Pickaxe

Chapter 4- What?

                                                                  Two red eyes, one gold crown

                                                                  Bleeding sword and dark frown

                                                   He wonders the woods, terrible and terrific,

                                                    As cool and as dangerous as firework wick

                                                            They say black hounds follow him,

                                                      Ready to attack and obey his every whim

                                                                     All this is the blood King,

                                           From his weapons you will see the red water dripping

                                                   Long cursed to wear the head of a boar,

                                                          He roams his words a man no more

                                                              Two red eyes, one gold crown,

                                                     Look up and you'll see him gazing down

Lyell dropped his voice a little as he finished the last verse to the song. He had learned from Harmon, it had been a song he would play from time to time on his guitar.

"Do you think the blood king actually exists?" Oleo asked.

"I don't know." Lyell said as he began to chisel away at the rock, with his small hammer and chisel "it's possible"

"Imagine being cursed to have a boar's head." Oleo said.

"Hmph, a boars head indeed."Edward said puffing his pipe as he struck at the rock with his pickaxe. "I'll bet five marks that part isn't true."

"Why do you think that? Lyell asked

"It's the way legends work." Edward explained." Pass it down enough times, someone manages to add in some over exaggerated part just to make a sound more intriguing and fake."

"Well you never know it could be true." Oleo said.

"Some guy with a boar head, wearing a crown strolling around the woods with his dogs? I've heard better tell-tales." Edward said.

Lyell let out of quiet Rona Edwards pessimism but just shrugged it off he continued to have the tune to this song. His chisel struck something hard, grabbing his pickaxe he struck at the spot and got whatever it was loose. He pulled out a chunk of rock, bits of black protruded from it. More murk stone.

Still holding the stone, Lyell let out a whistle. The sound of hooves responded to the whistle and soon Noby came down towards them pulling his little cart. They had made the little donkey a wooden cliff path so he had a way to safely get down to the minors.

Lyell tossed the large chunk of Murk stone into Noby's cart. However just before he was about to give the donkey a head pat, a shrill cry echoed from below them.

"That's Harmon!" Edward exclaimed, dropping his pipe "Oleo, find him."

Oleo nodded and quickly climbed down. Being nimble and fast, he get to Herman faster than the others. "I hope it's not another creeper." Lyle said."I'm going after him."

"Oh no, young man if you're going to leave me with a donkey, no way." Edward said "I'm coming too."

Both of them began to climb down as fast as they could constantly peering over their shoulders to see if they could see Harmon or Oleo's head candles. Another cry cause them to stop.

"Oleo, are you are right?!" Lyle called out, only to be responded by another in audible cry. "Oh no, you don't." Lyell pulled out his pickaxe

"Lyell what are you-" Edward couldn't finish as Lyell went on his side and began to slide down the steeper parts of the wall, using his pickaxe to keep him from speeding down to his demise.

As he slid down, he saw two Candlelights off to his left." I promise if either of them is hurt, someone is going to get a pickaxe through the teeth." Lyell thought gritting his own teeth at the pain in his side as he slowed down.

He began to scramble towards the candlelight, nearly slipping more than once but he wasn't going to slow down. When he reached were the light was coming from, he was greatly surprised when he saw Harmon and Oleo standing on the ledge smiling at something.

"I heard the shouts, wha-what the heck is going on?" Confusion was written all over Lyell's face.

"Oh you're finally here. What took you so long?" Oleo asked.

Lyell's jaw dropped. "I literally scraped off my entire side expecting to see you too laying dead on the ground and this is what I say see? What in the actual-" Harmon cut him off.

"Just come here and look at this." he said. Lyell grudgingly walked over to where his friends were when he saw what they had been looking at. He nearly let out a cry himself when he saw what they had been looking at. There, protruding from the rock side, was the largest cluster of murk stone he had ever seen.

                                                                                          * * *

The group chatted happily as they walked home. Lyell smiled as he listened to his friends constantly talk about their amazement and everything they were going to do with the money they would get from the Murk stone.

As they walked , he noticed one of the larger chunks of stone have fallen out of the cart so he fell behind the group to fetch it. Picking it up while he was about to regroup with his friends when he noticed something some odd looking tracks were printed in the dirt path.

"It's not a bear. The toes are too large." he thought. A sudden sharp whistle caused him to look up but there was no one there. Getting an uneasy feeling he ran back to his friends "What was that?" he thought.