The Gyuric Jungles
A Red Squirrel stood silhouetted at the entrance of an ancient temple. With her flint and steel, she lit a torch, holding it high in front of her, revealing her red furred body and the long ancient hallway before her. She was of older seasons, though she did not look it. Her beautiful red fur parted at the belly giving way to a bright cream colour. Her right eye also had a band of white fur circle it completely. She wore a dusty beige tunic with pouches and pockets covering it. Upon her head rested a high-crowned, wide-brimmed, brown sable fedora. Her favorite hat. Against her waist, lay a bullwhip. On her back a sabre rested in a leather hilt, and a large dagger lay sheathed against her left thigh. A bow lay next to her sabre, the bowstring was wrapped around the top limb, allowing for the bow to fit neatly against her back, next to her haversack. She was an archaeologist by profession with a curiosity that burned like winter flames within her.
Depositing her tools she began to push deeper into the long forgotten temple. Behind her followed another squirrel, a native to the lands in which the temple rested. His name was Ferdi, a Red-cheeked Flying Squirrel about a head shorter than she was. His fur was a beautiful orange colour, with a white underbelly which stretched along the bottom of his membrane. His face was pure white with rosy red cheeks. His tail was shorter than Myrel's, with a feathery consistency. He was clothed in a leather and leaf tunic. He followed nervously, trying to stay close to the leading female.
"I'm just your guide, Myrel! I do not belong in this cursed place."
The female squirrel stopped suddenly, allowing for Ferdi to bump into her bushy tail.
"Oouf!"
His snout had bapped a rather hard object within Myrel's haversack. He quickly backed up, rubbing his nose with a paw. As he paced backwards, his footpaw caught a rock that jutted out from the floor. He gave off a small squeaky chitter as he tripped and fell against the cold damp wall.
Myrel's tail bristled and twitched in annoyance. She turned to see her companion sitting on the damp stone floor. His paw still rubbing his nose as his gaze met hers. He gave her a sheepish grin. She rolled her eyes before addressing him in a quiet tone.
"Ferdi, you silly squirrel. You're sitting in our first discovery! Get up before you ruin him!"
"Him?"
Ferdi looked puzzled, he hadn't seen or felt much of anything besides his now hurt nose and the wet stone against his bottom. Myrel gestured next to him, his head slowly followed her gaze only to find another. There next to him lay the blackened skeleton of a squirrel. Ferdi squeaked loudly, jumping up quickly, patting and wiping away at his fur and clothing. He shivered slightly as he regained his composure.
"It's just a dead guy,"
Ferdi said as he looked back towards Myrel, who had begun to giggle lightly.
"Yes, he looks pretty dead. Maybe you should give him a hug?"
"No!"
"Whatever you want, bushtail."
Myrel brushed past him, her tail trailed across his face as she passed. His nose twitched against the soft and fluffy red fur. She pushed her torch into an empty holder that rested near the remains. She carefully knelt next to the skeleton. It had been claimed by the jungle vine that crept up and down the moist temple walls. The skeleton was covered in the vines with only its ghastly black skull poking through. Myrel examined the remains as she unsheathed her large dagger. She grabbed hold of the vines, cutting them away from the ancient walls. She tossed them aside, not taking her gaze away from the long dead squirrel.
"Poor bugger."
"See, we should not be here! It's cursed."
"Oh hush, by the look of these bones this squirrel has been dead a while. I doubt we'll have any trouble."
"If the other tribes of the area find us here, there will be trouble. There are some even you have not discovered yet. They would surely kill us both."
"I know, I know. Death this! Death that! When will you learn to love adventure without fear, my friend?"
"When I stop almost dying every time!"
"You're an undead squirrel! You can't die. Again. Probably. You big baby."
Before Ferdi could respond, Myrel suddenly picked up the black bones of the skeletal squirrel.
"Hold this!"
The female squirrel dumped the remains into the unsuspecting arms of her companion. He freaked out momentarily, squeaking loudly as he threw the bones to the ground. Shivering slightly as he wiped heavily along his body as if to rid himself of the bad feeling of disgust and fear.
"Damn it, Mryel. Now I have dead guy all over me"
"Dead guy builds character."
He gave her a glare as she went back to work, his tail twitched in annoyance as she examined the now bare wall.
"FERDI!"
Ferdi quickly rushed to her side, looking at the wall, his tail bristling in excitement. He quickly shot out questions to the female.
"Did you find something? Are you hurt!? What is it? Treasure? Something old? Myrel!"
Myrel stared at the bare wall, with a look of intense concentration.
"It's... a.. wall."
She said with all the seriousness she could muster.
Ferdi's ecstatic excitement died instantly, bringing a paw to his face in a hard slapping motion as he fell backwards onto the ground. Myrel burst into a laughing fit, holding her sides as she too fell to the ground next to her companion. Her sweet little giggles put a small smile on Ferdi's face. The young squirrel had a little crush on Myrel, though he had not tried to get closer. He instead liked to enjoy the little moments he had with her.
"You're hopeless." He said to her as she nimbly jumped back up.
"Says the one laying down on the job, come on now! Push on! Sleep when you're dead!"
"I'm already dead."
"No sleep for you, adventure awaits!"
She grabbed the torch, pulling it free from the ancient wall, the stone indent crumbled away as she did so.
"It's a shame this place was lost to time. Must have been beautiful in it's prime,"
She said wistfully as she walked past Ferdi, pushing deeper into the gloomy darkness. Ferdi hopped up, quickly following behind Myrel. The last rays of sunlight from the entrance disappeared, allowing for the darkness to swallow them whole.
The light from the torch enclosed them in a tight sphere of light. It was an unnaturally thick darkness, the torchlight barely extending a few feet in front of the duo.
The inky blackness seemed to strain the light, pushing against it with long life like tendrils. The hallway narrowed slightly, with large statues lining the walls, spaced evenly out by a few feet.
Myrel eyed the statues suspiciously, each one was decorated with flower designs and made to look like different beasts. Badgers, squirrels, mice, ferrets, stoats, and rats. Each stood about chest level to the squirrels. They all had small circular holes where their mouths were.
"Curious statues, eh Ferdi?"
She broke away from Ferdi's grasp, examining one of the statues up close. She choose a mouse, holding her torch close to the stone face. It was beautifully detailed, almost like it was once alive.
"I think they're creepy, this whole place is creepy! I still think we should leave while we still can!"
"Shush, we'll be fine! Nothing bad has happened yet."
Myrel leant in towards the stone mouse, trying to get a better look at the perfectly circular hole in its face. Ferdi took a step closer, his shoulder rubbing up against Myrel's fluffy side. he leant in closer trying to see whatever Myrel was so interested in.
"It's a hol-"
*Thunk!*
A small arrow had shot out off the circular opening. Flying right between both squirrels faces. It embedded itself in Myrel's torch, just barely knicked her fluffy red cheek. Ferdi blinked, his foot having sunk a little lower into the ground.
"oops.."
He slowly moved his footpaw off the stone pressure plate, allowing it to slowly rise back up.
Myrel's head swivelled slowly towards the arrow, her eyes widened and she giggled with excitement.
"We've been boobied!"
She said happily as she tore the arrow out of the torch.
"You could have died! How can you be happy about that?"
"I didn't die! Just look at this! Who knows how long this arrow contraption has been here, and it still works perfectly!"
Ferdi rolled his eyes, taking a few steps away from the statue. Which he soon regretted as he sunk back into the ground, prompting another arrow to whizz past his head bouncing off the stone wall above Myrel.
He squeaked loudly, ducking down as low as he could.
"They're everywhere!"
"Then stand still, you silly squirrel. These aren't the greatest traps, we could easily see the triggers on the floor, it'll be a breeze to get past this."
Ferdi audibly groaned, plopping down onto the cold stone floor. He closed his eyes, sighing as he sank into the floor having pushed another pressure plate. Another arrow flew across the hallway. It bounced harmlessly against the opposite wall with a small *Ting*.
"Good idea, Ferds. You could just trigger all the traps before we move on!"
"Ha ha, very funny. I refuse to get another arrow stuck in my ass. It's your turn."
She feigned injury, bringing a paw up to her heart, trying her best to be melodramatic.
"You want me to get an arrow in my tush? Oh Ferdi, I'm hurt that you would ever say such a thing!"
Her tone was sarcastic and playful. Ferdi just face palmed, rubbing his face in slight annoyance.
"You know that's not what I meant!"
"Pppft, whatever you say."
She went back to examining the statue, poking and prodding everything she could. Ferdi just sat there pouting quietly. After a short moment, Myrel spoke again.
"Hmmm, so you think this thing would shoot again?"
"Don't do it."
"I'm doing it!"
She laughed menacingly as she pressed the pressure plate down, though nothing seemed to happen. She lifted her foot paw off the ground letting the plate rise.
"Hey, look at that! No more after one! What a cheesy design."
After a few more moments of examining the walls and statues, Myrel spoke again.
"Well, no sense sticking around here, just a bunch of bad traps."
Ferdi seemed to perk up slightly at her words, excitement evident in his voice.
"Does that mean we can leave now?"
"Oh my sweet little Ferdi, we still have this death trap of a hallway to navigate yet! Come along, I'll light up the floor, shouldn't be difficult to get through together. Step lively now, stay close behind me."
Ferdi sighed in defeat getting in step behind her as she lit the floor up with the torch. They zigzagged their way through the forest of pressure plates, thankfully it wasn't a long journey. The statues began to thin out and the hallway widened.
Ferdi gulped audibly as they journeyed deeper into the ancient ruins. His furry shoulder pressed up against Myrel's, subconsciously looking for comfort, a peace within the darkness. She did not mind, her free paw found itself intertwined with Ferdi's. They held tightly to each other as they pushed on. The tight hallway seemed to widen out to the point where the darkness claimed them.
"We're in a chamber now, though this darkness is not natural. Stay close, don't let go of my paw."
Ferdi nodded in agreement, his grasp on Myrel's soft paw tightened. She stopped, waving the torch around in front of her. She moved quickly to the side, looking for a wall, dragging her Ferdi along with her. She found her mark, a wall close to where they came in. The darkness around them began to fade, revealing the wall and oddly enough, fresh torches lined it. Letting go of Ferdi, She reached out with her paw, rubbing at the charred torch top.
"Still warm. I don't think we're alone."
"You mean some other beast is in here?"
"Perhaps."
She lifted her torch, igniting another. The darkness around them instantly vanished, and one by one more torches lit themselves around the room, revealing the large chamber.
"That's new."
Myrel said as the room began to shimmer in a beautiful golden glow. Red, blue, and green sparkles danced across the room in lazy motions. Pile upon piles of gold, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and treasures of all sorts filled the room. The eyes of both squirrels widened in wonder as they took in the sight. Ferdi left Myrel's side, walking between the piles of treasure. His worries melted away as his curiosity took hold, putting him in autopilot.
Myrel shook her head, ridding herself of the spell that seemed to have washed over her. She gazed about the room, almost completely ignoring the grand treasures before her. She was focused on the many skeletons that dotted the room, each sat upon their own pile. Their ghostly white features covered in gold accessories. Necklaces, crowns, tiaras, rings, decorative weapons, and clothing. She looked back to Ferdi, who had begun to put a large golden crown onto his head, he then began to dig around some more, pulling out large emerald and ruby Necklaces. Before long he was decked out, more gold than squirrel. Myrel chuckled, shaking her slightly as she spotted a pure gold decorative sabre. It was beautifully polished, with several runes she did not recognize etched into the blade and hilt. It rested in the paw of a long dead ferret.
"That's a good lookin' sabre you have there, mate. Do you mind if I have it?"
She extended her free paw to the jaw of the dead ferret, pushing it up and down to simulate speech. She deepened her voice, adding a rough manly gruffness as she answered herself.
"Why of course, Myrel! A pretty thing like you deserves the best after all!"
She gave a cute little giggle, pretending to be all shy and abashed.
"Oh, you! You're such a card!"
She released the jaw, moving her hand to the sabre. It was clutched tightly in the bone hand of the ferret. She pried it loose, forcing the fingers apart and away from the hilt.
She grasped the hilt of the blade, expert craftsmanship impressed the old girl. It was well balanced and really light weight. Which was odd to her since gold is a heavy metal. Should have weighed nearly three times the amount of the steel one she had strapped to her back. (2.44x)
She struck a stance, pushing the blade ahead of her. Form three of her personal combat style. It felt great, a perfect blade. Not a very good choice for actual fencing as gold is a soft metal, but she loved it all the same. Though she did think of it to be very odd, unreal in a way.
"Hey, Ferdi? I don't think any of this treasure is real, maybe you shouldn't be wearing any of it."
He seemingly ignored her warning, so she just shrugged, taking a look back at her lovely new ferret companion.
She gave off a surprised squeak, the ferret now stood snout to snout with the squirrel, its eyes glowed a sickly green colour. Gold coins fell through it's now standing skeletal frame, pinging against the ground in a golden shower. Her eyes widened as she slowly handed the sabre back to the skeleton, who grabbed it roughly from her paw. The ferret laughed sickly as it lay back upon its pile of gold.
"Bad form to take what isn't ours. What do you think Ferdi?"
The many piles of gold he had taken from each had its own skeleton of a long dead beast. Each one of their heads swiveled back and forth, locked onto Ferdi's movements. His eyes widened, instantly dropping the many pieces of jewelry and gold that decorated his fluffy body. The gold clattered against the stone floor, as he ran back to Myrel's side. The skulls of the dead slowly moved back in place, their eyes vacant once more. Ferdi shivered, as if to rid himself of all his troubled feelings.
"There there, Ferdi. Mama Myrel will take good care of you."
She gently patted his fluffy head, making his tail twitch about angrily. He just snorted, looking away all pouty.
"A feeling of greed is weighing down on me, this room is dangerous. We'll be doomed to live here for eternity if we let greed get the best of us. Let's push on."
"But the skeletons?"
"Heh, they won't hurt us. Isn't that right Mr. Ferret?"
Myrel proceeded to pat the skeletal head of the ferret she had originally stolen from. Trying to prove her point to her younger companion.
"Don't piss him off!"
"Oh please, I think he likes me."
Ferdi facepalmed, walking away towards the next hallway. Myrel followed, snickering as she went. She might not be so young anymore, but she sure didn't have to act old. With her torch held high, she pressed on, taking her first few steps gingerly into the next hallway. As soon as they were both clear from the treasure room, it plunged back into darkness, fading back into the void in which it came.
Ferdi found himself clasping back onto Myrel's paw, she didn't seem to mind, which put him at ease. They travelled unchallenged, not taking them as long to find themselves in the doorway of another room.
A sigh of relief escaped Ferdi's lips, as he pushed his arms over his head, stretching the membrane under his arms.
"Well, that wasn't so bad."
Ferdi said confidently as he took the first step into the seemingly larger room before them. The darkness surrounding the room was destroyed as torches that lined the room lit, blazing up brightly. The room was domed, natural sunlight filtered through the ceiling, from where they did not know. A large staircase sat at the opposite end of the room, leading up to a magnificent golden throne. On it lay a small golden Idol, their true prize.
The floor at the bottom of the stone stairs crescented out, leaving a nice flat torch light danced beautifully around the room. The walls were covered in lush and green jungle creepers, all flowering with beautiful pink blooms. At the top of the of throne lay a giant stone snake head, big enough to swallow the poor squirrels whole. The rest of the body winded along the curved walls. Moss covered its stone body, and the creepers had grown around it, almost swallowing the large statue.
"Look! The Idol! Ferdi, we've found it!"
Ferdi's attention drifted towards the throne, his eyes resting upon the idol. A huge grin crept along his lips, as joy filled his little chest right to the brim. He let out a whooping cheer as he took off across the crescent floor.
"Ferdi, wait! We don't know if it's safe!"
She made a grab for his tail, her paw clasped around it roughly. The feathery consistence of Ferdi's tail made it almost impossible to hold on to as it slipped easily from her paw.
"Damn!"
He paid her no mind, racing up the stairs as fast as he could. The end to his curse was within reach, his previous timidness had left him, he had to get that idol.
"Ooooh, you stubborn squirrel! Get back here before you get me killed!"
Ferdi let out a wondrous laugh, the little squirrel was filled right to the brim with joy. Each step he took prompted a different fantasy to pop into his mind. He would finally be able to eat, drink, and even finally fall asleep. Oh, how he had missed sleep, staying awake for over a decade is morale destroying.
"It's here! We've done it!"
"Don't you dare touch that Idol! Wait for me!"
She risked her first steps into the domed room, her foot paws pattering across the crescent-shaped floor. Myrel tossed her torch to the side, as she bounded up the stairs in pursuit of Ferdi. Her many tools bounced and clanged against her tunic. She was surprisingly agile for her age, taking two steps at a time, hoping to catch Ferdi before he could do anything stupid.
Ferdi had made it to the top, Myrel close behind. His eyes sparkled in the golden light of the beautifully crafted idol. It was in the shape of a flying squirrel, with a magnificent crown adorned upon its head.
"Ferdi, no!"
Myrel found herself running up the long stairway on all fours, panting heavily as her tail flared up in anger. Ferdi ignored her pleas, wrapping his forepaws around the small idol. It fit neatly in his palms as if it were made for his people. He lifted it up off the throne as Myrel reached his side, her sharp claws dug into his back, spinning him around to face her. The idol was still clutched in his paws, tightly bound with an iron grip.
"Ow ow ow! Myrel! That hurts!"
"Fool of a flyer! You could have gotten me killed!"
"But I have the idol! We can go home now! I can be rid of this curse! You've saved me and my people! I could kiss you!"
"No kisses for you, we're not out of the woods yet."
She grabbed his fluffy orange head, pushing his gaze to the now empty throne. It was slowly sinking into the floor.
"Oh. We're being boobied."
Myrel smacked him upside the head as the throne sank fully into the ground. Both of their gazes found themselves latched onto the large snake head that had previously rested upon the top of the throne. Its eyes gently blinked and its maw widened, showing off razor sharp fangs that dripped venom. Ferdi squeaked, dropping the idol onto the long stairway. It bounced down several steps before resting in the middle.
"Hurry! Climb the walls!"
Myrel urged him around the snake, pushing him up the wall. Being squirrels, they easily scaled the overgrown wall. They stared down at the snake's massive body as it slowly detached itself from the circular wall. Its body rapidly changed colour into a bright greyish green. Its dark orange eyes locked unblinking onto the two squirrels high above its head, its foul tongue flickered menacingly.
The two squirrels clung to the plant growth close to the ceiling, tucking their fluffy tails behind their backs.
"You've really done it this time, Ferds."
"At least we're safe up here, right?"
The snake slithered to the wall directly below the squirrels, pushing itself up the length of the wall, slowly inching its way towards the duo.
"You had to say it, you just had to Jinx us!"