The pickaxe bit into the stone again—clink, clink, clink—each strike sending a little shiver up my arms. I was deep in the Minoc mines, the air thick with the smell of wet rock and iron, my lantern flickering low on the wall. Forty strikes, maybe more, and I’d lost count. My shoulders burned, but I kept at it. There’s a rhythm to it, once you find it, like breathing or hammering steel on the anvil. You stop thinking, just feel the rock give way, grain by grain. And then—clunk—a solid chunk of ore broke free, dark and heavy in my palm. I tossed it into the pack with the others, nearly fifty ingots now weighing me down, and grinned. That sound—the clean break of stone yielding—never gets old.
I hauled myself out just as the sun dipped behind the hills, the forge at the edge of town glowing like a promise. Firelight spilled out the door, warm as a welcome. I dumped the ore into the smelter’s maw, watching the flames lick at the metal, turning stone into something worth carrying. Nine times I fed it, until the ingots cooled in neat little rows. The tongs slipped once—damn thing warped from heat—and I burned my knuckle on the lip of the mold. Hissed like a kettle, I did, but didn’t drop it. That’s the thing folks don’t talk about: it’s not just strength, it’s patience. One jerk, one rush, and you ruin good iron or worse, your hand.
Sat on the step outside the blacksmith’s for a spell, watching the stars come out over the rooftops. The weight in my pack wasn’t just iron—it was choice. Four trips to the bank already, gold stacking slow but steady. Enough to buy better tools, maybe even rent a stall in the market. But I kept thinking of that warped tongs, how it bent under heat I should’ve seen coming. Maybe I rush too much. Maybe I’m still chasing the first strike, the first clink of ore, like it’s the only thing that proves I’m building something.
Come morning, I’ll check the ore veins near the old tunnel—heard they’re rich this week. But first, I’m forging a new pair of tongs. Thick hycu steel, double riveted. Do it slow. Do it right.<|im_end|>
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