2024 NanoWrimo Story

5th locket piece amd hideout

After riding their horses for about a half day, they came to where the old mind shaft was believed to be. They were at an old abandoned mining town. The mine was believed to be somewhere nearby. Could they find clues in the empty and decaying buildings that would tell them where to find it? Jacob decided to make sure everyone went in pairs to keep anyone from getting kidnapped like he had in the last abandoned town they had visited.

The town was searched carefully. They found an area map in one of the buildings. After some close studying of it, they discovered the entrance to the mine was in the ground hidden in a group of trees about a half mile from the town.

As they rode toward the small wooded area to find the mine entrance, they discussed making the abandoned town their hideout at least temporarily. Also, they would need more recruits before the war began and would need to train them to fight. They discussed these and other plans as they rode along.

As they made it to the wooded area, a large 3 headed dog appeared. As a group, they were able to over power it easily. Jacob assumed this was the guardian of the next locket piece.

After looking around the woods, they found the mine entrance covered by vines and some overgrowth. They entered it carefully with lanterns lit. There appeared to be only one path through the mine. Slowly, they made their way deeper and deaper into the mine. It took about an hour to walk to the end of the mine shaft. Here the found a heap of coal and went through it using shovels that had been left behind. At the bottom of the pile of coal, they found a small box. Upon opening the small box, they found the other half of King Richard's picture and the next clue.

Are you looking for the next clue?
Don't let it allude you.
At the bottom of the deep blue lake,
The next piece ye shall find and take.

The group began to carefully and quietly make their way back out of the mine. Timothy let out a very loud sneeze and the ceiling caved in. They began digging frantically at the pile of ruin in front of them. They took turns digging until the opening was large enough for them to crawl through. One by one they made their way through the crawl space until they were all out on the other side. Jacob looked at Timothy, "Try not to do that again." Timothy shook his head in agreement. They continued to make their way out of the mine and back into the woods.

Once they were all back into the abandoned town, they began work to turn it into their hide out. Once night time came, they all made beds for themselves and fell asleep.

The following morning, they got up and began cleaning out the abandoned buildings and repairing what they could from supplies that were left behind. By that evening, they had a fairly good set up. No one would have to sleep out in the open now. They all had shelter.

The next day it was raining and they all decided to take a much needed rest. It was determined they would go hunting for the next locket piece when the rain stopped on the following day.

By the next morning the rain had stopped and the sun had risen. Only half the group went this time, about 10 of them. The rest of the group stayed at the camp and was to come up with a way to recruit people to their cause. They had hoped to have more people at camp and training. Mike would stay behind to lead that effort while Jacob let the group to find the rest of the locket. It would be about a day's ride to the lake.