Chapter Text
After what felt like forever, they made it to the bottom of the tunnel. It was very dimly lit, but it was better than the near darkness that the tunnel had at some points. It was unlikely that they’d be able to make out finer details, but at least they could see farther than a couple feet again.
The air was noticeably cooler, and somehow more humid, than the surface. There was a bit of a draft from the hole above them, but the air was still otherwise. In spite of the humidity, it still felt much better than sitting out in the sun and sweating.
It actually reminded them of their—no, their grandparents’ home. That wasn’t Jade’s home, or Jamie’s home. Their grandparents made sure it couldn’t feel like one to them.
Jade sighed and shook their head. They had far more important issues to worry about at the moment. They could sulk over how their life wasn’t the best with their grandparents later.
Jamie unknowingly pulled Jade out of their rut when they called out from behind. Jade turned around and spotted another hole that everyone was standing around. They decided to walk up to it and see for themselves what was down there.
Once they approached the hole, they noticed that it was fairly lit inside, which made it easy to scope out the area. There was a mound of sand directly beneath the hole, and from the angle they were looking, they could see the bottom of… a pillar? They moved to another side of the hole and saw yet another pillar. How odd…
This was very interesting. These pillars were definitely man-made. Maybe they stumbled into some kind of tomb? Temple? Whatever it was, it was undoubtedly some kind of structure.
”Pretty cool, huh?”
“It… uh, definitely caught my attention, that’s for sure.”
“Things can be cool, you know. You don’t have to be so boring all the time.”
“I think we have different definitions of ‘cool’, Jamie…”
Riley butted in before they could argue any further. “So… are we going down or…?”
“Sure, but I call dibs on going first!”
Without another word, Jamie dropped down near the hole and allowed their legs to dangle for a moment. They then turned around and eased themselves into the hole, now hanging by only their hands. They groaned, presumably from placing strain on their chest, then dropped into the hole.
And then…
Nothing?
“Is everything okay down there, Jamie?”
“I guess you’ll have to come down here and find out!”
Jade sighed, but they weren’t sure if that was a sigh of annoyance or relief. “Of course…”
“Huh?”
“Nothing, Jamie. I’m on my way down.”
Jade mimicked Jamie’s actions and dropped down onto a sand mound in the middle of the room. Somehow, they failed to notice it earlier, but it was convenient that it was there nonetheless.
They immediately spotted Jamie leaning up against a pillar. To the right of Jamie was an unlit torch, and a little more to the right was a hallway with a lot of those statues they saw at both camps lining it. At the end of that hallway was a lit torch, which would explain where the light came from.
They remembered that Luna and Riley still needed to come down as well, so they stepped off of the mound to give them space to do so.
They grabbed a nearby torch and shook it. Somehow, that actually worked and illuminated the entire room. The walls surrounding the mound were rather uninteresting, but what did interest them was that one of the pillars had collapsed right beside it. Had they fallen a little more to the right, they probably would’ve been in quite a bit of pain.
Both the fallen pillar and the standing pillars had some engravings on them. They were interested in getting a better look at them, so they approached one of the standing pillars to investigate. Near the bottom, a hand was depicted on one side and a skull on the other. Above that was a depiction of what appeared to be a scout with their arms spread and their eyes closed. On the other side was a skeleton in that exact same pose.
At some point, Jamie had joined Jade in observing the pillar. They only knew once Jamie hummed in confusion. “What does this mean…?”
“I’m not sure, but I don’t know if I like that it’s alluding to death.”
“Is that what it is? I thought it just looked kinda…”
“Cool?”
“Nah, creepy.”
“Oh sh—” That sounded like Riley? Before they could confirm though, they heard a thud followed by an “oof” from behind. When they turned around, they saw Riley rolling towards them. They stopped just in front of them and Jamie.
“Oh hey, Riley.”
“…hi, Jamie.”
Jade offered a hand to pull Riley up. Riley stared at their hand for a moment before accepting. Once they got up, they brushed themselves off and looked a bit embarrassed after all of that. Jade had greater concerns though.
“You feeling okay?”
“Yeah. Just missed the landing, that’s all.”
“Okay.”
Jamie’s eyes darted around the room before landing on Riley. “So… where’s Luna?”
“Uh…” Riley looked back at the mound, but Luna wasn’t there. “They were supposed to follow me…”
“You… didn’t let them go before you???”
“They said—”
Jamie sighed. “Let’s just get them down here so we can go deeper.”
Riley nodded then returned to the mound and extended their arms upward. Luna’s legs then dropped into view, and once they were reassured that Riley would grab them, the remainder of them came into view. Riley grabbed them and eased them down onto the mound gently then let go of them.
Luna stepped up to the same pillar that Jade and Jamie investigated earlier. Once their eyes landed on the skull then the skeleton, they shivered and took a step back. They gave Jade a look that looked a lot like genuine fear.
“I… I d-don’t like this place…”
“Jeez, you’re such a scaredy-cat…” Jamie sighed and offered a hand to Luna. “Would it make you feel better if you stuck with me?”
Luna stared at Jamie’s hand for a moment, then backed off. “I don’t w-wanna be a… n-noo.. nuis…”
Jamie finished what they were trying to say. “Nuisance?” Luna confirmed with a nod. “Where’s this coming from?”
“W-When I… n-needed help… Edm—uh, S-Scoutmaster Edmond…” Luna trailed off, but Jade knew very well where they were going. They were considered a nuisance… It seemed that Jamie knew too, since they frowned immediately.
“Okay, well, news flash buddy! I’m not him, so… you coming with me or not?”
Luna once again took a step forward towards Jamie, who still had their hand out. They stared at it, before finally grabbing onto it. They shuffled a little closer to Jamie than usual, but Jade figured it was just due to anxiety. After all, they had every right to be nervous. This wasn’t exactly the most inviting or comforting place to be in.
“Cool. Glad that’s settled. Can we go now?”
Jade nodded. “Sure. I’ll take lead since I have the torch. Everyone okay with that?”
“Yeah, that’s fine.” Jamie looked over at Luna and smirked. “Need to make sure this crybaby doesn’t run off or get lost anyways.”
“And I’ll stay in the back.” Riley fell in line behind Jamie and Luna to prove their point.
“Very well. Let’s go.”
“Actually,” Jade paused. “Can we check these statues out?” Jamie inquired. They walked up to the nearest one and pointed at it.
Riley interjected before Jade could answer. “Before you answer, Jade… I don’t think these are worth our time.”
Jamie’s brows furrowed. “Why not?”
“Well, for starters, none of these statues emit a dull hum.” Jamie raised an eyebrow. “The statue I interacted with after being cursed hummed until I interacted with it. After it gave me that anti-gravity rope, it stopped.”
Riley sighed then continued. “Second of all, there’s six statues perfectly lined up in the middle of some underground… whatever this is. You don’t think it could be a trap if they did do something?”
Jamie stared at the statues for a moment then shrugged their shoulders. “Okay, I’ll… leave them alone then.”
Jade entered the hallway and noticed a slope leading down to yet another opening. It seemed unassuming, but it also appeared to be their only way forward, so they had no choice but to continue that way.
They began their descent towards the opening. As they walked by the statues, they couldn’t help but brew up a ton of questions about them. How did they get there? Were they like the other statues? Were they rigged to trigger a trap? Why were there six specifically?
They all walked in silence until they reached the opening. They stopped just in front of it and held their torch out just a little farther so they could see what was inside. All they could see though was… a hallway. No pillars, no statues, nothing. Just… a hallway. A narrow hallway, at that.
They weren’t claustrophobic themselves but… it could become an issue very quickly as well. They could only hope the others weren’t either, because panic and disorder were the last things they needed in a tight place.
Their eyes scanned what little they could see for any signs of traps, but they couldn’t spot any. It was entirely possible that they were well-hidden though. With this in mind, they cautiously continued forward, their eyes constantly scanning what they could see along the way.
However, they quickly came across their first problem, a fork in the path. Or, well, would be first problem if it weren’t for the fact that the path leading forward was completely obstructed by debris. The path to their left was unobstructed, so they went that way.
Jade shrugged. “Well, that was easy, I guess.”
The light from behind them began to fade as they took several turns down the path, leaving them with only their torch to light the way.
A new concern arose as a result: the torch likely had a finite amount of time before it extinguished. Fortunately, there were several torches dotted along the walls, but the possibility of being plunged into complete darkness in a maze frightened them nonetheless.
They once again came across a fork. This time though, both paths appeared to be open and branched off to the left and right.
“Well,” Jamie sighed. “Guess we don’t gotta worry about who’s going with who, at least. Luna is basically inseparable from me right now, so…”
“I suppose that leaves me with Riley then. But… who goes which direction? And how will we meet up again?”
“Let’s go right. And…” Riley hummed in thought. “If we either find something or a dead-end, go back and tell the others? Or… worst case scenario, yell and hope that they hear?”
“Maybe just walking back would be better but… that plan sounds about as good as it can be.”
Jamie grabbed a nearby torch and shook it, providing them with another source of light. “Well, I guess we should go then. We’re wasting time just standing here.” Jade nodded in response. “See you two soon!” They then dragged along Luna and disappeared around a corner.
Jade wordlessly led Riley down the right path. The two of them walked in complete silence for a while, but something started to gnaw at Jade.
The absence of Jamie and Luna was starting to get to them. While they weren’t necessarily interested in pampering the two of them, they weren’t exactly interested in not having any idea on where or how they were either. Furthermore, simply not being in their presence made them feel uneasy.
They could be hurt. They could be missing. They could be lost. They could be stuck. They could be d—
They were shaken by Riley, who was now standing in front of them. They weren’t sure how, or when, that happened. They simply responded with a confused look on their face.
”Check this out.” Riley moved just enough to reveal a massive chamber in front of them.
The first thing that Jade noticed immediately was the seemingly bottomless pit. Their anxiety spiked at the sight. They could handle a steep drop knowing how far down it was, but this? This was genuinely terrifying for them. This would most certainly lead to someone’s death if they fell.
It was nearly enough for them to have second thoughts about all of this.
At the very least, it was illuminated, so they could at least see where they were going. It didn’t ease their tensions at all, though.
The chamber was rather long, and it seemed like the only way forward would be by the ledges jutting out from the walls. Their only way to each one would be to scale the walls, which would seriously test everyone’s endurance. With nothing to catch them if they fell, they’d really need to be cautious.
In each corner of the chamber they saw the same pillars they saw at the beginning. They all had the same engravings as before, so they had no interest in continuing to focus on them at the moment.
To be completely honest, they were scared. They hadn’t felt like that in a long time but… this chamber was very dangerous and intimidating. They weren’t really concerned for their own safety, but if Jamie or Luna fell down there…
Riley put a hand on Jade’s right shoulder and crouched down to their eye level. They seemed to be a bit nervous themselves, but they were trying their best to be sympathetic too.
“You’re nervous.”
“Honestly, I’m scared Riley. I don’t want those two getting hurt or… you know.”
Riley winced at the possibility. “…Yeah. We can turn back if you don’t want to do this.”
“We can?”
“Jamie has that anti-gravity rope, we can probably make something work.”
Jade mulled on that possibility for a bit. They knew that Luna would almost certainly agree to this considering they didn’t want to be down there to begin with. Jamie, on the other hand, would likely put up more of a fight. They seemed to be stoked about exploring it, so it’s unlikely that they’d be happy to leave. It seemed that both them and Riley ultimately went with the flow rather than having their own reservations, so…
“Maybe we should wait until we can talk to them about it. I… have my reservations about this, but I’d be willing to go with whatever happens.”
“Agreed. Should we backtrack and find them?”
“Sounds like a good—”
They were cut off by two sets of footsteps behind them. They turned around to find Jamie and Luna, hand in hand, right behind them.
Jamie waved. “Hey. We found a dead-end, so we decided to come the way you two went.”
Jade waved in response. “Hi, you two. Riley and I were actually about to come find you two. Come check out what we’ve found.”
They leaned up against the wall to create an opening for Jamie and Luna to check out the chamber. As expected, Jamie seemed stoked about it while Luna seemed to be deathly afraid. Though, Jamie did appear to be slightly tense too, but they couldn’t pinpoint exactly why. It was possible that the bottomless pit spooked them.
Jamie’s eyes scanned the walls, potentially in an attempt to path out a route. Jade assumed they’d be doing that for some time, so they decided to give Luna some attention in the meantime.
Luna had already stepped back from the opening. They didn’t need a thorough analysis to decide that they weren’t excited about this. Their body language only confirmed as much. They were fidgeting with their hands in the absence of Jamie’s, which was probably the only thing keeping them anchored.
Even though it likely wouldn’t change anything, Jade still felt the need to reassure them, comfort them, something to calm them down a bit.
They spotted the Bing Bong plushie poking out of Luna’s backpack and figured that’d be a good starting point.
They managed to pull it out without alerting them and then placed it in their hands. Their eyes darted between the plushie now in their hands and Jade several times. It was abundantly clear that they were confused by the gesture.
Regardless, they eventually looked back down at the plushie and smiled softly. They gave it a gentle squeeze and then held it up to their heart. They smiled at Jade then stepped back up to the opening. They were probably still not keen on climbing, but they seemed to be a bit more at ease with the situation now.
Jamie took a step back from the opening and turned around. Luna mimicked their motions. “Okay, so uh, do you all want the good news or bad news first?”
“Bad news.”
“Bad news is, there’s not really a ‘safe’ way across. That was probably obvious, but, uh… yeah.”
“And the good news?”
“The good news is, there is a way across.” They pointed to their right, but Jade couldn’t see what it was. “If we start over here, we can scale the wall to each of these ledges. For some, we might have to go one at a time, especially since some of us have backpacks.” Their finger started to trace what Jade assumed was the wall. “We just keep following along the wall until…” Their finger landed on the opening on the other side of the pit. “We get to the other side. Sounds simple, but… we’ll see how it goes.”
Riley put up a hand before anyone could move. “Wait.” Jamie tilted their head. “You still got that rope Jamie?”
“Uh… yeah…? How is that gonna help us…?”
“You reckon we could use it to go back?”
“Go… back…? Do you hear yourself?”
“You actually want not just you, but everyone else, to take their chances on this?”
Jamie stared at Riley blankly then sighed. “You could’ve just said ‘no’ when I asked to come down here, you know.”
“I didn’t know it’d have all of this.”
“So let me get this straight. Your curiosity told you to come down here and check it out, but only now since there’s a challenge to overcome, you want to back out?”
“And you’re willing to endanger everyone in the pursuit of sating your curiosity?”
It was becoming clear that this was going to devolve into an argument. Jade wasn’t sure when to intervene though.
“Everyone made the choice to follow me. I didn’t make anyone do anything.” Jamie growled.
“P-Please stop…” Unfortunately, Luna’s plea only fell on deaf ears.
Well, except for Jade’s. Jade heard them, and they were going to make sure everyone else did too.
They forced themselves between Jamie and Riley, bringing the argument to an abrupt halt. Someone needed to mediate this.
“We don’t have time for this. Riley, I understand that you want a way out, but realistically, there’s no way back up. Even if we did have enough rope, we need to account for the fact that there’s a lot of twists and turns and jagged edges going back up. Either way we’re taking a huge risk.”
Riley sighed. “I just… I don’t know how I feel about this now.”
“I know. But, we don’t exactly have a lot of options anymore. I’m afraid our last chance to turn back was before we jumped down from the tunnel above.”
“I guess so.”
Jamie’s eyes warily darted between Jade and Riley. They knew they were next. “Uh… what about me?”
“Just be extremely cautious. While we don’t exactly have a way out at the moment, let’s not throw ourselves in the pit either. If you have even the slightest concern about it, don’t do it. This isn’t just some mountain or giant mushroom. It’s life or death, Jamie.”
“…Right. I’ll try my best. Can’t promise anything though.”
“Are we done arguing then? We need to focus on moving forward.” They looked over their shoulder at Luna, who had eased up since the arguing ceased. “And, uh, you two were spooking Luna. We really don’t need any of this, especially not here.”
Jamie and Riley looked at each other and nodded. Jade let out a sigh of relief. That definitely could’ve gone worse.
“Thank you. Now… can we get moving?”
Jamie turned their back on Jade to observe the chamber again. “Yeah. Sure. Just… listen to me while we’re doing this, please?”
“Of course.”
The first spot that Jamie climbed over to—the spot that Jade failed to spot earlier—was both large and flat. It’d serve well as a starting point.
Jade mimicked Jamie’s motions and landed with no issues. They let out a breath they weren’t aware they were holding. Luna followed after them while Riley stood near the opening and watched. After Luna similarly landed with no issues, Riley made the climb over. Part of the wall broke off when they grabbed it, but were able to quickly recover. They then landed themselves, but it wasn’t the most graceful landing.
“Hey, maybe once this is all said and done, I’ll be strong enough to climb anything,” Riley jested between ragged breaths.
Jamie scoffed in response. “Yeah, maybe. Bet you won’t ever be as strong as me though!” They dramatically flexed their muscles.
Well, it seemed like those two were able to drop their differences quickly. In fact, they seemed to be more lively around each other than before. Jade found the turnaround a bit odd, but chose to dismiss that concern for now. They had a far more important issue in front of them they needed to focus on.
The next ledge, as Jamie warned it might be, was quite small in comparison. Even someone Jamie’s size didn’t have a lot of space, so they were definitely going to have to go one at a time. Fortunately, the ledge following that one had some more space so a few of them could stop for a moment and rest.
Luna silently chose to go first. Once they made it to the smaller ledge, they made the mistake of pausing and looking down. It only took a quick glance for them to look back up and freeze in fear. They then stared at Jamie, as if they needed some reassurance before they continued.
Jamie groaned and crept closer to the edge and spread out their arms. It felt like a silent promise to catch Luna if they fell, which seemed to be sufficient for them since they continued to climb afterwards. They made it to Jamie with no issues, leaving it up to Jade and Riley to make the climb across.
Before either of them could do that though, Jamie put out a hand. “Hold up. I dunno if both of you can also stand here. There’s another bigger ledge up ahead though, so Luna and I will meet you there.”
Luna whined shortly after and the reason quickly became apparent. They were getting tired of carrying the backpack. Constantly fidgeting with the straps and the little groans when they adjusted it suggested it was taking its toll on them. Jamie was quick to catch on to this and snatched their backpack without asking.
“Better?” Luna only nodded in response. “Cool. Let’s go.”
With Luna situated and them and Jamie continuing onward, it was time for Jade and Riley to move too. They were able to make the climb to the next two ledges with few issues. After walking over the peak of the second ledge, it was clear that from here on out, it was going to be much easier. All of the remaining ledges were larger, so as long as everyone could endure scaling the wall, they’d be fine.
For a while, things were going well, but it was becoming abundantly clear that Riley was struggling. Jade had picked up on it after they were drawing ragged breaths from the first climb. They’d only made it halfway through before leaning against the wall with heavier breaths.
Jade approached Riley, concern painted on their face. “You doing okay?”
“Yeah… just… still not… good at this… I guess.”
“If it makes you feel any better, Jamie was the same for a while. Unfit, couldn’t really climb a hill if you wanted them to. They weren’t unhealthy, but clearly not built for that stuff at the time.”
“Really…? They weren’t just… born like that…?”
“Nope. I know, what a surprise, right?” Jade chuckled. “But, uh, no. It took a lot of practice. It’ll likely take you a lot too. But… honestly? I think you’re already getting a lot of it from all of this.”
“Yeah…” They paused and looked over at Jamie and Luna. The latter was patiently waiting; the former less so. “Alright… let’s keep going.”
Fortunately, the remainder of the climb concluded without any further issues. It seemed that the small break and pep talk was all that Riley needed to muster the energy to make it the rest of the way.
Once Jade stepped into the entrance of the new hallway, they were very grateful to be back on stable ground. They took a moment to sit and breathe. It seemed that Riley had the same idea, but Jamie and Luna went a bit farther ahead. This time, Jamie made sure they stayed in Jade’s line of sight.
However, they didn’t have much time to revel in it though, since Jamie gasped in awe at something ahead. Luna appeared to be very interested in what was ahead too, so it had to have been good.
Jade and Riley rose up to get a look and… well, the two younger kids had a good reason to be intrigued.
There was what appeared to be some kind of golden statue sitting in the middle of a massive room. It was set upon a pedestal and raised up above the floor. Surrounding it was a large platform with pillars in each corner. Beyond that was a seemingly dark and endless void, much like the one in the chamber they just crossed.
The statue looked a lot like the Bing Bong plushie that Luna carried. Luna seemed to notice this as well, since they looked back and forth between the statue and their plushie several times before making the connection.
In the background was a giant statue, identical to the ones they saw at each camp and in that structure. They almost expected Jamie to jokingly ask if there would be a giant item inside of it, but their attention was honed in on the statue.
It seemed innocuous… but it felt wrong. It just felt too good to be true. There’s no way there would just be treasure sitting out in the open for the taking. There had to be a catch.
Jamie didn’t seem to have the same concern because they decided to run down the ramp and towards the statue. They paused just inches from it and observed it for a moment. Without any warning, they yanked it off of the pedestal.
There was a “click” noise that came from a pressure plate hidden on the pedestal. Everyone simply stared at it in silence until everything started to rumble.
That was the catch.