitu's expression changed drastically from absolute concentration to unprecedented happiness and ecstasy, as if before his eyes was the greatest treasure of his entire life.

– Quick, a pick! I need a pickaxe! – Kitu said without taking his eyes off the rock.

A young man slowly approached Kitu while holding in both hands a small, rusty pickaxe that he used to extract stone from the quarry. Before he could hand the pickaxe to Kitu, he snatched it from his hands and began to chip the rock with a peculiar technique, it seemed as if he wanted to burst the rock in half but at the same time he only wanted to sculpt the last details of a sculpture that would It took years to complete.

After a few minutes, Kitu finally managed to break the stone, revealing a rock the size of a small fruit, of a grayish-reddish color, dull and full of imperfections on all sides.

– A gem?

– How is it going to be a gem? I have seen some adorning the door of the lord of the great city and they are bright, without imperfections and with a beautiful color. It is obviously red granite.

– It's not granite, it's amber. I have heard that further east there are some species of ants that make amber and dig their nests among the rocks.

– That amber is yellow and brittle, this is not an amber. It's obviously an egg.

– Why would there be an egg in a stone? 

While everyone was arguing among themselves about the strange rock in Kitu's hands, the great elder slowly approached, opening his eyes in surprise as he tried to utter some words other than babbling.

– Kitu… that… Is that what I think?

– That's great old man! This is a stone of the gods! – Kitu said while cleaning the stone with his clothes as if it were the most beautiful gem.

– Great elder, what is a stone of the gods? – Asked the young man whose pickaxe had been taken from him a few minutes ago.

– It's true, most of you won't know about this because it's not something from our world. You see, for us things like food, fabrics and the odd metal utensil are the most valuable things we can have. For city people, all these things are commonplace so they look for something more, in this case they look for luxuries such as exotic skins, gems or precious metals. Everyone from the humblest salesman to the king seeks things like these, but there are beings beyond our understanding whose goals go beyond that. Beings that do not need to eat or drink, beings that can live until the end of time, beings that are no longer human like us, beings with powers similar to that of the gods, the immortal gods.

Pausing, the great elder turned to look at Kitu who had finished cleaning the dull reddish stone.

– The immortal gods are not interested in anything in this world, except for those rocks. On one occasion, before I retired, I remember being invited by one of the king's sons to a banquet to renew our agreement and introduce my replacement. I brought Kitu along because he was the smartest and most honest person I knew, plus he had been under my wing for 10 years so it was obvious to everyone that I would name him my replacement. After the banquet the prince took us through his palace while he presented us with paintings, fabrics and different swords that he had in the form of a trophy. At the end of the route we arrived at an altar where a stone like the one Kitu has was located, along with 5 rocks identical to the ones Kitu chopped. The prince kindly explained to us that it was a stone of the gods and that it was extracted from rocks similar to those found on the altar. Although he did not tell us its use, he explained that that single stone had been worth enough to feed an entire family for ten years and to celebrate the appointment of my replacement, he allowed us to touch one of the large stones. If it weren't for the prince telling us about the strange tickling sensation it transmits, we would have thought he was kidding us.

Upon hearing this, the people seemed excited. Ten years of food, for their community would be equivalent to an entire year without going hungry if it was rationed properly, they could even invest in new materials to speed up the felling of trees, the only problem was that despite having this treasure they still could not solve the great blockade before their eyes that prevented them from traveling to the great city, only if they were lucky enough to find another 100 stones of the gods could they be safer to be able to emigrate from Bur and buy some land to cultivate and live off of that.

Seeing everyone's discontent, the great old man could guess what was going on in their heads so he laughed a little and spoke with authority.

– If at any time, one finds a rock like this in the mountains, it means that there is an ore with thousands similar waiting to be found.

It doesn't take a genius to understand what the great elder meant. That single rock on the ground implied that somewhere among the mountains there existed an ore with thousands of similar ones. If they managed to extract the rocks and sell them in the big city, their entire lives would be fixed, and even the lives of their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

– Don't get excited yet – Kitu said as he finally managed to calm down and think rationally. – There are some things that we must take into account, first we must solve the problem of the collapse. Until we manage to remove all the rocks that prevent us from leaving the Bur or make a decent path, the transfer of the stones of the gods will be dangerous, not only because of the bandits who live in the forests and will take advantage of any circumstance to go after us when they see that there are no witnesses but also by the beasts that are found in the mountains and forests beyond. 

Having everyone's attention, Kitu took a breath and continued.

– The second problem is security, even if we manage to solve this there will be many people who will risk their lives knowing that we have stones of the gods even knowing that we are protected by the king. My plan is the following, we must all keep the secret of what we found, publicly we will continue to deliver a similar amount of gray wood to the kingdom while in the background we will be trading stones of the gods to them. The prince will not dare to silence us and take the ore because we are still in a range where the purple mist can affect them and we are the only ones who can extract it in the long term so it is in his best interest to maintain a friendly relationship with us. I will offer to hire a few soldiers in exchange for a certain amount of stone of the gods so that they can help remove the rocks, I will even hire some alchemists to make bombs and the process will be faster and when they finish removing the rocks we will begin to obtain profits from our mining.

Everyone was excited when they heard Kitu's words, so after a few murmurs they waited for his instructions.

– Before you continue getting excited, I want to remind you that the price we will pay will be high, due to the purple mist many of the prince's soldiers will fall ill so we will have to pay them more than what they are assuming, so we must find a faster way to solve the problem or what we will end up paying to the prince will be more than we can bear. This is why we need to get funds as quickly as possible, this way we will have enough to hire some alchemists or maybe even some expert from outside the kingdom who can solve our problem. Now I need 5 people to accompany me across the mountains, they must be the best hunters in town, we will go to the kingdom to talk to the prince. Another 10 people will be in charge of climbing the mountains, preferably strong miners and fast climbers, they must find the ore as soon as possible and once found I need them to guide the rest of the miners to extract as much rock as they can, meanwhile The rest of you will be responsible for creating a safe path to the ore. All of you leave your current tasks, get boxes, bags, cloth, carriages, anything that will allow us to store the rocks and be ready when I return with the prince's soldiers.

Upon hearing Kitu's words, everyone followed his instructions without hesitation. Kitu was the second most trusted person after the great elder. While everyone was heading towards the town with enthusiasm, they managed to see in the distance a small, thin figure trying to run. If it weren't for its clothing, they could assure that it was a sheet of dry grass that someone had soaked in the hope of reviving it after a hot day. summer day They quickly knew that it was Aka and before even showing a look of disgust they saw how she collapsed to the ground but not before vomiting air with saliva.