Akio Part 2 Chapter 1

Akio Part 2 Chapter 1

By Justin O'Neal

“A-ah, m-my head. Where am I?”
Akio begins to awake.

“H-how did I get here? How will I get out?

Searching Akio tries to find an object that will allow him to see. With no luck his vision slowly beings to fade in after time appeared to be the object Akio was searching for. Just in front of him he sees this strange looking symbol that seems to have been carved out of something close to a rock. The symbol Akio sees is the symbol of the Ankh. Instead of being carved into the wall of the cave like most other symbols. It was shaped out of an odd material setting in the middle of the open area. It took the texture of weathered stone, the color of a filthy tiger’s fur coat, and just from the looks of it the strength of a dragons will.

Gazing around Akio discovers he is in a desert biome due to the sand leaking through the top of the ceiling, along with the many of scorpions that make up the floor of the mysterious place. Piles of sand accumulated overtime acting like an hourglass, shows this place had been here for quite some time now. The sand slips through above Akio’s head, tracking the amount of time he has spent there.

After a while Akio decides to explore for a while, as that is all he can do at this time, until he finds a way out. Shortly after his exploration he sees something that may be just what he is looking for. He creeps his way over to the opening, with the little vision he has due to being underground. Carefully Akio tries to avoid any contact with the scorpions that are scattered throughout the cave floor. As he got closer to the entrance he realized the doorway is at a downward sloop, leading deeper into the dark depths of the mysterious chasm.

Becoming dehydrated, Akio had remembered something he had learned back in Aldepine. He remembered that the farther underground in a desert you are the more likely you are to find a pocket of water. He took it upon himself to continue down, knowing that the sand line will come to an end. Leading to ground level where water pockets should hopefully start to appear. As he walks farther down the tunnel. Akio keeps his hand open and slightly pressed against the wall scaling down with the rest of his body.

“I must be near water, the air feels damp.” He manages to spill while his lips and mouth are dry. “The temperature seems to be declining just as fast as this tunnel is, it’s getting a little chilly!”

Akio soon walks into the room with nothing else but darkness, up until his eye readjusted. This room was not just any room but it was a room full of the same substance the symbol was carved from. There also seemed to be a unsettle presences that he wasn’t the only one unfortunate to get trapped here. Akio glanced over to the corner only to find many rusted tools lay lifeless.

“Surely if someone had once lived here, there must be a way to get out! Though I do wonder why there were this many tools left behind, most of which are pickaxes. I highly doubt one person owned all of these not alone needed that many.”

Beginning to look around, hoping to find an answer. He the notices what it was he really stumbled upon. It was a great big vein of some kind of ore, though he was puzzled with what it was. He didn’t know what it was. This ore was new to him, it is the same stuff the ankh symbol was made out of. It looked to him like it was copper but it wasn’t quite the same color. It was a bit darker than copper and its durability looked stronger.

Walking over to pick up a pickax to see how tough it really was. Akio found writing on the wall just about the axes. He reads, “We the citizens of Velcrest have discovered something new. Not sure where nor how we came across this discovery, it has come to our attention there are still many uncovered mysterious this planet holds. We are uncertain at this time is citizens of other villages such as Aldepine or any other near villages have come across this ore yet. On the other hand if not then we have decided to call it cursed copper. The others that are here with me have had the same amount of luck I have had trying to find a way out of here. It seems almost impossible, but when there’s a way in there is a way out. The reason we decided to name the ore “Cursed Copper” is because the ore looks almost as if it was copper only stronger.

“Hmm, that’s what I though.” Akio says with great pride.

If felt to me as if it had a possessive link to it. The curse is the appeling look that shines off the ridged texture. Makes it unbearable to leave such a thing behind. Deadly as it seems my men all lost hope with trying to find a way out to begin with.

Days have gone by since we have arrived. Running low on supplies from the start. They are decreasing even more than they should be. Almost like something was breathing over us without our awareness, waiting for the perfect time to snatch what we needed the most. Making whatever is watching us a murderous shadow, slowly sucking the life from us. The others don’t know yet about the shadow, but we don’t seem to be the only ones trapped beneath the oath of the ankh. Seeming the curse is much more alive than I wish to believe. We are worried about, not only us, but our village as well. Valcrest depends on us to the point we hoped they hadn’t. Our job at Valcrest was to bring supplies to the village. Yet we have failed, now the village will die a slow death with us. Our pickaxes are made out of the finest materials until now, being unable to bring this ore to surface. We has hoped to dig our way out of here but the ore surrounds the whole vicinity of what’s open underground. It takes several strikes to knock loose the smallest amount of ore.

Akio starts to looks around hoping to find the ore that was mentioned within the writing. Thinking he could build a forge somewhere to smelt the ore and coat a pickax, thus making the new strongest axe. Theoretically the strongest anyways. Hopefully it would allow for the pickax to gather the cursed copper. Luckily Akio did find what little ore was mined, Salvaging for flammable scrapes he finds multiple scrapes of linen cloth woven together.

After looking around for a while he loses track of where he is, but comes across old linen wardrobe. “Perfect!” He thought, though the only thing missing now was fire. That element though was harder to find due to being underground, in a damp cool area. Heading back up into the part of the carven where he thought he first began his search for survival in. He didn’t see the ankh symbol that time, but he didn’t think too much of it. That was at least until he remember reading about the “curse”. Worry stretched across his face with the feeling of an unwanted presences enters his mind.

Carefully looking around he notices something he hadn’t before. This wasn’t the same room he came in at. Everything was completely different. It was even brighter than before. Is this the way out? Is there a small opening above him allowing this light to enter? Or is it some kind of light bulb that is covered in dust and has been down here for who knows how long? Akio looks impatiently around thinking it may be his way out. But how did he manage to find this section of the chasm? He didn’t see any other openings down further. All he saw was the same one that led him back to where it all started. Creeping up to the source that was causing the light. It indeed was a light bulb, but what was it doing down here? As he got closer to the light he noticed a small opening leading to the surface which took him in the middle of the woods where Akio was chased into Millburn. Cautiously walking up a flight of stairs to get out of the chasm. He meets the face of an old building.