Chapter 4: Kaden

Kaden

The sun has dipped below the hazy horizon. The temperature drops drastically as I land at the bottom of the cliff, trying not to lose my balance and slip off the rock. The rough tides thrash below, white foam rippling around the large boulders. 

Nothing. I see absolutely nothing. There’s just a pile of rocks and a large body of freezing cold water that's damaging the leather of my boots. 

What now? What will I tell the kids when I come back empty-handed? I can’t disappoint them again. Winter this year has been brutal enough, and they've barely gotten a decent, warm meal. Ms. Langston does jack-s**t for them, and pockets donations and charity funding the royal family holds every year for all the orphanages in the Kingdom. She refuses to spend the money on the orphanage she f*****g owns. That slimy old hag should be thrown in the dungeons by now.

To have come this far for nothing would be a waste. There’s gotta be some light of hope that there’s something valuable here that I can pawn off. Maybe some rare stone hidden behind the wall of rock? Some sort of abandoned mine, perhaps? I do have a pickaxe. And two arms. 

Well, Ryker, It’s worth a shot. I’ve got nothing to lose. Unless I accidentally trigger an avalanche, then there goes my life and my dignity. 

I think rather than wanted posters that have a poorly drawn portrait of me plastered all over the kingdom, the news articles could have a field day reporting about the handsome and rugged infamous thief, Kaden Ryker, who tragically died in an avalanche in pursuit to save poor orphan children from starvation. Yup, that’s precisely what they’d say. 

I grip my axe with both hands and swing it into the wall with all the force I can muster.

***

It’s been an hour of hammering into a rock wall at the bottom of the cliff. My arms are tired, and my hands are forming blisters from tightly clenching the wooden handle. My hair is completely drenched from the condensation and sweat as it drips from my forehead. I wipe off the wet mixture with the back of my hand, catching my breath.
Night has arrived, and the moon has pulled the tide in. One more swing�"just one more, and I’ll call it. I aim at the somewhat large dent that I made in the wall and hit it one more time. 

As soon as I make contact, a violent clang vibrates from the axe through my bones, the sound ringing in my ears and reverberating around the cove. 

“What the hell?” I inspect the tip of the steel axe, brushing my thumb over the piece that chipped off. What did I just hit? 

I look up and see a shimmering glare that shines through behind the rocks. The bright moonlight emitting off of… metal? I take my axe and hit the rock again and again and again until the rubble falls to my feet, revealing a wall of slick silver iron. 

I knock on the metal wall�" it’s hollow. 

What if it's an abandoned military base from the war? I vaguely remember being taught about them in the school orphanage. I mostly skimmed the history textbooks, but there was a picture of an underground fortress that piqued my delinquent mind’s curiosity. I remember reading that Solaryian soldiers held their enemies captive and tortured them for information. The fortress they kept them in was made of metal and stone that spanned far and deep beneath the ocean. Their locations were never revealed to the public so they wouldn't be raided by thieves. 

Well, it seems like that is about to change. I must find a way inside.