Intermission:
Lithisia and Her Naked Shovel
IT WAS SEVEN IN THE EVENING, and Lithisia was seated on her knees inside the tent. Her mind raced, knowing she was facing her first night together with her miner.
Aaaaaahhh, what do I do?! I-I’m so nervous!
Her heart was racing a mile a minute. Why? Once the miner returned from hunting, they would practice “shoveling” on their very first night together.
If one were to put it into numbers, Lithisia was 100% excited and 300% losing her mind. She was so panicked that she didn’t consider the mathematical impossibility of it. After all, she was just a naive princess. Of course, she understood the general process of how to make a child. One became naked, and then, well, lewd things transpired.
But she was shaken up. Not over doing lewd things, but whether or not she would be able to satisfy the miner. Lithisia was considered the most beautiful young woman in Rostir, but she wondered if her looks meant anything to the great and noble miner, Alan. At the end of the day, she was beautiful by human standards. What if the dwarven-blooded miner had different standards altogether? What if he preferred women with a shovel-like face? What would she do?
She glanced down at the shovel in her hands. It was then that an entirely foolish idea took root in Lithisia’s mind.
“Perfect!” she squealed.
✦ ✦ ✦
Meanwhile, Alan was out hunting with his trusty shovel.
He had already finished off a wild boar by digging a hole with his tool. He butchered the meat with the blade of the shovel, then cooked it using Shovel Fire. After preserving the meat in his Shovel Fridge, he returned to where the princess was waiting for him. He had once heard that those in the palace ate wild boar meat, so he was hopeful that Lithisia would be pleased. It was her first time camping, after all, and he thought it’d be nice if he could help her relax.
Lithisia was raised as a princess. She was a delicate flower. Although Alan struggled at times to understand her words and actions, he knew that she must be nervous about going on a journey like this.
Determined to be her protector, Alan returned to the tent only to find Lithisia looking for all the world like her body was covered with nothing but a shovel.
“What the—?”
The line from Lithisia’s ample breasts to her hips was silky smooth, shaped vaguely like the contours of a gardening shovel. Her attractive thighs, much like her breasts, looked far softer than any soil that Alan could ever dig up.
WHOA, WHOA, WHOA! Alan quickly shook his head in an attempt to free his mind from all the shoveling metaphors he was coming up with to describe the vision before him. Stay calm, stay calm, he quietly told himself over and over again before looking back at Lithisia.
Upon closer inspection, she was not in fact fully naked. She was at least wearing panties, but that was it. Most of her bosom was bare for all to see, and her smooth thighs were visible. The garter belt she wore made them stand out even more. This glimpse at her nearly nude body was in fact far more suggestive than if she simply wore nothing at all.
In Lithisia’s hands was a single shovel. “Um, um, um, er, um, um…” The princess herself was an embarrassed mess. She squirmed uncomfortably, her ears cherry red. Her adorable motions caused her white panties to ride up a little.
With each move she made, her unconscious attack on Alan’s self-control continued. She then looked up at him. “W-welcome home, Sir Miner…! W-would you like dinner, a bath, or perhaps…” Lithisia squeezed her thighs together and leaned forward, emphasizing the shape of her breasts. “…you’d like to ‘shovel’ with me?”
It was as though time itself had frozen. Alan finally spoke. “...Lithisia.”
“Yes?!”
“I think you’ve got this shoveling thing all wrong.”
Lithisia’s thoughts crashed down to the ground with a thud.
✦ ✦ ✦
It took several minutes before Lithisia was able to speak properly again. “W-will you ever be able to forgive me?” she begged.
“What’s there to forgive? You haven’t done anything wrong.”
“B-but I tried to do the Naked Shovel and failed…” Lithisia cried.
She wasn’t wrong. It was pretty stupid. In all of Alan’s thousand-plus years of life, he’d never seen something so misguided.
“I’ve sullied the good name of the shovel. The only way I can make amends is by ending my life…!” She took the tip of her red shovel and held it up to her throat. Alan panicked and took the tool from her.
“Don’t do that! It’s not a capital offense!”
“I’m first in line for the throne. When I take my country back, I can make it one!”
“Don’t.” The last thing Rostir needed was a wave of executions. “Look, it’s really not a big deal. Hell, I’ve misused the shovel before.”
“What?!” Lithisia could hardly believe her ears.
“My father would scold me all the time. ‘You couldn’t even shovel sand with the limp way you hold that thing’. So I practiced as much as I could. I watched the way my father worked, memorized how to hold a shovel properly, how to put power into one. I practiced for ages. It was only recently that I figured out how to fire the Wave Motion Shovel Blast.”
“Erm, the Wave Motion Shovel Blast…?”
Lithisia clearly had something on her mind, but Alan barreled along. “Correct. So don’t worry about it. One day you’ll get used to it like I did.”
Lithisia held her mouth slightly ajar in surprise. She looked relatively satisfied by his explanation.
“And uh, put on some clothes.”
“Huh…? Ahh!!” The young princess finally remembered the state she was in. “I-I’m so sorry! I’m sure it must pain you to have to look at a body like mine…” Lithisia quickly pulled her cape over her body and lowered her eyes to the floor.
“No, not at all. You’re, um…”
“What?”
Alan was unsure whether he should continue. Was it really all right to say something like this to a fifteen-year-old young lady? At the same time, it would be rude not to say anything, so he steeled his resolve. As his mind recalled the sight of Lithisia clad in only panties and a shovel…
“…quite attractive,” he finished with an embarrassed cough.
“Oh…!”
“Your skin is soft and white, and your hair is transparent, like an angel’s. I honestly couldn’t believe my eyes. So, um, just be careful from now on, okay?” If Alan’s self-restraint were weaker, he would’ve been done in by the sight of her nearly naked body.
“I-I see…um, like an a-angel…? Aaah…” Lithisia’s heart was pierced in that moment not by Cupid’s arrows, but something more like Cupid’s shovel.
“All right, you can have this back now.”
Alan gave her back the red shovel. He didn’t simply hand it to her, but instead, made sure her gentle hands were holding it the proper way. He had all ten of her fingers grip the handle, and confirmed that she would never have the edge of the shovel facing towards her.
Time and time again their hands met, Alan’s rough and Lithisia’s soft. “Sir Miner, your hands are so rugged…”
“Lithisia, this is how you’re supposed to hold a shovel. Got it memorized?”
After some time, the golden-haired princess looked up at Alan and continued to stare into his eyes. Finally, her cheeks turned bright red and she averted her gaze. “Y-yes…” Lithisia pressed the palm of her hand to her bountiful breasts. She could still feel Alan’s warmth on her skin. “I’ll never forget the way this feels…ever.”
Alan was relieved that she understood. Her reaction was a bit odd, but he figured that was because she was a naive princess. “Glad to hear it. How about we eat?” Alan rose to his feet and began to prepare the wild boar.
He was already out of earshot when Lithisia spoke again.
“Sir Miner, I’ve got it memorized. I finally understand, at last.” The tears wouldn’t stop falling from her eyes. “A shovel is something that envelops and forgives all…” Lithisia gripped her red shovel in front of her chest. “A shovel is the world itself… Yes, I’ve got it memorized!”
Alan had yet to realize that Lithisia was already too far gone to be dissuaded from her shovel worship.