Phrik in the Hand is Worth More Than Phrik in the Hills (Open)

[Reine Bisset]

Sure enough, it was a fairly tight squeeze. Reine prided herself on being athletic, in shape, and with keeping excess fat to a minimum. Despite this, due to her mother's genetics - or so she had been told - she was rather... gifted in some areas. This meant that, at times, her upper body found it a little difficult to squeeze through the narrower gaps between the boxes. Sure, the corset she wore kept things compressed, which is why she wore it, but even so, it wasn't particularly easy.

For example, as she turned a narrow corner and twisted to pass, she found her movement quickly and solidly arrested. Looking down, she realized the culprit was what she feared. The corset over her bust had managed to catch the edge of the crate she'd shimmied past. Though it was an easy fix, the garment had snagged on a large splinter and hooked tight. With a sigh, Reine got to work fixing the problem.

She shimmied back a bit and took a few moments to figure out the problem. A few seconds of fiddling and she realized precisely what the splinter had hooked on and how to fix it. It was a simple matter of unhooking one of the leather loops on the corset from the wood and getting free.

With a firm grip on the leather, she gave a tug that was sure to free herself from the catch. The leather pulled... and then the wood gave slightly with a loud crack. She was still hooked firmly and the crack was loud enough to be faintly heard by others nearby.

Not good.

 

[Reine Bisset]

She stood silently, afraid to move out of fear that the noises she'd make would draw attention. She heard the muffled voices of the guards as they spoke, a pair getting closer. She knew if they found her, she was dead in the water. She'd have to rely on her Force abilities, which would get her listed with a bounty in a heartbeat at worst, her face recognized at best. She could hear the two guards getting closer and began to breathe shallowly, attempting to hide her presence entirely.

"I'm telling you, I heard something over here," came a voice, it was young sounding and male.

"And I'm telling you that is' prob'ly some critter rummaging or the boxes settling," came the other. It, too, was male, but older sounding.

"Yeah, but what if it isn't?" came the younger guard's response. "Could be a thief or some homeless sod getting into things."

"Who would want to come out here for anything?" responded the older guard. "Sure, it's a phrik mine, but it's guarded! No one is dumb enough to steal from it and the homeless sods rummage around in town. More food and shelter there, see."

"Yeah, but that doesn't rule either out."

The Miralukan did her best not to jump when the guards came to the narrow entrance she'd found earlier. She heard them rummaging a bit, investigating the source of the noise. She felt her hand slowly going towards her vibroblade. What that would do in her present situation, she had no clue, but it was a reassuring move all the same.

Suddenly there came a loud cracking, splintering noise and a cascade of slithering, clunking noises. The two guards let out a string of curses as they got clear of whatever mess they'd made.

"Look, see? I told you, it was boxes settling," said the older guard. "And now that we came in here pokin' around 'cause you heard a noise, the ore crate that made the noise broke."

"How was I supposed to know it was a crate breaking?" exclaimed the younger guard. "I don't know how long these crates have been here and, besides, we should investigate any noises like that. At the very least, to tell the work crews that another crate broke."

"Yeah, well, you get to tell them you broke a crate with your fumbling. I'm going and grabbing a mug of caf."

"Alright, alright. I'll let them know. Snag me a cup, too, will you?"

"Yeah, yeah..."

Reine sagged slightly in relief. Luck had given her a way out of trouble and distracted the guards away from finding her. Now, all she had to do was unhook herself from the splinter quietly and safely...

 

[Reine Bisset]

More investigation showed that she was in far more of a dilemma than she had thought. The splinter was loose enough to come free if she pulled too hard which would send up another, maybe louder noise than before. While she'd been lucky the first time, she had no desire to tempt fate once more.

The leather itself was pulled taught and no matter how she shimmied around the catch, she never really was able to get the leather loose enough to unhook it from the splinter. Pushing forwards only pressed the splinter more or less flush with the crate and pinned the leather loop in place with it, making it harder to unhook, if not impossible. Cursing her luck, fate, and gifted genetics, she realized that she had only one real option outside of attempting to quietly and safely use the vibroblade or the force to get herself free, both of which may cause more noise than she wanted.

With a sigh, she began to undo the corset. Halfway through, she tried to tug the now loose leather from the splinter, but to no real success. It seemed fate was to force her into situations awkward for its own amusement. She undid the corset fully and shimmied to the side and out of the garment. Ignoring the immediate draft on her torso, she fiddled with the leather. Sure enough, without her body and bust in the garment, it came off the splinter with ease. Now free, Reine held the garment in her hand as she prepared to head towards the direction she'd been going where she could both return her garment to its proper place and find the phrik ore she was looking for.

Then she stopped. She remembered what the guards were just talking about. The crate they had broken being an ore crate. This was a phrik mine, which meant...

Phrikite ore.

 

[Reine Bisset]

Reine shimmied back the way she'd come, corset in one hand, the other helping to move herself along and keeping crate corners and box edges from scraping and cutting the skin over certain areas of her body. She reached the entrance of the narrow gap and gave a tentative look around. The guards were gone and the coast was clear, which meant she was in the clear.

Quickly shifting out of the boxes, she immediately went to work to replace her corset to her body. A minute or two of work saw the garment firmly attached and the drafts plaguing her stopped. From there, it was an easy task to find the ruptured ore crate the guards had found.

It was at the edge of the light and spilled out a fair amount in a decently sized area. Most of the phrikite ore was in the light, but a few larger chunks had bounced into the shadows that she hid in. She carefully inspected the chunks and found that there were around five good sized pieces of ore there.

She shoved all five in the bag she'd had rolled up and strapped to her waist and made her way back, out of the mine area. Two chunkes were to pay the woman that had helped her out, the rest... one was for her personal project and the other two... well, if she needed them, she had them. None were superbly huge and it would take two or three of the chunks to make a sword, depending on the weapon's size. But for what she might need them for, they were perfectly adequate...