Chương 57: Drops

The bird slept for a while. Just as Blick was getting worried for its health it opened its eyes and awkwardly managed to get its feet under it. With a slight squeak it checked out its own wing and flexed the thing slowly several times. Blick remained seated just feet away to let the bird come back to the real world in as safe a manner as possible.

When it had moved satisfied its own curiosity the bird took a look around then did a small hop with a few flaps to perch on Blicks shoulder nearly taking his head off with a final flap of its huge wings. Blick chuckled at the birds antics clearly enjoying its survival of a life or death situation.

After nearly a day of wondering the grasslands with the bird finding a few smaller animals to eat while Blick tried to repair his yet again damaged blueberry bush in his pouch, the two made a slow circle back to the mining slave town. As much as he didn't understand the why, Blick knew this was his best bet at gathering several drops to absorb in a very short time. If the people in charge were already taking advantage of their fellow humans, then he didn't feel bad about taking advantage of the people in charge.

The walk there gave Blick a lot of time to figure out what to do with the bird. Its bright coloring made it not great at stealth. It wasn't smart enough or trained enough to really help in any kind of situation. Honestly having it with him would make his task impossible. The only thing he could think of was to leave the bird with a huge pile of food but that would just be impractical. If the bird must come, then Blick must work in the dark. The compound was quiet and dark without a fire in sight.

He couldn't make out the guards that would absolutely be in the towers. They were relying in the light of the moon above to help them spot movement from inside the compound. Blick remembered some of the layout of the compound from his scouting. He decided to circle onto the tree side and jump from a tree into the camp while the guards hopefully didn't notice. He could absolutely scale these wooden walls, but he was worried that would make too much noise.

The rhythmic thump of his claws digging into wood panels just seemed like a signal that something needed investigating. Trees swayed and creaked often. He could use that as sound cover. The tree was an easy thing to scale, jumping off onto the edge of the wooden wall was risky and a bit too loud for his comfort. He hoped it was assumed to be a stick or branch falling instead of an intruder. The guards were almost entirely focused inward during the day, he assumed quite a few things about the guards goals.

The bird stayed close and he would regularly forget it was nearby until he heard it fly from one spot to another as it slowly followed him. Blick crept slowly from one wooden fence to another making his way to the center of the compound. The humans had built every other settlement he had seen around a central point of importance. It may have been another assumption, but it was the best idea he had on where the entrance to the mine would be.

He climbed each gate as quietly as he could and had almost no trouble getting to the center of the compound where all the people had filed into one large building. It was the largest structure in the compound, but not the prettiest. There were areas covered in mismatched wood and the window holes were empty. It looked like a massive old shed. The door was chained shut with a large lock and there were two guards out front playing some game in the dirt.

It was clear they assumed someone would only be entering the building through the front door. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Blick was anything but normal. He wasn't bound to humans weak anatomy either. He could and simply would just climb a wall and enter through the window in the back of the building. The only issue was the bird following him. The large building was not exactly empty.

It seemed to serve as a warehouse and a covering for the mine entrance. From the window ledge about 15 feet off the ground he could see everything inside the building. Mostly because of the stash of steady glowing crystals off to one side. There was indeed a single individual sitting at a table near the pile of crystals writing on a book while grumbling to himself.

Blick watched the man's routine for a while and just as he was getting ready to try and sneak around the building and into the mine the man got up and walked over to the entrance. He banged on the door before the rattling came from the other side. The two guards had unlocked the door to let him out.

"I'll be back in a little while, I need to eat something and go find a bathroom." He spoke as he walked with an air of authority like these two men shouldn't even be informed of his plans. Blick rolled his eyes. The two guards locked the door back when the man made it through and Blick climbed down from his perch. The bird took up a position on the ledge clearly not wanting to enter the confined space. He was surprised to realize it wasn't completely dumb.

Walking through the warehouse he found plenty of tools lined agains one wall. Lanterns, picks, barrels on wheels, and lots of rope sat in organized rows. On the other side wall there were crates containing rocks and crystals. When he walked over to look at the crystals softly glowing green and blue he realized these things were huge compared to what he once had in a small lock box. He needed two hands to lift one without reinforcing his arms.

The crystal still had plenty of rock encrusted around it as most inside this crate did, but it was still very clearly valuable. Closer to the exit was a table with a half cleaned crystal on top, a crate of cleaned crystals on one side with a crate of these rock encrusted ones on the other. From Blicks understanding the workers filed in through one side of the building and grabbed their tools before entry the mine.

When they left the mine they would drop their crates of rocky crystals off at the table where someone else would break them down into cleaner pieces before shipping them off. Pretty simple set up. There were about five full crates near the large door off to the back of the building. He assumed that was a staging area for loading the caravan he had heard about. The crates weren't huge but there was definitely enough there to give him pause.

He looked back at the chained door once more before walking to the crates and laying his hands on the clean crystals. He pulled as fast and hard as he could to rush this. It took nearly the entire first crate, about six large crystals before he developed his first drop. He immediately absorbed it not wanting to hold more than five at a time as to not tempt himself to make the solid layer easier with more drops.

Halfway through the second crate he was focused on absorbing a second drop when he heard the door rattling as the guards unlocked it. With a fast glance around Blick simply jumped behind the crate he had been leaning over.