Approximately 2 hours before Nile entered the cave.
"Hmm...Hmm~" A man passing by through the river carrying loads of tools, a pickaxe, and a couple of plastics and woven bags. He was humming while wearing a smile, the path that he is taking is too steep and rough thus the gems and stones inside his bag were rustling for quite a while.
"Hey Papa!" ā
"AAA! MARIE!? What are you doing here?!" Marie's presence beside her father startled him.
"But Papa, I want to get out of the house for a while! I'm sick of staying on it all day and waiting for you. I'm bored and I wanna do something different." Marie's nagging caused the man to gasp and feel agitated.
"Um, but Marie, this place is dangerous, your Papa is going to work for us to earn money so I can buy you some food, you know?" He made a forced smile to give a reason for her to stay away.
"It's okay Papa! I will protect you... so please please please let me go with you!" She sobbed.
"Hah... Alright then, I will let you join me but you have to follow and always keep an eye on me, is that good?"
"Yes!"
"And don't do anything reckless, like, playing with the stones, venturing other places, and always follow me, is that good?"
"Yes!" A joyful respond.
"Okay. Let's go!" The man made a long sigh before he decided to let Marie in his journey as a miner.
Marie's father, Francis, was a worker inside the capital. He is a miner who trades expensive stones, gems, treasures he gets from the cave and convert it into a large sum of income from a store. He used these money he gets to sustain his daughter's need and sustain their life inside the capital. At weekdays, Francis would go on full time to go to the cave of Deidre to mine some stones and minerals and any other kind of stuff and always go home late.
This is the reason of Marie's boredom, she's always stuck on their home playing with her toys and doing nothing. She doesn't have any friends to play with either, her lonely experience is what made her decide to come with her father.
"Papa! When will we meet Mom again?" Marie asked. Francis gaze became tainted as they passed by the river.
"Iā I'm not sure, maybe after a few months? She's not giving us any letters anymore so we don't know when." Francis responded with a sense of negative expression. Marie's Mother were one of the survivors and evacuees that the royal guards rescued 12 years ago when King Yama conquered verdana. Ever since that news, they haven't heard anything from her, she doesn't give any letters or messages. Francis tried to find her in the capital but there's no luck. Its only a matter of time before King Yama wakes up and rule the world again.
The two of them have passed the bridge and they saw the entrance for the cave.
"Here we go, Marie. No matter what happens, always stay with me and don't let go, is that good?" He warned her again for the 3rd time.
"Yes Papa!" Marie responded with a serious tone for this time.
Francis dropped some of his stuff and started crafting some useful tools for their venture. He sorted out a cord and wrapped it on his belly to support him from diving into the cave. After that, he locked it into his belt so the cord and rope wouldn't let go of him as soon as he dived in. He grabbed a thick piece of wood that resembles a shape of a torch and lit it up using some stones and metals. And then he picked up the pickaxe and they're ready to go.
"Let's go Marie..."
Both of them entered the cavern with ease because the entrance is quite large enough for humans to fit in, unlike Nile's shortcut, the entrance for the cave of Deirdre is not that dangerous. Nile's secret shortcut on the cave is apparently located deep inside the cave near the center.
Cave of Deirdre is known for its rich treasures, rare stones, gems, diamonds, gold and emeralds. While most miner doesn't approach this cave for quite a while, some people who lives outside the capital always go in this cave to mine.
Unlike any othe caves, the cave of Deirdre is dangerous. The reason why is because the cave's 80% content are not yet explored. Some miners tried to host an expedition last time but they ended up returning back after a week because there's only dead ends. But according to the archives the caves were not just dead ends, it's also a home for secret entrances, and monsters lurking around it.
After venturing the cave for a while, Francis started mining the stones. While he's busy mining it, Marie went on ahead and stepped further from him. Francis shifted his gaze.
"Hey Marie!" Marie shook her head, however, the rocks that she is standing at began to crumble. She slid off the peak and inadvertently fell off.
"Marie!!!" Francis yelled as he threw his pickaxe on the ground to rush in and save Marie.
Fortunately, he managed to grabbed Marie before she fell. Francis were sweating really hard and was barely hanging around to catch Marie.
"Papa!"
"Hold on tight, Marie! Urgh!" He gritted his teeth as he tries to pull of Marie from the cliff.
'This is bad! I cannot pull Marie up if there's a lot of debris on the way, we need to descend further down and hopefully reach a flat ground.' Francis have thought of an idea. Using his other arm, he reached his belt to pull the rope on his side and grabbed it. He managed to stick the metallic bar with a sharp structure on the rock to preserve his weight and for him to hold on.
He pulled the rope to connect it on his belt. As soon as he did it, he he slowly dragged his body to fall gently on the cliff while hanging on the rock and then he caught Marie to embrace her as they go deep down on the cliff.
"There it is! A flat ground." He used his leg to leap and gain momentum to reach the ground and land safely. After that, he pulled the rope again until and wrapped it on his belly.
"That was really dangerous, Marie!" Francis shouted. Marie held back for a bit and looked down.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to... Anyway, I'm glad that you're safe, Marie..." A follow up. He then patted Marie on her head to calm her down. It was definitely a scary moment. Marie responded with a nod and they went on ahead.
But as soon as they started walking, A magic circle appeared in the ground.
"What is this?" Francis asked.
The circle illuminated the whole area and without even realizing it, both of them were teleported to different areas. They were shocked by what just happened.
"Marie!"
"Papa!"
Because of that magic spell that were embedded secretly on the ground, their shouting cannot reach each other anymore.
Present time, at Nile's house.
"What's taking Nile so long? It's been 30 minutes." Uncle Martin made a confused expression as he worry about Nile. It's been a while since Nile got into the cave, it usually just takes him 10 minutes to get there and to get back in their house but this time it's different.
While goofing off, a loud roar can be heard from a distance.
"What the? What is that?" Uncle Martin began to shiver as he goes outside the house to check the noise he heard.
"It came from somewhere... Don't tell me?!" He soon realized that the noise were coming from the cave Nile was in. He rushed inside to get his coat and ran away.
'That Nile, I hope he's okay somehow, I got a bad feeling about this!'
Inside the cave, Nile and Marie were running as fast as they can. The large dragon-like creature were tailing them.
"This is really bad! It's a good thing that I know this cave! I need to lose this monster before he catch up to us." Nile said.
"Hey... Let's find my Papa!" Marie grabbed Nile's shirt as they rushed in.
"Huh?" Nile didn't get to hear her request because of the loud thud and debris falling of the cave.
"Let's find my Papa! I'm sure he can help us get out of here!" She exclaimed.
"Well, where is he and how did you get lost here?" Nile asked curiously.
"I don't know, we just stepped onto something on the ground and after that, we got separated by some magic spell." She began explaining the things she remembered a while ago.
"A magic spell? That's really odd..." Nile asked.
"So this magic spell teleported you guys on different areas of the cave, am I right about this?" He asked Marie to confirm his deduction.
"Yes! That's what happened." Marie confirmed and he was right about it.
"As expected. This cave is not just a normal cave. I'm positive that there's more into this cave that we haven't explored yet and it is trying to lead us to a dead end to avoid seeing it. You guys might have explored the cave deep enough for you to experience that strange phenomenon." Nile with his reasoning.
"Anyway, I know the structure of this cave, let's go find your dad before we lost him!" Nile exclaimed.
"Yes!" Marie responded. Nile grabbed her hands and they started running faster. The Drake's movements are causing the cavern to tremble and for the rocks and debris to fall off. It is a major problem for both Nile, Marie and Francis.
Meanwhile, outside the cave.
"Hey Martin are you sure about this?" Arthur and a bunch of royal guards have appeared on the entrance of the cave.
"Yeah I'm a hundred percent positive for this one. This cave is not just a normal cave, according to the archives I've read on the capital, it holds a lot of secret passages as well as dangerous monsters and expensive treasures. This might be the reason of why so many miners are gathering here outside every morning." Uncle Martin explained.
"Well, so what do you think we should do?ā" Arthur's question abruptly stopped when they heard a loud roar coming from the cave.
"Well isn't that obvious? We're going inside, save Nile, and hopefully find something there and solve the mystery of the cave of Deirdre..." Uncle Martin smirked as soon as he made his decision.
"Alright! Everyone! We're going inside the cave, as for the scouts, please inform the other soldiers to bring some back up and close this path for a while. Tell them that it is a major threat!" Arthur ordered his men.
"Yes sir!" They all headed in and departed.
"Still, how did Nile managed to find this entrance to this cave anyway? What is he doing while you're out?" Arthur asked.
"I don't know, but he often say something about looking for rocks and stranges gems or treasures whatsoever. It must be the reason of why he has a lot of stamina build up. Even though he doesn't have powers right now, he's doing something that might be essential." Uncle Martin explained as they enter the cave.
"I see, that's not how kids behave though. Nile must have something on his mind, like a motive to get here. I'm confident that he's not actually going in here to collect some treasures because that's a job for the miners out here. It must be an excuse." Arthur responded.
"Yeah, I'm skeptical about as well. I don't think Nile is the type of boy to collect some gems. If my reasoning is correct, he must be trying to explore this cave and its secret." Uncle Martin.
"That's a bad news!" Arthur Exclaimed.
"I know right? But knowing that kid, that clever kid, I'm sure he can plot something out of the blue." Uncle Martin gave a confident stare to Arthur.
"What do you mean?" Arthur were curious.
"Well, Nile may be powerless but, that kid... is very quick-witted." Uncle Martin said.