16) Dangerous Mines

Dangerous mines

Stepping out of the dark dirty tunnel was a relief for all of us. We stepped out on stone ground. We were standing in a rectangular... tunnel. "Not again!!" Namir welped, Müsli whimpered and Khaos sighed. "This is something different." Said Astoria suddently. "Humans call this a mine. We had an old mine shaft horse visiting us before, don't you guys remember?" Arctic nodded "True!" "And you know what's the good thing about mines?" Astoria suddently grinned very excitedly. "Because mines have an exit?" Khaos said, hiding a smile. "Finally" murmured Müsli, looking around. The mineshaft we were in was dark, but not too small. There were oil lamps on the wall, shimmering a flickering light into the tunnel. The stone was suprisingly light, around the color of Astorias hair, which following her look to the wall and then to her hair, she must have already noticed. "Please lets go then!" Namir ushered, looking around to see who would be leading the way now. I look at Khaos, and decide to step forward. "Follow me" I say, "and be careful. Mines can be dangerous from what I have heard." "Oh they absolute are dangerous, I agree" Astoria answered, which made Müsli stare at her and flinch from her words. "Don't worry dont worry," she added quickly, "This one looks very trustworthy, doesn't it?" She smiled at Müsli and the others charming, and then followed my lead. Out of the corner of my eye I see how the group slowly followed me. We must be at the very end of this mine, as the further we progress, the cleaner carved out the tunnel is. The lights also got brighter with time, and there was wooden construction following along the walls. After making a turn, I stop at an intersection, looking around to the others. Astoria stopped next to me, saying "Oh! Look, those are railtracks on the ground! Humans use them to transport debree like stone, gravel, sand and dirt out of the shafts! They also transport goods in there, and obviously minerals that they are looking for!" I just look at her weirdly, as well as Namir and Müsli. "That is wonderful to know, thank you for letting us in on that secret." Khaos said calmly. "If now please anyone could help use their brains to decide which way we should be following?" I say, shooting Astoria a charming grin, which she just commented with a fitting eye roll. "I think we should go this way," Müsli said shyly. I look around to him in suprise. "Why?! I think that way looks more promising!" Said Namir, pointing in the other direction. "Well uhm.. well.. be..beacuse.. You can feel a bit of air, and the small breeze is coming from this direction. That means there should in theory be an exit." Müsli explained, sounding very shy. Khaos looked at him with respect and nodded. "That's true!" Astoria said, deciding to follow that path before Namir or Arctic can start saying something against it. I let her overtake her, following behind her then instead. Walking over the railway tracks was an interesting feeling. After a while we round some old rusty mine shaft carts who had apparently been abandoned in here. In some of them there were even some debree left overs. It seemed, as if the humans working here just one day.. got up and left. The mine felt so.. alive, and not as if it was empty for a long time already. Müsli spooked at an old pickaxe laying next to a wall, and Namir murmured "I have a feeling that we will surely find a skeleton down here sooner or later." Arctic gasped, looked at him in shock, saying, very sarcasticly, "No shit sherlock!" Which granted him a warning snap from Khaos. I roll my eyes, thankful that Müsli and Astoria are less of a problem than these two. After another intersection, where we decided to follow again the path where we could feel air flowing towards us, we had to stop. "Here is some of the wooden planks laying all over the place as well as stones! Please step over carefully and don't get yourself hurt!" Said Astoria, which promted us all to step over the whole destroyed stuff very carefully. Nobody of us wanted to injure themselves in this surrounding, knowing that there would be little chance to get an heavily injured horsie out of here. Khaos, who by now was the very last one of the group, cleared the path at last, with everyone making it through without injuries. Only Müsli, who got cared by some loose stones falling down after Arctic, jumped a bit, and into a wall, but we all think he is kind of used to that by now. "I think I see light. Moonlight!" Namir said with the biggest sigh of relief we all heard today. Astoria trots up, with us all following her, trotting outside into the light. "I'm so glad we are out!" Said Arctic, which everyone commented with nodding, sighs of relief, coughing and shaking off the dust and debree they took with them. Khaos left the mine as the last one, looking around. We were standing in a foresty area, but in the distance we could make out fields and some mountains behind hills. "Let's go, I want to see where we are" I say, leading the group slowly through the edge of the forest, till we step out onto the field. "It's so beautiful!" Müsli said, looking around this very nice looking area. "Let me guess-" started Namir, already sounding annoyed again. "Yes this is not our home" Khaos answered him, with at least the same level of annoyance.