Sadly I don't own Disney, nor Snow White.

I hope you enjoy what I've come up with for the seven dwarves.

Please let me know what you think.


Freedom in the Mine.

The party of seven dwarves moved slowly through the narrow opening, carrying lanterns within their hands. A few of them had a bit of trouble pushing themselves through the narrow opening, grumbling a bit at the tight squeeze, or tripping over a loose piece of rock. But when the dwarves were inside the cave within the mountain, they brushed the rock dust off of themselves and they all looked around. Holding their lanterns aloft while a few of them were still grumbling, Doc's gasp and the others happy mutters when the sudden rainbow glitter of the reflection of the candlelight over the diamonds in the rock made them forget the trouble they'd had getting into the mountain.

"It's like you said, Doc," Happy grinned as he held up his lantern, casting the candlelight within over the diamonds that were half-buried in the rock, grinning wider than before as the light from the candle reflected the colours of the rainbow into the darkness of the cave. "It looks like this cave is rich with diamonds."

Doc grunted. A few weeks after their silver mine was worked out, the dwarves had been growing restless; without the prospect of a new treasure to mine and work on, the dwarves would begin to lose their business. Doc and the other dwarves knew full well there were other treasures just waiting to be found, and they had an almost magical instinctive ability to find treasures like jewels and precious metals. Doc had been the one to find the diamonds in this mountain. Indeed, the moment he had seen the place he had gotten the feeling there was something here, something precious.

He had followed the feeling to the cave, and he had discovered the diamonds.

Doc had only just taken a small rock hammer with him so he could take samples with him to take back to the cottage so the others could look at what he'd found, but they had been excited when he had brought back a small collection of diamonds, diamonds that were rich in quality. It was just what they needed.

The dwarf was currently leaning over a large collection of the jewels embedded in the rock. "Diamonds of a very high grade. I think we've found a good stream, eh, I mean seam."

Grumpy, who usually lived up to his name, was looking around happily. The prospect of treasure was what really focused his mind, but whenever he wasn't mining he possessed a grumpy demeanour despite his kind, compassionate side. "Gold and diamonds, both in the same week. But these are better; we could mine the diamonds in this place, dig out and refine the gold in the other place, and we could combine the two to make rings, necklaces, brooches."

The prospect of making treasure made Happy and the other dwarves grin. Dwarves were master craftsmen, making the best and most experienced human master craftsman look like apprentices only starting out.

Sneezy was examining the walls of the cave. "I think we'll need to expand the cave a bit, though. That will take time."

"Yeah, we'll need to widen the cave, lay down a tramway," Bashful added as he looked down at the ground.

"Do we know how big the seam is, or how far it goes?" Grumpy saw a major issue with the plan.

"Yeah, we don't want another repeat of the gold mine; I thought we wouldn't ever get rid of that water," Happy threw in, sending a dark look at was alien to the usually jovial dwarf at Doc.

The bespectacled dwarf sighed. "How many times do I have to say I'm sorry. I never knew we would hit an underground river."

"He's right, we made a mistake there. But we need to see how large the diamond seam is in this cave. We don't want to spend a few weeks here, working to enlarge the entrance of the cave, laying down a tramway only to find ourselves mining out the diamonds a few weeks later," Bashful interrupted.

"He's right," Sneezy lifted his lantern and he made to move further down the caves. The other dwarfs followed, Doc and Grumpy both fixing two long, thin ropes to different stalagmites and gently laying it down while Happy and Bashful began drawing a crude map from the point they'd entered to what they saw. They had brought three to six miles worth of rope with them, knowing from experience they could spend years digging through rock; they knew it was a good idea to be prepared for every eventuality.

The deeper the dwarves went, the greater the concentration of diamonds. And it wasn't just diamonds, there were rubies and the occasional emerald, and a few topazes and sapphires. As they went through the cave network, the dwarves saw how it honeycombed the mountain, and they gaped in awe when they saw just how huge some of the diamond-rich caves and caverns were.

Sneezy took a deep sniff of the air. "I don't think anyone's been in these caves ever; hopefully we'll have the place to ourselves."

"I hope you weren't thinking of getting to the gold mine in a hurry, Grumpy," Happy chuckled as he took in the number of diamonds in a single cave and along the passageways.

Grumpy waved a paw. "Aw, it's alright. Judging by what we're seeing, we can be happy mining these diamonds for the rest of our lives!" He finished with a crooked grin.

"So, we're in agreement, then?" Doc looked at his fellow dwarves.

"Definitely," Grumpy nodded.

"We would need to spend a few weeks enlarging the entrance and laying down the tracks for the tramway; we could use the tracks we built for the old silver mine, that way we don't need to do it all over again," Bashful suggested.

"That's a good idea. At the same time we can also finish moving the silver and sealing up the old mine," Sneezy said.

Doc meanwhile was looking around in interest before he turned to Grumpy. "This mine would be closer to home than our old one, but I think it will take us a month to enlarge the entrance, build in storage sheds for our tools and for the tram carts."

"Yeah, mark my words we'll be kept busy for months. Oh, don't forget, we'll need to find routes between here and home," Grumpy added when he remembered that critical point.

"We haven't seen any water yet, but these walls are damp. That won't be a problem for some time," Sleeping yawned.

"That means more survey work later," Bashful commented.

"I think we've seen enough for now. We'd better go, it might be dark by now," Doc said, thinking about the time.

The dwarves didn't share the same silly superstitions as humans did, but they did know how dangerous the night could be, especially in a world with their rivals, the goblins and witches and wizards.

By the time the dwarves returned to the entrance of the cave, they discovered it was not dark but it was sunset. Still, they had to leave in a hurry. It took the dwarves a good hour to return to their cottage, but when they got back and they started cooking dinner they had a second talk about their plans to work on the mine. The next day, three of the dwarves headed out to the diamond caves, armed with large picks, hammers and large chisels and axes to begin work on enlarging the opening of the cave while shoring it up with wood, while the others travelled to the silver mine to break up the sheds and the tram, carrying other sets of tools on carts pulled by domesticated and tamed deers.

The trio working on the new mine shoved the chisels into the rock and immediately they began breaking down the wall to enlarge the opening with large hammers. The dwarves were strong and it didn't take them long to begin seeing some progress. When the others returned after taking up the tramway in the silver mine, and closing it down and breaking up their storage sheds, the work went much more quickly. Within a week they had enlarged the entrance to the new mine and they began work laying down the tramway and the other essentials.

Doc, Sleepy, Grumpy, Dopey, Bashful, Sneezy, and Happy didn't have any kind of problem with setting the mine up, and it didn't take them long to start work on the mine, within 3 weeks the dwarves began to dig out the diamonds. They would dig them out, take them to Doc and he would check if they were perfect. If they weren't, they would throw them away.

The dwarves worked their new mine for the next 12 years. And then, on one routine day, they returned to their cottage and encountered a princess…