It’s not my fault we have to make more decisions over Abilities than they do, Dominic thought defensively, as the rest of his pride made it clear that they had been impatiently waiting while the lion made a meal over levelling.
‘Stop grumbling,’ Leo grumbled at him. ‘It’s annoying.’
‘Look who’s talking,’ Dominic shot back at him. ‘Anyway, do you want to take control for a bit?’
Leo hesitated for a moment.
‘No,’ he decided after some thought. ‘If there’s a good fight to be had, then maybe. But we need to get these doors open first.’
‘Alright,’ Dominic agreed. ‘Just let me know when you want to switch over.’
‘I will do.’
With that decided, Dominic joined the rest of the pride at the doors. Sekhmet had apparently got the rest of the pride to check it over for obvious traps while he was levelling up – Dominic appreciated her proactivity. Out of curiosity as to whether his new Spatial Awareness would work through obstacles, he stepped right up to the doors.
A moment later, he stepped away, disappointed. Apparently not. He’d have to test other places, though, just in case this was special because it was a dungeon.
He had six round golden discs which he was pretty sure matched the six round holes in the pictures carved across the doors. As he’d noted before, the scene looked like a banquet or a celebration of some sort. Far on the right hand side was what appeared to be a ruler, if the ‘throne’ it was sitting on was any indication. It was definitely the largest creature depicted and was holding what looked like a sceptre. The end of the sceptre was on the door to the right and held one of the indents for a round disc shape.
The five other indents were spaced out among five other figures. Two appeared to be entertainers, juggling with items. One was juggling with balls; the other with torches. One throwing object of each of them held another round space.
The last three appeared to be servers. One was carrying a plate piled high with fruit; one of the fruit had a gaping hole in the middle of it. The second was carrying two plates, one with a single object on it, the other with two; one of the items on the plate with two offerings was obscured by the hole in the centre. That one was the closest to the ‘throne’ and was the only other figure on the right hand door. The final figure was also a server, carrying something in each hand, one bearing the hole for the disc.
Deciding to start from the left, Dominic pulled out all of the discs and dropped them on the ground.
This is where one of those kesh would come in handy, he said to himself with a sigh. His paws were still no better than before at holding things. Unfortunately, looking around, he didn’t think that anyone else would be any better at it – none of them had opposable thumbs and the canine-like paws of the amesheks looked even less flexible than his.
Resigning himself to some frustration, he grabbed the first disc gently between two teeth and moved towards the hole on the furthest left.
‘What are you doing?’ asked Fang curiously.
‘We need to get these discs into these holes,’ Dominic explained. ‘But it’s not easy,’ he added as he dropped the golden metal object for the second time.
‘I see that,’ agreed Fang, but that didn’t stop him from picking one up and moving to Dominic’s right to give it a go. His face pressed up against the wall, Dominic noticed his movement more through his newest Ability than with his eyes.
‘Thanks,’ he said gratefully. He should probably have thought of it – even if the other lions’ paws were no better than his own for this task, they were also no worse. When he pulled away to pick up the disc for a third time, he saw that Sekhmet had also joined.
By the time he actually managed to get the disc slotted in, the whole pride was trying. As Dominic predicted, Procyon’s and Sirius’ paws were even more ill-suited to the task than Dominic’s and they weren’t managing with their jaws either: at least Dominic had managed to get the key disc mostly into position and then slipped his paw between his jaws and the wall to nudge it into the hole itself; the amesheks weren’t even managing to get it near the holes.
Sirius gave up in frustration so Dominic wordlessly went over to do that one. It wasn’t just the difficulty of the task itself causing issues in this one: the sceptre hole was the highest hole to reach, and Sirius was a bit short. Dominic was the largest of the group so it was easier for him. Not to say that it was easy but he managed to get it in just as Sekhmet and Fang both succeeded.
Procyon and Lionel continued persevering with their discs. Lionel achieved success, the door on the left abruptly creaking open by a couple of inches. The one on the right remained firmly fixed in place, clearly unaffected by the discs they had so far inserted. They all clustered around the left-hand door, waiting for an attack which didn’t come.
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After a few tense moments, Dominic dared to nudge the door further open. It swung easily on its hinges, moving more fluidly than he’d expect of a door in an ‘abandoned’ temple. It did make a loud creaking noise – which made Dominic wince – but nothing appeared to be triggered by the racket.
Perhaps that was only because there wasn’t anything to be alarmed by, he concluded once the door was fully open: the room was empty. Empty of living creatures, anyway, though Dominic didn’t take that to mean that it was safe. He’d learnt that lesson a long time ago.
Fortunately there were no statues which at least meant that it wasn’t a repeat of that trap. But that it was a trap seemed to be obvious – it looked too innocuous to be anything else.
At the centre of the room was a small fire pit with what looked like writing near it. Actually, there appeared to be writing of some sort all around the room, not that it was in any alphabet Dominic could identify. In recesses around the room were small braziers, currently unlit. He suspected that lighting them would be at least part of the task. More, he’d have to see when they got in the room, but he didn’t want to do that until they knew what was in the other room.
After all, the purpose of this expedition required him to face and defeat the final guardian; that was it. If the rest of the pride could earn a few more levels, that would be a bonus. Dealing with traps like he’d experienced with the statues and the meerkats wasn’t at all necessary – unless the dungeon made it such, of course. And frankly, if they could avoid the trap rooms, he’d rather do so, even if that meant losing out on a bit of loot. There was just too much risk of them not being able to figure out the riddle.
Procyon succeeded a few minutes later at putting the final disc in place. By that point, Dominic was considering almost forcing the ameshek to let someone else take over. He was glad he hadn’t pushed the matter when the ameshek succeeded – Procyon proved himself quite persistent.
With the second disc on the right-hand door falling into place, that one also opened slightly with a clunk.
Tension filled the air as they waited to find out if this one was going to release a flood of enemies. After a few moments, it became clear that, similar to the left-hand door, nothing was about to ambush them. At least, not straight away.
‘Let’s see what’s inside this one, then,’ Dominic decided, moving towards it. Once more nudging it carefully, this time all of them tensed further when they saw the contents.
This room looked half destroyed, the night sky obvious through the massive hole in the roof of the temple. A tree was even growing in the middle of it, its branches reaching towards the sky. Dominic was briefly confused: he hadn’t seen this hole with the tree growing out of it from the outside and they had been all the way around the temple. Then he put it down to it being a dungeon – did it really have to follow all the rules of the outside world?
It wasn’t the half-destroyed nature of the room which made them all so wary, though – it was the creatures who were in there.
A massive monitor lizard was curled up at the base of the tree. This one had to be at least the size of a lion, though not quite a lion of Dominic’s size.
‘Look into tree,’ Sekhmet murmured tensely in the Pride chat. Dominic flicked his eyes up and saw what she was getting at. There were several of the slons they’d encountered outside, though visually bigger and stronger.
‘I sense enemies on the ground too,’ Procyon rumbled in the chat. Dominic looked in that direction, but couldn’t see anything. Probably snakes, then – there were enough fallen branches and rocks to camouflage the ambush predators.
‘A bit of a party,’ Dominic concluded grimly. ‘Leo, do you want to take point on this one?’
‘Fine,’ agreed the lion after a moment of thought. ‘It looks like a good fight.’
‘Yes. Though at least they’re all enemies we’ve faced before, even if they’re tougher. I wonder if that's the intention.’
‘Probably,’ agreed Leo, then his consciousness pressed against Dominic’s and they switched places.
Stretching, Leo settled into his body once more, enjoying the feel of being physically present. He took a moment as well to feel the slight differences since he’d last been in control. He noticed the female looking at him with her head cocked to one side, even as she also kept a wary eye on the beasts inside the room.
‘Other one in control now?’ she asked in the chat.
‘Yes,’ Leo replied shortly.
‘Hm,’ she grunted.
‘I think she’s disappointed,’ teased Leo’s brother.
‘She’s not,’ Leo told him. ‘Now, if you don’t have anything useful to add to the situation, be quiet and let me concentrate.’
‘I do, actually,’ Dominic answered seriously, then started speaking in the Pride chat. ‘I think we should start with a Majestic Roar – try to scare everything out of hiding. At the moment, we don’t know where all the enemies are. That’s a problem. Oh, and give everyone a buff while we’re at it.’
‘Is a good idea,’ agreed Sekhmet.
‘I also think that Lionel should stay back as much as possible,’ continued Dominic. ‘He’s our healer, and needs to be able to jump in where he can. That means he can’t be fighting as much as everyone else. But that might also make him a target for attacks – the rule of fighting is often to take out the healer first.’
‘I will help keep my brother safe,’ promised Fang.
‘Good idea,’ Leo’s brother praised. ‘Which leaves the rest of us to deal with the others. I suggest that Leo and I deal with the slons in the trees above first – with Fang focussing on protecting Lionel, Leo and I are probably the best option for combat above the ground. That leaves the massive lizard and probable snakes to Sekhmet, Procyon and Sirius. Sound good?’
A chorus of agreement echoes through the Pride chat.
‘Then let’s go,’ says Dominic with determination. ‘Take it away, Leo.’