by Eric Vall
“What can I say,” I responded with a shrug, “I have high standards. Now, come on, I want to check out my new office!”
It was exactly like I had predicted.
Past the entrance, the rest of the mine was intact. It extended nearly a mile into the earth, and I knew there was still a wealth of metal to be found in the dirt because my magic was practically humming beneath my skin.
“Oh, hell yeah,” I murmured as the tunnel widened into a large cavern. This was obviously where the last mining operation had been centered because there were still numerous wheelbarrows scattered about, and there were even torches stationed at intervals along the walls. They were all cold and dead now, but that would be easily rectified.
“Mason, look,” Cayla said, and I turned to see the princess standing over a slightly overturned wheelbarrow.
I walked over to join her, and when I looked down, something glinted up at me from the floor. I sent out a little pulse of magic and grinned.
“Iron,” I declared as I reached down and picked up a raw nugget of ore almost the size of my head.
“It looks like there is already a lot of it mined,” Aurora observed as she nodded to the other wheelbarrows that also gleamed in the light of her fire. “The men must have had to abandon everything quickly when the king ordered the collapse.”
“It must have sucked for them,” I replied, “but it’s great news for us.”
I walked as deep into the cavern as Aurora’s light allowed and inspected the closest wheelbarrows. Not all of them were full, but overall it was a decent amount of iron. I frowned in thought as I looked around the cavern and then glanced back toward the entrance tunnel.
“What is it?” Cayla asked as she saw my expression.
“I was just thinking,” I started, “the good news is I can sense a lot of metal in the walls of this cavern.”
“What is the bad news?” Aurora inquired as she walked over to stand beside me.
“It’s not necessarily bad news,” I replied, “but the fact of the matter is I’ll need to haul all that ore to the surface so I can work with better lighting, no offense.”
“None taken,” the Ignis Mage said with a shrug. “So what do you propose we do?”
“Well I think we should use the ore in these wheelbarrows,” I said as I gestured around the cavern, “to make a rudimentary rail system.”
“A what?” Cayla asked with a frown.
“It’s a delivery system that was developed a long time ago back in my world,” I explained. “It was kind of like the pulley system the miners already had installed here, but much more efficient. The premise is a metal cart that has its wheels set on parallel metal bars. The bars, or rails, make movement easier, reduce friction, and guide the cart. With a little power, the cart will travel straight along the rails. Think of how the ride in a wagon is much smoother if there are ruts or grooves in the road.”
The two women contemplated this idea in silence for a moment.
“And you think you can set this up?” Aurora finally questioned at length.
“Give me a few hours,” I replied with a grin. “By tonight I’ll not only have the rail system built, I’ll also have enough ore to trick out Big Guy first thing in the morning.”
“Trick out?” Cayla echoed with a confused frown.
“Is that another wager I hear?” Aurora cut in with a smirk.
“Only if the prize is the same as last time.” I dragged my eyes up the half-elf’s body and a kernel of desire unfurled in my gut.
Cayla giggled as she came up behind me and dragged her fingers across the nape of my neck.
“I think we can agree to those terms,” she responded in a husky voice.
“Sounds good to me,” I rasped, and a shiver raced up my spine.
The two gorgeous women smiled seductively at me, and then the race was on.
The rail system took me a little over two hours to construct. Since the iron wasn’t being used for any fine detailed work, I settled for extracting it raw from the stone ore and then I began to shape it from there. Walking back to the surface as I lay the tracks took the most time since I had to do it section by section like the entrance excavation. But I had already fixed up one of the broken wheelbarrows with four prosthetic metal wheels, and once I had the first section of bars down, I filled the cart to the brim with iron, and then affixed it to the rails behind me. As I walked, I used my magic to pull the cart behind me, and so my iron supply followed me all the way to the surface.
When I reached the top, Aurora and Cayla were waiting for me by the entrance. The sun was setting in the west, and the world was bathed in reds and yellows, and the calls of roosting birds filled the warm summer air.
“Care for a ride, ladies?” I asked with a courtly bow as I gestured to the cart beside me.
“In that thing?” Aurora asked incredulously.
“It’s perfectly safe,” I reassured with a smile. “Come on, it’ll be fun.”
The half-elf still looked skeptical, but Cayla stepped forward bravely. I helped the princess up into the cart, and then we both turned expectantly to Aurora.
“Fine,” she muttered as she took my hand, “but do not let us crash.”
“I would never,” I chuckled as she settled into the cart behind Cayla.
The two women were a little cramped, but they managed to situate their long legs comfortably after a moment.
“Where are you going to sit?” Cayla questioned with a smile.
“I’m the driver, so I got the best seat in the house,” I replied with a broad grin. Then I stepped up behind the cart, gripped the handles, and put my feet up on the rear axle. “Now, please keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all time. Thank you for choosing Mine Cart Mountain today. We hope you enjoy the ride so mind your head and don’t forget to scream.”
“Screa--?” Aurora started to ask, but then I channeled my magic down into the wheels, and we blasted off down the rail. The half-elf’s voice dissolved into a high-pitched shriek as we descended into darkness.
We tore down the tunnel at breakneck speed, and my heart leapt into my throat with a mix of joy and adrenaline. I hadn’t been on a rollercoaster since I was a kid, and this was so much cooler because I controlled the ride. Hell, I had built the ride, too, so I knew all the twists and turns by heart. Aurora and Cayla screamed into the darkness as we twisted and dipped through the tunnel, but I threw back my head and laughed.
When I sensed the end of the rail rapidly approaching, I sent out another burst of magic to slow us down. We gradually reduced in speed until we glided out of the tunnel and came to a gentle stop in the middle of the cavern right where the tracks ended.
“So?” I asked as I jumped off the cart and came around the front with a wide grin. “What do you think?”
Aurora and Cayla blinked up at me in a similar daze, and I bit my lip to keep from laughing at their wind-tangled hair. Stan poked his head out from Cayla’s shirt again, but even he looked thrown for a loop because he just ducked back out of sight again.
“I think that I never want to do that again,” Aurora muttered as she clambered out of the cart and put her hand to her mouth. She looked a little pale, and I wondered if elves could actually throw up. It seemed too undignified but, then again, she was only a half-elf.
“Joyrides not your thing?” I teased as I reached out to steady the Ignis Mage.
She grumbled something unintelligible in response and then sat heavily on a nearby boulder.
I turned to Cayla and expected to see her similarly shell shocked, but I was surprised to see a wide smile stretched across her full lips.
“That was exhilarating!” she exclaimed as she shakily stood to her feet in the cart. “Can we go again?”
I chuckled as I picked her up, pulled her out of the cart, and set her on the ground.
“There’s my daredevil,” I joked as I reached out and ran my fingers through her mussed hair. “I will be more than happy to take you on another r
ide, but I think I should actually get to work first.”
“It’s already late. The sun will have set completely by the time we return to the surface,” the princess protested as she frowned up at me. “Should you not rest the remainder of the night and pick up again in the morning?”
“I could, but then I wouldn’t win our wager,” I countered with a grin. “I promised to have the rail built and enough ore mined to start working on Big Guy by tonight. I can still accomplish that. I’ll be done well before midnight.”
“I’m sure we can discuss a compromise,” Cayla purred as she bit her lip and gazed up at me from under her lashes.
I felt myself twitch in my breeches, but I shook my head.
“As tempting as that sounds,” I replied as I leaned down and pecked a kiss against her forehead, “I am a man of my word. If I go back on it now, I’d have no honor.”
“Or you’d just be a sore loser,” Aurora added dryly as she shakily stood to her feet.
I feigned a gasp and grabbed dramatically at my chest. “Why Defender Solana, I never!”
The half-elf rolled her eyes, but her lips twitched upward in a smirk.
Cayla pouted and sighed. “Fine. I guess we will just have to wait.”
“I’ll make it up to you both,” I said with a wink. Then I turned and surveyed the large room around me. “But now, it’s time for me to get to work.”
While Aurora recovered and Cayla calmed down from their ordeal, I walked the perimeter of the cavern and set pulses of magic into the wall to find the largest vein of iron. It took a few laps, but eventually, I settled on the far left wall. Then it was only a matter of digging.
I worked for several more hours. In that time, Aurora and Cayla walked back to the surface to see about dinner, and I filled cart after cart with metal. First, I pulled the raw ore from the walls, and then I used my power to extract the metal from its rocky prison. It was a little monotonous, but I quickly fell into a rhythm, and as the shiny metal continued to pile up, I couldn't help but smile at how much my power had grown.
Just as I was about to call it quits for the night, I sent one last pulse of power into the rock, and it rebounded strangely back to me. I was on the opposite side of the cavern from where I started, tucked into a small alcove in the corner. I frowned as I looked at the wall in front of me, and then I sent another tendril of magic into the stone. I got the same strange feeling. It felt different from iron, but it was still a metal. I decided Aurora and Cayla could wait a few more minutes, and then I started to dig a little deeper toward the source.
As rock crumbled to sand before me, I caught a glimpse of something shiny in the flickering torchlight. Then slowly but surely the wall fell away, and I was left staring at a vein of greenish-red metal.
“Hello there, beautiful,” I whispered to the copper. “Do I have a job for you.”
Then I placed my hand against the wall and sent out a larger pulse of magic. The stone cracked loudly beneath my palm, and then a chunk of it fell into my grasp. When I lifted my hand closer to my face to inspect the stone, copper glinted along the edges.
“Now we’re in business,” I muttered to myself with a grin. Then I set to work on excavating enough copper to finish up Big Guy.
Half an hour later, I rode to the surface on the back of the cart with five more following behind me. I exited the tunnel and entered into a cool night. The sun had long since set past the western horizon, and the sky was a blanket of royal blue poked through by stars. I hopped off my cart and walked over to where Aurora and Cayla sat huddled around a generous fire.
“Annnnnd done,” I announced as I plopped down on the log between the two women. “I have more than enough iron and copper in those carts to make Big Guy truly badass.”
“So you have everything you need to begin production?” Cayla yawned as she leaned into my shoulder. Stan had been snuggled in her palm when I approached, but once I sat down, he tottered to his feet and began to crawl into my lap.
I picked up the little stickman from my thigh and set him on my shoulder. Stan placed an arm against my ear for balance, and then he sat down in the crook between my shoulder and neck and began to swing his little legs back and forth.
“Indeed I do,” I said. “In the morning I’ll build my workshop. Probably should have done that first, but I was too excited to get in that mine.”
“I think we can manage sleeping beneath the stars for one night,” Cayla teased with a sleepy smile.
“I could probably throw together a little stone lean-to,” I sighed as I cracked my neck from side to side, “but I’m a little beat so it won’t be anything fancy.”
“I see,” Aurora mused as she looked out over the fire. “Then it seems we shall postpone your award ceremony until tomorrow.”
“Reward cere--,” I started to ask, but then I caught the half-elf’s heated look. “Oh. That reward ceremony.”
“Yes, but you need your rest, as you said,” the Ignis Mage replied solemnly, but her act was betrayed by her twitching lips. And by Cayla giggling on my other side.
“I think that counts as part of my rest,” I said as my voice lowered and desire began to flood through my veins.
Aurora opened her mouth to argue and tease me some more, but I didn’t give her the chance. Between one blink and the next, I plucked Stan off my shoulder, set him on the log behind me, and lunged to the side to tackle the Ignis mage backward into the grass. The half-elf gasped in surprise and tensed for impact, but I sent out a tendril of magic to soften our landing and wrapped my arms tight around her. When I lifted my head, Aurora was spread out in the grass, her hair like an ocean behind her head.
“Were you saying something?” I asked as I ran my hand up her thigh.
“No,” she whispered in reply, and then her eyes latched onto my lips, and I was powerless to resist.
I leaned down and delved my tongue into her warm mouth. As I did, I pushed her short dress up past her hips and stroked the outside of her entrance through her thin undergarments. I applied a little pressure, and within moments the fabric was damp beneath my fingertips.
“Someone’s eager,” I chuckled against her lips.
“You are one to talk,” she rasped back as she raised her knee and pressed it firmly against my erection.
“I never denied I was,” I retorted, and I ground down on her knee with a groan. Then I slipped my fingers under the hem of her underwear and slowly slid them down her legs.
When they slipped off her feet, Aurora let her knees fall to the side, and I simply basked in her glory. Her dress was pushed up just beneath her heaving breasts, and her curvy hips twitched upward as they sought my touch. The blue curls at the apex of her thighs glistened in the firelight, and saliva flooded my mouth.
“Mason,” she moaned as she reached out toward me impatiently.
“Sorry,” I grunted as I shook my head. “You’re very distracting, you know that?”
Aurora smirked, and then one hand trailed down her abs and tangled in her own curls. “I do.”
I groaned out loud before I dove forward and started to press a battery of kisses around the half-elf’s naval. As I did that, my right hand slid up her thigh, and I pushed two fingers into her wet entrance without warning.
Aurora threw her head back in the grass and moaned my name again. I gripped against the jut of her hip bone, and then I curled my fingers, set my thumb against her clit, and focused on getting the insanely gorgeous woman below me to come.
It took barely a minute before Aurora clenched tight around my probing fingers and arched off the grass with a sharp cry. Warm fluid gushed into my palm, and my cock jerked in response.
“Gods, I want you,” I rasped as I worked to undo my breeches.
Aurora lifted her head and her emerald eyes locked onto my own. When I had pushed my pants to my knees, the half-elf wrapped her limbs around me and flipped us over. The world cartwheeled around me, and I caught a glimpse of stars, fire, and Cayla perched on the log behind
us with her hand between her legs.
I didn’t have much time to contemplate all of that though because the moment my spine settled against the grass, Aurora straddled my hips and placed her hands against my chest.
We locked eyes as she slowly raised her hips, and I bit my tongue as the head of my cock nudged up against her wet entrance. She slid back and forth a few times, and my eyes rolled back at the sensation. Just when I thought I was going to lose my mind, Aurora tilted her hips back a fraction, and I slipped deep inside of her in one push.
“Oh fuck,” I gasped as I latched on to her waist.
Aurora smirked as she perched on my cock.
“Please keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times,” she parroted my words as she started to swivel her hips in a tight figure eight.
I laughed breathlessly as I thrust upward, and our skin met with a loud smack and an even louder moan from the half-elf. Jokes fell to the wayside as we each sought our own completions. My fingertips dug grooves in Aurora’s thighs, but she didn’t seem to mind as she bounced harder and faster on my dick. When I felt her inner muscles fluttering, I reached up with one hand and pinched her nipple harshly.
“Mason!” she cried as her back arched, and I erupted inside of her as she came for the second time.
The half-elf collapsed against my chest, and I listened to both of our racing hearts for a moment. But then I heard another muffled cry, and I lifted my head to see Cayla backlit by the fire and in the throes of her own orgasm. When her body unclenched, she dropped her head with a sigh and withdrew her glistening fingers from between her thighs.
My cock twitched again valiantly, and Aurora moaned softly in my ear.
These women were going to be the absolute death of me, but damn, what a way to go.
Chapter 12
When the sun rose the next morning, I wolfed down a small breakfast of rations before I rolled up my sleeves and got to work. Yesterday I’d harvested all the necessary materials to finish and upgrade Big Guy. Today I would actually get to do that, but first I had to make a workshop. I considered renovating one of the old buildings that were scattered in the meadow outside the mine, but I quickly realized it would be easier to start from scratch, and it was a good warm-up exercise, too.