“My ribs,” muttered Friedrich, clutching his left side with one hand and making sure he didn’t lose his mask with his right. “Marina, are you alright?”

Marina lay flat on the floor staring up at the hole in the ceiling that she could only vaguely make out from the torchlight. “Why am I so foolish?” she uttered quietly.

“We’ll live,” grunted Friedrich.

He stood up and dusted himself off, picking up both the torch that lay on the floor and Belziah’s amulet that was sitting on top of a pile of broken bricks. He looked at the amulet closely, but it didn’t appear to be damaged.

“It must be enchanted,” he said, stashing it into a pouch on his waist. “Neither of us should put it on until we can learn what it does. I’m not having another incident on our hands like the one with the fox mask. We’ll take it to a town once we’re finished here and have it identified.”

“So foolish,” Marina murmured to herself. “Why did I take the amulet?”

Friedrich walked over to her and held out his hand. “These things happen,” he said. “What matters now is how we deal with it. I need your head screwed back on, alright?”

Marina took his hand tepidly. “Yes…yes, you’re right,” she said, not sounding overly confident. In the low light, it was clear that her eyes were watering, but she was trying to hide it.

Friedrich pulled her to her feet and looked up at the ceiling. “I think we’ll be able to climb back out of here using the rope we bought,” he said, and then turning and pointing to the far wall, “but there’s a tunnel right here. We’ll see where it goes, just in case it’s worth our while.”

“Are you sure about this?”

“No,” said Friedrich, walking over to the hole in the wall, while Marina reluctantly followed him.

The tunnel was much narrower than the corridors of the crypt above, the stone wall was rough with sharp outcroppings of rock. Adorning the walls was not the blackened remnants of extinguished torches, but an array of skulls that had been sawn off at the top to make room for candles.

“Necromancers,” whispered Friedrich to Marina. “Utterly vile.”

“They couldn’t possibly still be here, could they?”

“Not alive, I would imagine. Maybe there’ll be a lich further on in.”

“A lich?”

“A powerful undead wizard,” said Friedrich nodding slowly. “That would most certainly be a sign for us to get out of here or we’ll join the ranks of the undead.”

Marina gulped as her eyes widened with terror. “I’m too young to be a zombie.”

“If we meet a lich, that’s what’s going to happen to both of us.”

“Why would you say that?”

Friedrich chuckled. “Relax, there won’t be a lich here. They’re very rare.”

“Have you ever met one?”

“No.”

“Then how do you know how rare they are?”

“Because I’ve never met one.”

“But…hmm,” said Marina, holding a finger to her chin. “Alright, that works for me.”

As the two made their way through the tunnel, it started to open wider. Friedrich snuffed out the torch, seeing that the cavern before them was already illuminated by glowing fungus of various shades of green and blue. There was an ethereal beauty to it that was only dampened by the loose human bones scattered across the ground.

“Eee!” screeched Marina, making Friderich whirl around as he drew his sword.

“What?” he asked, seeing nothing. “What was it?”

“I…I don’t want to say,” whispered Marina, her face visibly red even in the glow of the fungus light.

Friedrich frowned at her. “It was an insect, wasn’t it?”

“I don’t want to say,” Marina repeated through gritted teeth. The look on her face told Friedrich that it was an insect, likely one with at least eight legs.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Shaking his head, Friedrich took the lead again and walked through the cavern, keeping his sword drawn for good measure. Sure enough, the rest of the cavern was filled with thick spiderwebs that stretched across the ceiling and wrapped themselves around the stalagmites and stalactites. Thankfully, none of the spiders crawling along the webs were much bigger than a fist.

Moving along to the next cavern, the two treasure hunters spied a small stream of water running through the wall. It must have been an offshoot of the river outside and it ran along the slope downwards. Electing to follow it, they came to a hole in the cave wall that opened into daylight where a small circular pit awaited them.

The stream dropped into a small pool down below. The pool did not continually fill, but another hole in the wall let it escape to somewhere outside. Friedrich looked up and could see the cliff faces stretching high above him. There was no hope of climbing out from here, but there was another opening into a cavern across a twenty-foot gap that intrigued the young man.

“I think there was a walkway here at one point,” said Friedrich, looking at the stone beneath the ledge upon which he stood.

The edge was especially rough and upon running his hand along the side, he could feel smoother stone that indicated a clean break. If there was indeed a walkway once here then that meant there must be something on the other side worth seeing.

“I suppose we’ll have to turn back,” said Marina, unable to hide her happiness. “Oh well, it was a valiant effort but it seems—"

“No, I’ve got an idea,” said Friedrich looking to the opening at the far side.

“Oh no…”

“This is the life of a treasure hunter, Marina,” he said airily. “Going from danger to danger in search of riches. These situations are my bread and butter, and now they’re yours too. You’ll just have to get used to it if you want to stick with me.”

“I know, but…”

“But what?” after there was silence for five seconds.

Marina shook her head. “I had no argument against your point.”

“Throw me across,” said Friedrich, pulling out the fox mask and placing it upon his face. Before Marina had the chance to complain, he had already transformed.

“Do you really think I can throw you that far?” asked Marina to the now small and golden Friedrich.

He nodded and started pawing at Marina’s knees, urging her to try. There was nothing she wanted less because if he drowned in the pit below or in the next cavern, she was stuck. He was carrying the rope and it had vanished upon his transformation. Even still, there could be more treasure to be found.

With an uneasy look, she bent down and picked Friedrich up. He was quite light at this size, so maybe she could throw him far enough? She would try at least and the consequences were on Friedrich’s own head. If she was truly stuck, she would pile stones and bricks up until she could climb back up to the sarcophagus before making her way out.

Marina held Friedrich in two hands, one upon his chest and one upon his belly. “Are you ready?” she asked, still not feeling good about this.

Upon a nod from Friedrich, she swung him back and forth a few times, readying herself. She had to time this just right or he was in for a nasty fall. Holding her breath, she flung him forward across the gap and he flew through the air.

Friedrich stretched out his front legs, catching onto the cavern floor. His lower half dangled over the edge of the ledge, but he had made it. He sank his nails into the stone and wriggled up until he was firmly on solid ground. He turned to look at Marina, who had her fists resting on her chin in anticipation.

“Are you alright?” she called across.

Friedrich nodded in acknowledgement and then held up a paw. He pointed to himself and then further inside, then pointed to Marina and to the ground that she stood upon.

“You’re going inside and you want me to wait here?” she asked. Friedrich nodded and then scarpered off. “Be careful!” Marina called after him.

Friedrich skipped softly along into this much larger cavern. He could see there was a set of stone steps up ahead and made for them, only to end up jumping out of his skin upon a swarm of bats squeaking through the air and outside. He ducked out of sight behind a rock, praying that they weren’t vampire bats and merely animals.

Slipping out from behind the rock, he bounded towards the steps and climbed them clumsily. He had gotten used to moving as a fox, but stairs were a little difficult for him still. After a sloppy climb, he reached the top and his fox eyes widened with excitement.

Before him was a desecrated ritual circle that didn’t look like it had been used in decades. To his left was a bloodstained pedestal, but it was more stain than actual blood after all this time. On top of the pedestal, sat an open book that Friedrich couldn’t see from his current height, but it wasn’t the book that interested him. What did interest him was the large sarcophagus before him and what sat at its base; it was another chest. This chest was a simple wood design with an iron trim and lock. Key or no key, this could be opened easily.

Friedrich hopped on top of the sarcophagus and peered over at the book, but the text was faded and the pages half eaten away by damp. He suspected that this was where the necromancers conducted the bulk of their work with the zombies in the crypt above serving as guards.

Two minutes later, Friedrich reverted to his human form and tucked his mask away again. He looked around the chest, but did not see as much as a pressure plate. Even still, he thought that if he was going to take it, he should make a run for it immediately lest he awaken what was sleeping inside the sarcophagus; in a cavern like this, there was surely something.

Friedrich sheathed his sword and knelt beside the chest. If it was full, he could carry it in two hands quite easily. He would need to throw it over to Marina, so hopefully it wasn’t too heavy…unless he tied the rope around it and she pulled it up? Once she had secured the chest, Friedrich himself could climb up the far side of the chasm.

He inhaled deeply and grabbed the chest, sprinting for the stairs with it in his arms. He stopped before going down, looking over his shoulder. There was no movement from the sarcophagus. He chuckled to himself, then walked down onto the main cavern floor and towards the light.

“Agh!” cried Marina. “Friedrich!”

“What is it?” he called back, bolting ahead.

Friedrich burst back into daylight, catching onto the cavern wall with one hand so he didn’t slip off the edge. He saw Marina pointing down below to the pool. There were hands reaching out from within; bloated, rotten hands. They were grabbing onto the rocks and pulling themselves up the wall and out of the pool, determined to get to the intruders.