//------------------------------//
// 47: Crundle Attack 
// Story: My Little Fortress: Dawnpick 
// by Paaaad 
//------------------------------//

A fresh cut stretched across Powder Miner's face as he backed away from the crundle, suddenly lunging forward for a swing, which took a bit of flesh off of the thing. it struck back, dealing Powder Miner a new blow. Powder Miner continued to back away again in the fight, moving towards the cavern entrance. He was hoping he'd be able to make it to the traps to take care of the thing.

Jaxler was on patrol, he had full leather armor and his steel crossbow. his patrol had recently been extended, now he had to walk all the way down to check on the caverns. He was halfway to the cave entrance when he heard fighting. Jaxler flew as fast as he could and found powder being attacked by a crundle. Jaxler put a bolt in his steel crossbow and aimed.
"RUN POWDER!!"

Glyph was resting in one of his favorite sections of the cavern, enjoying the beauty. Even though there was danger there, he still enjoys relaxing in the caverns, besides seeing as he's in the militia, he should be safe enough.
Glyph heard another fight going on, which didn't worry him at first, after all, with all the nasty things down here, he was used to hearing fights... then he heard Jaxler's yell.
Quickly, he ran to the sound arriving right behind Jaxler and drawing his axe. "Jaxler, you have a shot?"

"I'm not using my wooden crossbow right now, I couldn't hit the side of a mountain with this steel one."

"Alright... watch my back then." Glyph rushes forward at the crundle, placing himself between it and Powder, brandishing his axe. 
"Powder, get out of here now!"

The crundle had turned to the sound of the voices, distracted. "No, I've got this!" Powder Miner buried his pick into the thing's skull. As a fairly accomplished miner, he could deal with singular threats. But not being militarily trained, he found that, unfortunately, multiple crundles were too much. Specifically he found this by a hammering punch to the back of the head which staggered him. He began running "I think I will run!"

Glyph just shakes his head at Powders action, he seemed to be alright though, so he focused instead on the threat in front of him. "Come on, you have better things to be doing... no need to chase Powder..." He strikes out at the crundle, striking a gash in it's leg, more focused on keeping it's attention rather than killing it.

Jaxler pointed his steel crossbow at the crundle from a few feet away. when he shot the bolt barely grazing it. Jaxler decided that the steel crossbow's only function was that of a 2nd rate mace and hit the crundle in the side with it. Amazingly he hardly even managed to bruised the thing, so he just resorted to kicking it.

Glyph sees the crundle's claw striking down at Jaxler and shoulders him out of the way. The attack bites into his foreleg, making it buckle for a moment, before he surges to his hooves and strike at the thing again. He sweeps his axe at its side, cutting deep and knocking it over. "Jaxler, get Powder out safe, I can handle this."

Jaxler was angry that Glyph acted like his shield. So he ignored his orders and walked up to the overturned crundle and stomped the things head in.
"I don't like it when ponies take my hits for me."

"Well too bucking bad. Come on, we should make sure Powder got out okay, there could be more of those things." Glyph moves to follow Powder, his leg giving him trouble. He stomps it a few times, then puts his weight back on it, limping only slightly.

Powder Miner cleared the boulder that he had let go of when attacked from the entrance. "*sigh*... Panacea is awfully busy these days."

Jaxler was following Glyph and noticed he was limping. "You should have let that crundle attack me, my armor could have taken the blow."

"Yeah, but I was there. I just take blows by instinct... and my leg is fine. A little pain is a good thing, besides, means it won't hurt as much next time."

"Let's just get above-ground," Powder interjected, "Standing here wounded helps noone."

"Ya, but now I feel accountable for you getting hurt."

*sigh* "The caverns are dangerous, and you can't possibly be everywhere at once."

"No one's responsible for my actions but me. You don't want me taking hits for you learn to shoot that steel crossbow, then any hits would be aimed at me anyways."

When Glyph brought up the steel crossbow it made Jaxler feel a bit stressed. "Sorry but I've been using my wooden crossbow for a while now and switching to a different weapon that I honestly don't trust is pretty hard."

"I can imagine, Probably just as bad as the few times I've tried to use a spear... Apparently it gets easier with practice, but still..."

"I guess so. Oh, looks like we're here."

Powder Miner knocked on the door of the hospital.

Panacea looks up from the textbook she was lazily flipping through at the sound of somepony knocking at the door.  She closes the book and hops up before trotting over to the door.  At least whoever it was didn't sound too urgent, so she wasn't overly worried.
"Hello?" she asks, opening the door to take in the ponies in front of her.

Glyph walks in, still limping slightly from the gash in his leg. "Hi Panacea, Powder got attacked by a crundle down in the caves... I got a bit of a scratch as well..." He smiles slightly, sitting down and showing his wound.

"Aye Panacea, ya got anything for a hangover?"

Powder Miner winced. Now he was beginning to feel the cuts. "Yeah, thing slashed me across the face a few times."

Panacea frowns a bit as she notices the cuts and motions for everypony to come inside.  It didn't look too bad overall, thankfully.  A few stitches for Glyph and Powder Miner, probably nothing more.  She steps back to the coffers at the far side of the hospital and searches for some thread and wash cloth.
As she returns to inspect the wounds, she says to Jaxler, "Not much, I'm afraid."  She motions to a small stock of herbs packaged on a shelf nearby.  "Chewing some of those leaves will help a bit if you've got a headache though."

Jaxler wasn't all too optimistic that the leaves would really do anything, but he figured that as long as they wouldn't kill him it was worth a try.
"If I chew too many of those leaves It wont kill me, right?"

She smiles and shakes her head as she begins cleaning the cut on Powder Miner's face.  "No, you'd have to eat a hundred times as much as we've got here before it would do something like that."  She finishes cleaning the cut and sutures it closed as gently as she can, a delicate art she'd learned to do with just her mouth the hard way.
She then turns her attention to Glyph, whose cut was a bit deeper but didn't seem to have caused any permanent damage.

"So, hows it look? Pretty easy to move on, just needed to stomp it a bit." Glyph holds his forehoof out, looking at the cut strangely. "Been a while since I've gotten hit..."

She gives him a reassuring smile and takes a closer look.  "It's not bad, the cut it is a little deep, but I think it'll heal up just fine."  She gently cleans the cut, inspects it once more to confirm that it wasn't too serious and begins to carefully suture it.
"So, how did this happen?" she asks, trying to keep Glyph's mind off the procedure she was performing.  "I thought the masons had sealed off the caverns?"

"I know of a few ways in, I... I like it down there. I'm careful though, there's no way something could get out into the fort from there." He watches the suturing, cocking his head slightly, not seeming bothered. "Dunno what Powder and Jaxler were doing down there, but I got gashed cause I got in the way of a hit."

"Oh, I see."  She gives him a warm smile as she finishes the suturing.  "That's very brave of you.  I really think a lot of everypony in the militia and the guard.  I sleep a lot better at night knowing all of you are watching out for us."

"Gold mining. The other gold mines ran dry, so if we wanted any gold to sell, we needed to get it from the caverns. Those... huge monsters were gone, so I volunteered."

Jaxler started chewing the herbs, they really didn't seem to help too much.
"Seeing as nether of you are gonna die I should "probably" get back to patrol"

Panacea looks over to Powder Miner and says, "Oh, I see.  Well, I hope you can find some way to mine out the gold without getting too close to the monsters down there."

She nods toward Jaxler as he leaves then gives a smile to Glyph.  "But I'm sure the militia will keep you safe."  After a quick inspect of her stitch work, she stands.  "I think you two should be good to go now.  If the pain gets too bad, or if the wounds start to get worse, don't hesitate to come back and see me."

"Thanks Panacea," I say as I stand up, "I'll be sure to let you know if something feels wrong." I head out, with a final goodbye to Jaxler and Powder.