I walked ahead of the group a few paces, my hand gently resting over the elf girl's hiding spot in my satchel. I'd taken out most of my stuff, leaving just my medicine herbs, my goblin weed, and my pipe, to make sure she wouldn't get bumped too much. My little knife was in my hand, and my ears were alert. I didn't really want to do much fighting today, to make sure she stayed safe, but the temple should be empty, so I didn't expect to see any combat.
"I still can't believe they tried to sell an elf as food..." Ward said, shaking his head as he noticed me holding the bag carefully
"What difference is it if it's an elf or a fairy?" I asked, more harshly than I'd meant to
"Well-" He said "No, yeah, I just mean like, it's illegal to sell an elf, right?"
"So laws are the basis of morals?" I asked, giving him a glare
"I- Ugh, come on, Vex, I'm a hero, I'm supposed to like, follow the rules." he muttered
"I don't think someone who would let a friend buy another living creature is a hero. Fairy or elf."
He hung his head "...Yeah, I'm sorry about that. I didn't really know the customs here, and Etheran said it was ok, and I just assumed it was normal here."
I sighed and shook my head "Heroes think for themselves, Ward, and they act on their own morals. It shouldn't matter if something is legal or customary."
"For the record..." Etheran said, slightly out of breath "...I did technically save that girl from being killed, she'd have been boiled and eaten alive if I hadn't bought her."
I felt the small bundle in my sack jolt and I glared at Etheran, showing my teeth "Shut up. She's already freaked out enough as it is, let's just do this 'quest' and go home so we can get her back to her usual size."
"How far is this temple, anyway?" Altina asked, looking around "I don't see it..."
"It could be a while, could be around the corner. Fairy trails are weird like that, even ones that've been marked." I explained
"Hey, Brax, if it's going to be a while..." Ward said "Think I could get some more of that rootwine? That'll make the day fly by!"
She flinched "Uhh, nnno? I only have a little left, and I want to save it..."
"Plus, you're training." Altina said firmly "We don't want you drunk off god juice if there's a fight."
"Yeah, yeah..." Ward said "I was just joking..."
He glanced at my satchel again "So... What's her name?"
I shook my head "She wasn't in a talking mood, and I'm not going to push her. It was hard enough just getting her to feel safe enough to let me and Altina hold her last night so she could sleep, I'm not trying to make her feel like she has to talk or anything."
"Talking is easy though, you just... say stuff." Ward complained "She could at least just say her name or something"
I ignored him, and pushed through a bundle of branches into a clearing and looked up in mild surprise "Oh!... We're here, apparently!"
Altina stepped up beside me and whistled "Wow, I didn't even see it, this is really nestled in here, huh?"
"Ohh it's so pretty!" Brax gushed "We don't have any carvings or anything like this in our church, just- um. Well, we don't have this..."
"You know it's your people's fault we don't see stuff like this anymore..." Said Etheran, dropping her pack at the stairs leading to the opening
"Wait, what? My people?" Brax said, puzzled
"The sisters, they wiped out most religions way back when. The only ones that survived were the boring ones that didn't have any flashy buildings to target." Etheran explained
"N-no, they- we wouldn't do that!" Brax said "My religion is nice, and we'd never hurt others!"
"Brax..." I said "The sisters wiped out this temple. They really used to be... not very nice. It's ok, religions change, but..."
Ward looked at the huge gashes on the temple exterior and whistled "...I'm glad the sisters are good guys now, it'd suck if I had to fight whoever did this."
Me and Altina exchanged a look. Altruistic or not, The Sisterhood of Elmaem wasn't a 'good' religion by any stretch of the imagination. Just... old enough to know better than to crusade in public these days.
"Annnyway..." I said, walking up the stairs "I scoped this place out last night, it's safe, shouldn't be much in here, but the sisters don't loot, so there's a good chance there's treasure in here still."
Ward and Etheran perked up at that, and Altina grinned.
"There's a few rules to exploring any kind of dungeon, temple, mine, or other man-made structure that's been claimed by nature." I said, crossing my arms. "First and most importantly, check to make sure we're all here, every few minutes. All of us, checking everyone else, the whole time."
"Why not just make, like, one person watch one other person, and do it like that?" Etheran asked "That's the way they did it when the guild was around."
"Because if a couple people go missing at once, it could break the chain. We're all going to check, ok?" I explained "Secondly, do not open any doors or chests while standing in front of them. If this was a newer dungeon, I'd say don't open anything until someone- me, most likely- checked it for tripwires, but putting traps that shoot to the sides is such a new concept, we won't see it in this twelve-wings-era building."
Ward nodded, looking smug, as if he somehow knew that already. I rolled my eyes and moved on "Thirdly, if we see any dangers or critters, we're fucking leaving, got it?"
"The whole point is to get better at fighting, though..." Ward said
"Nnno, the point is to train you to be an adventurer. A huge part of that is avoiding fights. If you fight every day, you'll be too tired, hungry, and injured to get very far before you're killed." I said sternly
"If you want to fight fight, I can train you a little" Altina offered "Once we get back from the camping trip, or maybe tonight after we get done here?"
Ward nodded, and I waved everyone up onto the stairs.
"Ok, so we're going to be heading in now, I've checked out the first room, and made sure there's no infestations, but I haven't gone any further. We'll be going in largely blind, so stick together, and if you have questions, ask them. Me or Altina should be able to answer, I lived out here most of my life, and she's just in general pretty smart."
"Aww, you..." Altina said, waving her hand.
"No point standing here yammering on..." Etheran said, pushing past me and going in.
I sighed and waved everyone else in too, stepping inside and pointing Brax to the torches on the wall so she could light them. Something was... off, here. I looked around, it looked brighter now that there were lights, but it was something else, something I wasn't seeing. Wasn't seeing...? Wait... I spun and looked at the center of the room, where the offering chest was. I'd left it for Ward to find, but it was completely gone now, not a trace of it. I walked over to the spot slowly, had I triggered a trap or a security measure? Was it under the floor now? I examined the stone floor under where the box had been, and saw no signs of it being able to open. There was, however, slight scrape marks, like someone had slid the chest forward a foot or so, then stopped, and it'd vanished.
"Find anything?" Ward asked, coming up beside me
"I found something yesterday, but it's gone now..." I said "Be on the lookout, this temple might have moving floors or something."
He smiled "Oh, that sounds super fun!"
"It is if you want to get trapped in a wall or something." I said. I checked my satchel to make sure the elf was still ok, and stood up. "We're going to be going deeper, it shouldn't be too big, but I want to examine everything for hidden rooms, this place is weird already, and I don't trust it."
Brax waved her torch into the hole behind the main altar "Is this the rest of it?"
"Yup, that'll be the tunnel that'll lead to the sleeping quarters, dungeons, record rooms, all that." I said "Let's move in, I'll take the lead, everyone else, follow behind."
I took the torch from Brax, and edged my way into the tunnel, sweeping the torch left and right. There were scrape marks on the floor every so often, usually against walls, and skeletons here and there, propped up against the walls or hanging out of alcoves. Many of them had the strange horns, and I got an uneasy feeling looking at them.
"Wow, the sisters really came all the way down here?" Altina asked, looking at a couple smaller corpses leaning against each other "I'd have assumed they'd just stop up the entrance, build a fire, and let them suffocate, but these ones are cut in half..."
"That's a horrible thing to do!" Brax yelped "The sisters would never do that, we have honor in battle!"
"I mean, slaughtering what looks like kids in cold blood isn't very honorable either, but..." I said, pointing at a very small horned human body
Brax made a face "These are nnnot- um... well, I know what they are, it's good they died, trust me."
"Uh, 'good they died'?" Ward said "Wait, were they evil or something? Are we in an evil temple? That's how we get cursed or some shit..."
"Oh, they were a little evil?" Brax said "But they actually were cursed. I shouldn't say too much more though."
"That makes me a little uncomfortable, the way you said that..." Ward said, unsure
"Hold onto that feeling. Remember, hero." I said quietly. He looked at me, then back at Brax, and nodded.
"Cursed or not, they have good taste in jewelry, dibs." Etheran said, pointing at a skeleton with a gold necklace around the ribs.
"I'm gonna stop you there..." Altina said "We can take what we want from this place, but disturbing the dead, or looting from the dead is highly illegal."
"That's a good law." Ward said "I agree with that."
"Yeah, I think that's honorable." Brax nodded
Etheran huffed and rolled her eyes "Whatever. This whole trip is going to end up being a bust at this point..."
I pointed ahead "Look, this is the end of the tunnel, we get through this door, and we'll be in the store-rooms and living quarters. As long as the dead aren't wearing all their valuables, we'll still get some loot."
"Aw yeah, let's fucking go!" Ward said, clapping his hands together. He stepped up to the door, and swung it open. There was a snapping noise and I winced, ducking against the wall.
After a second, I leaned forward, was the trap on a delay? Ward was frozen mid flinch, and as nothing happened, he slowly lowered his arms.
"I could have sworn I heard a trap..." He said
I carefully walked forward and peeked around the door
"Hm... it looks like the twine holding the poison gas canisters in place broke ages ago..." I mused, fiddling with an empty pot hanging upside down on the other side of the door "I'm guessing when it was raided by the sisters. Don't eat anything off the floor and we should be fine though, the gas vented out somewhere, or we'd all be feeling it."
"Traps are a good thing, right?" Etheran asked "It means they had something to protect!"
"Or it means they were a 'heretic' temple in the age of the twelve wings." I pointed out "I wonder if it took any of the sisters out?"
"We'd know if it did." Brax said "It didn't."
"What do you mean 'we'd know'?" Ward asked, glancing at Brax
I shot him a look "Protect your little Ward..." I said firmly
He flinched "Oh, fuck, don't answer that, Brax, ignore my questions about, like, that stuff. Sorry..."
She giggled "Your 'little Ward'? Really?"
Altina snickered, and Ward glared at me "...It's Vervex's term, I didn't make it up..."
"I wasn't aware you two were close enough to have pet names for each other's... accessories." Etheran said, a small smile on her face "What do you call hers, Edward? Miss Interloper?"
I made a noise of disgust and shook my head "Ok, enough talking about that, and especially from you Etheran."
Ward was blushing bright red, but looked confused "I- We're not- It was one night at the inn-"
"Vervex!" Altina said "You and Ward? At the inn? Without me?"
"No! Stop, Jesus, it was at the bar, we were-" Ward stammered
"Gosh, you did it on the bar?" Brax said, cracking up
"...I think he's had enough." I said. After Etheran's little comment, I wasn't feeling super joke-y, but it was fun to see Ward squirm like this. That said, we were here for a reason. I entered the first room and lit a torch on the wall next to me, lighting the area up. It was a common room, with tables, chairs, a fireplace on one wall, and a few shelves of mouldering books. There were a few passages off to either side, most likely storage rooms and the lodging, but it was all very roughed up, and the deep gashes on the walls and scattered bodies on the floor made it clear that this had been a slaughter, not a fight. I glanced at Brax, and her confused, almost scared look made me wince.
"...Ok, so let's start by going over this room, remember, we're looking for any hidden passages too, Brax, could you stand in the middle of the room and hold the torch up to give us better light?"
She nodded, and stepped over a pile of bones to the middle, lifting up the torch I'd just lit. Her eyes roamed the room, and she bit her lip, looking nervous and slightly hurt. I'd need to talk to her about this after... Seeing the worst parts of the religion you've sacrificed your life for lay out in front of you can't be easy, even if she thought their victims 'deserved it'.
~~~
Yesterday
A loud clattering noise sounded out in my home, and I tried not to wiggle, my stone shell itching to move, to lunge forward, but I held back, mostly. Was it food time again? I was so, so empty, my juices were getting low, and the little bugs I found were doing little to sate my cravings. I slid one eye open on my exterior, and looked at the door. A small green thing was in the door, two of the flying bugs that screamed when you caught them were behind it, looking in. I felt my juices swell, I'd be able to eat again soon, the green one would try to steal from me, and I'd pull it in...
The green one walked forward and looked around the room, listening, its big ears twitching slightly, and it noticed me, in the middle of the room. I closed my external eye almost all the way, and braced myself inside my shell to lunge, waiting for it to touch me, to open me to try and steal presumed treasures. It looked at me closely, admiring my carvings, and I swelled with pride, I'd worked hard on those, and it felt good to be appreciated, even by food.
The green one backed out, nodding, and left my home, calling out to the bugs and putting a string on a tree. I sat there, alone and confused. Didn't it want to see what was inside me? To see if I was full of goodies? I know I didn't have shinies to put on my shell like my mother and sisters yet, but I worked very hard to make my shell look very pretty and nice anyway, was it not enough?
Maybe the green one was being polite, and wanted to leave me alone. I knew that the ones who tried to take things from me were bad, so if this one didn't, was it good? I needed to find more about it... I stood up, my dozens of tiny legs jutting out from under my shell, and I followed it through the woods, staying back far enough to watch, but still close enough to see. It talked to the bugs, and kept going, the bugs flying away. For a moment I considered following the bugs, maybe getting a snack before I watched the green one more, but I felt the familiar itch of a winding path, and couldn't risk losing the trail.
It made it to a big area, with other, taller things, a big pink one, a dark brown one, and two pale ones, all arguing about something. I stayed on the edge of the area, watching as they broke apart and went in different directions, the green one yelling at the taller pale one on a big rock. I stayed in the bushes and hummed to myself, watching as they put flaps on sticks and made food over a small fire, and I considered going over to meet them, but I couldn't be sure if these were really good people yet, or just thieves who hadn't stolen from me yet.
They sang songs in the darkness, and the short pale one told stories that the others laughed at, all while the fire burned and flickered. They all felt so calm, not the frantic screaming and fighting that I saw with most of the things who came into my home. I waited as the fire died down, and they went into the flaps to lie down. Shells, I guessed, but very weak ones, that weren't even attached to their bodies. Was that what it was like to be one of these things? To carry your shell around and only go into it at night?
The green one was sharing a shell with the pink one, their heads touching and their hands clasped. I crept up, smelling the air around them. I could eat them so, so easily... I opened my lid, and slid out, my hands on the rim of my shell, and looked down at them. I heard a noise and froze, had they heard me? My eyes fell on a small figure in the shell with them, a tiny pale one, almost like a bug, but with no wings, looking back up at me, its mouth open in a silent scream. I reached out with my hand, dripping and sticky with my juices, leaving black spots on the part of the shell they lay on as I considered eating the tiny one. My finger traced her head and I watched her shake, not running or waking the others. This must be the green and pink one's baby. I couldn't eat a baby... They were so hard to make, it'd be cruel. I slid back into my shell, and backed away into the woods, avoiding the wandering path to hide and watch them all night.
In the morning, they woke to the sun, and the green and pink one pushed their mouths together, and laughed. The green one picked up the baby, and whispered to it softly, petting it and tucking it away as they got out of their shell. I was glad I hadn't eaten it, it seemed to care a lot for it, and it would be very hard to find out if they were good if they just kept crying about their baby. All of them came out of their shells and re-started the fire, cooking on it as they drank water from a sack and the short brown one brushed its fluffy white hair. I stay hidden as they left the way I'd come from, I'd visit them at my home soon enough, see if they were thieves, or if they could be trusted. If they could be trusted... maybe I could follow them? Learn what they did, any find out about what it was like in the place with all the shinies, the one the thieves came from.
Their voices faded down the path, and I extended my legs to follow, when I saw two figures come out of the bushes. Tall, pale, with shiny on them, not gold, like mother had, but silver like my sisters wore. One shook its head
"Gods, I thought they'd never leave, let's get all this stuff packed up quickly, there's enough supplies here to last us for a week."
I couldn't understand most of it, but I flared with indignation when I saw one of them pick up the green one's bag out of its shell and take it. These were thieves, these were not good people, and if they were trying to take from the green one and the others, so they must be good, right? I needed to save their treasures for them before they escaped... The green one hadn't been interested in me, but these ones had lots of shiny on them, they'd be interested for sure.
I crawled forward to so I was next to the big stone, and opened the lid to my shell, letting it drop with a thump. One of them turned and pointed
"Hey, they have a chest here, it looks too heavy to move though, think it's a fae chest?"
The other one made a noise
"You should look and see, just don't put anything inside if it's empty. Fae chests are fickle, you know."
The first one walked up to me and put its hands on my lid, and i had to suppress a giggle at the feeling of its shiny hands on my stone. It lifted my lid, the big one, and I let it, laying inside to grab it. Its face went pale as it saw me, laying in my juice looking up at it.
"Oh, gods, there's a dead girl in here, we gotta-"
I lunged, ignoring the half-understood words, grabbing it around the waist and pulling it into my shell with me, my arms snapping bone and crunching the shiny parts. It screamed as the lid closed, crushing its body into my juice. I surged, my juice flowed over it and pushed into the holes in the head. I laughed as it thrashed, feeling the meat dissolve, the resulting slurry running off and mixing with my black juice to make more black juice. The flavor was funny, like it was too clean, or not well seasoned, but the muscles were strong and melted easily, and eventually the struggling stopped, and all that was left was the bones and the shiny bits.
I became aware of a banging on my lid, a screaming noise and a pulling, trying to open me up. I was mostly full now, and my juice would sate me for a while, but... why have one meal when you could have two? I could use their shiny bits to make my shell even more pretty so the green one and its friends would like me more, if I could melt them by the time it retuned. I wiggled around in my shell, finding the shiny thing that the first one was wearing on its hand, and pushed my own hand into it. It was slightly melted, and too big, but it would work well enough.
I cracked my lid open, and the other one screamed, falling away. I pushed my hand wearing the shiny out of my shell, grasping and clawing for the the other one. I let out a pained howl, and waved my hand franticly, like I was in pain.
"Oh fuck fuck, I'll get you out, hang on!" The other one yelled, grabbing my hand and pulling.
I pulled harder, and it slid into my shell, its screams being cut off instantly by my rising black juice. I laughed silently as I pulled it apart, there were lots of shinies between the two of these ones, and they even had gold in one of the pouches, I was going to be so, so pretty! I curled up around the bones and hard bits inside me, and focused on pushing the shiny metals through the walls of my shell to decorate my beautiful carvings. The green one would be sure to notice me now, and if it still didn't try to steal from me, I'd know it was a good person to follow, to be a friend. I hummed and tapped my legs in excitement, I wanted them to come back now, so, so much, I had such shiny bits to show off!
~~~
Present Time
"Ok, so it wasn't a total bust." Ward said "We at least got a little bit of experience from it."
"I wanted gold..." Etheran grumbled
"Yeah, well, the sisters don't usually loot, so... I don't understand what happened." I said "It's like something went through and took every piece of metal that wasn't on a dead body, but there's no sign of people having gone in there..."
"Well, camping itself is fun at least, right?" Altina said "That's what I was looking forward to."
"I just can't believe my sisters would do that, I know they were cursed, but some of the people there were just normal..." Brax said
"I mean, it was hundreds of years ago, it's not like it's the current church, right?" Ward said "I used to follow a religion that did crusades, we just kinda ignored it because all the people that did it were dead by now."
Brax winced "Well, I mean... hhhh..."
Ward flinched "Yeah, ok. Never mind..."
I stepped into camp and looked around. It seemed to be disturbed somehow, did the fairies come back since we'd gone? My stuff was moved, there was- I blinked. The chest from the temple was in the center of the clearing, with new silver-y outlines on the edges of the carvings. I carefully walked up to it and circled it. Did someone move it here? Did they follow us?
"Yo, 'vex, what's that?" Ward asked "Some fae thing?"
"I... don't know..." I admitted "I think it's the offering chest from the temple."
"Oh, shit..." he said "So... maybe we were cursed?"
"Should I try to bless it?" Brax asked
"No, I... It's an offering chest, I think we were supposed to make an offering or something?" I said, feeling nervous "Hang on, let me..."
I went to where my sack was, and dug through it, pulling out my pouch. I had a single gold among the coppers, and I pulled it out, sighing.
"Everyone give me a gold, if it's a curse for trespassing without making an offering, we need to break it by making an offering."
"Uuugh, you mean I lost gold on this trip?" Etheran moaned, giving me a coin.
"Sorry, I didn't know the temple had a curse..." I said, mildly embarrassed. I should have been able to smell the curse, why hadn't I...?
I took everyone's coins back over to the chest, and went to the smaller opening, cracking it open to dump them in. I froze as a smiling face looked up at me from the inky darkness of the chest. A vaguely humanoid girl, dripping with black water, with sharp teeth, stringy black hair and grey skin was peeking up at me. Her eyes landed on the gold in the hand I was holding out and she gasped, reaching over and scooping them up, dropping them into her box with a splash.
"Thaankk!" she said in a raspy, harsh voice, her smile getting bigger as the lid lowered itself.
I backed away and tried to steady my rushing heart. I couldn't believed I'd just touched a...
"What the fuck was that?" Ward asked "Is someone in there?"
"N-not exactly..." I said shakily, facing the group
"That's... Something so old we don't even have a name for it..." Etheran muttered "It's just called 'a chest that eats people' in the textbooks, they're not supposed to exist anymore..."
"So... It's endangered?" Altina asked "We should make sure it's safe, we wouldn't want it to die, it could be the last one."
"It's so pretty..." Brax said, looking directly behind me
I turned and jumped, I hadn't even heard it move, and it was practically touching me now...
"If it eats people, maybe we should... not let it stay in our camp?" I said, nervously
"...I think we should keep watch tonight, but if it's really the last of its kind, and it hasn't shown any signs of being violent, it's our job to keep it safe." Altina said
I shuddered, and watched as the carvings on the side closest to me warped and cracked, forming a goblin shaped figure with tiny bits of real gold in her hand, and beams of 'light' shining around her.
"At least it seems to like me..." I said
Still, I wasn't expecting to sleep a wink tonight.