Snowy, Snow Crunching Cave Ores (Horik / Gritspit)

[Horik Stormpike & Argent]

-Lawrd how I hate le timestamps-
Time and Date:: Mid Morning to Noonish - December
Weather:: Light snow - cold


The air was cold as the snow fell from the heavens above, layering upon the already previously fallen snow that laid on the ground. It wasn't a lot of snow that was already on the ground so it was fairly easy to navigate through and at least the snow that was falling wasn't heavy so again, at least you could see where you're going. The only thing the surrounded the air around Horik was the crunching of the snow that followed behind him from both his boots crushing the snow beneath his feet, and the small sled that followed behind him. Leave it to Horik to go looking for ores near the mountain base while there's snow on the ground, the only reason why he bothers with it is because he'd have almost nothing else to do with his time if he didn't, better to be productive then lazy.

There was drive into what Horik did for a past-time, or at least it might as well be full-time. He seemed to be working on his way to being a great engineer, or at least that's what he figured he was becoming from stories he had been told from traders that came from the mainland. That would be quiet the feat wouldn't it? Horik Stormpike, the great engineer of Berk. He figured to impress his fellow kinsmen though would take quiet a bit, they usually weren't overly impressed with have of his inventions. The only things that Vikings liked were weapons, cause weapons are good, weapons can hurt, and who better to wield a weapon than a VIKING. If Vikings could marry their axes and swords, Horik was sure half of them would.

When he finally arrived near the base of the mountains, and to be more specific, in an area he had never been to look for materials, he glanced around. He noticed a small cave nearby, the only worry he had about it was whether a wild dragon was living in there or not, but he figured if he didn't check to make sure it would be an opportunity passed up. He dragged the sled behind him up towards the small cave entrance, letting go of the rope and slowly walking up to the entrance. Slipping back the hood off his head and looking in he whistled a few times, there was no response of any kind at first so he tried again and this time speaking instead.

"Yoohoo, any wild dragons in here, cause if there are hahahahahah get out I have stuff to look for. " He called into the cave and waited a moment and again after no response he figured as much as there weren't any dragons inside, or anything else that might maul, claw, bite, or rip him apart. Walked back to the sled and searched through the bag he brought along, keeping rags and some sort of fire starter with him. He searched the area around him, looking for a large stick of some sort to act as the handle. He walked around, kicking up snow here and there in an attempt to search for a stick. He stood still and looked around in front of him before he heard crunching footsteps behind him. At first he figured they might be dragon footsteps but he figured they were too like to belong to a dragon, but likely a human. "I swear to Odin, if someone if walking up behind me you better stop." He said, not bothering to turn around yet, but waited to see if there was a response from the unknown creeper.

[Deleted]

Gritspit was in high spirits today for the village cartographer has given him an unusually interesting job for once. Most of the tasks he was set consisted of going into caves he knew well and sketching out the layout as he understood them. This grew boring quite quickly and he had been scolded on a number of occasions for tunnels that had ended in smiley faces and crude doodles of himself doing various heroic feats like chopping a ship in half with his face.

But this time he was set something new to do. He was to go down into a group of unexplored caves to 'check for gas'. Gritspit had snickered when this was enlightened to him and when he jeeringly asked how he was suppose to do that, light a match behind him? The cartographer with a dead pan expression had said 'yes'. This put Gritspit into hysterics to which the cartographer had to throw a chalk duster at his head to get his attention back. He had no patience or love for his apprentice.

“Yes, go down into the caves and set a match, but be careful when you do so because it's very dangerous to something something something, blah blah blah....” Gritspit didn't really catch the rest, he was already grabbing his stuff and heading off. He was sure whatever the old man was babbling about he would figure out when he got there.

He was now happily trekking through the snow with his pack on his shoulders. Fidget was accompanying as he always did when cave exploration was involved. The little dragon's ability to echo locate made traversing dark spaces without a torch easier as the cartographer has said...something...about torches. 'Don't use them because...gas...something...' Oh well, it made things more interesting that way.

As he got closer he could make out the shape of the sled outside the first cave entrance. That was different...had the cartographer sent someone here to help him? That didn't seem likely, the cartographer didn't care THAT much about his well being. Maybe they were there to make sure he didn't screw up? Yeah, that sounded more likely.

He picked up the pace and approached the sled, as he did so a voice carried over to him from a hunched figure pawing at the sled.

"I swear to Odin, if someone if walking up behind me you better stop."

Gritspit didn't stop.

“Hey, why are you here? Did the old duffer send you too? Just so you know I've got this, you will just be wasting your time.” He said with a cocky swagger. He walked up to the sled and whistled.

“Wooo...that's a lot of kit. You taking ALL that in with you?” He asked in an annoying condescending tone.

[Horik Stormpike & Argent]

Horik listened to the voice behind him as it spoke, he would have figured they'd be older but he noticed the tone of voice. He turned around and looked at the younger boy that was in front of him, guessing that he was at most only a few years younger than him. He ignored the fact and quickly remembered what the newcomer had made comment to him about someone sending him here. As far as Horik knew, he was fairly certain no one had sent him here, unless it was the gods works of course but aside the point.

"Eh, don't be cocky, that's what'll get you killed in the future." Horik commented as he glanced around the area for a quick moment, "No. No 'old duffer' sent me here, and of course I'm not taking ALL of that in with me." As Horik spoke he continued to examine the boy and his dragon, he had seen the pair around the village before but of course never came into contact before, or at least that he could remember.

Adjusting the almost fur poncho like cloak on his shoulders Horik glanced back to the cave, "Two things. Number one, Why are you here, seem a little young to be wandering the big scary forests by yourself." Horik grinned at his comment and held up two gloved fingers, "And two, what's your names, seeing as how we obviously don't know each other." The inventor looked between Gritspit and Fidget as he asked the second question, raising an eyebrow as he awaited a response.

[Deleted]

“HAH!...scary forest he says.” He boy cawed obnoxiously to his dragon. “I'm here on official cartographer business. This cave has...gas.” and Gritspit couldn't help snickering like a little kid to hear himself say it. “...and I'm here to check it out.”.

He then pulled his rig out of his pack. He began by attaching a harness to Fidget who sat there scratching himself while he did so. He then proceeded to strap himself into a harness and connect himself to Fidget via a rope and carabiner set-up. He gave a couple of good tugs to check he was secure with Fidget squawking in protest at being yanked about.

“Also the name's Gritspit and this is Fidget.” He said, gesturing to the little dragon now glaring moodily at his handler.

“...and what about you? What's your name and why are you here?” He said continuing to unpack his bag. He took a helmet out of his pack. For the most part it looked like a typical Viking helmet accept he had none of the decorative horns. In their place there was a fist-sized concave disk polished to a mirror shine. In front of that was a small plinth which sat a half-burned wax candle.

He took out his flint and a wooden taper. He was about to light the taper when he remembered that he was not ment to use a torch and hurridly crammed them back in his bag.

[Horik Stormpike & Argent]

Once he finally got a name and what occupation Gritspit had at the moment helped Horik get the idea on who he was. He had heard the name before, but had obviously never been able to put a face to it. He watched curiously as the boy began putting together a harness set, curiosity had Horik but he waved it off for now when he was asked the same questions in return.

"Mhmm... Names Horik Stormpike, and if I had my lazy sod of a nightmare here, I'd introduce you to him too but he ignored me and stayed home to sleep some more." Horik stated to finish off the first part of the questions. It was normal for Argent to sit at home and sleep, he was a fairly lazy nightmare, but it's not like it bothered Horik much. "and to answer the second part of your question, I'm here looking for ores to use for, as some villagers would put it, 'Monstrosities of unnatural metal pieces that make, to us, useless contraptions.'" Horik added in as he changed his tone of voice to imitate a random villager, he sighed to himself and looked into the cave. "Gas eh?"

Horik walked up to the entrance of the cave and glanced in, not being able to see very far in due to the lack of light, and now with the idea that there's gas inside it was not only impossible to light the way but also dangerous due to the gases. "My suggestion for the gas is chuck a torch in there and if it's ignitable gas, it'll ignite. Sure it might rock the island depending on the side of the cave system but my point still stands." Horik suggested, not really seriously meaning it although it would be a possible solution to the gas issue now present.

He glanced over to Fidget and looked at the dragon, "So seeing as how you're the brains of the operation between the two of ya, what are you and muscle arms going to do over here?" He gave a slight bump his fist against the dragons arm (wing) and smirked as she looked over to Gritspit.

[Deleted]

The little dragon puffed out his chest with pride at the remark, having no concept of human sarcasm.

“Well that's easy.” Gritspit scoffed. “Fidget here will be my eyes as he can see in the dark...sort of.” Fidget chureeped his confirmation of that assessment.

“...and I will follow him. We will throw these tapers...” He pulled one of the tapers out of it's pouch and made the action of striking a flint at the end. “...then toss it into the cave...” and he pretended to toss the taper “...and BOOM!” he threw his arms wide to simulate the explosion, his face disturbingly delighted at that prospect.

“Your probably worried about me but don't be.” He continued with a dismissive air. “I'm going to be well protected.” and he rapped on the steel helmet on his head. “When the gas has exploded I will just light the candle and this doo-hicky...” and he pointed to the candle and mirror on the fringe of his helmet. “...will light the way and I can check out the rest of the cave out.”

Of course this was a very ignorant view of the tast at hand as Gritspit had no concept that gas formed in pockets and one 'boom' might not be enough.

He marched over to the mouth of the cave with all the confidence in the world, dragging his dragon with him.

“Like I said, I know what I'm doing!” He finished with an arrogant smirk and nudged Fidget with the toe of his boot. The little dragon gave an uncertain chirp and cautiously stuck his head into the darkness, he's nose twitching furiously.

[Horik Stormpike & Argent]

Horik smirked as Gritspit went along and explained on how he was going to go about the gas and what would happen, or at least he made do with hand visuals. The minor things had completely slipped his mind, for example he didn't even notice the steel helmet was more then a helmet and that's with a grin came across his face as he knocked on the steel helmet, "That doo-hicky is one of my inventions. I didn't actually think someone would go about and use it. Guess I was wrong."

Gritspit reminded Horik of himself in some ways, he too would be cocky, arrogant, and a little on the side of the fact that he knew what he was doing 99.99 percent of the time. He watched as the pair cautiously started at the cave, Horik sat back and watched in curiosity as they started. While his mind wasn't occupied, he started to wonder about how the gas would have appeared in the first place. Naturally only two options had popped into his head, either the gas was from a dragon that seemed to have forgot to turn it's other head off, or from deeper sources from within the earth. The second option also lead to the thoughts about how deep the cave could actually be if that was the case, whether the entry ways the gases took were small cracks in the ground or large vents.

"Try not to trip and fall, if you get blown up then not only are you dead, but I don't get any of the possible ores that are inside." Horik added in as he sat back and chuckled quietly to himself. The snow was sticking to his cloak and he made small attempts to pat some of it off just for something to do, likewise with most of his clothing. The cold air swept by in continuous bursts of energy as the snow followed in pursuit of it. With the gray skies overhead, this was kind of weather that Horik loved the most.

[Deleted]

Gritspit snorted in repudiation of the remark, as if a guy like him had made his helmet. The cartographer had entrusted him with this special cartography-ing-device as a sign of trust...it's not as if he would just just parcelled off anyone's half-cocked contraptions to him...would he? Gritspit pushed that vexing thought to one side with another snort and tried to egg his dragon to move faster.

Fidget on the other hand was not as eager to proceed as Gritspit. In fact the little dragon had already stopped only a couple of yards into the cave.

“C'mon Fidge! Lets get moving!” prompted Gritspit but Fidget just flattened his ears, looked at Gritspit and keened.

Gritspit hadn't known his dragon to be so apprehensive in the past but instead of heeding his dragons subtle warning he huffed in frustration and took the lead. “Fine then, I'll go first if you are going to turn rabbit on me.” growled Gritspit in annoyance and marched on ahead. Behind him Fidget was tugging frantically on the cord that joined them together but his little claws just couldn't grip the rock. Finally out of desperation he lunged at a stalagmite sprouting out of the ground and clung onto it for grim life.

The sudden halt nearly knocked Gritspit off his feet and he whirled around and glared at his dragon. He clenched his fists around the cord and began to tug. “We. Are. Going. In. This. Cave.” He ground out, each word punctuated with a grunt of effort as he tried to drag the keening dragon away from the rock.

Suddenly there was the 'click click' sound of a dragon sparking and the 'whoooshhh' of Fidget igniting his cutting flame. With one swift action Fidget thrust his head forward and cut the cord clean way. After Gritspit tumbled backwards, Fidget unfurled his wings and flapped in a manic swoop back to the entrance of the cave. There he sat to the snow of the cave mouth looking back at Gritspit and keening.

”Bad air, sick earth, bad air, sick earth...” Chimed the dragon into the echoing darkness which Gritspit interpreted as 'shureep, kikee, shureep, kikee'.

With no concept of his dragon's distress, Gritspit stormed towards his defiant reptile with a thunderous look on his face.

[Horik Stormpike & Argent]

Horik watched on, at first in curiosity then slowly in concern between the two. He observed at how Fidget was tugging at the cord before eventually just cutting it and soon to follow was Gritspit's seemingly angry expressions. He raised an eyebrow as he quickly got between the two of them and put his hands on Gritspits shoulders and looked at him, "Easy there, no need to get angry at the dragon." Horik obviously had no idea whether this was something that happened a lot or if it was just one of those off times, but regardless Horik didn't want them attacking each other or whatever might of followed along.


Glancing from Gritspit to Fidget behind him, Horik promptly turned his gaze to the cave, "Fidget has a lot better of an understanding on how dangerous the air could be without us even thinking about it." He took his hands away from Gritspits shoulders now and put them to his sides, still keeping his place between the two of them just for safe measures, again Horik had no idea what the outcome could be so it was better safe than sorry for him. "Maybe we should just go with the, originally non-serious comment, I made earlier about just throwing in a flaming ball of what ever and letting the gas blow on its own that way."

[Deleted]

Gritspit exhaled in exasperation as the older man restrained him. He was right, his little dragon probably didn't deserve his anger but he had been infuriated with such a show of cowardice. He knew Fidget often lost his nerve when he found he was outmatched, but he would always jump in and try in the first place. That was what he prided in his smaller-than-average dragon. Despite his size he had guts. Gritspit was seeing none of that now. To see his dragon cowering away and at a cave of all things, something they ventured into a lot, grated on him.

“Fine...Fine, we'll do it your way.” He said, peeling his eyes away from his dragon and giving Horik a level stare. The arrogant self-assured boy had gone, leaving only an injured pride that needed repairing.

He pulled out his flint and a taper from his pack. He balled a handful of snow around one end of the taper to give it weight and deftly lit the other end with the flint. In some ways he was hoping the air would ignite when he threw the taper. That would prove that his dragon's shameful behaviour had been for a reason. On the other hand it would also prove this stranger right and the thought of that irked him.

He draw his arm back and hurled the taper far into the cave. In was a good throw for it passed the point the two had backtracked and even rolled a little deeper into the darkness. It flickered there for a moment then went out.

...there was no explosion.

Gritspit watched the darkness where the little flicker of light had been for a little while longer then slowly turned his eyes to his dragon.

His dragon was still crouched low to the ground, his belly buried in the snow, his ears pinned to his skull. Fidget looked up at Gritspit then with deep and fearful eyes. Gritspit's rage didn't re-kindle. Now he had been forced to think clearly he could see how genuinely worried his dragon was. He was still deeply frustrated though.

“So...” He said slowly, looking back to the cave. “...nothing happened”.

Fidget cringed in the snow. He knew nothing would happen. After all, if his cutting torch had not ignited the air, why would the humans think that little lick of flame would? No, what Fidget knew was down there would not be so easily expelled. Generation upon generation of his cave dwelling ancestors and passed on their death-fearing instinct onto the next brood to the point they had been honed to a fine edge. Human noses where dull. Human ears where shallow. How could they sense what he was sensing? The air hissed, the earth hummed. It was faint, like the rustle of a snow flake as it touch the ground...but to his draconic ears it was there.

“Well I'm still going in.” Said Gritspit at last. “If Fidget doesn't want to come I won't force him but I'm still going.” He said adamantly. He needed to redeem himself after that shameful display but a tiny twist of fear had began in the pit of his stomach. He had never before gone into a new cave without Fidget by his side.

Not having to worry about igniting gas, he lit the candle on his helmet.  The curved edge of the mirror reflecting the otherwise defused light of the candle into a directed beam that shone in the direction Gritspit was looking. Gritspit has to admit, it was a pretty good invention.

“You said you wanted to mine ore didn't you?” Asked Gritspit pointedly at Horik. “So are you coming?”

[Horik Stormpike & Argent]

Confused was what Horik was thinking when the flame that was thrown into the cave did not ignite, it was possible that the gas, if there was gas, in the cave just wasn't flammable but that still wasn't any means on not to worry about the possible presence of the invisible threat. Now with the knowledge that fire wouldn't be an issue, Horik quickly threw together his torch that he was previously in the works of making. He pull off a thick branch of a low hanging tree and promptly snapped it in other areas to make it more useable. He wrapped the cloth around the top of the torch handle and walked back to his sled, grabbing a small metal can from it. He slipped the leather cap off the top and poured the liquid onto the balled up cloth at the end, putting the cap back on and back in the sled after use.

" Now, just because its not flammable, doesn't mean we shouldn't be anymore cautious than before. If you start to feel dizzy, lightheaded, sick to your stomach, or feel like your about to pass out, yell so the other will know." Horik spoke in precaution, because if there was one thing he wanted more than to make new inventions, it was saving his own hide and if possible others too. He walked over to Fidget and held the torch end down to the dragon, "Do you mind lighting it?" He asked curiously before Fidget lit it up for him, he smiled and nodded, "Thanks."

Grabbing the small pickaxe that was tucked away in the sled, Horik walked up to the wave entrance and made his way in with Gritspit slowly, still of course being cautious. The entrance of the cave was small, but it was large enough to at least be comfortable and how the cave seemed to extend into the darkness, the walls also seemed to get wider and wider apart, "I'm not sure why, but I have always felt that there's a massive cavern in the mountain somewhere, just a hunch of curiosity."

His attention was grabbed when the light from the torch was reflected off the nearby wall. He raised his eyebrow and walked closer to the wall, peering at the spot where the light shone back at him. He took the small pick and take a few picks at the stony surface, the loud clashing noise of the metal against rock rang out into the depths of the cave, seeming to echo as it went on. Ignoring this for the time being and watching as a chunk of rock fell from its spot in the wall and landed on the ground. Horik bent down and examined the rock chunked and was surprised at it, "Half this rock is solid metal already, a soft metal but metal. That's more than a little strange to occur naturally in nature." He glanced over to Gritspit who wasn't too far from him, watching what he was doing at the moment.

[Deleted]

Gritspit surreptitiously watched Horik out of the corner of his eyes while he continued his route into the cave. When the other man walked over to examine a wall, Gritspit couldn't help but walk over and see what had interested him so.

As Horik chipped away at the rock, Gritspit also plucked a small piece of glistening stone and turned it over in his palm, examining it by his torch light.

"Half this rock is solid metal already, a soft metal but metal. That's more than a little strange to occur naturally in nature."

“So what could have made it?” He asked for although Gritspit encountered different minerals on a regular basis in his work, he didn't really know much about this sort of thing. “...And is it worth anything?” He also couldn't help asking this as there were stories a-plenty of people discovering gold veins in the dark earth.

Just as that thought was coming to him he suddenly got a whiff of something unpleasant. It was only there for a moment but is was a nose-curling smell of rancid eggs. Gritspit then made a look of accusation towards Horik, as he thought the the other man had been the source of the rank odour. He had to admit to himself that if he was the cause then he had done a very good job of not showing it.

In the distance just out of Gritspit's earshot there was a dripping sound followed by a faint hiiisssss.

((OOC – If you want me to tell you want I'm leading up to I'm happy to elaborate. If you want it to be a surprise then I'll keep going ;p ))

[Horik Stormpike & Argent]

Horik sat by as he continued to examine the strange occurring metal. He held a small sample in his hand as he pressed his fingers against it, scratched it with his nail and just over all taking a decent look at the object. He glanced over to Gritspit when he asked what could have made it and if it was worth anything. Horik gave a shrug of his shoulders and looked back to the rock, "I'm not entirely sure what could of made this. My first guess would either be a dragon just torched the rock and this was the outcome, or it was, in a similar matter, flash burned. The metal is more like a layer on this rock, not entirely metal, half and half really. " He stopped for a moment and slipped the small rock into his pocket, "Value as far as usability, I'm not a hundred percent on that, it's far to soft to be used in weapons, but for something like coins and jewellery it might be usable. Could be silver, but again, its a little soft to be silver."


As soon as he stopped talking he took a breather, probably not the best thing to do granted that what ever the gas was, or possibly something else around the cave, it didn't smell very good. Horik cringed his face a bit as he caught a whiff of the smell and looked around, "What is that putrid smell.." He muttered as he looked down into the darkness of the cave and looking back to Gritspit with his eyebrow raised, almost asking if he knew anything about it by his facial expression.


((Haha, yea sure! Tell me what it is cause now I'm curious that you mention it xD))

[Deleted]

Gritspit raised his eyebrows at Horik. “I thought it was you.” He said unabashed. “Although that was far too impressive to come out of any man.” He continued, getting to his feet and casually making his way along the cavern again. “The last time I smelt something that potent it came out the back-side of a Gronkle after it had eaten a lump of brimstone.” wrinkling his nose at the unpleasant memory.

He then noticed a pale moon-like glow hanging in the air in front of him and realised it was the light of his torch bouncing off a stone face. It appeared that the cave had come to an end. However as he got closer he noticed that in fact it extended further through a crack above the floor. The crack itself was just about high enough to crawl through and run parallel to the floor a man's length in both directions.

He tried to direct his beam down the length of the crack but his little candle was not powerful enough to reach the other end of that black abyss. He then craned his neck around.. “Hey Fidget, could you ju...” He remembered he didn't have his little dragon with him then. If he had, Fidget could have bounced a sound wave down the crack and told him if it went far or if it opened out again on the other side. He made a sign of regret and looked around for Horik.

“So what do you think? Technically I'm suppose to map these sorts of places out and it wouldn't be thorough if I didn't take a look.” He was still kneeling down shining his light into that narrow darkness. As he did so his light twinkled off something in the distance. It was followed by a drip and a faint hiissss. He tilted his head up so the light ran the length of the low ceiling. All along the ceiling there were cracks that spanned as far at Gritspit's light was shine. A twinkle of liquid danced in front of the light for a moment, falling from a thread of that black spider's web the short distance to the floor below. The floor, Gritspit then noticed was pocked like a shallow honeycomb.

“Never seen that before...” He mumbled under his breath and lowered himself to crawl a little distance into the crack for a better look. There was another faint hiss and he caught a whiff of bad eggs. With that he pulled the shoulder of his jacket over his nose and move onwards.

((OOC: Where there has been volcanic activity quite often sulphuric lakes are formed. These are highly corrosive and where they begin to devolve the area around them they release sulphur dioxide which is an non-flammable gas that smells a little like farts. That gas if inhaled in a large amount can melt you from the inside-out. Also Brimstone is another word for sulphur.))

[Curtisboy]

Horik rolled his eyes unamusingly when Gritspit made comment about how he thought the stench had originated from him. When he was going to say something back when Gritspit continued on and made comment about a gronckle eating brimstone, he shrugged it off for the time being but kept it at the back of his head incase it led to something else. He pulled up the makeshift scarf he had around his neck previously and covered his face from his nose down and continued to look around.

The torch continued to illuminate the area around him as he searched around, when again he heard Gritspit speak again but this time he heard the boy comment about something he had never seen before. This peaked Horik curiosity as he made his way carefully over to where Grit was before he crawled away. He crouched down and looked at the miniscule pool of liquid in the small holes that looked like they were dug out by someone before, but Horik knew someone wouldn't bother with that unless they were crazy. He thought to himself for a moment and looked at the bottom of his torch and chipped off a small piece of bark that seemed to have been holding onto dear life from the broken stake in his hands.

Carefully taking the end of the bark piece and dipping it into the small hole, he left it there for a moment before a quiet hiss occurred from it. He furrowed his eyebrows as he heard the hissing and gripped the bark piece, pulling it out and examining it under the torch light. His face turned from questioning curiosity to concern as he saw the bark piece slowly eaten away by whatever the liquid was, but he had to assume it was some sort of acid based liquid.
"Wait... Gripspit, you said that this same smell came from a gronckle after it ate brimstone?" He asked again as he looked to Gritspit who hadn't gotten too far ahead of him before Horik questioned. "Uh... I' fairly certain this isn't cave water that's dropping to the ground then." He commented as he held up the eaten away piece of bark in the torch light for the younger one to see, "Grit." He commented to get the boys attention to him.