24 Chapter 24 - Hidden Valley Beginnings Part 1

Kane flew across the mountain, feet landing on the snow-covered tops as he flew with the aid of the wind magic he had cast earlier, It felt like he was an angel flying across the sky, his body nimble and free with a smile coating his face, eyes gleaming as he was truly free. It had been too long since his capture, stuck inside a cage to be drained over and over again to become a snack, his tears streaming down his face as he held two people under his arms.

As he crested over the mountain, his eyes gleamed as he saw the lush valley below, hidden between the mountains with a natural river and an inviting aura about it, he could see his sister commanding others to begin constructions. Houses and streets already starting to form, it looked closer to an older kind of development, but with lack of resources, it was the best they could do.

Each house was a mixture of wood, stone and mud, used with each other to make a simple structure, inside would be beds and other such items for comfort; it was all made with magic and constructions. This was a rather strange concept as in modern construction magic was barely used, machines were still popular and used more as magic tended to be fickle while machines had a higher rate of reliability.

Kane would land closer to his sister, dropping both the smaller men next to the water, several people coming over to help them to drink some water and get them set up inside the home, each person having to share almost ten to one per household while construction was still underway.

"Good job brother, another two. How is the shaft going to the outside" Meri responded while looking and checking different homes for any issues?

Kane would shake his head as he remembered the current state. "It about halfway through, currently I've got a few people using wind magic to carry people here, its strange that in this land my magic is almost twice as powerful as before, the magic is simply overpowering."

Meri would stop as she looked at Kane, she had to admit her wind power had been empowered to a scary amount. "This place is naturally blessed with magic, it's our little-hidden valley here" she would smile gently as Kane would chuckle to this name.

"That is the name then, Hidden Valley, it will be our own little home!"

Meri and Kane smiled both to each other, the people around them also chatting and smiling, being in the vampire's presence had drained them of there wants and needs, just having this freedom and sense of duty had given each of them hope.

Everyone had a job currently; gathering, cutting, scouting, digging, building. Each person had a duty and a task, not because they were forced but because it would improve standards for themselves and everyone else.

Currently around eight hundred people had found this area, working hard to make it into a livable area, even with this amount of people the total area was still large enough for nearly ten thousand living in a house, the forest was massive and over half the size of the entire valley, enough wood for everyone to build houses and other storage buildings.

Kane and Meri stood next to the river discussing as three others walked over, one short male, roughly 4'11 with dark gray hair, sides and beard, looking rather dwarf like as he had embraced the stereotype due to his love of minerals and mining, he had very strong earth magic which he assumed was why he turned to look like this, next was a strange slime like woman, her body almost seethrough as she would slide up beside the group, being only slightly taller than the dwarf, her bluish green skin shining lightly in the dull light and finally a stranger looking tall female, green and brown scales covering almost her entire body except for her face which was smooth, long slender scaly tale slowly moving behind her, the 6'02 salamander woman hissing softly as she looked in the dark sky.

The twins would nod to the three, Meri putting her hands onto her hips as she spoke. "Welcome back Marok," She nodded her head to the dwarven man. "Sene." She would then nod her head to the slime like woman who seemed to bob and expands slightly with excitement as her name was spoken. "and finally Zara" the salamander woman just stared for a moment as she nodded her head lightly.

"So, please let me know what is happening, we have to know about the situation then we can continue" Meri would speak, everyone had already accepted her as the natural leader of this group, having found this place first and having brought everyone back here, while some had naturally landed here, most were shaken, broken or just distraught and the two twins had helped everyone get back onto stable grounds.

The older dwarf would stroke his greying beard, though he looked rather good for someone who had been captured and mistreated by vampires, stepping forward to give his part.

"The mountains are empty in pretty much all respect, we can find limestone and other such types but iron, coal, copper. They all seem to be missing, all the areas we suspected and prospected it seemed they are simply missing."

Meri seemed confused as she tilted her head. "Missing, as someone has already mined it?"

Marok laughed, shaking as his beard naturally moved in the air, almost like he was showing it off. "Oh no, it's like it formed without any of it, to begin with. While I can use my magic to smelt, combine and do many things, its going to be impossible just to make iron, though we may have some luck out in the sands" He would cross his arms before sighing.

"The tunnel should be complete in the next day, or so, it will take roughly thirty minutes to travel through the cave, we will need more wooden supports and torches to light the cave, not everyone can see well in the dark!"

Meri nodded her head more as she looked at her brother, Kane nodding in response as he knew that his sister wanted him to look after this aspect.

"Excellent and terrible at the same time, it's almost like this world was created on a whim without actual thought of mining, structure or any of the other important aspects!"

She said laughing, thinking of the strange male who had created all of this like he was just breathing.

"Master of this world huh, maybe you need to put some more thought into it next time," She said smirking, everyone else confused except for Kane who just laughed along with his sister.