Filename: TRESRPT3.TXT Codes: nosex Author's name: Kizul Emeraldfire Contact author: http://tinyurl.com/contactkizul Story title: Treasure Seekers, chapter 3 Story part: Part 1, Chapter 3 Story codes taken from /~Uther_Pendragon/code/scfr.htm -------------------------------------------------------- This work is copyrighted to the author ©2007. Please don't remove the author information or make any changes to this story. You may post freely to non-commercial "free" sites, or in the "free" area of commercial sites. Thank you for your consideration. -------------------------------------------------------- When they awoke the next morning, Jen and Tanya set out down the road once again. Aside from a few squirrels, rabbits and birds -- a few of which they caught and ate for dinner ("It may not taste the best, but it makes the food we've already got last longer," Jen said) -- they didn't encounter any other wildlife. No deer, no bears -- they didn't even run into any people. It was an eerie feeling to be the only people on the road. After a day and a half of travelling, they finally emerged from the trees, the forest's almost tunnel-like appearance suddenly opening out upon a gigantic clearing. Near the center of the clearing, a footpath of large, flat stones led towards a large stone building a couple hundred yards away. To the east of where they'd come out of the trees was a large, swampy-looking area. Ten huge statues of what looked like different angels stood on giant pedestals, five statues to each side of the footpath; everything was made of the same gray stone. The footpath gave way to large stone steps that led up to heavy wood doors with rusted iron knockers. Vines hung off of and wrapped around everything. The statues were chipped, cracked, missing limbs; and covered in vines, moss, and lichen. It seemed as though no one had been even near the temple for hundreds of years. The sisters looked around in awe. Of all the times they'd went hunting for treasure, they'd never found anything quite like the temple that stood before them. "Amazing... who could've built this place?" Tanya brushed some of the dirt, moss, and vines away from a heavily-tarnished nameplate on one of the pedestals, but couldn't make out enough of the text to read it. "Who knows? At least the map wasn't leading us astray -- I mean, look at this place! There's no way this could be a hoax!" Jen spun around a couple of times, laughing, arms outstretched, peering up at the worn faces of the angel statues. "I just hope that no one's looted it before WE could." "Wanna see if there's anything left?" Tanya grinned, knowing that her sister couldn't wait to go inside. "Definitely! I'll race you inside!" The older sibling began running towards the stairs at top speed. "Hey! Jen! That's not fair, I'm carrying more than you!" Tanya yelled at her sister as she tried to catch up, laughing as she ran. "I'm carrying all the heavy stuff, sis! Besides, think of it as exercise -- you'll be able to get back to town easier, too!" Tanya won the race, Jen close behind but very out of breath. "Congrats, Tanya," the winded older sibling panted, "You won." The two shook hands, each congratulating the other on the good race. "Now let's see what lies beyond these doors." The two stood before the enormous doors, each one ten feet tall and six feet wide. "I can't help but wonder if we should knock," Tanya giggled. Jen laughed. "Get real, sis -- nobody's been here in at least a couple hundred years! Come on, help me open this door." She stood by the left one, holding the large, rusted iron ring in both hands. Tanya hesitated, but grabbed onto the knocker as well. "On three. One -- two -- THREE!" Both sisters pulled on the ring with all their might, but couldn't budge the door. "Well, that was a bust. The door must be rusted shut on the inside or something." Jen and Tanya were a little exhausted from pulling on the door. "Well, we could always try PUSHING, sis," suggested Tanya, leaning against the doors to catch her breath. "It might be that we're just not trying to open it right." "Alright then, on three -- again." Jen stood from the stone floor on which she sat, grabbing the knocker again. "One -- two -- THREE!" Try as they might, neither pushing nor pulling worked -- the doors still stood closed, stubborn as mules. The sun was beginning to set. "Well," said Jen, "if there's been anyone here BEFORE us, at least they probably weren't able to loot this place, either. Come on, Tanya -- let's go set up shelter before it gets dark." "There's something we haven't tried yet, though," protested Tanya. "We've not tried knocking." "I told you, sis -- there's nobody HERE. Hasn't been for hundreds of years by the looks of things." "Still, it took us days to get here, we can't just give up now! I'm gonna try." `Stubborn as ever,' thought Jen. "Alright, I suppose we could try it. You take that door, I'll take this one." Together, they used the rusted iron knockers to knock on the doors in unison. Jen wasn't surprised when again, nothing happened, but the sisters both were disappointed at the thought of having to turn around empty-handed. They set up camp at the edge of the clearing, near to the entrance to the `tunnel' that they'd emerged from earlier that day. It was nighttime as they ate at their campfire. "All this way, only to be stopped by a big, rusty door. Hmph!" Jen took a frustrated bite out of a large piece of roasted potato on her stick. "At least there haven't been any monsters, and we haven't run out of food yet," Tanya said as she cooked some rabbit meat on another stick. "It's still frustrating, though -- we should be able to get inside the temple. Heck, maybe there's a secret entrance, just like we'd said when we were making up stories about this place back at the inn." Jen gave a small smile. "We can look for one tomorrow if you want," Tanya offered with a grin, handing the meat-on-a-stick to her sister. "Oh we'll be looking for one tomorrow, you can count on THAT," Jen grinned back. "For now, though, let's eat, then we can get some sleep. We'll start looking in the morning." Suddenly, a toe-curling, tooth-grinding, flinchingly-horrible groaning noise cut across the clearing. "Agh! What WAS that?" Tanya uncovered her ears. "I don't know, sis," said Jen, rubbing her ears. "I couldn't tell where it was coming from -- it was echoing all over this clearing." "It sounded awful!" "Amen to THAT!" "Do you think it could've been a monster or something?" Tanya shot a worried look at her sister. "I dunno, but I sure wish we'd brought some extra weapons -- all we have are our hunting knives, and if that was a monster... it'd probably be way bigger than we could handle." She returned her sister's look, but tried to look confident. "Just keep quiet, stay as still as possible, and don't make any sudden movements -- if there IS anything out there, we don't want to attract its attention." Minutes passed. Aside from the sound of a gentle breeze rustling the leaves in the trees overhead, all was quiet. A large bird flew over the clearing, cooing eerily in the black night, startling the sisters. After several minutes of waiting for something to leap out from the darkness and eat them, the already-low fire was on the verge of going out, and nothing had appeared other than the bird. "...I don't think there's anything out there." Jen looked at Tanya as she put some more wood on the fire, building it up again. "..." The younger sibling still looked rather worried. "You okay, sis?" "I'm still scared." Jen got up and hugged Tanya from behind. "Don't worry, sis -- it was probably just swamp gas or something." Tanya hugged back. "Thanks, Jen -- I don't feel quite as worried now." Jen giggled. "No problem, Tanya. Hey, what say you and I go take a look around?" "...For what, secret passages?" The older sibling grinned. "Who knows? Something might've opened up." "Okay -- come on, let's grab a torch!" Tanya slipped from her sister's embrace, and they walked over to the fire. The sisters each took a branch from the fire for a torch, and walked off to investigate the source of the noise. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ This story was written as an adult fantasy. The author does not condone the described behavior in real life. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~