Story of my life - chapter 4

Go to chapter 3 (if you missed it)

Strange coincidence, strange indeed. My vessel (I kinda like that term) seems to have accepted a job just day before I first connected to him. But some explanation is needed before (as usual).

Seems that people in this valley fear going to that cave system from where that main river flows out. At first I attributed that to some lowly superstition going to dark place where lava is close to surface, steam going out from fissures, hot water flows out and generally being "close to hell". But it seems that some strange creatures actually live there somehow feeding from heat and going out to open only to mate (so probably that was the main reason of heavy scorched fortification!).

To make matters even more complicated, you can collect some strange ore there that when added to iron ore in quite small quantities, make resulting tools much more durable. That bettered iron is easily shaped when glowing hot, but very resilient and strangely lightweight when cold (tools can be made very thin). So some do overcome their fear and venture into that cave to get that very sought after element. But not everyone comes out alive.

And here comes my vessel's job. He was tasked to venture in and apart from bounty for that element he was offered money to look for a missing relative of that job giver. Maybe from foolishness of youngsters or from promise of good payment he accepted. He went there and after a bit of cautious exploration he found that relative dead. His corpse was badly burned. His whole bottom half was looking like coal. That must have been immense heat to cause such burns. My vessel took his backpack with some element, his pendant he wore around his neck and with much relieve he run out.

But why I'm writing about some random job in the first place you ask. That pendant or medailon looked very familiar to me. He wore it around his neck from that day as his lucky charm. So when I woke up I checked net, but nothing there. And then it struck me like lightning. It have engraved exact pattern like that I used that day to tune my bed.

It was a bit melted as it was partially in path of that flame that burned that poor soul to death, but pattern was clearly visible. Seems that it was shaped from that element itself. It was a bit warm to touch glowed slightly in the dark. Looked very magical!

Go to chapter 5