Treasure hunting!

[Bobbie]

As Professor Moon looked at her so angrily, Danielle felt anxious, but she soon relaxed once he did as well. The relief of being spoken to in such a gentle tone only made her smile all the more genuine and a little nod accompanied it soon enough.

“Okay, well-“ she was about to suggest Beast starts to do what she does best, but the monstrous ball of fluff was already out from under her hand and was on her way to the centre of the world… "And she's off..." 

Danielle barely had any time to react as the ground was dug into at incredible speed, and then the malamute stopped, nothing but confusion in her gorgeously large eyes, her adorable head tilted to the side with a pair of furry ears turning with it. The girl’s heart could have melted right there and then just watching Beast destroy the ground beneath her. Then Gabriel’s voice shattered the spell Danielle was under, and she looked at him, then back at Beast, and finally down at the ground.

“What is it?” she moved closer to get a better look, but was careful of how close to the hole she would get. Getting down on her stomach, she ensured she was steady and then peered over the edge. She couldn’t tell how deep it was, but had learnt that looks can be deceiving, so she waited for her guide to go first. Once he was down in the hole, she could make her judgement based on how much shorter he became, in comparison to his height before as he stood by her side. “Is this it?” she asked as she displayed a similar pattern that Beast had previously, with excitement in her tone – of course, Danielle did not do any of the jumping around or barking. “This is the secret entrance?” as one question followed the other fairly quickly, she then stood up, dusted her shirt that looked like it already needed a wash, and promptly jumped down after Gabriel.

As her boots landed with an echoing thud, it was confirmed that hollow space was beyond this door, very much like a tunnel. The door lay flat on the ground, however, so it must be more like a manhole or chute than an actual tunnel to walk through.

Gabriel’s next question confused Danielle a little bit – is this a trick question? If I say yes, then that means I’ve got experience with sneaking into places I shouldn’t be, and he already knows I want the amulet for myself… I think. If I say no, then I’ll come across as an amateur or a fraud.

“I’ve practised in case such an occasion would come up.” She replied, honestly though ambiguously. It didn’t matter whether such occasions came up in the past or not, what did matter was that she was prepared.

Reaching into her interior pocket, she brought out a simple toolkit, unrolled the sleeve and picked out two tools. She knelt down by the keyhole that he had uncovered and began to work her magic. With sheer focus and determination on her face, she silently twisted and turned her tools, her fingers manipulating them expertly, as a few gentle clicks could be heard at regular intervals as she succeeded at the back-breaking task. Click … click … click …. “Almost got it… just one more spring to go. The door would most likely open outwards, or there will be no way for us to be standing-“

CLICK!

Danielle regretted her words before she could even finish her sentence.

The door that the pair were standing on suddenly swung on its hinges with a loud creak, giving way and opening up beneath them to swallow them up and effectively throw them both into free fall. Danielle desperately scrambled for the door to grab onto anything in the brief moment’s warning that she had, but it was sadly too late … so she grabbed onto the next best thing: Gabriel.

---

Danielle: #fffd17

[Mr. Moon]

Gabriel #9

The Professor stayed silent, when Danielle asked about the secret entrance, despite a lecture already formed in his head about how this was actually the main entrance that became secret only after hundreds of years put a few meters of dirt on it, because someone in the not-so-distant past mentioned to him, that these kind of lectures aren´t really appreciated by people around him. So instead of that, he moved away from the keyhole, letting her do her thing.

From the look of it, she was a quite skilled burglar, maybe even comparable to Myra in this regard, so the only possible obstacle would be if the lock was too damaged to…

Before he managed to finish the thought the lock in mention clicked and the doors under their feet opened…inwards.

What followed happened very fast, actually too fast for him to really think about his actions. Both he and Danielle started falling and she grabbed his forearm. Pulling, he lifted her up in his arms, before kicking the air beneath his feet.

“True step.”

Through blinding speed jumps, that were so short that they were almost unnoticeable for a normal person, the Professor was slowing down their descent into the darkness.

“Now that´s interesting. It´s actually way deeper than I thought.”

He said with an impassionate face, almost as if this was a mere routine for him.

“And look, the walls of this hole are actually decorated by some engravings. Now this is interesting…”

The excitement returned in his voice.

“More than a simple mound this place resembles the inside of a pyramid which means, that there probably be some deadly traps, maybe even poison gases masked as a curse!”

What would probably frighten a normal person made Gabriel look so happy, that for a moment he resembled Beast when someone said to her she can dig to her heart’s content. As he finished, they already reached the ground, twenty or so meters below the surface. As his feet touched the hard stone floor, he carefully put Danielle back on her feet. Realizing maybe too late that for normal people this display of his abilities could be rather unsettling.

“Ehm, my lady, are you all right? If you are hurt, I can carry you back up.”

He did his best to act as a proper noble should towards a lady. Just as his mother tried to taught him, when he became one.

[Bobbie]

Danielle felt the ground beneath her pulled away from her knees and feet as the door swung open, her and Gabriel’s weight only making the movement more forceful. Her entire body lurched before she grabbed onto the man who was accompanying her on this treasure hunt, though what she expected to come from that she wasn’t quite sure. Perhaps using him to break her fall would have been handy, but she needed him alive.

Tightly pressing her eyelid closed it seemed like this was going to be a very painful drop that she resigned to. However, as she felt herself give in to the pull of gravity, the rush of a fall ceased and she soon heard the professor – her guide – speaking in intrigue of their surroundings.

She opened her eyes only to find herself in a predicament far worse than she could have ever imagined.

Danielle was no longer falling… she was hoisted into the man’s arms. I’m being CARRIED!

If this wasn’t the most embarrassing thing to ever fall upon Danielle, then she wouldn’t dare ask what was. Her body went rigid for a moment in sheer horror as she was held in Gabriel’s arms, who seemed to be floating down toward the bottom of this vertical tunnel.

I’ll kill him, I’ll kill him, I’ll kill him.

She couldn’t help her mind from repeating the same mantra. How dare he!? She paused for a moment to consider that she should be grateful, but the question she was left to ponder was – is this really a better alternative to plummeting to my death below?

As she picked up on an excited tone in the historian's voice, the damsel glanced up at his face, her mouth instinctively agape. What is wrong with this man? The prospect of a deathly trapped corridor excites him. Of course, her opinion was biased at this present moment, as she was currently still in what she would describe as the horrifyingly uncomfortably clutches of a gentleman, imposing femininity on her against her will. How dare he? She mentally repeated.

Taking a deep breath, she looked away from him before she closed her eye and let out an incredibly awkward grunt in response to his giddy remarks about some engravings, something about a pyramid, poison gases, curses, so on and so on…

Please, please, please, where is the bottom of this dreadful pit. Please, let it be a pit of spikes…

With the gentle thud of his feet, she opened her eye and waited for her moment – with the slightest indication that he was putting her down, she may as well have leapt out of his arms and backed away from him until her back was against the wall of their new location. Hopefully, the hole above them did not shed enough light on her face to reveal the blush on her cheeks, but it did make her eye shimmer like a red ruby. “Do not carry me like that again!” she yipped at Gabriel, a feisty little finger pointing at him. “Ever!” she barked once more, before she cleared her throat and recomposed herself.

“I’m fine… thanks to you.” She continued once she calmed down, offering her thanks as they were certainly due. “And don’t call me ‘my lady’.” As Danielle was about to get snappy again, hating the term that felt so foreign to her despite her gender, she decided to hold her tongue – he did just save her life after all…

“Please.” She added, still flustered by the whole event. “Thank you.”

If Rosalina were to see me like that… she shuddered at the thought.

“How did you do that?” She glanced up at him as she changed the subject, but just as she had done before, she shook her head and quickly moved on. “It doesn't matter. Shall we get going?”

---

Danielle: #fffd17

[Mr. Moon]

Gabriel #10

Just as his feet touched the ground, Danielle darted away, hiding herself in the darkness while snapping at him, that he should never carry her like that again.

“Hmmmmm?”

Gabriel tilted his head to the side, looking quite helpless as he had no idea what did he had done wrong. After all, he carried her as a gentleman should carry a lady. Or did he accidentally touch something he shouldn´t? It would be very helpful if he could see her face, but with that darkness…he paused for a moment, as his inhumanly sharp eyes noticed something near his left ear. Reaching to the wall, he touched a large mirror on a movable stand, moving with it for a moment, before suddenly the whole corridor was illuminated by a light reflected on a series of mirrors. Looking in Danielle´s direction, he noticed the blush on her face.

“Oh snap did I really…”

But before he could ask or apologize, she quickly changed topic.

“I can do that Danielle.”

He quickly agreed to her request, looking up the hole to see Beasts face looking down at her.

“Beast guard! Don´t let anyone in, and if Namkhai and the others arrive, say them to wait, we should be back under an hour…at least I hope so.”

As he instructed his dog, he intentionally lowered his voice during the last part, so she wouldn´t hear him, turning his full attention back on Danielle.

“How did I do what?”

He asked slightly confused, as he was focusing on something different, but she changed the topic again, so the Professor just shrugged and headed into the tunnel that was barely wide enough for two people to walk side by side. At least it was high enough so he didn´t have to crouch. At least Danielle didn´t look angry anymore, but still, there was a weird tension in the air, so after several steps, he decided to apologize.

“Ehm…back then, when I caught you…I didn´t mean to…I mean, if my hand got…”

He paused for a moment. Now that was awkward.

“Ehm…if I did something inappropriate to you, I am really sorry. It wasn´t my intention.”

To show how sincere his apology was, he reached into his pocket, pulling out a bag full of chocolate chips cookies with nougat filling.

[Bobbie]

Staring at Gabriel, Danielle squinted as the dark corridor was suddenly filled with light as her eye needed to adjust, but also in confusion as she struggled to understand where the man’s thoughts were going. Thankfully, the conversation shift was taken on board without any argument, and so she looked up at Beast as he gave the command. With a gentle smile, she  waved to the cute doggo and followed Professor Moon.

Finally, they were progressing through the tunnel. It was uncomfortably narrow as she had no other choice but to keep close to him as they moved forward – the risk of nasty traps all along this underground facility was always present, and if she didn’t make the exact same steps that he did, then one mistake could have fatal consequences. It was also quite difficult for Danielle to determine how far he would be from her if enough of a gap was created between the two, so the best solution to that problem was to prevent such a gap from forming. He did seem to keep looking at her, however…

What does he keep looking at me for?

The air was humid below the ground, and the tension between them only made it even denser and harder to breathe in. At last, the man voiced his thoughts as he began to speak. She only wished that he didn’t just stop so unexpectedly as he did so. With a little ‘oof’ she bumped into him, and then took a step back. “What?”

Why are we stopping? she wondered to herself as his apology started. Not this again… what is he on about? If his hand got...? Huh?

Danielle found it very difficult to decode the awkward ramblings of this professor. It was like he spoke in code, lacking knowledge of a few of the most standard rules in social interaction, like finishing a sentence.

“Inappropriate?” she asked, before she finally pieced together what he was trying to say and her face once again grew red. “What? No! No, no.” she found herself repeating the same word out of embarrassment, as it seemed she too suddenly forgot the most standard rules in social interaction. “No!” she shook her head, “You didn’t! That’s not… I mean, that’s not what it was about! I just don't...” she wasn’t quite sure how to put this into words – it was a lot easier with people who mistook her for a male, but this man saw right through that.

Luckily for her, before her torture could go on for much longer, Gabriel brought out a bag full of chocolate chip cookies. She stared at them as her confusion returned.

Is he offering me a treat… like a dog?

Danielle glared at Gabriel and she was about to protest until she noticed ‘NOW WITH NOUGAT FILLING!' written on the packet in bold red print. Her features instantly softened and she cleared her throat before extended a hand to him, palm facing up for the cookies to be deposited into it. Like a puppy, the girl was blinded by the treats offered before her and grew compliant in anticipation.

“All is forgiven, Professor.” She said gesturing for the cookies, impatiently.

---

Danielle: #fffd17

[Mr. Moon]

Gabriel #11

He didn´t do anything inappropriate and she wasn´t mad at him. The Professor felt relief when Daniell said that “all was forgiven” and asked for her cookies with her hand. Usually, Gabriel wouldn´t share his favorite treat with anyone, but he felt that the blonde woman deserved some “tangible” apology. So, he put the whole bag on her hand and turned back in the tunnel.

“Well, that´s a relief for a moment I thought that I…”

CLICK

A loud clicking noise echoed through the corridor just as he made a step forward. With his mind wandering around, the Professor didn´t even notice that there was a trap hidden under it. But something was wrong. Why wasn´t anything happening? Confused, he looked around, noticing a thin and fairly long grove in the ceiling.

“Hmmm looks like I stepped on a trap. Don´t worry, it probably won´t do anything as log as I don´t lift my leg. See that grove up there?”

He pointed in the right direction, acting as if it was one of his lectures and not a life and death situation.

“I would say that a pendulum with a blade is hidden there. I can outrun it…probably, but need a bit of space, so would you mind taking six…maybe rather ten…”

SCREECH!

A loud metallic sound interrupted his speech accompanied by a sudden movement in the grove. At the moment, Gabriel didn´t think. He acted on his reflex, turning around and sprinting away with a blinding speed. Stopping only for a split second to grab Danielle and toss her over his shoulder, before running again.

“Blink!”

The Professor stopped roughly fifteen steps away from his original position, putting Daniele back on the ground and looking backward, only to see, that the blade actually moved only a few degrees and was still partially stuck in the ceiling, so there was actually no danger at all, even if he remained standing there on the spot.

“Oh…it´s rusty.”

Gabriel mentioned the obvious as not only the blade but also the pendulum it was attached to was covered by deposits of rust.

[Bobbie]

Danielle eagerly took the bag of cookies and was already opening it while she listened to his explanation for his odd behaviour. She was about to brush him off as she took a step after him, throwing a cookie into the air as she moved and opened a wide mouth to catch it... but something went wrong.

With the loud click, Gabriel came to a halt - again - and she bumped into him - again - causing the cookie to smack her in the face and then fall to the ground.

“Stop doing that!” she finally snapped as the precious, nougat-filled, crunchy piece of heaven was wasted on the dusty floor. When he went on to say that he stepped on a trap, however, she froze and lowered her gaze to look at his feet. She silently cursed at herself for not paying enough attention, distracted by the cookies, but they were filled with nougat... who could resist nougat?

“Yes, you did.” she agreed, staring at the tile which was now depressed under his foot, the tainted cookie not far away. “Probably not...” she muttered, before tilting her head back and looking up toward the ceiling where the groove that he pointed out to her was. “I see it.” Danielle’s replies were quick and direct, and she was already in the process of taking a few steps back, away from Gabriel, as he put forward his request for more space. Sadly, there was not much space in these narrow corridors to begin with, so they would have to move like a snake.

With the sudden loud screech, Danielle flinched and looked at Gabriel again, “What did you- heugh!” she was caught off guard as Gabriel was suddenly sprinting toward her and hoisted her up onto his shoulder. It felt like she had just been punched in the stomach, the wind being knocked out of her and her feet suddenly in the air. Embarrassingly, so was her rear. “What are you doing!?” she hissed at him, trying not to fall as she felt horribly unsteady up there and he was moving ridiculously fast. It was over very quickly, but the ordeal lasted long enough for her to claw at the back of his shirt, then the walls, and then thin air as her glorious bag of cookies fell out of her hand and lingered in the air for a quick moment, just out of reach. “No!”

With a crash, the bag was on the ground, circular disks of sugary goodness rolling out of it.

Once she was put down, she glared angrily at Gabriel, ready to murder the old historian and have him form a part of what he loved so much, leaving him down here to rot with all the rest of these ugly artefacts that people irrationally treasured so much. Then a bout of nausea interrupted her thoughts and she raised a hand to her mouth.

Quickly turning away from him, she took a few steps back in the direction they came from and threw up, the sudden movement of his quick steps being too much for her stomach to handle.

“Yeah... it’s rusty...” she wiped her mouth and uttered, “Good deductive skills.”

With an uneasy groan, she leaned against the wall, “This set us back quite-” she paused and her eye suddenly grew wide, staring at the position of her hand on the wall. A brick seemed to be loose enough to get pushed in with her palm. “Oh no...”

A deep rumbling sound of grinding stone could soon be heard echoing through the corridor and was getting louder. It seemed to be coming from both sides of the tunnel.

Backing up into Gabriel, she grabbed his shirt. “Move... Move! We’re going to get crushed!” she squeezed past him and started to feel the wall on the left. “There has to be an opening for us somewhere, check the other wall!” barking orders at the older man of such a respectable status felt a bit odd, but time was of the essence and being polite was not a huge concern right now.

The two boulders that came rolling from each end of the corridor were getting louder and louder as they came closer and closer. “Come on, come on, my fingers got caught on something here while we were running...” her fingers continued to dance along the cracks in the wall as she tried not to outwardly panic - internally was a different matter as she was indeed freaking out. Finally, a brick came loose and Danielle pulled it out, causing a series of them to collapse as they lost their main support. “Here!” grabbing Gabriel’s arm, she pulled him, crouching down to the height that would have only reached his hip while standing and squeezed into the small cramped space with him.

---

Danielle: #fffd17

[Mr. Moon]

Gabriel #12

She dropped them. The professor couldn´t believe his own eyes, as she was standing there, in the ancient corridor, looking at the already empty bag and dozen or so cookies lying on the floor, completely heartbroken. How could she drop them? They were filled with nougat!

“This is so unfair…”

He sighed for himself, squatting down to the ruined treats. Completely ignoring Danielle, who was just emptying her stomach, while leaning against a nearby wall.

“you deserved better than this…”

The Professor was so devastated by this loss, that he didn´t even notice, that his partner in crime activated another trap. This time, two large boulders, that were rolling against them from both directions.

“It´s such a shame that no one will ever taste you, but I am sure, you would taste heavenly…good bye and…”

He paused when Danielle suddenly grabbed his arm.

“What the…”

Almost as if he wake up from strange dream, Gabriel blinked, realizing what was going on around him.

“Wait, I can probably…”

He wanted to say, that he could probably stop the boulders with his Indestructible and then move them aside so they could continue with their journey, but Danielle was already pulling him into a small, cramped hole. Just in time, because right after his foot disappeared from the main tunnel, two large boulders crashed, shaking with the main corridor, almost as if it was hit by local earthquake.

“They were with nougat…”

The Professor muttered in an accusation tone as he was squeezing with Daniele in a space that would be probably uncomfortably small even for him alone.

“Wait…is it only me, or is it getting really wet in here?”

Gabriel asked, as he suddenly realized that the water which they landed into already climbed to his ankles and didn´t seem it will stop there. As their entrance got blocked by one of the boulders, there wasn´t enough light even for his superhuman eyes. His hands started looking for an exit or secret switch, but the only thing they could find was a cold and hard stone, however as it seemed, the hole they found themselves in continued up so high that he couldn´t reach the top.

“Hmmm, can you climb on my shoulders? I think that there might be a way out.”

He asked Danielle. Of course he could simply jump there with True Step, but the force necessary to keep him in the air would probably shatter her bones if he accidentally hit her with one of his kicks and that wasn´t worth the risk. Even though she destroyed his cookies.

[Bobbie]

Once they were both squeezed into that little space, Danielle turned her head to face away from Gabriel in hopes of making this entire ordeal less awkward. The loud crash caused her to flinch, but other than that, there was not much room for movement.

Then he continued rambling about the cookies.

With a deep frown and her eye twitching, “Yes, I know they were nougat. If you hadn’t triggered the first trap, I might have got the chance to taste at least one... then you tackled me and sent the packet flying.” she spoke through her teeth, keeping her voice down just in case it mattered. There was enough of an echo to be heard even if she whispered, anyway.

Squirming uncomfortably, she turned to glare at him, the man being slightly taller than him. “It’s getting what!?” she blurted out, demanding to know what gave him the audacity to ask such a question, then she felt her trouser leg getting soaked. She promptly looked down and panic ensued. “It’s filling with water!” she tried to pull away from him, but her back hit the wall almost instantly, her feet frantically splashing in the water, as if she could somehow stomp it all back down. Gabriel’s suggestion was barely registered as the treasure hunter was too preoccupied with the fact that they were going to drown - then, with delayed response, she realised what he said.

“And how exactly do I get to your shoulders? There’s not a lot of space in here to move...” she hissed at him, but he was right... it was their best chance of surviving this. Looking upward, she could only see darkness. The ceiling didn’t open up to the sky, but there must be a tunnel to crawl into once they reached the top... at least, she hoped there was.

“Okay, okay.” she took a deep breath and steadied herself, placing a hand on one wall each to try and grab onto anything she could. “Just... stay still.”

She started by bending her knee to bring her foot up onto his knee, prompting him to bend it a little bit for her to be able to step up onto it. This is so awkward... Trying to ignore how close they were, she grabbed onto his shoulders and proceeded to pull herself up. Next, her other foot onto his other knee, then onto his hip - she didn’t want to think about where her feet were going, though she did try her best to be considerate. Danielle glanced down to see how high the water had reached. It was already at his knees and quickly approaching his waist.

“Don’t move, or you’ll drop me!” she brought one knee up onto his shoulder, clinging to him with one hand and any rocks that jutted out from the walls with the other as she tried to steady herself and keep her balance. She was finally only one step away from raising herself onto his shoulders, where, if standing upright, perhaps she could reach the ceiling. “Give me a boost, I’m almost up.”

---

Danielle: #fffd17

[Mr. Moon]

Gabriel #13

The Professor listened to Danielle´s complaints with growing irritation, which was proportional to the amount of water they were standing in.
“Well, if you don´t want to, that´s fine by me, but don´t complain if I´ll break a few of your bones while jumping there.”
His usual calm and collected voice were replaced with an ironical and snappy one, that he learned from Myra during their travels. He wasn´t using it often, actually, she was the first one who ever received this dubious honor, but people who destroyed cookies always had a special place in his book, located only slightly above people who were mean to dogs.
Well, fortunately, Danielle started climbing, so he didn´t have to fulfill his thread as part of him still remembered how cute and puppy-like she looked not so long ago. Well, it didn´t help with how awkward this situation was, however.
“Urgh…watch what you are stepping on…”
Gabriel growled when her boot pushed painfully against his knee.
“Hey, I would like to keep all my teeth if you don´t mind.”
He added when her knee just barely missed his chin. There however Danielle stopped, unable to climb any further and asking for help.
“Hmmmm, just hurry up, it´s really getting uncomfortable over here…”
With that, he grabbed her somewhere below the waist and raised her up, as high as he could, so she could actually step on his shoulders.
“So…do you see anything?”
Even up there, it would be still impossible for Danielle to reach the ceiling, however, hidden in the darkness, there was a ledge, that was creating an entrance into another tunnel that continued deeper into the tomb. It was too small for adults to walk through but big enough for them to crawl in it, at least for now.

[Bobbie]

Danielle noticed the shift in his tone, and could only assume it was for one of the following two reasons, or both: firstly, she dropped his precious cookies, and this man seemed to adore those things like they were some kind of demigod; secondly, the situation was just overall unpleasant, it would be difficult not to be cranky under these circumstances. Either way, she didn’t particularly care which one it was that got him to such a grumpy state, she had more important things to focus on, like her climbing.

“Yes, I’m trying to step carefully, but I can’t see a whole lot, can I?” she snapped in return. With his next comment, she huffed and rolled her eyes, pausing once more to answer him, “You complain more than a grandma, just... help me.” she grumbled in return. Lastly came his third complaint, and she was about to yell down at him, just as he pushed her up, feeling his hand press against her in a very awkward place from behind. Taken by surprise, she let out something of a yelp as she was launched upward, but she deliberately smacked the back of Gabriel’s head as hard as she could on her way up. “You watch where you put your hands!” she growled back at him, before recomposing herself as she stood on his shoulders.

“I can’t reach the ceiling, it’s still too high...” groaning in frustration, she held onto the wall to keep herself steady. “There’s nothing up here! We’re tra- hold on...” her fingers slipped over a ledge, “Okay, there’s another tunnel! It’s... really really narrow though, we’re going to have to crawl through it, but it’s better than drowning.” she looked down to see where the water level had reached. “Can you jump just a little so I can squeeze in there? I won’t be able to pull you after me though, it looks way too tight to turn back around.” Sighing, she peered over the ledge again to look into the tunnel. "I think there's a bit of light at the end too. Don't jump too high, I don't want my skull cracked open, you hear me?" she lightly tapped her boot on his shoulder to prompt confirmation that she was heard.

---

Danielle: #fffd17

[Mr. Moon]

Gabriel #14

„Urgh…guess what, I don´t see a thing either.“

The professor grumbled when Danielle kicked him in the head and didn´t even bother to pretend it was an accident. Although this time his voice was closer to its original kind tone as his grumpy anger was slowly disappearing. He let her take a stable footing on his shoulder, before releasing her, waiting for news that, as it turned out weren´t really positive.

“Well, I still can…”

Gabriel wanted to offer, that he can carefully carry her up until they´ll reach the ceiling, however, Danielle suddenly found something that resembled a small tunnel leading outside. And while the Professor wasn´t a fan of crawling in small tunnels it didn´t look like he had any other choices.

“Hold yourself…True Step”

He muttered, kicking the ground under his feet, to raise them up so Danielle could enter the tunnel. With all the water around it was much easier to keep the correct height, so once she gave him a signal that she was in, Gabriel grabbed the edge of the ledge and pulled himself inside as well.

“Hmmm, looks like you are right, there is really some light over there.”

He said, noticing the distant dim light. With nowhere else to go, Gabriel started crawling in that direction. The good news was, that the tunnel wasn´t getting narrower and the water didn´t reach it. The bad news, the light was quite far away. Getting closer and closer, what was a previously distant dot grew into a small cave of irregular shape, that continued down through a chimney similar to that one they entered this tunnel with. As he was going second, the Professor couldn´t see much over Danielle, but he noticed something that resembled a thick spider web at the entrance to the chimney.

"I don´t have a good feeling about that…”

He muttered silently. A second later large black spider the size of a bulldog climbed up, running against Danielle on its eight legs, with fangs wide open almost as if he was trying to threaten them.

[Bobbie]

As Gabriel kicked the ground beneath his feet to raise them both higher, Danielle swiftly pulled herself into the tunnel in an instant, quickly sliding her body against the stones and smoothly writhing forward like a snake.

Once she was in, she looked back, making sure he had enough space to follow. “Okay, I’m in! Are you alright?” she called out, her voice booming through the small space, until she saw Gabriel crawl inside. With a sigh of relief that they both made it in one piece, she continued moving. There wasn’t even enough space for her to crawl on her hands and knees as she had to lay flat on her stomach and nearly drag herself through the uncomfortably tight tunnel. All there was room to do was to turn onto one's side and roll onto their back instead of their stomach, but that was just about it. “It can’t be that far away...” she muttered, but really couldn’t tell, so she just continued crawling.

All of a sudden, that would change as the woman came to a sudden halt ahead of the older man behind her. They were very close, all she had to do was pull herself about three more strides and she would be out, yet something was stopping her from advancing forward.

With a loud grunt of disgust, Danielle stared at the spider that first appeared at the end of the tunnel, then started getting larger and larger, the closer it got. Her eye wide, she suddenly flew into a panic and frantically started to push her body back from where they had just come, “Move, move!” she cried in horror as that monstrosity of a spider was running right at her on all eight of its legs, with its large beasty fangs wide open to swallow her whole - at least, that’s what would happen, in her mind.

Having no time to waste, however, Danielle didn’t give Gabriel much of a chance to even react before she began fumbling and squeezing herself between him and the wall, trying to get behind him. How successful that was would depend on Gabriel's response, but it didn't stop her from trying to force herself through with all her might, “You go first! Move, let me pass, damn it!” she didn’t intend to sound so mean, but Danielle was clearly lost in her panic, desperate to get away from the arachnid monster up ahead at all cost, as a fear that she had never even let Rosalina see in her before has now breached the surface of her cold and rugged facade.

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Danielle: #fffd17

[Mr. Moon]

Gabriel #15

There were probably better ways how to find out that someone has spider phobia than meeting a giant spider with them while crawling through a very narrow tunnel, but there they were. Once the animal appeared Danielle didn´t even try to pretend she isn´t afraid and instead flew directly into panic, trying to get behind him.

“Wait, you´ll get hurt.”

He tried to calm her down but to no avail. Like a trapped animal, the young treasure hunter squeezed between the cold stone and him, trying to escape from the reach of the eight-legged aggressor that was charging at them.

“Hmmmm, Nukite.”

Hardening all the muscles in his body, Gabriel moved his right hand forward and upwards, hitting the large creature with the tips of his spear, before slamming it against the ceiling of their tunnel. The spider tried to bite him, but it´s fangs weren´t strong enough to break through the Professor´s technique and so it got squashed against the stone.

“Uh…”

Professor Moon muttered, clearing his hand, before looking at Danielle. It wasn´t easy as the mas of their bodies was a bit too much for the narrow tunnel and so they got stuck.

“Are you alright? Wait…I´ll try…”

Throwing the dead body away, Gabriel carefully moved forward. It was difficult, but in the end, he managed to crawl from below her, taking the lead this time. Seeing her scared like that definitely dissipated the anger he felt towards her, leaving him with the feeling of compassion and responsibility towards that frightened puppy behind him.

“Wait here, I´ll check out if there are more of them.”

His gentle voice filed with care, Gabriel moved forward, entering the cave before them. It wasn´t big, there was barely enough space there for him to sit comfortably and the only way leading from there was a narrow chimney lading downwards, filled with webs and remains of rats and other similar animals. However no other spiders in sight.

“Looks like this one was the only one here.”

He called at Daniele, before jumping down, tearing through layers and layers of webs, before falling on the floor of a much larger corridor, probably the one they originally went through, just deeper in the tomb.

“Interesting…”

The Professor muttered for himself.

“Where is the light coming from?”

The corridor he found himself in had its walls covered in paintings, mainly depictions of ancient battles and images of gods and heroes, and strangely, it was filled with soft light, but that shouldn´t be possible. With the boulders blocking the tunnel behind them, the mirrors shouldn´t have any source of light they could reflect, so what was going on there?

[Bobbie]

Danielle wasn’t listening to Gabriel’s plea for her to stop trying to squeeze past him, and the more he tried, the more she resisted, until finally, the worst thing possible happened. They were stuck. As the spider got closer, she clung to her companion’s shirt, gripping it in a tight fist and tugging on it. To anyone on the outside, it may have looked like harmless clinging, begging for protection, but in reality, Danielle was unsuccessfully trying to push him further forward toward the spider to take care of it, even if that simply meant being eaten first.

His technique seemed to come out of nowhere and smashed the spider into the stone, making a disgusting squelching sound as spider guts squirted out all over his hand and on the walls of this narrow enclosure. The sound making her cringe, Danielle closed her eye, her body as tense and stiff as a mountain.

“I’m... I’m okay...” she finally loosened up, letting go of his shirt as she realised how embarrassing her behaviour had been. Next came more squirming, which was awkward and uncomfortable as she had managed to get the pair tightly wedged in the tunnel. Finally, to her relief, Gabriel managed to break free and she let out a sigh as he offered to go first and check if there were any more big nasty spiders. “If you tell anyone about this, I will hurt you!” she yipped at him from behind, but despite such threatening slander, she didn’t budge and waited for his go ahead to progress further.

Once she heard him calling back that it was clear, she began to crawl forward, trying her best to avoid the spider guts that were dripping down the walls as she passed the only remains that were left of the creature. Reaching the opening, she got up into a crouched position, lightly dusting her clothes, though it didn’t do much, and then peered down the chute. Thankful that he had taken most of the spider webs with him, she dropped down after him to land safely on her feet.

“I don’t know, but we must be getting close.” she noted, looking around at the warm glow that seemed to fill the space from some unknown source. She looked at the paintings and silently walked through the large clearing they were in to rotate through them all, examining them one by one. Gently lifting a corner of one of the paintings, she peeked behind it in search for some sort of torch or any other source that could be filling the room with such a soft light, but was afraid to pull too hard, unsure if they were trapped.

“Hmm... This has to be the final puzzle to locating the amulet. Look at these paintings, they all look... old. Can you detect any pattern? Maybe the amulet is behind one of them. Or some order of sorts could open up the next room.” she lowered her gaze to the floor, searching for any gap between the wall and the floor that would indicate a secret door that was not quite air tight. Then she turned to look at him. “The Amulet of Fah’Ruk. Do any of these paintings have any connection to the Amulet of Fah’Ruk, Professor History-Brain?”

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Danielle: #fffd17