Riley groaned when he opened his eyes the next morning. The loud banging of the drums only made his concussion feel worse, a feeling almost as bad as having his new pickaxe taken away. Whatever heathen did this to him was going to pay a heavy price. One that involved a bloody face and screaming. He wasn’t going to show weakness.

Slowly getting to his feet, Riley greeted the chaos he had grown familiar with. These were hard times. Only those with strong resolve thrived in such a harsh environment. He had first hand experience of the weak withering away, toiling for the stronger man. Riley wanted to be that stronger man.

He quickly found his men. They were surprised to see Riley’s busted eye. It wasn’t often that their boss got injured. They were even more surprised when they heard aggressor got away unharmed.

“You need to take half the men and lookout for anyone entering the mine with my pick. There is a good chance they’ve already entered. I’ll take the other half and will make my way over to the shopkeeper, hopefully we can jump thief on their way out,” Riley confided with his second in command Mattic.

The lack of sleep from the night before had left Todd and Gale sluggish. It took them slightly longer to get up, but they eventually made there way to the workplace. Todd had found a canvas bag that he used to conceal the pick he had taken from Riley the other day.

They made their way to the mines. Clearly something was off today. Scattered throughout the villagers walking to their jobs were thugs scanning the crowd. Todd was certain they were looking for him. It definitely wasn’t a coincidence people were searching for someone.

Todd clinged to his bag and casually made his way through the crowd, not wanting to show any signs of worry or nervousness on his way to work. He could see two of the ruffians picking on a smaller grimy guy.

“We’ve thinkin you were ballsy enough to get revenge on our Boss. Where’d you put the pickaxe?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said the small man who frowned.

The one of the bullies kneed him in the stomach and left him crumpled on the ground. Todd felt obligated to help, but knew he would only make the poor man’s life worst if they caught him with the pickaxe. Todd tried to convince himself that he was in the right, but his actions clearly had some unforeseen consequences.

He realized he wouldn’t be able to turn in Riley’s pickaxe today, since Riley would be watching the store like a hawk. He would have to wait for things to calm down before he made his way back to the shopkeeper.

Zigzagging through the mined tunnels, Todd and Gale made there way to their mining spot. They had to figure out what they were going to do with pickaxe they had stolen. If they hid it in their tent someone was likely to recognize it and that would put Todd or Gale in a world of hurt.

They ended up digging a small cubby that was just deep enough and wide enough to fit the pick. After sticking the pick in the hole, they took a stone slab they had carved and used it to fill the hole.

They continued their usual routine that day. A week passed and Todd figured it had calmed down enough to cross a name off the list. He quickly bagged the tool and slung it over his shoulder as he made his way to the shopkeeper. He was quite nervous but knew the journey would have to be made someday so he carried on.

“Have you returned anything on the list?” asked the shopkeeper.

“Yeah, I got Riley’s pickaxe,” Todd said as handed both the pick and the list to the old man.

The old man pulled out a pen and crossed out a name on the list. Both Todd and the old man had reached a mutual understanding so the both shook hands and parted ways.

Only 100 meters out Todd was stopped by some of Riley’s thugs.

“What were you doing in their?” asked the suspicious leader.

Todd panicked but quickly calmed himself. They had no way of knowing why Todd had stopped by the old man’s shop.

“I’m new. I was receiving my first pick,” Todd stuttered as he lifted his beat up beginner pickaxe. He was relying on the fact that his lack of socialization had kept him relatively unknown to the vast majority of villagers.

The boss snorted. “Good luck feeding yourself with that.”

The group left Todd, clearly having better things to do than mess with a screwed rookie. Todd shuddered. That had been too close to his liking.