A Secret in the Middle of the Desert

We continued traversing the desert as soon as the sun rose on the horizon. I still don't know where we're going, but Prick seems to know where the next oasis is based on his experiences. He is a reliable one, I guess.

As usual, I sat on his back, and as I eat my breakfast, I sometimes give my share of food to him as thanks for letting me ride on his back. It's interesting to know that diet differences between the two of us aren't much far from each other.

While playing with his stingers, Prick suddenly stopped moving.

"Oh, looks like you've found something...", I asked him. "What is it?"

I don't know if Prick really found something because of the sand blown by the wind interfering with my vision, but it seems like it is just nearby. I asked him to continue moving, and after a while, we found a strange sight.

"A cave...on this desert?"

We found a cave at a really huge rock formation in a middle of a desert. It looks like it's man-made, because the hole entrance is like a keyhole. There's some inscribed symbols written around the arch, but I couldn't understand it because it looked like scribbles. If I were to guess, could those symbols mean 'Welcome to the Batcave'?

"I-I feel like there's something important in there. You think so too, Prick?"

My instincts, supplemented by the "teachings" of Rin, tell me as such.

'Treasure hunting is a man's romance', she said to me once when we're collecting recyclables for our school project. 'Once you found something too rare to find on this world, you'll never stop searching for more!', she added.

She told me that, even though she's a girl.

Still, the curious me wants to go inside the cave. It felt like some strange force draws me towards the cave entrance.

"I want you to go inside with me, but I think that you won't fit inside..." I told Prick.

When he heard that, his stingers curled down. He doesn't want to be left behind, huh? Seems like we're really on the same wavelength on that matter.

"It's okay, I'll return immediately if it's dangerous inside..." I said as I patted his head. If he was a cute creature I could've hugged him.

I decided to continue going inside the cave after Prick calmed down. I don't know what he's thinking right now, but if he decided to leave me behind when I'm inside I think it's okay since he is the one that followed me in the first place.

It's okay...I'll try my best no to cry if that happens.

At the entrance, I noticed another set of carvings on the wall when I found a torch hanging and a flint inside. When I light up the torch and examined the carvings, it looked like some ancient language different from the ones I found outside.

I learned to read and write the language of this world faster than my classmates, that's why I could say that this carving is a familiar inscription to me. I wonder what does the inscription say though...

"I'm like California Bones in the Temple of Doom...nah, what the heck am I thinking..." I joked to myself.

The path gradually slopes downward as I go inside. There are torches along the way, so the path is not scary as I would expect. Still, I had to watch out for traps. There might also be creatures living inside, so I held on to my sword on my other hand as I walk.

If Rin is with me right now, she'd dodge all traps while laughing in ecstasy.

So far, so good. There are no traps placed just nearby the entrance...but...

"Wooooahhh?! W-What's with this place?!?!"

I was wrong.

Indeed, there are countless traps hidden on this cave.

Flying arrows, dragon statues that breathe fire, spikes, swinging axes on the ceiling, traps of all sizes and variations scatter around the place.

"What the hell, what the hell! Am I going to die with these booby traps?" I complained to myself as I stop my knees from shaking so much due to fear.

After a few minutes, I regained my courage and motivation to continue moving forward. While walking I found a sign on the wall and found out that it's written in an ancient language like the one I found on the entrance, thus I don't know what it meant either. When I tried to touch the sign, darts flew towards me.

"What the--!!!"

I screamed as I evaded the darts, and it all pierced the sign. 'The sign is a trap!!!', I said to myself. Why am I always getting caught by traps like these?!

"Wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa!!!! AAAAAAHHHHH!!!!" I kept on shouting and shouting with each dart that flew around me.

As much as it is too dangerous and troublesome for me to fall into each trap here in this cave, I discovered something which I even I didn't know I have until now: I'm pretty good in dodging projectiles.

I tried to get away from the place but dropped the torch when I dodged the flying darts in surprise and the flame was put out. Luckily the salvo of darts stopped raining, if not I'm gonna dance to the rhythm of 'plok-plok-plok-plok' of the shooting darts in the dark.

I tried to find the torch but with the fear of starting another dart rain, I continued on my journey. Without any source of light, I relied on my other senses to navigate through this dark chamber, and the sword that I managed to hold tightly to defend me.

"Where is the way out...damn, I should've stayed on the surface..." I muttered out my regrets about the decision I made.

I should've sensed that this cave is dangerous, and going inside is a really stupid idea. If I were to put the benefits and risks on a scale, the risks would definitely break the balance.

While crawling in the dark, I touched a protruding rock on the smooth wall. As I examine it by touch, I accidentally put pressure on it, causing it to be detached from the wall.

"Eh? The rock just now--FUWAAAAAAAAAA!!!"

When the rock is removed from the wall, the floor suddenly crumbled and I fell down as I cried in panic. The time difference between the two falling down incidents is too short, you know?

I dropped on the lower floors with a thud. Surprisingly, I'm not hurt that much.

"Ouch!!!!" I groaned as I rub my back. "Now where am I?!"

The place where I fell is lighted by strange yellow-colored stones attached to the walls. I brushed the dust off my clothes as I immediately got up.

"...This place's too strange to begin with. Now, how can I get out of here?"

Without having a second thought I followed the yellow stones on the walls.

I'm gonna admit, this place is totally astounding. Forget the traps, once you reach this part of the cave your eyes will have a feast while looking around the pathways that are embedded with different-colored stones and remarkable rock formations. There's white, orange, red and green, but my mind tells me to stay on the yellow path,

Additionally, I put more caution in every step that I make, and reminded myself not to touch anything that would trigger a trap. There might be a chance where the colored rocks would fire towards me like the darts just now. I walked and I walked as I think of that deeply, until I found a door.

"I-I think that there's something inside...let's take a look..."

I inhaled and exhaled, then opened the door.

"Rats?! IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIYYYYAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!"

I raised a girly scream when I opened the door and rats came out. I jumped and jumped frantically to avoid touching them. If someone heard me screaming like that, my reputation will be more damaged.

"Help me! Somebody help me!!!" I spoke while hanging on to a protruding rock formation on the wall that kept me just above the sea of rats.

A few minutes later, the rats disappeared from sight. Why in the world are there so many rats in here?!

"I-I...think rats are better than flying arrows, I guess?" I said to myself while panting.

After making sure that there are no rats coming out of the door anymore, I entered inside.

The room inside is small and is also lighted with magic stones, but instead of yellow, the stones in this room is colored blue.

I looked around the place to see whether this place has traps placed in here. As I looked everywhere, I noticed a magic seal the size of this room carved on the ground.

"A magic circle...is this, a seal?"

I may not have magic with me, but I could tell that it really is a magic seal just from the looks of it. The seal has a really weird structure in it, complete with strange symbols like those of a glyph. There's illustrations drawn on it too, depicting a story which is I don't have any idea what it is about. The center of the seal also has a hand-shaped depression, and surprisingly it has the same size as with my hand, but just to make sure I placed my hand against the hand symbol.

"Eh? It fits perfectly...w-wait--", I exclaimed.

As soon as I placed my hand on the center of the seal, the whole magic seal suddenly glowed blue. I tried to remove my hand in shock, but my hand seems to be stuck.

"Damn, why is my hand got stuck here?--"

A few seconds later, I felt the ground below me shook. It was just a small earthquake, but with me inside of a cave, I might be trapped in here if I don't remove my hand from the seal as soon as possible.

"Why?! Why I can't remove it?!"

The magic seal glowed more intense, and several chains that glowed blue suddenly burst from the ground and entangled my body.

"W-What is this?! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!"

Intense pain runs down to my body like I'm being slashed, pierced and electrocuted at the same time. The pain only lasted a few seconds, but it felt like a hundred to me.

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!"

What the hell is going on?! Did I just stepped on a trap again? Am I going to die for real?

The shock left me almost lifeless.

"Haaaaaaaaaa...."

I fell limp on the ground when the pain is gone. It was like my energy is drained when I felt that excruciating pain, but I still have some energy in my body left to prevent me from fainting.

I just knelt on the glowing floor with my hand still stuck on the seal. After a few minutes, the glow starts to subside, and my hand was finally freed.

"W-What the hell...is with this place..."

My strength went zero from all that pain from earlier, and I fainted when the glow on the floor is finally gone.

If I'm going to die in this place, I wish that the rats won't swarm on my body. I don't want that kind of an end to happen to me.

------------------------

"...H...Hey..."

A faint voice.

"...H...Hey..."

A voice?

"...H...Hey..."

If my ears were right and I'm really hearing something, it just shows that I'm still alive. Wooh.

But...who's calling me right now? In this place?

"...H...Hey..."

I heard another 'hey' while my eyes are still closed.

When I opened my eyes, I saw a little girl looking at me who is currently lying down on the floor as she straddled on my body.

"...Hey, hey, are you okay, big brother?" She asked me while tilting her head.

"..."

By some incident, a little girl suddenly appeared and is looking at me with her blue eyes.