CLINK! CLANK!

The sound of metal pickaxes scraping against earth and minerals echoed throughout the Mineral Quarry as the labourers mined away desperately looking for the energy-filled mineral known as Essence.

Lanterns hanging on the cavern walls bask the dirty sweaty miners in a red light, brightly illuminating one part of the quarry where most of the miners gathered.

DING! DING! DING!                                   

Hearing the familiar alarm bell ringing , the miners stopped whatever they were doing to stand up straight with a salute.

Heavy footsteps approached the entrance of the quarry signalling the daily progress inspection carried out by the station master.

A large woman three times the size of each miner walked by each mining party to check on their daily progress, passing on meal tickets to each mining party according to their work.

"Thank you ma'am, we aim to work even harder tomorrow. Glory to Heaven's Pillar." claimed the miners after being inspected. Each respective mining party thanked the large woman with a salute and dragged themselves towards the entrance of the Quarry, hungry and tired from the day's work.

In the farther and more dimmer part of the quarry, stood three figures as they carried out their mining duties.

Even though Essence was more frequent in the more active mining spots, competition was always high and the miners that do not fulfil the daily mining quota will have to sleep on an empty stomach. Such is the law of this great nation.

Mining at an isolated spot is a risk but it has the benefit of having no competition.

Of the three figures, two of them were carefully examining the cavern walls while the third one was sitting on a nearby rock. 

The red light emitting from the pit lantern hanging overhead reveals that two of the figures were both a young and old man, and the third figure was in fact a skeleton.

Both men wore rugged mining clothes, which along with their hair and light brown skin was caked with dirt and grime.

"This spot, right here" said Jahrah , feeling a surge of energy vibrate through his right arm after hovering over a certain spot on the cavern wall. As a fellow Evoker, he was especially sensitive to the energy pulse that comes from Essence.

The skeleton sitting on the rock sprung up and walked over to Jahrah slowly, clutching a pickaxe with both its bony arms.

Jahrah stepped aside as his summoned skeleton started digging at the cavern wall. While he waited, he looked over to the old man besides him desperately trying to detect the energy pulse given off by Essence  along the cavern walls.

In his old age, the old balding man known as Ahlain has lost his touch with Essence and has made the old Evoker almost useless in detecting Essence pulses. This made him a liability which may end up causing their party to have leftover scraps again for the fifth time this week.

Not looking forward to eating cold leftover stew again, Jahrah sighed and looked over at the half empty mining cart behind him.

"Just my luck, to get paired up with old man Ahlain." thought Jahrah to himself, shaking his head lightly. His thought was cut off by the clunky sound of a pickaxe scrapping against the surface of a mineral and Jahrah looked over to his summoned skeleton.

The Essence gives off a soft purple glow as chunks of dirt fall off around it. Pushing the skeleton aside, Jahrah slowly dug it out of the wall.

It was unlike any Essence he had ever seen. The typical Essence had a blue glow to it but this one glowed a soft purple.

"Why is it purple?" asked old man Ahlain curiously, taking note of the purple Essence in Jahrah's hands.

Jahrah was coming up with so many theories in his head that he took no notice of the old Evoker's question.

Then for a moment, he heard something. Something whispering in his ear. Jahrah looked around but saw only the old man looking at him from a distance. He looked back at the piece of purple Essence in his hands.

"Wait....is the Essence talking to me?" wondered Jahrah out loud.

 Both Evokers were so focused on the unique piece of Essence they did not notice the heavy crunching footsteps approaching them from behind.

"Ah Yes, my two favourite Evokers" came a woman's voice behind them.

Caught by surprise and instantly recognizing the voice of the Colossal station master standing behind him, Jahrah twirled around to give a hasty salute and came face to face with the thighs of the towering woman looming over him.

Zhinah is a big burly woman with long wavy black hair and light brown skin. She wears a tight fitting standard black and grey jumpsuit uniform for station masters accompanied with knee high boots. Standing at maybe 18-20 feet tall, the Colossal had to bend down her knees to a squatting position so she could properly inspect the mining cart.

Jahrah always wondered if the intimidation factor for being at her full height of 20 feet tall was really worth it. It can't be very comfortable for the Colossal, to have the miners being eye-level with her crotch.

Hoping the Colossal didn't notice the purple essence in his left hand, Jahrah sneakily slipped it into the pocket of his pants.

"Underperforming again I see." said Zhinah with a smirk, as she inspected the mining cart. "As usual, you two will be having the leftovers."

"Thank you ma'am, we aim to work even harder tomorrow. Glory to Heaven's Pillar." mumbled both Jahrah and Ahlain in a low voice.

"Where is my good for nothing Assistant?! Bring me the leftover tickets now!"  demanded the giantess.

From a distance behind her, there came a small man sprinting over as fast as his tiny legs could carry him. "S-S-Sorry milady! My legs just can't cover as much distance as y-y-yours!" bumbled the dwarf as he gasped for air.

The dwarf assistant of Zhinah is known around here as Assistoh. He is a timid middle age man with white hair and appears a little chubby. Like Zhinah, he wears the standard black and grey work station jumpsuit.

Assistoh is an Observer, which in contrast to Colossals who could grow in size, he could shrink to the size of an Erther Nut. Now he stood at his normal height of 3-4 feet tall, which made him half as tall as the average man.

As her assistant, he handles the Work station's accounts and documents as Zhinah couldn't be bothered with such boring and mundane work.

Fumbling about his shirt pocket, Assistoh passed a leftover meal ticket voucher to Jarah and Ahlain respectively. As he did so, he noticed a purple glow coming from Jahrah's pants. "What's that in your pocket?" asked the Observer.

Jahrah cursed under his breath and took the purple Essence out of his pocket, not wanting any more trouble then he is already in.

Peaking her curiosity, the Colossal shrunk down to her normal height of 9-10 ft tall and walked over to him. Zhinah snatched the purple Essence away from him to take a closer look. As she shrunk down in size, her tight fitting jumpsuit shrunk along with her, being woven from a special expandable and strong fabric made by the tissue of a Bloon plant.

"No! Don't let her take me!" came a feminine voice in Jahrah's head. He presumed it to be the same voice coming from the Essence before.

"And what made you think hiding this from me was a good idea?" asked Zhinah angrily as she looked down at Jahrah, her spit spluttering all over his face. Even at her normal height, Jahrah was only eye-level with her chest.

"Errr....I'm sorry ma'am?" Jahrah tried saying with a sweet smile.

His response only infuriated the giantess. Almost immediately after he said that,  Zhinah walked over to his summoned skeleton.

The skeleton was standing idly by, mindlessly staring at her as the giantess approached.  Zhinah grew back to her full height of 20 feet tall and lifted her right foot high up into the air.

Aiming for the skeleton , she stomped down with all her might.

STOMP! CRUNCH!

Jahrah's summoned skeleton shattered under her weight, bones flying everywhere. For good measure, Zhinah continued grinding down with her foot on the shattered remains of the skeleton for a few more seconds before lifting her foot up.

From the heap of bones, the cracked skull of his spawn rolled over to Jahrah's feet, it's eyes dim with the blue energy of Essence.

Following the skull, the giantess stepped over to Jahrah and bent her body down so that she was almost eye level with him.

"Know your place." Zhinah said menacingly, her breath hot on his face.

With that said the giantess stood back straight, tossed the small piece of purple essence into her chest pocket, and stomped away.

Having to follow her again, Assistoh gave a long sigh before chasing after the Colossal, running to keep up with her long strides.

The two Evokers still shocked from the experience, continued to stare at Zhinah stomping away until she was far from sight.

With his tired aching limbs still trembling, Jahrah slowly bent down to pick up the shattered skull  of his destroyed spawn. At that moment, he was both afraid and angry.

He hated the feeling, the feeling of being so helpless.