King of the Humans!

Chapter: 8 - Building Foundations

The face of the lead miner was one of intense disbelief, his nearby colleague sharing this expression. The lead miner's clothing is composed of the typical miner's uniform. That being deep blue overalls with a plain white shirt beneath them. The overalls are splattered in dry mud and so are his boots and especially his knees. A fur hat in the style of a lumberjack mixed with a miner's helmet sits atop the leader's head like a workforce crown, the other miners only having regular miner's helmets. Despite the helmets seeming like those from even before I entered this world, they're really just metal helmets painted yellow on closer inspection. A large fluffy grey beard dominates the leader's facial features, the expression of disbelief beneath the beard contorting the hairy mass.

"Look, it's true, alright?" I say with a bored expression beneath my helmet of steel. The leader shrugs his shoulders.

"Whatever, if the boss wants you to lead us, then you can lead. He may be one of the worst bosses, but he's rarely wrong. Let's just get moving." Speaks the Mining Team's leader with a deep rumbling voice before raising his hand into the air to someone in the distance.

Within moments a carriage drawn by... something rolls up in front of me. The strange monstrosity drawing the carriage seems to lack any eyes on it's tapered head, said head being slightly curved downwards with a tapir like mouth with a long thin tongue flopping out randomly to eat grass like a frog. The creature lacks any fur, instead covered in a thick slimy skin of a deep purple colour. The beast's limbs are strange, its legs ending in elephant-like hooves with its front two legs being taller than those at the back. A saddle of dark brown leather is buckled by leg-thick leather straps to its back, the creature's back having black spots of varying sizes like that of a leopard.  Attached to this deep brown saddle are many reins which run along the creatures long neck and coiling around its smooth snout. Also attached to the saddle are reins which lead backwards to the cart driver, who is a strangely young-looking man dressed in a robe of purple and black spots which is a pattern very close to the creature.

Whistling to me, he pats the bench-like seat he's sat on and directs me to sit on the cart. Obliging, I use the ladders to scale up and sit beside the driver. With everything set, the carriage begins to ride forwards at a somewhat slow speed, the creature's steps causing small rumblings with each contact its hooves have with the grassy ground. The miners walk cautiously besides the cart, the cart in question having no room for the workers to climb on since the cart is filled to the brim with crates of tools and supplies which are buckled down securely with similar leather straps as those holding the saddle to the purple and black spotted creature. Instead, they walk alongside their supplies with large pickaxes drawn and at the ready to be used as make-shift weapons against any would-be attackers.

"So, they call you the king who was killed in the legend?" Asks the driver.

"Legend?" I ask curiously.

"Yes. Ever since I was a boy I was fascinated by the story, of how someone who was my age at the time could have founded the first human civilisation. I have to ask, sire, how?!" Asks the young driver inquisitively. I laugh nervously as I try and formulate a decent answer.

"Well, I didn't set out to found anything, really." I reply humbly. "It all really started when I started helping out build a couple houses for the first of us to crowd around inside from the night and poor weather. Once that was done, I started asking around for help so we could build some fortifications around to stop any beasts from reaching the houses. Once that was done, we just started to expand." I explain.

"Sire, that can't be the whole story." He asks whilst splitting his attention between the path and me.

"As a precaution, I set up some volunteers to guard the walls to keep a look out. To improve this, I had some of us build some crude armour and weapons. I used them as well, since I was generally thought of as some Guard Captain. But, do you want to know a secret?" I ask with a grin.

"Of course, I've been curious about this topic for years!" He shouts out, smiling sheepishly before returning his attention to the path but looks out the corner of his eye at random points.

" Okay. I only really wanted some guards and stuff so I could relax better after building some sort of mansion or got others to do it." I ask before laughing to myself. The driver looks at me like I'm a childhood hero who turns out to have wanted nothing but selfish dreams, which I probably was to him and might still be. The driver goes sombre and quiet.

"...What changed?" Asks the driver after a couple minutes of awkward silence.

"What?" I ask suddenly.

"What changed, Y'know? That's not where your good deeds ended, at least not from what I've heard. Unless that was all a lie at its core, too?" He asks with a slight glare. I sigh softly.

"No... that's not where it ended. I don't know what happened, but all the fame and respect kind of... got to me. I was planning on just up and running into the hills with some smelted metal and other stolen resources, but I was 'caught' in a way. A friend of mine, someone who you would call the 'General' was not always a combat-loving individual. He found me about to run off and knew what I was about to do, and set me straight. Trust me, him being in a blood berserker rage in battle is a lot more calmer than he was at that moment." I describe gently.

"How did he catch you when no one else did? Surely you went for the main gate, which was the only one from what the stories say?" He inquires.

"He caught me because he went to find me since everyone else was inside the meeting hall. They sent him to bring me to... my own party which was set up in my honour." I say softly. The driver looks at me curiously.

"A party?" He asks.

"Yes. I killed an adolescent dragon. I basically killed it by stabbing it in the mouth when It went to bite me. I... impressed a few people by doing so. They thought a party would be a good idea, but I just melted it down and made these blades here." I finish before patting the swords on my back.

A sudden growl brings me back from my explanation, a yelp coming from one of the miners as he backs up against the cart before diving beneath it. A bear bursts violently from the bushes and treeline. A horridly muscled beast, immense strength locked within layer after layer of thick muscle tissue. Some of its skin is split open, dripping pus as muscle remains visible through these tears in organic tissue. Rope-like threads of pitch-black fur hang from the creature. Flies, writhing maggots and other assorted filthy parasites lay strewn within the fur giving the bear a carcass-like appearance, its eyes a dead amber like the sap of a dying tree. Sloppy blackened saliva drips from its crooked jaws, lengthy tapered teeth fill its jaws with deadly canines. Changing towards the cart, it brings a mighty foreleg of brute force straight into the wooden side of the cart.

Almost slipping off the cart from the blow, I quickly whip out one of my steel long swords and slash at its muzzle, decaying blood splashing onto the metal. It gives an echoing roar of pain as it holds a brutal paw to its gruesome wound, its paw returning to the ground revealing one of its eyes to have been gouged out by the strike of my blade. Enraged, the bear lunges a paw forwards and grabs me roughly by the neck, one of the miners brave enough to aid charging the bear with their pickaxe only for the tool to not even penetrate its thick hide, causing the miner to flee the battle as suddenly as he entered it. The bear, in its intense fury, lifts me from the carriage and launches me towards the trunk of a nearby oak tree. The healthy green leaves of the tree fall besides me as I slump against their wooden source. The bear scrapes the earthen ground with its raking grey claws before charging head-first towards me, my eyes widening as it rapidly draws closer. Rolling to the right hastily, the beast's head becomes lodged inside the tree trunk from the force and speed.

The short shockwave caused by the impact causes the tree to nearly splinter, and sends me flying backwards swiftly towards another tree, an oak much older and taller. Knowing of the coming solid surface, I angle my legs into a sideways crouch just in time as I come in contact the bark's rough texture. With my side ways crouch position, I use the momentum gathered to bounce off the tree and sail into the air in an arc and towards the struggling beast. With cat-like agility, I coil my spine around causing me to twist my body in the air to assume the most appropriate direction needed for my next act. With gravity forcing my descent to be incredibly rapid, I unsheathe my other sword and place them together and angle them downwards like how one would shove a flagpole into the dirt. The added force of gravity and speed causes the dual swords to pierce the back of the bear's furred neck as my legs buckle into a crouched stance on its muscled back.  The steel penetrates the bear's neck all the way through, allowing its head to completely decapitate when I slash my swords away from each other so far that the blades cross behind my back. Blackened ichor sprays forth from the gaping wound in its neck, painting the nearby ground and tree trunk in its vile gore.

Panting with exhaustion, I slip tiredly off the bear and walk sluggishly towards the cart, all the miners and the driver watching me with amazement. I quickly sheath my dual swords before climbing onto the cart and re-taking my seat beside the astonished driver. I lean back and close my eyes whilst still breathing heavily. After a few moments, the cart continues its ride and the miners walk alongside the slowly rolling wheels of the wooden carriage carrying their supplies. After a while, my breathing slows down to a regular frequency as I relax. I'm nudged in the side.

"What?" I ask without opening my eyes.

"How did you learn to do that?" Asks the voice of the driver.

"Learn to do what?" I reply whilst opening my eyes to look at the youthful driver beside me.

"The whole 'Killing an undead-looking bear' thing." Says the driver whilst giving me an unimpressed look. I go silent for a moment, thinking.

"I don't really know for sure. It could be the constant strife I had to near-personally face almost everyday after we started expanding. Some of the creatures we had to contend with were very mighty. Trolls as strong as stone walls, gryphons the size of small houses, wisps made of pure fire bellowing from swamps... back then, I had to adapt to fighting these off or risk me and the others dying. The original city I aided in the construction of literally had crossbows the size of carriages on some of the stone watchtowers just to fight against most of our past foes." I explain, my mind returning nostalgically to the past.

"Surely you could have had help, didn't you say earlier about being a Guard Captain?" Enquires the teenager beside me.

"Of course I had help available, I was a captain!" I laugh out. "The thing is..." I start with a serious tone. "... i had wizened up to the harsh reality of where we were. We were young, unready to face the comfy world before, let alone this new one where we were completely on our own. I knew, after being convinced to stay by the General, that I would have to direct the others into setting a stake in this world. But the others, at their heart, were still teenagers." I continue.

"So? I'm a teenager, as you can see clearly, and I'm responsible enough to cart all this stuff here." He finishes his statement by lightly patting one of the many large crates behind him. I rub my chin thoughtfully at his statement, concentrating on his words.

"Well, of course YOU might be responsible since you've grown up in this world under ethics which developed you into a more mature individual. But, we had only just been taken from a world where the teenagers weren't as mature as they are in this one. I had to wise up, which made me more of a parental figure on decisions. When it came to some of the Origionals, my word was practically law due to how dependant on authority some were. Practically craving someone to direct them somehow, just so their lives weren't meaningless and repetitive." I explain.

"Is that how you became King in the first place? You were the one who 'stepped up to the mark', as the old saying goes?" He asks politely.

"Yes, It seems to be like that. Don't get me wrong, after they formally crowned me it became more than a need for leadership. They wanted someone who would put their mind to something, and I did. The first ever city built by humans, the first castle within that city and even the expansion of the kingdom were instigated by yours truly." I say with a hand to my chest in pride.

"Quiet impressive given the circumstances you described. Anyway, we're here." He declares loudly, speaking to not just me but also the miners walking alongside the cart.

Looking around, all I really see is that this settlement is going to be set up on a curved piece of land bordering the sea, a port town maybe? Nothing has even really been built, the only sign of human contact being two erected torches standing side by side next to the smooth waves, a metre distance between them. For once, an actual female human stood waiting at the beach than a male one. Jumping off the cart's seat and onto the slightly snow-dusted grass, I greet the woman with a handshake before turning back to the cart. The massive creature pulling the cart along is hitched beside a tree, the cargo of the cart being taken and deposited on the ground in piles. The leader of the miners, and his team entire team once the supplies are off the cart, walks over to the woman.

"What do we start off with?" Asks the miner politely with his usual rumbling voice. The woman uses a gloved hand to lower the scarf wrapped around her mouth, before pointing to a particularly flat piece of land.

"There is where I want you to set up the usual mining set-up. You know, the staircase and small supply room. When can you start building the above-ground level?" Asks the slightly accented woman.

"Now, if that's okay with you?" Replies the miner. Upon receiving a nod of approval, he gathers his men, some tools and some resources, before beginning work on the flat land. I hear an obviously faked cough beside me, so I turn around.

I turn around and see the woman standing next to me. Her long white robe with gold details match with that of the task giver from the Fort,  are they from a similar group? Unlike the elderly man from the fort, she has a fur hood with some fur rags wrapped around her neck area and a red scarf is within the hood which she had covering her mouth earlier. Matching the colour of the scarf is the pair of thick red gloves on her hands, which she frequently rubs together for warmth.

"Sir, can you just quickly do a favour for me?" She asks in her typical Nordic-like accent.

"Which is?" I ask back.

"From the looks of you, you're probably better off with this task then the others here. You see, we were supposed to receive a shipment via boat. But, since we have no appropriate port or harbour, the boat had no where to go and sailed around the island. We haven't heard hide nor hair of them since. Can you head down and try and find the boat, I'm too wrapped up here to get anyone else to do it." She explains. I think for a moment before shrugging my shoulders.

"Sure, why not? What can possibly go wrong?" I ask humorously.