MHO Chapter 23! Aaaand we’re back to the action! Nothing like delving into some old ruins for a classic bit of adventure.

-Llox

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Lykou and Kuna hiked through the canyon forest for several hours before they finally caught a glimpse of something in the distance that stood out from the rest of the terrain and brush. The grayish blur between the trees definitely didn’t look like a natural feature of the landscape as they got closer. Soon enough they entered a clearing and could more clearly see a group of stone structures clustered along a brickwork path.

Most of the buildings lacked rooves, though many had arches and supports that likely once held something up. The walls were made of large, carved stones that locked together in cleanly-shaped patterns. Vines and moss were growing wild all across the buildings. The boys were both were impressed, but Kuna was especially fascinated by their construction. “Is your village built like this?”

“Kind of, but… not nearly this, well, fancy, for the most part,” the konuul responded, running a hand over one of the walls. “Whoever made these were really good at it, and this had to take a damn long time to build, and good tools, too.”

“And a lot of them,” Kuna added, examining the detailed floral decorations etched into the frame surrounding the entrance to one building.

“Probably. Not to mention moving all this stone from wherever they found it had to be a huge pain in the ass, even before they carved them into big bricks.”

“Bricks?” the sereva asked, raising a brow. “Is that what these chunks are called?”

“Yeah. We have some made out of stone, but we also make our own clay-stone bricks with the ovens. They’re a lot easier to carry,” he said, remembering back to when he was in his early teens and tasked with helping to haul bricks for an expansion to his family’s neighbor’s home. “Still a lot of work though.”

“Wait, you can make stone?” Kuna asked, fascinated.

“Yeah, or something like it anyway,” the konuul explained. “Something to do with a certain kind of mud, you shape it and stick it in the ovens, then it comes out as hard chunks. You can make other things with it, too. Never worked with it myself, but more than half of the buildings in our village use it to some degree or other.” He paused and looked at the sereva thoughtfully for a moment. “What kind of things were your homes made of anyway? Just wood and plant stuff?”

“Pretty much. The weavers made something out of several different things, including meshweed and… some thick white stuff I was never sent to gather. Never learned the actual name. It was thick and warm, but light-weight. Wish I knew how or what they used, but, well… you know,” Kuna said, shrugging. There was slight bitterness to his voice and expression, but subdued. “Nowhere near as strong as stone, though. Storms could get scary sometimes. The spirit-weavers would always try to keep us moving out of the path of bad weather with their magic, somehow.”

“I was wondering how you dealt with that,” the konuul said, then walked over and gently hugged the sereva with one arm as they resumed exploring the ruins.

Kuna smiled a little, appreciating the gesture. “Stone can be really pretty, at least. Look at all the carvings they have here. Is your village like that?”

Lykou shook his head. “Not really. A few little fancy bits around the meeting house and maybe one or two other places, but that’s it. Used to be a little old shrine on the side of the lake that had all kinds of fancy flowers and such around it, but people don’t visit it as much anymore, so it’s kind of gotten all… bleh, you know?”

“Shrine?” the sereva asked curiously.

“Some people used to try and talk to the spirits there, even if they couldn’t see them. Praise them for their work, sometimes ask for favors, and so on. Maybe try and talk to their ancestors, sometimes. Some still do, but not as much as they used to,” Lykou replied, with the faintest hint of regret. “I think when we get back, I’m going to see about cleaning that place up.”

“Interesting… I used to sometimes pretend to talk to my grandmother after she passed, hoping she’d hear me and visit me from the spirit world somehow. But I was just a little kid. It didn’t occur to me that adults would talk to invisible spirits that might or might not be around,” Kuna said, raising an eyebrow. “And I thought you never saw any spirits around Lakefire to begin with?”

“Not any more. The old stories mention spirits being more active around there a long time ago, though. In both good and bad ways. It’s what spirit-chasing was originally meant to deal with,” the konuul explained. “I’ve even got a few little charms buried in the bottom of my bag that are supposed to be used for that stuff, but honestly I have no idea if they even do anything.”

“You should let me take a look at them sometime,” Kuna said, intrigued.

“Sure. Not much to look at though, just some little carved bits of stone and leather strips with stuff painted on ‘em.”

“...maybe not the leather bits,” the sereva commented, making a face.

Lykou snickered. “Hey, you’ve been dr-”

“Don’t talk about it, dammit,” Kuna interrupted with a smirk and a playful glare. “I really need to do something with those gourds.”

They poked around in several of the buildings, but they were largely empty. Some had stone tables or counters attached to the walls, but otherwise there was barely any sign of what any of them might have been used for. “I guess whoever these people were, they took everything with them when they left,” the konuul noted.

“Wonder where they went anyway,” Kuna commented, peeking through another entryway. “Or why.”

“Good question. Seems like such a waste to make all these fancy, strong buildings, then just up and leave.”

“Yeah, really,” the sereva replied, moving on to the next building.

Eventually, the stonework path descended down a hill towards a very large structure. At the front, it had two entryways on either side of a very large, circular carving filled with little details that were hard to make out. Unlike most of the other buildings, it appeared to be made out of larger smooth sections of carved stone. And while the stone comprising most structures were shades of grey and brown, this large one involved a great deal of lighter-colored stone, only using the grey stone along the edges. It was, all in all, far more ornate and impressive looking.

“Wow,” Kuna said, eyeing the building with awe as they slowly approached it.

“Yeah, no kidding,” Lykou replied. After a moment, he grinned. “Hey, if there’s any of those artifact things around here, I bet they’ll be in there.”

“Wouldn’t surprise me,” the sereva said, smiling back at him.

When they got up close, it was still hard to tell what the carving on the front was supposed to be. Kuna could make out what looked like a tree in the center, but there were so many other little lines of varying depth that it made it hard to make much sense of the rest. There was another, smaller building on the left side, protruding from the hill, though there didn’t appear to be an obvious entrance.

After looking over the carving for a minute, the two slipped in through one of the main building’s entrances and found themselves in a large, empty room. The roof was an enormous dome of connecting stone arches, loaded with vines and flowering plants that filled some of the gaps between them. On the back wall was an ornate wooden door that was still in perfect condition.

“Huh, why’s that part of the wall made of wood, instead of stone like the rest?” Kuna wondered out loud.

Lykou gave him an odd, slightly amused look. “Uh, pretty sure that’s a door, actually.”

“A… door,” Kuna repeated, raising an eyebrow. “Right. Sulyr mentioned that word. But he was talking about the spirit sign and how it’s the ‘mystical’ version of one. What’s a door?”

“Right, I guess all you had were like… tents and such,” the konuul replied, approaching the door. “Just think of it like a flap, just… more rigid.” He demonstrated, pushing on the wooden entrance. It was heavier than he anticipated, but it slowly parted on some unseen hinges. “Huh, double door, actually. Didn’t even notice that at first. These people were amazing crafters.”

“Huh, neat,” the sereva said as he followed the canid through the door. They found themselves looking down a long hallway, with a more solid roof running its length- although it was still filled with numerous skylights allowing daylight inside. Oddly, it seemed to lead to a dead end. “Well, this is strange…”

“Yeah, what’s the point of this?” Lykou said as they slowly walked down the hall. “Such a weird, skinny room.”

Kuna looked up at the skylights and nudged his friend to get his attention. “Look at those weird plants up there. With the weird curled-up leaves. I’ve never seen one like that before, and they’re at each hole. Almost like they were intentionally planted there.”

“Could be. Wonder why though?” Lykou responded, then looked back down at the walls. He stopped walking as he noticed something after a moment. “Hey, is it just me or do some of these symbols look like they might be spirit-signs?”

The sereva leaned in to take a closer look, tracing his finger over one of them. “Yeah, they do have that look,” he replied, then turned to take a look at another one on the opposite wall. Suddenly, his finger grazed a raised portion and the wall spun around, pulling him with it and causing him to let out a startled yelp. “What the fuck?!” he shouted as he looked around in a mild panic. He was in another hallway that apparently paralleled the one they’d just been walking in. Only it was lit up not just by skylights- but also by glowing plants. And, more importantly, the lines and decorations in the walls were glowing with green light, too- life energy.

“Shit, are you alright?” Lykou’s muffled voice cried from the other side.

Kuna was relieved he could still hear his friend’s voice, but was momentarily stunned by the sight. After a moment he snapped himself out of it and tried running his finger over the area he’d been examining before, but nothing happened. “Yeah, I’m alright! But I can’t get this thing to turn again, it looks like I’m stuck!”

“Hold on, let me try!” Lykou replied. After a moment, there was a faint thud, followed by some grunting and panting. “Dammit, I can’t get it to budge…”

“Yeah, no, something tells me brute force won’t work,” Kuna called over to him. “See if you can feel around for another spot like the one I found! It looked like a diamond inside a circle inside a square!”

“Alright, hang tight,” the konuul replied.

Several minutes passed in tense silence. The sereva took the time to examine the glowing lines and decorations lining the walls. It was definitely life energy. He focused for a moment and could tell the place was loaded with it, even more than a normal forest. And a lot of it felt more… clean, neat, and focused than usual. Must be what it’s like when its flowing through spirit-signs, he thought. But Mentor never mentioned anything on this big of a scale before…

“I think I found one!” Lykou’s voice called out eventually from a little further down. “Stand back, I’m going to try it!”

After a moment, there was a faint click, and another section of wall spun around, bringing Lykou over to Kuna’s side. The sereva quickly ran up and embraced him. “Fuck, I’m so glad you found one,” he said, squeezing the konuul. “We’ll have to be more careful in here.”

“No kidding,” Lykou replied, returning the tight hug for a moment. Suddenly his eyes widened as he took in their surroundings. “Woah…”

“Yeah, it’s… magic, I guess,” Kuna said, running a finger over some of the glowing lines. They were laid out to look like stylized vines running all along the middle of the walls, with various symbols other decorations in random spots around them.

“Glowing like these necklaces, only… green,” the konuul mused, lifting the medallion to compare it for a moment. “Wonder what the difference means…”

“It’s l-” Kuna instinctively started, then cut himself off, realizing the mistake he almost made. “Er, growth magic, I think, the kind a lot of spirit-weavers us. Or at least that was the same color, the few times I saw it. Like what Nauja used to heal people, too.” He mentally cursed the promise he was bound by.

“Yeah, that makes sense. But what’s it here for, exactly? Its everywhere,” Lykou said as he turned and started walking down the hall, following one of the lines.

The sereva hurried along behind him. “Careful you don’t trigger another weird… thing.”

In response, the konuul pulled his hand away and grinned sheepishly. “Good point.”

Unlike the previous hall, the one they now found themselves in curved off to the left at the end. The next stretch had a number of dark, narrow alcoves lining it at seemingly random intervals. They exchanged a look, then continued walking towards them, warily. They stopped at the first alcove to take a look at it. There was a round stone trough protruding from the wall, filled with dirt, though a fair chunk of the dirt was spilled out onto the ground.

“Huh, that’s odd. Must have had something growing there once. Can’t imagine it’d do well without more sun, though,” Lykou noted.

“Weird,” Kuna commented, wondering to himself if life energy might be able to make up for the lack of sunlight.

They continued down the hallway again, admiring both the designs in the walls, and the odd, glowing flowers that grew through cracks in the walls in some locations. “I’ve never seen glowing plants bef- FUCKING SHIT!!” the konuul suddenly blurt out as he narrowly avoid being bitten by something that suddenly bolted out from one of the alcoves.

Fortunately, it just snapped at the air, apparently unable to reach him. The two stared in dumbfounded shock at the bizarre sight in front of them. It looked like a flower on a particularly thick, almost muscle-like stem, jutting out of the alcove. The unusually thick petals were lined with jagged, teeth-like protrusions, and its stamen was a long, slimy tongue-like thing, dripping with some kind of slimy fluid. And the whole thing was somehow animate- very animate, considering how quickly it’d snapped out at the konuul.

Kuna’s eye twitched as he stared at the thing. The plant-creature was clearly hostile and intent on taking a bite out of one of them, but fortunately its range seemed limited by its location. “Is… is that a fucking… flower with… teeth??”

Lykou slowly nodded as he backed away from the still-snapping flora. Eventually, the plant seemed to tired of failing to get a bite, and it withdrew back in the alcove, curling up its stem like a snake waiting for another opportunity to strike. “I’ve seen weird shit on this trip, including several kinds of spirits, but somehow I think that’s the freakiest shit yet,” he commented. Suddenly he arched a brow. “I don’t suppose it is a spirit, do you think? But like, a bad one?”

The sereva stared at the menacing bud lurking in the alcove for a minute, then slowly shook his head. If anything, it did feel unnatural somehow, and he could sense an unusually high amount of life energy around it, but it didn’t feel anything like Koki’s presence had. “No, I… I don’t think so. But it definitely seems… wrong, in a way.”

They both eyed it in disturbed fascination for another minute before Lykou grinned at his companion. “Maybe he’s just angry about you eating his cousins,” he teased.

Kuna shot him a flat, unamused look. “Ha. Funny.” He turned to look back down the hallway, taking a deep breath to steady his nerves as he noted how many more alcoves they’d be passing before the next bend in the hallway. “Could be more of them. I guess we should just be extra careful passing those gaps in the wall.”

“Definitely,” the konuul agreed, rubbing the arm that’d nearly gotten bitten. “Wish I’d made another spear before now.”

“At least you have your knife,” Kuna said as they resumed walking.

“True. Not much reach with that, though. And I’d rather not get too close to those things.”

They passed several more alcoves, about half of which were empty, while the other half had toothy plants snap out at them. On one occasion, an especially large one lashed out far enough that they only managed to avoid it by hugging the far wall. The flower was easily as large as either of their heads.

Finally, they came across the last two alcoves- right across from one another. The pair exchanged a nervous look as they braced themselves.

“Alright, we run past as quick as we can,” Lykou said, gripping his knife tightly in one hand. “Anything lashes out, I’ll swing as we pass.”

Kuna took a deep breath, then nodded. “Alright. On the count of three?”

“Right.”

“One…”

“Two…”

“Three!” they said unison and bolted past the twin alcoves. They spun around on the other side and were pleasantly surprised to see no sign of any attacking plant.

“Heh, lot of worry over nothing then, right K-” Lykou said then cut himself off when he turned to his friend. A fairly small version of the flowers they’d been dodging had burst out of a crack in the wall and latched onto the sereva’s shoulder. Fortunately, from his expression, it wasn’t a serious problem.

“Ow,” Kuna said lamely with a mildly annoyed expression as he looked down at his shoulder. The little thing’s teeth were barely long enough to make it through his poncho, let alone his fur. He looked up at the konuul and gestured to the plant angrily trying to chew and tug on the poncho’s fabric. “You mind?”

“Er, right,” Lykou replied, then reached over and sliced through the stem in one quick swipe.

The flower fell limp, allowing the sereva to pluck it off and give the tooth marks in his poncho another annoyed look. “Fuckin’ bitey buttercup bitch,” he grumbled as he kicked the bud away harshly, then examined the minor damage. “Better not find any weird pollen in there. Damn overgrown angry brussel sprout...”

The konuul had to stifle a laugh. “You alright?”

“Yeah, didn’t even reach my skin,” Kuna replied, then quirked a brow at the canid. “What’s funny?”

Lykou just shook his head with a grin. “You. Haven’t heard you get real sassy like that in a little bit,” he commented. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad you’ve let your sweet side show lately, but it’s fun to see you get like that when it’s aimed at something else.”

Kuna smirked and rolled his eyes, blushing slightly. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Now that they were past the final pair of alcoves, the hallway abruptly turned to the right and led to a junction at the end of another long section. There were no more alcoves, but the very end of the hallway was filled with vines and different kinds of flowers. Fortunately, none looked like the toothed ones that’d been trying to get a taste of them. They began walking towards the junction keeping a wary eye on the plantlife. “I hope there’s nothing else nasty in here…”

“We’ll just have to stay alert,” Lykou replied, keeping his knife drawn, just in case.

Sure enough, as they neared the junction, several of the small purple flowers among the plant mass at the end of the hallway began to stir. The two braced themselves to jump back if needed. The konuul held up a hand to stop the sereva.

“We should decide which way to go before we get any closer, because me may have to be fast,” he pointed out. “So… right or left?”

“Hmm… how about right?” Kuna suggested. “If I remember correctly, that should take us back towards the original hall we entered.”

“Sounds good to me.”

As they approached the junction, the flowers suddenly started hissing. When they tried to hurry through, they suddenly felt themselves getting pelted with tiny needles. Kuna’s poncho and Lykou’s thicker fur managed to stop most of them, but the konuul started getting dizzy as soon as they were safely around the corner.

“Damn, that was close,” Kuna said, then frowned as his friend stumbled around and had to brace himself against the wall. “Shit, Lykou! Are you alright??”

The konuul winced and swayed a bit. “A couple got my arm,” he said, looking down. “I think they’re poisoned...”

Kuna hurried over and took a close look at the damage. Three tiny thorn-like needles were sticking out among the fur on the canid’s arm. Luckily, they came out easily, suggesting they didn’t embed very deep. “Yeah, those were definitely poisoned,” he said, examining the tiny red marks on the skin under the fur. “Probably not too strong though. Should wear off soon.” He started digging through his bag after a minute, then pulled out a small, thin, dried up root of some kind. He snapped off a piece and handed it to the canid. “Drink some water and chew on this just to be on the safe side.”

Lykou eyed the root for a minute and made several false attempts at grabbing it. “Fuck, Kuna, I’m having trouble here,” he said, clenching his eyes shut. “Everything’s spinning…”

“Alright, here, sit down for a minute,” the sereva instructed, helping the konuul sit without falling over. He then placed the root in one hand, then helped pull the waterskin out of his bag and put it in his other hand.

After some fumbling, the canid took several large sips of water and popped the root piece into his mouth. He immediately made a face. “Ah, fuck this is bitter.”

“Yeah, but it should help. Bleakroot is good at countering a lot of different poisons,” Kuna said, smiling sympathetically.

“I should hope so,” Lykou said, cringing as he reluctantly chewed on the nasty thing. After a few minutes, his vision slowly stopped spinning and he started to feel a little better. “Am I supposed to swallow it?”

“No, just chew and suck on it until you’re sure you feel better. Then you can spit it out.”

After another couple minutes, the konuul aggressively spat the piece of root down the hall. “Damn that was nasty,” he said, pausing to take another big sip of water, then grabbed a small piece of meat from his own bag to munch on, if only to wash away the flavor. “Still, glad you thought ahead to grab some. How long have you been holding onto it?”

“Since that first harvest day. Bleakroot doesn’t really go bad, at least not that I know of.”

“I don’t know how it can get worse than that,” Lykou playfully quipped. “Good thinking ahead, though. What other things you got in there?”

Kuna shrugged. “Not a lot. Just my food, some more bleakroot, and one or two other things for bleeding and such. We really should stop for another supply day before long.”

The canid sighed and nodded. “Yeah, probably not a bad idea. Good thing we still have that bag of salt.”

“Definitely. Remind me to get one of the big crystals out tonight,” the sereva said, licking his lips thoughtfully.

Lykou grinned. “Yeah, you haven’t indulged in that recently.”

“Well, it’s been a crazy few days. I honestly keep forgetting we have it.”

“True,” the canid said, then took a deep breath as he carefully got back to his feet, with some help from Kuna. He wavered slightly, but only for a moment. “Alright, I think I’m good to go.”

Kuna stood up next to him, making sure he was steady before they continued. A short way down the hall was another wooden door. When they passed through it, they found themselves in a square room with stone troughs and wooden pipes attached to the walls at different levels. They could see and hear water flowing through them, apparently coming in from several spouts near the high ceiling.

“Huh, this is weird,” the sereva commented as he walked over to examine one of the troughs at the bottom level. It appeared to have a drain in the bottom, but it had no water. There were pipes leading to it, but they were empty. He followed them up to a point where he found one pipe attached to some kind of crank, which was currently leading down to another set of pipes directly to a drain in the floor.

Meanwhile, Lykou was taking a look at a section of the wall that stood out from the rest. There was a door-shaped indent with three symbols on it. “I’ll say. Wonder what this room is even for?”

“This whole place is strange. First those spinning walls, then the violent plants, now a room full of wooden tubes and flowing water. And what’s this attached to one?” Kuna wondered out loud as he ran his handle over the crank. Suddenly, he felt it move when he applied some pressure, jumping back slightly. The tube had tipped slightly in the other direction, causing some water to spill over the opening gap between itself and the one it had been connected to.

Lykou walked over and took a look at it. “Oh, that looks like… hang on,” he said, then reached out and pulled on the crank, causing the entire tube to tip over and change the flow of water so that it ran down into the stone trough. After a moment, the symbol in the trough began glowing with a deep blue light. “Wow, hey, look at that!” he said with some excitement. “More magic.”

“Yeah, and look over there,” Kuna said, pointing to the matching symbol on the wall section. It was now glowing as well. That must be what water energy looks like, he thought to himself.

They both shared a look, then grinned. “It’s like some kind of weird puzzle, I guess,” the sereva commented, then looked around for another trough with an unlit symbol. “We have to get the other two glowing.”

“Right, you work on the one on the left, I’ll work on the one on the right.”

“Works for me,” Kuna said, then set to work figuring out which cranks to adjust. It took them around fifteen minutes to work it out, as they were occasionally hampered by realizing some pipe sections could go to either of their troughs, but obviously not both at the same time. But eventually they got all three symbols lit up.

Suddenly there was a low rumbling sound and the wall section slowly lowered into a slot in the ground. They both approached cautiously and saw that it let to another short hallway that turned left at the end. The skylights were gone, but the hall was well lit by the glowing lines and symbols on the walls. “Well, onto whatever’s next, I guess,” Kuna said hesitantly.

“Yep,” Lykou replied, leading the way. “What is this place even for? I can’t imagine any practical use for stuff like this.”

“Who knows? Maybe some kind of, I don’t know, ceremonial thing.”

“Could be,” the canid said with a shrug.

They rounded the corner and found themselves facing a set of stairs heading up. After exchanging a wary look, they began ascending. Thick, thorny vines hung from the ceiling in increasing numbers as they approached the landing. Once they ran out of steps, they saw another wooden door awaiting them down a short hallway. When they approached it, however, Kuna let out a yelp as several of the vines suddenly whipped down and curled around his arms. “FUCK!”

Lykou ran over and immediately began cutting at the vines with his knife. He had to avoid several vines trying to grab him as well. They spent several intense minutes cussing and wincing as the vines grabbed at them, scraping and pricking at their flesh with their wicked thorns. When Kuna was finally free, they quickly bolted through the door and Lykou made sure it shut behind them.

“I fucking HATE the plants in this place,” the sereva declared, rubbing his sore arms. Luckily neither of them was badly hurt, but their limbs were covered in scratches and small pinpricks.

“I’ll second that one,” the canid agreed, massaging his forearm.

They looked around and found themselves in yet another square room with a high ceiling. There were skylights again all over the ceiling. The lines on the walls split into several that approached indents in the floor. They were joined by a few yellow ones running down from diamond-shaped symbols in the walls. Scattered around the room were small statues carved from some kind of smooth, polished stone. They were of various random geometric shapes, as well as a few plants and animals. One with a crooked cube shape was sitting in one of the circular floor indents.

“Oh good, another stupid puzzle thing,” Kuna muttered as he examined the room. “Just what we came here for.”

Lykou sighed as he fiddled with a statue of some kind of bird. “Yeah I think I’ve seen enough of this place. I hope this one leads to the exit,” he said as he looked over at another door-like indent in the wall. This one only had one symbol on it, but it was larger than a spirit-sign and didn’t resemble anything on any of the statues, from what he could tell. “Hey, at least these aren’t as heavy as they look,” he said, grunting slightly as he dragged the bird statue over to one of the insets. “Let’s see what this does.”

Kuna watched with some trepidation. Sure enough, when the statue was in place, green and yellow veins of energy started creeping up the stone and flickering across the bird. Suddenly, the stone avian started to move around. Its wings rustled and its head looked back and forth at the two visitors. Its eyes blinked a couple times, then, defying gravity, it took off from its perch and began swooping through the air between the two. They yelped and dodged out of the way. After a moment, it flew up and landed on the edge of one of the skylights, watching them intently.

“Woah, shit!” the canid cried out, watching with rapt fascination. “Look at that!”

“How the hell can it fly?” the sereva wondered aloud as he looked up at the animate statue. He then shot a look to his friend. “And please don’t say something about spirits.”

“Well it could be! You don’t know every kind of spirit that exists,” Lykou replied defensively. “Could be one that you aren’t familiar with.”

Kuna rolled his eyes with a slight smirk. “I guess.” He turned to look at the sealed stone doorway and examine the symbol silhouetted on its face. “Well, I don’t think the bird has anything to do with this. Lets try some others.”

Lykou nodded and moved the base of the bird statue off the indent. The bird suddenly fell to the floor, shattering into a bunch of pieces, startling them. After a few moments, the debris floated into the air and reformed on the base, much to their amazement.

They both exchanged a look, then Kuna narrowed his eyes as he looked over at one of the other statues. “Do NOT even THINK about moving the snake one. Or the spider. In fact, don’t touch any of the animal ones.”

Lykou snickered. “Don’t worry, I won’t.”

The sereva resumed analyzing the door, comparing it to the various shapes around the room. Meanwhile, Lykou experimented with the non-animal statues, periodically setting them into the indents to see what would happen. Each statue would glow and float into the air slightly when it was infused with energy.

“Wait, leave that one there a moment,” the sereva spoke up after noticing a subtle change in part of the indent on the door when one statue was activated. Certain portions of it had a very slight yellow glow on the edge. “I think I’m starting to get it. We have to combine a couple shapes to make that’d make a shadow like this!”

“Oh! Let me see,” Lykou said, hurrying over to get a closer look at the door. “Hmm… what would combine with that one?”

Kuna looked at the other statues for a moment. “Try the upside down version, over there.”

After a dozen or so minutes of experiments, they finally found the right combination. All three statues suddenly floated together and, in a brilliant flash of yellow light, fused into a single solid object. The symbol on the door glowed brightly as the object floated past them to fuse with it. There was another bright flash as the door vanished into thin air, leaving the way forward open.

“...this place just gets weird and weirder.”

“No kidding,” Lykou replied, peering through the new passage. “Kind of cool though when things aren’t, you know, trying to attack us.”

“Yeah, if you like pretentious rocks with attitude,” Kuna snarked.

They followed the passage along a long, s-shaped bend. Again, there were no more skylights, and the glowing lines were gradually reduced to just a few vine renditions along the tops of the walls. Most of the light was coming from the occasional leaf shape attached to each vine at random intervals. Eventually, they arrived at another large, ornate wooden door. When they opened it, they found themselves in an enormous, dimly-lit room. There was another door on the opposite side. But all along the walls on either side were dark alcoves similar to the ones they’d seen before.

“Oh lovely,” Kuna deadpanned. “Nothing ominous about this at all.”

“Not at all,” Lykou replied, eyeing the alcoves warily. They were a dozen or so yards away on either side, but he had a sinking impression that didn’t mean much in this case. “Well we won’t get anywhere standing here.” He took a deep breath and stepped through the threshold, with Kuna following close behind.

As soon as they entered the room, glowing green light filled each of the alcoves, two at a time, revealing strange shadowy forms stirring to life. They looked like the biting flowers from before, except they were each attached to a shifting mass of mobile roots, not bound by soil. They had thorny vines on the sides that almost looked like clawed hands at the ends. And as they stirred, they were starting to focus on the two intruders.

“Fuck. Run,” Lykou said, and they both bolted for the door on the far side of the room.

The plant-monsters came shambling out of their alcoves after them, hissing and stumbling awkwardly. They weren’t fast, but they were starting to close in as the boys reached the door. Kuna found himself wishing they hadn’t forgotten their walking sticks by Sulyr’s stream. One managed to get between Lykou and the door, and he narrowly avoided it snapping at his arm. He took the opportunity to slit its main stem with his knife. The flower-head dropped off, but the plant’s vines still lashed out at him.

Kuna bolted around the konuul and slammed a kick into the creature’s base, between the roots and its main stem. The blow was light, but it was enough to cause it to stumble over and give them a chance to burst through the door. Before it could close behind them, a pair of the attacking plants plowed through behind them. The konuul and sereva went running down the hallway, and more plants started popping out of alcoves they passed, joining in the chase.

They ran and ran, through a series of twists, turns, and subtle changes in incline, feeling like the hall was endless. Several times they had to duck from vines swinging down from the ceiling, or jump over grasping roots at their feet. On several occasions they heard the sound of small needles hitting the wall as they passed by, along with a familiar hissing sound. Suddenly something larger dropped from the ceiling behind them. Kuna glanced back and was horrified to see a large, bipedal monster sprinting after them. It looked almost like a person, with two large, flower-like eyes glaring intently after them as it charged forward. “FUCK!” he shouted as he turned back towards the hall in front of them, redoubling his running effort.

The reaction made Lykou briefly glance back to see what the fuss was about, and he immediately regretted it. “What the shit?!”

Eventually, they burst through a set of double-doors into another large, open room. To their great concern, they didn’t see another obvious exit. The plant-person burst through the doors soon after them and they turned to face it. Much to their surprise, it stopped right past the doorway, glowering at them silently.

“Uh… c-can you talk?” Lykou nervously asked, while the sereva panted to catch his breath.

An awkward silence fell over them for a minute. Suddenly, green and yellow light rippled from a spot on the ground next to the plant-thing, and a long, natural-looking blade of some kind sprouted from the stone floor. The entity bent down and picked it up, then pointed it at them threateningly.

“Something tells me it’s not feeling chatty.”