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Jane, Defender of Decura Chapter 28

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Depressing Mine

It didn't take long for the Oathbound to recognize Erik as the same dwarf who led the failed rebellion against emperor Vanrig the other day. Without wasting a moment, the Oathbound soldiers disarmed Erik and his companions and locked them up in chains before escorting them through the streets.

Jane couldn't help but smile. She knew that if she just stopped walking, everyone chained to her would be forced to do the same. "It's like a bunch of toddlers are pulling me along" she thought while staring down at the steel cuffs on her wrists. "If I move my hands too much I might break out of these. They feel so fragile I'd swear they were made of styrofoam."

The sound of Nate sighing interrupted Jane's thoughts and she looked back at her depressed friend. "You ok Nate?" she asked. Nate didn't answer and stared down at his chained hands. His depressed expression disappeared a little when Jane gently bumped him with her hip. "Don't worry" she said with a smile. "You'll have your bow back before you know it."

"I hope you're right" mumbled Nate. "I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I lost the bow Mom helped me make..."

After what seemed like an hour of marching past crowd after crowd of Bhaldural's curious citizens, Jane and her friends found themselves standing before a massive gaping hole in the cavern's rocky wall. "More already?" asked one of the nearby guards. "Doesn't the emperor realize we have enough people working down here? It's starting to get hard to keep track of them all."

The Oathbound standing in front of Jane shrugged. "The emperor told us to bring any remaining rebels here" he said before pointing to Erik. "I saw this guy at the head of the mob the other day. Can you believe he was foolish enough to be walking out in the street?"

The guard looked at all four of the prisoners and nodded. "They do look like a bunch idiots" he chuckled causing one of Jane's eyes to twitch. "Especially the tall one."

"Stay calm..." growled Jane's mind as she clenched her teeth. "You can smack him later..."

Suddenly Jane felt a pair of hands begin to rub up and down her long hair. "Shh" whispered Nate while trying not to giggle. "Easy girl, easy."

After taking a deep breath, Jane turned enough so Nate could see her calm smile. "Keep that up and I'll wear your tail as a scarf" she whispered, causing Nate to let out a nervous chuckle before removing his hands from her hair.

"Alright, we'll take them off of your hands" said the guard after taking the chain from the Oathbound. "I'll make sure they get the darkest cell."

The Oathbound nodded and ordered his team back to their posts. Once they were out of sight, the guard holding the chain winked at Erik. "Is tonight the night?" he asked as quietly as possible. When Erik nodded, the guard smirked and turned back toward the huge entrance to the mines. "Alright traitors, come this way!" he yelled while pulling on the chain. "You're all going away for a long time!"

As Jane walked further into the well-lit mines, she was surprised when the huge tunnel led to an even larger cavern, its walls covered in defeated looking miners. The first thing to catch Jane's eye was the gaping chasm in the center of the cavern that nearly stretched from one end to the other. After peering into the chasm, Jane felt light-headed when she realized it was both wide and deep enough to fit her earlier gigantic size.

Seeing the fresh meat, one of the mine's guards waved at Jane from across the chasm. "Get a good look human!" he shouted. "You'll be spending a lot of time down there!" Several other guards quickly joined in on the taunting, while many others tried their best to ignore them.

"Just ignore them" whispered the guard holding the chain. "They're always like that with new prisoners."

"Any chance you've seen an old dwarf among the miners?" William asked quietly. "Grey beard, bald, wears glasses?"

"He's probably down in one of the cells" answered the guard. "I'll keep an eye out for him after I take you down there."

The guard brought Jane and her friends to a staircase carved into the chasm's wall, easily wide enough for ten people to walk down at once. "I'll speak to the other guards again Erik" he whispered after looking around to ensure no other guards were close. "I know for certain that it's really only the captains and their close associates who are loyal to Vanrig."

"That can't be more than a quarter of the soldiers down here correct?" Erik asked.

"Exactly" replied the guard. "When you give the signal, most of us will free as many people as we can. Then we can charge out of here together, hopefully before too many Oathbound can arrive."

"What about weapons?" asked William

"Can you get me my bow and arrows back?" grumbled Nate.

A harsh shout echoed throughout the cavern before the guard could answer. "Stop standing around and get those miners to their cells!" shouted a nearby guard captain.

The guard stood as straight as possible. "Yes sir!" he yelled before quickly leading Jane and her friends down the stairway. "Mind the echo" he whispered after taking his first step. "We'll talk more later."

All across the chasm's walls were more depressed miners standing atop wooden platforms, their hard word ethic encouraged by the fierce stares of the guards.

Descending the large spiral staircase took awhile, but Jane and her friends eventually reached the bottom. "Down there scum!" growled the guard when he noticed a captain glaring at him.

Jane spotted a crudely carved tunnel that unlike the rest of the mine, was poorly lit with torches, half of which weren't even burning. Several of the guards by its entrance quickly darted over and surrounded Jane, in awe of her impressive stature. "Damn... Look at this one" said one of the guards before letting out a chuckle. "That's a lot of woman."

"Not so tough now are you?" asked another of the guards who Jane recognized as the lewd dwarf from the arm wrestling contest. When Jane didn't answer the guard crossed his arms. "What? Are you going to cry?" he asked before grinning.

"How's your shoulder?" Jane asked before giving the cocky dwarf a smirk, causing Nate and William to snicker under their breath.

The lewd guard raised his hand but was quickly stopped by another of the guards. "Relax" he said before giving Erik a subtle wink. "There'll be plenty of time to show her whose in charge later." Satisfied, the lewd dwarf lowered his arm and gave Jane a smug smile.

"Come on!" growled the guard holding the chain before leading Jane and her friends into the tunnel. "Your cells are down here."

As she was being led down the tunnel, Jane couldn't keep her smirk. Through each of the small barred windows she could see the small prison cells were simply chiseled into the wall. All they seemed to contain were a bucket and several poorly made straw mats. The many prisoners within were slumped down usually crying or mumbling to themselves. "No one should be treated like that..." she thought while keeping an eye out for Handaaf.

The guard pulled a silver key from his belt and unlocked some of the chains binding Jane's friends before doing the same to one of the cell doors that had been built into the stone wall. "Sorry about the cell's cleanliness" whispered the guard while motioning Erik and William to enter. "I'll go speak to the other guards right away Erik. We should be ready in six to seven hours." Erik nodded as the guard closed the door and unlocked a second cell. "Reyn, tall girl. You two are in this one. Come on." Jane and Nate quickly complied and entered their cell after their chains were removed.

After locking Jane and Nate up, Erik gave the guard a quick nod. "Do it as soon as you're ready" he whispered, causing the guard to nod back before walking away.

"I hope he comes back soon" grumbled Nate while looking where his quiver used to be.

"I'm sure he will" assured Jane before giving her friend's orange hair and fox ears a gentle rub. "Let's just sit back and relax for now little guy."

As Nate gave Jane a scowl and swatted her hand away, the sound of William clearing his throat echoed into their cell. "This isn't a break miss Jane" he growled. "Don't think you can mess around just because we're sitting in prison."

Jane gasped. "You don't mean..."

"We'll start with two hundred push-ups with one hand" ordered William. "Once you're done with that, do another two hundred with the other hand."

"But-" was all Jane could say before William shouted "Now!"

"Yes sir..." mumbled the pouting Jane before dropping to the ground. Wanting to make sure his friend got the most out of her workout, Nate quickly sat on Jane's back.

"If it makes you feel better, I'm doing it too" lied William while trying to find the most comfy part of the rocky ground to sit.

The next hour was one of the slowest and toughest Jane had ever experienced outside of her retail job at Foodland. "Still prefer this to standing behind that register..." she thought as sweat poured down her motionless body.

"Are you ok Jane?" Nate asked while listening to Jane's heavy breathing. Jane answered with a thumbs up while emitting a slow groan. "How about you William? I bet you're just as exhausted."

William would have answered if he wasn't fast asleep.

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He awoke several hours later to the sound of a light thumping on the iron door of his cell.

"Hey, hey" whispered a voice from across the hall. "Erik, is that you in there?"

Erik quickly shot up and darted toward the door. After peeking through the small barred hole, Erik spotted a familiar dwarf sporting an orange beard identical to his in the cell across from his. "Vult? Is it really you?" he asked, struggling to keep his voice down.

"It is me brother" answered Vult with tears of joy running down his face. "I'm glad to see you're alive. I heard from the other prisoners what happened at Voldahr's bridge and I feared the worst..."

A warm smile appeared on Erik's face. "It's like I said before, I'm not going to stop until I get you out of here" he whispered.

"Hey! Shut up in there!" snapped a passing guard after banging Vult's cell door. "Or I'll make your next mining shift twice as long!"

As Erik and Vult retreated back into their respective cells, William stretched out his arms and yawned. "So you've got a brother in here" he whispered. "That's why you tried to overthrow Vanrig the other day."

Erik nodded. "The resistance was always planning to do that eventually" he mumbled. "However, when Vult was arrested for merely forgetting to refer to Vanrig as the emperor, I hastened the plan along." Erik's pride had it difficult for him to continued whispering. "I spoke to a lot of people. Found out plenty of the city guard hated Vanrig just as much as us too."

"That seems reckless" noted William. "You risked thousands of lives for a sibling?"

"You'd understand if you had a brother" Erik quietly growled.

William sighed and looked down at his lap. "I did have a brother once" he thought while remembering his younger days on the battlefield, fighting side by side with his only blood relative.

Erik was about to ask why William suddenly seemed so down but was cut off by a loud banging. "Didn't you hear me before?" barked the guard while staring into the cell. "I said shut up! Don't make me come in there!"

Suddenly, shouting and loud thugs echoed through the stone hall, drawing the guard's attention back toward the tunnel's entrance. As every prisoner that could walk tried to peek through the small window in their door, the guard drew his blade and ran toward the noise.

"Hey! What's going on out here?!?" he yelled. "What are you all-" The guard's shouting suddenly ceased and for a second there was complete silence. What followed was the sound of many footsteps and eventually the guard that originally brought Jane and her friends down here reappeared, only this time with several dozen other defecting guards with him.

"About time" snickered Erik as he and William were released.

Another guard ran to Jane's cell but Nate quickly shooed him away. "Jane's got this" he said before giving his friend a thumbs up.

A big smile appeared on Jane's face and after giving her fingers a crack, knocked the steel door off its hinges with a single punch.

Nate gave Jane a slow applause before quickly speeding it up when one of the dwarfs brought him his bow and quiver. "Oh I missed you" he said before checking to see if his dad's arrow was still in his quiver.

"The Oathbound at the nearby barracks were incredibly understaffed" said the guard. "The handful of them had no choice but to surrender all their collected weapons when they saw how many of us they faced."

After being handed an axe, Erik raised it high into the air. "Open all the cells" he cheered. "We're getting everyone out of here. Make sure to help those who can't walk."

An excited smile appeared on Jane's face as she watched all the defecting guards begin to open all the cells. Wanting to help, Jane grabbed the nearest door and tore it off. "Hello in there" she said to the lone dwarf sitting in the dark. "My name's Jane. Come on, let's go."

"Is that really you Jane?" asked the elderly dwarf. When Jane nodded, the prisoner sprung to life and wrapped himself around Jane's leg. "My savior!" cheered a blushing Handaaf.

Jane looked down at the old dwarf with a blank stare, eventually turning it back toward Nate and William. "I found Handaaf" she said while fighting the urge to hit an old man.

TO BE CONTINUED....
Everyone is brought deep within Bhaldural's mines. Although not for long...

Previous Chapter
Jane, Defender of Decura Chapter 27Unforgivable Crime
The masked man continued to walk down the brazier lit halls of Voldahr, escorted by his silent golem guardian. As he passed yet another giant portrait of Vanrig's smug face, the masked man sighed and struggled not to tear it down. "Getting pretty sick of seeing this emperor's face" he thought. "The second I get my Jaelium, I'm heading back to my lab and never coming back. When I need more Jaelium, I'll tell Vanrig to send it right too me."
After cracking his neck, the masked man and his golem stared out one of the citadel's windows. "I'll miss the view though..." he thought while looking down at the Bhaldural cityscape.
"Well hello there mister faceless" cackled an elderly voice further up the hall where the brazier's had gone out. "Nice to see you again. Where have you been these past few weeks? I've been looking for you."
The masked man turned and spotted a robed old woman, mostly concealed by the dim hallway. "Do I know you?" he asked.
"Now how could you fo


Next Chapter
Jane, Defender of Decura Chapter 29Underground Confrontation
Vanrig's gruff laughter echoed throughout Voldahr's throne room. Despite the room being filled with several dozen Oathbound, not a single one cared to share in their emperor's jolly cackling. There was however one man standing at the base of the stairway leading to the throne, forcing himself to laugh along while giving his stone guardian's shoulder a slap.
"So the rebels just surrendered right away?" Welkin asked while scratching his mask. "They didn't even try to resist?"
A big smirk appeared on Vanrig's face as he stared down at the silver ring on his finger. "How could they against my awesome power?" he asked. "I doubt an army could even scratch my pet."
"You'd be correct in assuming that" chuckled Hazel, who had assumed her 'Crone' disguise before returning to the emperor's side. "Sangius is a beast far beyond the combat abilities of the races of Decura and that was before I enhanced him."
Vanrig raised an eyebrow "Enhanced him? How?"
"I used a sim
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I don't blame Handaaf at all😆😆