A completely hidden platform at the very end of the room lifted us up, through another hidden hole on the ceiling. Loud, scraping stone was all that could be heard as we were brought up, up, up, through the dark hole above us and into whatever nightmarish room lay ahead of us. Or above us. Or… something.
We didn’t say anything as we went up. All of us were still pretty shaken from witnessing and confronting our worst fears, of all of us I though Emma was the worst. She kept looking at the ground and walls and ceiling and me. George kept looking at his non-existent spider bite on his butt as if it was suddenly going to poison him.
We arrived momentarily in a slightly more bright room than we’d previously encountered. It seemed smaller, and very empty. Nothing was there, making me even more suspicious than before. The platform stopped moving and we instantly leapt off it, before it sank back into the floor and sealed with the same floor material as the current room like the elevator pit didn’t even exist. There was no turning back.
“What’ll happen in here?” asked Viperia. Her voice just sort of fell out, not echoing at all on the light-emitting large-tile room. It contained nothing by the five of us.
“No clue.” I replied. I walked the box-like room and touched the cold wall with my palm, feelings along it. My fingers went up, then into the air and not quite brushing the low ceiling over us.
“It’s a gas room. Guys, we can’t escape, WE’RE GOING TO DIE!” screeched George.
“Argh!” growled Hudson. He reached up and closed his hands around the Pegasus’s mouth.
“We are not. This dungeon, though it’s possible to get killed, is not designed to really kill us. Trial us.” I spat at him. His eyes still glared at me over Hudson’s arm.
“Hey, did you guys know we forgot the sword?” Emma whined. I pressed the ball of my hand into an eyeball.
“It doesn’t matter, it was just something I conjured,”
“But you wouldn’t be able to recreate that.” She argued. “That was practically a one-off of the entire world.” The vampire pouted. I sighed. I honestly didn’t care. I just wanted to know what this dungeon room was for.
But suddenly, there was a strange, indescribable noise, and I stumbled back toward the others. I fell and Vipe sort of caught me, and I stood straighter, as something appeared. It was a being, making me more wary.
It was a sheep. A rainbow sheep, with eyes that stared us down the second it appeared out of this air. The sheep didn’t have the nervous, jittery sort of appearance or expression of other sheep, but a dangerous and very serious one instead.
“What do you want?” asked Emma flatly, looking at it intrigued.
“I am the Quiz. Each of you will answer one question, passing you through to the next room. This trial shall be a swift one if you – the answerers – are clever enough.” Said the sheep, his voice harsh and gravelly.
“What? Freaking CRAP…” muttered Viperia, grabbing her fringe in a tightly-locked fist and pulling it. “I’m stupid as… as… UGH!”
“I can’t say I’m any better.” Strained Hudson.
“Who will go first?” said the Quiz with total disregard for those statements.
“Me.” Said Vipe, panting from stress. “Get it over and done with.” The Quiz nodded slowly.
“First, I need tell you that no cheating is permitted. No whispering, hinting, signing. The answer comes from you.” He told us. “First question for you, water fairy. What is the scientific name for the batgoat?”
“Man, these are real questions?” grumbled Vipe, tugging her shorts. “OK, um… Give me time.”
The batgoat nodded. I instantly knew the answer, but had no clue how much school Vipe actually flunked.
“I’ve got it! Damn, biology was an alright subject. The answer is chiroptera capra aegagrus.” Said Viperia. I let out a huge huff of breath, clutching my heart from relief. I couldn’t believe she knew that, but I was so freaking happy she did. I shot her a wide grin that she returned whilst wiping sweat from her face.
“Correct.” Replied the Quiz with a nod. “Next?”
“I’ll go.” Said George. I was pretty sure I could count on him, but I didn’t actually know the breadth of Pegasus education.
“Very well, Pegasus.” Said the Quiz. “Your question; what is the name of the founder of the werewolf kingdom?”
I could feel George’s tension, but didn’t question his ability to get the answer. His brow was deeply creased, as though he was almost confused, staring at the floor while the Quiz looked upon him like a bird of prey. A second later, however, George had it.
“The answer is – there was no founder. The werewolf kingdom was created when all the werewolves were banished from the realms of the unicorns and alicorns, thus forcing them into their own company and founding instead solid rivalry.” Replied George. The Quiz nodded, and I clapped my hands briskly together as I smiled at George. He breathed heavily and blinked to acknowledge me.
“Correct. Next?” said the Quiz, looking at all of us with a focused gaze.
“I’ll go.” Said Hudson quietly, almost so quiet that it seemed the Quiz wouldn’t be able to hear him. But instead, the rainbow sheep inclined a slow nod. Hudson stepped forward a little, defensively holding his body as the Quiz examined him a moment.
“Your question, animal human.” He said. Man, this guy could read minds. “How is a vampire created?”
“What? No, are you serious?” demanded Emma suddenly. The Quiz’s look slid over to her and drilled into her eyes. “Hey, Hudson,”
“No cheating.” Spat the Quiz, flicking one of his ears and continuing to glare at her whilst Hudson started to hyperventilate. He harshly rubbed his arms and bit his lips, sweat dribbling down his face.
“Uh, um,” he stuttered.
“Hudson,” hissed Emma. I whimpered, terrified that perhaps they would cheat, and the Quiz would notice… but surprisingly, as Emma still stared into the eyes of that rainbow sheep and held the gaze right there, she stretched out her left hand into Hudson’s view. On her hand, the side of it, halfway between her wrist and knuckles were two little scars. Bite-marks. That was her hint. They were cheating, but the Quiz hadn’t noticed yet.
Now all Hudson had to do was figure out the rest past the biting.
But that was passed in a second. His brown eyes lit up and I knew he’d realized – he must have learned it somewhere.
“Uh, a, another vampire has to bite the victim. And, uh, the poison… I know this! The poison is injected by choice of the vampire. They can like either just casually bite them or bite to turn them vampire. And then the poison takes over, but the victim can only be turned if they’ve been pre-bitten and then go outside on a full moon.” He gasped. “Is that, uh, right?”
The Quiz considered him for a moment and I held my breath, clutching the front of my dress as he looked into Hudson’s sweating face. Could he actually read minds? Or was his assumption of him being an animal human just obvious…
“Correct.” He said. I let out my breath in a huff of wind, releasing my dress and shuddering. I looked at Emma and she sort of winked at me, before looking at the Quiz.
“Me next.” She said confidently.
“Alright, vampire.” Replied the Quiz, shuffling his large weight and looking at her with the same inquisitive but interrogating eyes. “Your question – how long does a fairy have to be schooled for until he or she can fully graduate magic school?” he asked.
Oh crap. I looked at Emma, actually really worried. Maybe I was originally confident in her knowledge, being the second oldest of our group next to Bob, but how much did she know about fairies? Vampires and all the other demonic figures of the vampire kingdom despised fairies.
I knew the answer – I’d spend all the required seven years at advanced magic school to become a doctor, but I assumed Emma didn’t know it was seven years. She’d have to use logic.
It shouldn’t be too hard. If she considered well enough, it would be evident that I would start on my eleventh birthday and finish on my eighteenth birthday. I crossed my fingers behind my back.
“I, uh…” she made eye contact with me. I raised my eyebrows and widened my eyes, trying to show her the answer would be obvious… it took her a few seconds until she returned the expression.
“Seven years.” She said.
She did it! I let out a tiny squeal and grinned at her, Emma flicking up the corners of her mouth. I could tell she was really nervous.
“Correct.” Replied the Quiz. When his look finally came to me, he looked almost tired of dealing with us. I shivered and looked at his weird eyes. What would he ask me? Would I know? How much did I know? I sniffed – mentally telling myself to calm down as I rubbed my hands together in front of me, looking at the Quiz with confidence on my face. “Your question, fairy. What was your Pegasus companion thinking of five minutes ago?”
My jaw dropped, and I could almost hear Viperia’s and George’s drop too. Emma and Hudson looked at each other, and I stared at the Quiz with an expression of shock and utter disgust that I couldn’t even breathe. Vipe looked at him in loathing.
“How can you ask something like that? REASONABLE QUESTIONS, YOU IDIOT!” she screeched, stomping forward just once on her long legs to tower over the Quiz.
“It’s reasonable. Friends know what each other are thinking, right?” said the Quiz flatly.
“FRIENDS CAN’T READ FREAKING MINDS!” raged Vipe. I held out a hand to try and calm her but she completely ignored me.
“If you can’t answer the question, you cannot pass, and will remain in this room for the remainder of your mortal,” suddenly the Quiz was cut off.
A huge smashing sound blasted through my ears, hurting my brain and then my body as a large figure came hurtling at me and slammed me into the wall to my left. I grunted in agony, my arms hurting, and I looked up to see Emma over me and George just behind her, swearing repeatedly as a piece of rock was on his leg.
“WHAT?” I yelled over the dying noise, trying to shuffle up. But Emma was pinned by a huge rock and I was pinned under her, neither of us able to move as we tried to figure out what was going on. My ears rung.
“The ceiling, it…” Emma groaned.
“Are you alright?” I asked.
“Yeah, but, the ceiling collapsed.”
I tried to see past her, watching George flail his wings and legs to rid himself of the big piece of ceiling or wall or whatever it was. I soon saw Vipe, standing in shock as nothing had touched her. The Quiz was nowhere to be seen, and I was desperately hoping perhaps he was killed or something. I would have smirked at that thought, but as the shock began to clear I realized just how much pain I was in, my shoulder probably fractured and the weight of Emma and the rock quite a lot for me to comprehend.
The room that used to be white and square and neat was completely smashed to bits and now dark, full of rock.
“Bob!” I suddenly heard Hudson’s voice yell. I gasped – he was alright. Everybody was fine. But Bob? I looked frantically around as Emma tried to remove herself from under the rock and on me.
“You guys? Man, I found you!” I suddenly heard a familiar voice cry in what could have been delight, but it was Bob so it sounded sort of neutral.
“Bob! Dude, what happened?” asked Viperia, and all of a sudden Emma was able to remove the rock and I could breathe properly. It toppled away and she floated off me, shooting an apologetic frown. I sat up and winced, grabbing my shoulder and upper arm. It hurt. I peered through the darkness and soon sighted Bob, standing on the highest peak of the mound of dungeon rocks, looking down at us with a rather mixed expression.
“I was in the room above, doing some weird trial thing… I guess, and then it frustrated me so I kind of broke everything. I may have broken a couple more rooms as well,” he trailed off, shuffling his huge tail.
“How’d you find us?” I asked, clasping a rock near me to steady myself as I tried to sit comfortably. Failing. Emma floated over and offered a hand, but I declined with a screwed nose. It wouldn’t do me much good.
“Oh, coincidence.” Sighed Bob.
“Good timing.” I muttered with a smile though it turned to a grimace. “Stupid Quiz,” Bob looked at me, puzzled, but I watched him shrug it off.
“Come with me to the other rooms. I’m pretty sure I destroyed anything nearby and in the room I was just in so…” the dragon reached down his long, purple tail, and wrapped it around Hudson’s abdomen, pulling him up next to him. Hudson stumbled but managed to crouch steadily on the boulder of ceiling. Viperia fluttered up, and Emma came down to help me. She grabbed both my hands and pulled me up, and I couldn’t suppress the moan of agony from my left shoulder and upper arm.
“Sorry.” Mumbled Emma, slinging my right arm over her shoulder and floating into the air, landing next to Viperia and Hudson near Bob’s shoulder.
“STUPID ROCK!” I heard George yell. I then watched a rock soar across the room and smash on one of the walls and making it crack and crumble, and surprisingly George managed to escape and lift himself in the air near us. I saw scratches all over his body, and the Pegasus coughed away an enraged expression. “Sorry. Needed to get that out. Where are we going?”
I snickered.
“I don’t know. Come on.” Muttered Bob. Hudson hesitated, but stood and mounted himself on the dragon’s back. He then flung up his muscly wings and clawed his wing talons into the stone, hauling himself upwards into the gaping hole above in the dark. I squinted but was unable to see, watching Viperia rise up after him and George follow.
“Haha, bye Quiz!” I said, by now knowing that the stupid rainbow sheep was dead or squished or - if he could teleport, that.
I then adjusted myself, my eyes flickering to Emma, before she began to float upwards behind the others. We entered the smashed hole in the ceiling, my arm clinging to Emma’s cold shoulder and my other arm throbbing in agony as it dangled limply at my side. Emma held her right arm around my waist and continued to pull us into the air.
In a moment, I heard Bob. “Over here guys!” he yelled. I gazed around in the darkness and lit up my fingers with ease, though the magic pulsing from my heart and brain to my hands stung my injuries. I was a doctor – my shoulder was definitely broken.
“Are you alright?” offered Emma quietly, lowering us to the rocky floor in the blackness of a shadowy, open room. When my feet touched the ground, I instantly let go of Emma to cradle my arm, cursing a little.
“Yeah, um, maybe,” I replied.
“I already got over this room,” started Bob.
“By smashing it,” Coughed Vipe. Bob snorted at her.
“And I think there’s an exit over here.” Finished the dragon. I huffed a little.
“It’s annoying we just don’t know what to expect. And my stupid arm is broken,” I said in frustration, beginning to follow the others as they wandered into the dark. We were quiet a seemingly extended amount of time, and our surroundings were black and empty and rather cracked from the impact Bob made. I used the dim, faltering light of my fingers to guide me over the crags.
“Here’s the tunnel,” said Viperia’s near inaudible mutter, and we went into the tunnel she indicated.
The chamber sloped upwards, the floor not smooth with bricks as stairs, but almost like a shattered cave tunnel that went in a curve up and up, preventing us from seeing around any corner straight ahead with the infuriating angle of the upwards curves.
“Oh, by the way,” said Bob, “I found the lightning sword up near the crevasse.”
I perked up. “What, really?” said Emma. Bob nodded with a grumble, indicating he didn’t appreciate stating it twice. “Where is it now?”
“Right here.” He replied. Bob’s tail lifted into the air and Emma turned to look at it. The tail was curled around the grip of the sword, and my flickering light illuminated the blade with a flash.
“Man, it’s still awesome.” Sighed Emma floating over and grasping the guard, pulling it from Bob’s tail and holding it in the air. She gazed at it in wonder and walked along beside me, stroking its edge.
“Yeah, take it. I’d have no use for it.” Muttered Bob, tone sarcastic though I knew he was serious. “Guys, stop. The door’s here, and…”
“I can smell life. Get ready to die.” Finished Hudson, putting his hands behind his head and stretching a little nervously. I let out a groan – life? Geez freaking oh my god my arm was too sore for this, I’d get killed… I needed to heal it but bone-healing with magic takes days. I stumbled up to see the door – a massive wooden thing with golden handles and a knocker. What use was the knocker? I didn’t really care. Viperia stretched out a hand and grabbed the handle.
She turned it and the door flung open forwards, revealing a black passageway that we could see only because of the single, lonely torch on the wall 100 metres down at the end. The corridor was about five metres wide and five metres tall, dark and completely empty. It was eerie – the door creaking open the rest of the way and thumping dully against the wall.
“Hmph.” Pondered Vipe, shifting her weight to her uninjured foot. I backed up a little, my heart fluttering to a point where it almost vibrated, and bumped into Emma as I tottered backwards. She nudged me forward.
“What’s the point of this?” whispered Hudson, voice delicately bouncing off the narrow walls and not carrying the length of the massive corridor.
But that’s when something appeared.
Rising from the floor but not breaking it, like floor was air, came a figure. It was about ten metres away from us, shape silhouetted strangely in the blackness.
“Ghosts?” whispered Emma.
“Nope. Just… things.” Replied George.
“Let’s fight!” yelled Vipe. I couldn’t run to grab her as laser-like magic came blasting from her hands, and the fairy went sprinting forward. I whimpered as she tossed herself into the air and came smashing down on the skull of the attacking skeleton, as more monsters began rising out of the ground. The floor became littered with bones and Viperia whooped.
“Vipe, look out!” I shrieked with my hands over my mouth.
Bob roared and galloped forwards and Vipe rolled across the floor to dodge his jet of flame. I didn’t know what kind of things were attacking, but it was a limited assortment of skeletons, zombies, headless horses and rabid eight-legged dogs.
“We have to reach the other side!” yelled Emma. She brought the sword over her head and cried out, charging forward with the weapon braced in front of her. I watched bones smash, moans die and all kinds of defenses and attacks brought back and forth. The place was constantly alight with Bob’s fire.
“Oh well,” sighed Hudson, shifting suddenly into an elephant. I watched him charge as I made a few steps forward, the arising monsters coming to attack simply being trampled by Hudson.
“Aw man, oh crappers…” I muttered in pain, clutching my arm and rushing forward, almost tripping over my dress. I sprinted through the dark corridor, focusing on the small torch at the very end. Monsters threw themselves at me, and I screamed, but the first few times they were smashed or killed or otherwise by the defenses of my friends.
“Oh my gosh!” I suddenly gasped, a humanoid zombie rising from the floor. It’s waving arms and staggering walk came toward me, filling me with terror as I stumbled backwards. My arm throbbed, and looking ahead I saw that I’d fallen behind. To my horror, the zombie was suddenly backed by a skeleton and a headless horse, making their way slowly toward me.
“HELP!” I screeched. “Go away!” I lit up my fingertips with flashing, electrified magic. It didn’t stop their mindless attack, so I just started madly throwing the electric balls of light at the face of the zombie, who toppled to the floor. The skeleton behind him, eerily and jerkily coming at me, tripped on the zombie corpse, fell, and smashed on the floor. I panted.
“Vanilla, hurry up!” Viperia’s voice echoed down the hall, as the headless horse reared. I blasted it in the neck with my magic and it crashed backwards with a unsourced death-cry.
“GAAAAAAH!” I screeched back at her in anger, just as a rabid dog launched itself at my face and I took it down a ball of lasers. I grabbed my arm, holding it in place, and ran forward whilst trying my best to balance and not trip. I couldn’t fly, as my broken shoulder prevented the attached wing from moving. I released another grunt of frustration.
But suddenly, as another zombie rose from the floor and had me in its eyeless sights, it took me by surprise and sent me toppling onto the stone floor.
“Ouch! Aagh!” I groaned, landing awkwardly on my butt, still clutching my shoulder and unable to stand. The skeleton towered over me, moving with its fragmented sways while its zombie buddies moaned and backed him up.
I panicked and fumbled, kicking my legs and trying to escape, but just hitting the wall that rendered me nowhere else to run. I bent over, grasping the hem of my dress and looking up almost tearful with panic at the skeleton. Its face flashed with orange light, outlining the cracks in the bones, every time Bob blew his fire way down at the end of the corridor.
With one tug of my right arm that sent a jolt of agony up my left shoulder, I tore the hem of my dress off all the way up to halfway down my shins. The skeleton was advancing on me, just a metre from my feet. I gathered up the ripped end of my dress and hauled up my aching body, before sprinting off down the hostile hall.
“I’m coming! I’m coming!” I gasped, seeing the others at the far end, gathered in a group with Bob fending off attacking monsters with ease.
“Hurry!” urged Emma.
I was ten metres off them, and as a ball of flame shot over my swiftly stooped head, I jumped down and rolled head-first across the floor. My skull smacked into the stone and my shoulder was practically roaring in pain, as I toppled under the feet of a zombie and bumped into George’s leg.
“Ow… ouch…. Crap,” I muttered, not nearly able to stand. I was dizzy as heck.
A flash of lightning followed instantly by thunder from the lightning sword dizzied me further.
“The torch is a lever,” I vaguely heard Viperia say. That was when I felt a cold hand – Emma’s – pull me up and steady me. As I heard Vipe grasp the lever, stone scraped and my body lurched, and Emma’s arm tugged my dizzy body to her front.
The wall spun around, landing us in the next hell-hole dungeon room.
