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Stay Put

The cave entrance was interesting. It wasn’t as simple as Coney had imagined, and looked prepared. He supposed with a name like Labyrinth he really should have expected such things, but for some reason eh’d expected a standard looking dungeon like one of the hundreds of useless caves dotted around the map of the latest Elder Scrolls game.

Instead of something as simple as a cave, the entrance to the labyrinth was a face, with a cavernous mouth they had to walk in. Looking up, he realized that the man-like creature the tunnel had been based on had only a single eye, right in the middle of its face. “This isn’t exactly inviting.” He said to assuage is fears, even as Carrie moved ahead of them.

“Yeah, well, you can pussy out if you want. But I’m gonna scout.” She said, winking at him as she walked into the first room with her hands on her knives. Coney and the others followed slowly, Briana taking the back and guiding both boys easily with her presence.

The first area was simple. It had a tile floor, a mosaic, which Coney looked at as they walked in. Carrie was nowhere to be seen, however behind him he heard the click of something. Looking back he saw Briana light a torch and hold it up, revealing the room as a whole. It was a large circular room broken up by pillars. Between them were large stone doors, all of which were smashed open.

“Hey, what’s with the smash and grab?” Eric asked, a little bit peeved sounding. “I thought we agreed to keep the terrign damage to a minimum in case we find some way to claim the area.”

“I did.” The pigtailed human girl said as she stepped out from behind a pillar. Her face was plastered with a grin. “This wasn’t me. This was how it was when I got here.”

“Grave robbers?” Coney asked, a little confused. “Other players, or maybe NPCS… I’m not sure.”

“Well, this room would be a treasure trove. But if it was players they must not have been taking too much of a risk.” Eric said, gesturing around.

“I wouldn’t be so sure.” Carrie said, pointing up above their heads. Looking up Coney fell on his ass, seeing a massive spider more than twice his size glaring at him. Staring at it for a few seconds he realized it wasn’t moving, and the giggles of Briana behind him made it even more clear.

“Jesus fuck.” Coney said, unsure if he’d have to bleep that or not later. “I mean come on, you couldn’t tell me there was a spider?”

“It is dead.” Eric said, although he was clearly shivering a little. Coney glanced at him, and saw that he was pointing down at the Spider's abdomen. There, impaled into the spider was a sword, which was keeping it pinned to the ceiling.

“Still, I’ll be more than happy to leave that thing behind. Any word on a way forward?” Coney asked.

“Agreed.” Carrie said, a soft sound of worry and compassion in her undertone. “It’s pretty simple actually. There was a falce back in one of the little compartments. Looking at their contents I think we can safely say they were graves, so yes… graverobbing is certainly the answer.” She guided the group to one side that was nearly across from where they entered. She’d opened some kind of stone door.

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Walking up, Coney looked down at the broken alcove. Inside was in fact a couple bones, but none of the ones that were particularly recognizable. In fact, the only things that seemed remotely important to him were several of the joint bones from one hand. “Well crap… It looks like more than valuables were looted.”

“Yup. I’d watch out for necromancers.” Briana said, waving a hand at Coney. “So… what next?

“That’s for me to find out and you to stay put.” Carrie said, scouting ahead again. Coney leaned against a wall, hoping it wouldn't collapse or spin around like a scooby doo movie, and waited for further instruction. Eric went back to eying him, glancing up and down his robes, though Coney didn’t want to think about why.

Moving forward was a long tunnel that seemed to be dropping at a significant ramp down below. Instead of the simple path that led them where they were going, there were a few side doors here. The open doorways were so inviting, but even as he drew toward them he was worried that they would just leave him behind if anything wrong really happened here.

“Hey, stop, there’s a trap.” Carrie said, holding a hand out and waiting for everything to stop. Coney heard a loud audible click as he stood, but he stayed still and silent. Carrie began to undo whatever trap it was.

It was odd, just standing there and waiting for Carrie to take care of the problem. It wasn’t normal for Coney to be patient, but for now he could wait as long as she needed… just so long as he didn’t start twitching and set something off.

There were a series of clicks, and the odd sound of a bow string being released, before the rabbit-kin heard the scratching of gates ahead of him.

“You got it open!” Eric said in a tight but friendly manner. “Lets find out what’s on the other side.”

“Not so fast, we’re gonna have to check your feet. If you stepped on a secondary trap it could quickly eliminate you.” Her voice was brimming with a smug grin. “Respawning is awesome and all, but it’s also kinda a bitch. I don’t wanna deal with the gods any more often than I have to.

Carrie checked Eric’s Feet, and he was clear, showing him where to go in a second. Briana’s were on perfect footing as well, somehow finding the flattest place in the cave. She didn’t care, just stoically standing at parade rest even as Carrie lifted her foot. “Nope, that’s fine too.” She said reassuringly, allowing her two friends to move forward before walking over to Coney.

“So. You made the click?” She said, her silly demeanor suddenly gone, even as Eric and Briana began to explore the next room.

“Yup.” Coney said, pointing at his left foot-paw. He could feel it, not wearing shoes, the small depression in the rock the button had gone into. “Think you can get me?”

“You got it, little one.” She said, softly kissing him on the head and then leaning down. She took out a set of tools that looked like some wet dream combination of lockpicks and small screwdrivers for computers. She began to fiddle away.

It wasn’t until after five or six minutes, but eventually she made another click with her tools. Poking Coney, he quickly realized she was trying to get him to move. He supposed he was glad she had told him, but he was still ticklish and allowed himself to jump, right off the little land mine.

Thankfully it had, in fact, been disarmed, and Coney was well cautious as he moved into the second room after the others. He hoped this would be exciting as well, though perhaps he hoped for it so that he wouldn’t jump again like a scared kitten. But, despite his best efforts, fate loved to screw him over.