Hard labour

Featuring

Sweat was dripping down his shoulders as he pushed them into the large boulder in front of him again. They had been at it all day, filling up the tunnel with large rocks to keep it, and the rest of the surrounding, from collapsing. King Pascal had kindly yet severe driven them on wards, he even helped out with the hard labor as much as his position allowed him. During the past year Solban had been on probation, and  he had learned new respect for the moon blessed king, and his respect still grew every day.

 Next to Solban other stags where pushing boulders far bigger than his, and Solban felt quiet ashamed to admit his was not able to push any rock bigger than the one he had in front of him now. Due to his light built he had never been much for strength, but since his out-of-oakfern-adventure he seemed to be unable to gain any weight, and he kept being more thin than he was used to, which  made him unable to move anything more heavy than himself.

Even though it was never light in the tunnels, Solban knew the day was not past for a few hours yet. They hoped to close up the tunnel before midnight, but the work was going slowly as the boulders appeared to be far more heavy as they had hoped for and so the work took longer too. Every step Solban took, he pushed all his weight into the large rock in front of him, and yet it moved only by inches. Yet even though they labored heavily, Solban enjoyed it much. Pushing his body to the limits had always cleared his mind better than anything else and every bit of pain the next day, would remind him he was growing stronger still. King Pascal was doing right by making sure the surrounding was safe to live in and moments like this, Solban felt proud to be able to do something for his herd, as well as for his king. After all, it was this king who had allowed him back into the herd, even though his life was still lonely.

Slowly but steadily Solban came closer to the tunnel which they were filling up, his hooves scratched the hard rock flooring and it became harder and harder to find grip, as the ground became wetter and thus more slippery. They worked in silence but for the rough sounds of the boulders scratching the floor. ’just one more push’ he whispered to himself  ‘One more push and I will be there’ and so he pushed his shoulders into the boulder again, sliding it over the wet floor one more time, securing it into place. And then it was there, muscles aching, breathing loudly, he looked at how far they had come already. He and his fellow guard members, and other herdmembers helping out, had done much today… maybe if they all did two more rocks, they would even finish it off today. He took a deep breath and started walking in opposite direction, watching the other stags pushing their boulders infront of them, some magicians helped keeping the floor wet so the big stones were sliding easier. ‘We are actually a strong herd…’ solban thought to himself, as he saw how all of them worked together. Than he walked towards a new boulder, and pushed his shoulders into it again, only thinking ‘we can do this’.

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Wordcount: 579

A short story about Solban helping out as King Pascal is creating and securing living space inside the tunnels, idea is not at all mine, I just jumped into a story already made, go read it here: nyxxiis.deviantart.com/art/A-N….
I really wanted to show a bit of Solban being a good guardsmen, aswell as training his strenght a bit XD.

The drawing took me about an hour (pretty proud of that actually), without a ref. Diving back into the darkness of the oakfern caves and the glowing shizzle everywhere YAY!

Solban (C) me
Storyline and Pascal (C)