If I Had a Heart

Elias took a deep breath and steadied himself as he hooked the end of his cane on the lid. Whatever was in here, he knew--he knew it would be worth the risk.
"On my mark," he said. "One, two, three!" He threw the lid open. From where he stood he could see that the interior was lined with red velvet, and there were two--no, three items within. And one of the items was stirring.
"Get back," Elias said quickly as a horrible clicking sounded from in the chest. "Back!"
Out of the chest rose a mess of scrap metal and hatred the size of a Doberman: a scorpion with fierce claws and baleful glowing eyes. It chittered angrily, advancing on the first threat it saw: Raptor.

If the scorpion hadn't been so ridiculously large, Raptor might have given a tired, bitter laugh at its choice of target. He wasn't even a serious threat - his only weapon was back in the inn, and there was no way he could summon his demon so quickly.

As he stumbled back - mind stupidly thinking about what the apparently immortal man had said earlier instead of the threat - he kept his eyes on the claws. He just hoped they wouldn't be strong enough to crush metal and bone. If he was lucky, it would try jabbing him with its stinger instead.

Oh, what Aumrauth would give to have his magic right now.

Aumrauth threw caution to the wind. Death was death. It would just be another death day.

As the creature advanced upon Raptor, Aumrauth came at it from behind and leapt to grab the stinger - dagger in hand - with the aim of chopping it off. Or something.

The scorpion aimed to attack Raptor's feet with both the stinger and claws. It jabbed at him, and the metal clanged off his boots. The scorpion chittered again and backed off.

Sometimes in life, you just get lucky. Today just seemed to be his day.

The beast backed up right into Aumrauth, as if its disappointment in its failure to pierce through Raptor's armor had completely ruined its ability to make good choices. Naturally, Aumrauth seized the opportunity.

He wrapped his arms around the stinger and brought his legs up around it as well, just for good measure. His weight brought him and the tail to the ground with a thump, but it was a purposeful thump.

See, now, he'd thrown the creature off its rhythm.

Now that he had the tail in his grip, and there was no conceivable way for its stinger to get to him, he freed one arm and stabbed it at the base of the tail as hard as he could. He had never been exceptionally strong, but maybe it was the adrenaline and the constant pain that made him be a little more aggressive than usual.

The dagger cut through, and with another pull downwards, the tail came clean off.

And of course, that caused the scorpion to begin writhing in unbelievable pain.

"Serves you right, you oversized pest!" Aumrauth muttered as he stood up, with the severed tail in hand. For fun, he swung it at the scorpion like a weapon. More to tease, than anything else.

He found out, though, that by the time the tail struck the remains of the body, it was already dead. Huh.

That was fast.

Nikolai let out a loud yelp of alarm when he first saw the scorpion. He didn't remember ever seeing one, but he instantly knew this was bad news. A dog-sized scorpion had just been set free, and he was going to be useless against it--

Then by some incredible display of good luck, Aumrauth was grabbing the stinger and had pulled out a dagger. Surely he was going to get stung, right? What was he even trying to do?

Then Aumrauth chopped the scorpion's tail with it and whacked it with its own stinger.

Nikolai's eyes went wide. He took a step back, about to suggest they run for their lives, before he saw the monster dying. He glanced up at the winner of the fight, shock printed on his face. "What...?" He wasn't able to finish his question.

Eira stared wide-eyed and frozen at the whole event.

Everything happened too quickly for her to react.

She didn't react quick enough to keep up.

Her head felt faint.

Elias had been perfectly still throughout the fight, too shocked to react. It was over before it had begun and now, as he recovered from seeing a massive scorpion being impaled on its own stinger, he found himself deeply, deeply impressed with the elf's skill and quick thinking.
"That...was unorthodox," he managed, lowering his cane slowly. "You have my respect and admiration, sir."

It didn't come too much of a surprise that the chest was trapped, but Mel was certainly not expecting an abnormally large scorpion to jump out of there. A shiver went down her spine as she felt bad that it came after Raptor, but also not because she was glad that thing decided to go after the only armored person instead of her.

Mel wanted to help, but between the initial shock of the scorpion suddenly attacking and the fact that its dark exterior shell was blending into the darkness, she didn't get to do anything. And even though she prepped her hands to try to do something, she still didn't get to do it because Aumrauth butchered it to pieces.

Like, actually -- butchered. The fight ended as quickly as it started with Aumurauth sneaking up behind the scorpion and cutting its tail off like it was a slice of butter.

Mel stood there mouth open as he waved the stinger around like a golden medal. Is this what happens when you drink two whole bottles of wine?

"So," she said, dusting herself off even though she didn't even take a single step forward during the whole ordeal. "What's in the chest? I hope no more monsters are hiding in there."

Still wary, Elias peered over the side of chest. His brow furrowed in bewilderment as he pulled out the two items.
The first was a thick white rope made of what felt like silk. Splendid gold caps covered the ends, one of which had a clasp at the end. This cap was engraved with one of the runes from the lid of the chest: ᛟ
The second item was a satchel made from a tough black leather. It was large enough that Elias could fit his head inside it with a little room to spare. The satchel had no clasps. Instead there were seven lace-holes on the flap, with no way of securing it. The flap was emblazoned with the second rune: ᚺ

Raptor couldn't help it. When the scorpion's claws bounced off of his armor, a tiny, little laugh slipped out. It wasn't a loud laugh. He doubted anyone else had even heard it. It was the kind of laugh someone gave when the shock and terror was finally too much. Raptor wasn't sure he believed in divine intervention, but what had just happened - and everything before he had even ended up here - was a miracle.

The immortal man beat the scorpion. Raptor was still in shock over the effectiveness of his armor. The way the scorpion was beaten barely registered. It wasn't until Dr. Elias peeked into the chest that Raptor finally looked in the scorpion's direction. He checked the planes for any illusions, but he found nothing. The scorpion was just a terrifyingly oversized scorpion.

...For some reason, Raptor found comfort in the thought of this being the result of something unknown. Maybe it was because he didn't like the thought of a dead demon laying alone in the cave when they inevitably left this place.

Raptor looked away. He heard a strange clicking sound; he thought it was the scorpion's exoskeleton moving. Maybe it wasn't really dead. He spun around again to give it a second look, but then the source of the noise became apparent to him.

It was his armor.

His armor was shaking. He was shaking. He had been doing so good hiding his fear since before he had arrived here, but the attack from the scorpion was the final straw. Taking an unsteady breath just for the sake of some normalcy, he tore his gaze away from the scorpion's corpse.

"Before anyone suggests it," Raptor said, somehow able to keep his voice strong and steady, "we should avoiding cutting or breaking either one of those. I can see the outlines of runes from over here - both of those objects have to be important."

Eira had always been instructed to avoid anything with runes. Witchcraft and blooded magic only mixed explosively. A series of runes designed to create a flame for lighting candles would have an effect more akin to a jet engine if it came in contact with the wrong sort of spark.

She inched back a step. "Yeah, important."

Ainsley watched in shock as the scorpion lay dead on the ground. He hadn't even registered that one of his companions had killed it.

He turned and saw some of the others talking about the runes. He hadn't come across many in his lifetime, but he had read about them. One had to have a decent amount of experience to work with them. Ainsley did not have that experience, but he knew the symbols were important. He could feel it in his bones.

“I’ve... never seen anything like those,” Nikolai said hesitantly, as he got closer to the objects with runes. He had no way of guessing what they could possibly be for. The rope and satchel both looked like they came from some fantasy story. He didn’t touch them, but instead examined them carefully, looking for anything important. “Do you think they’re dangerous?”

Aumrauth was still rushing with adrenaline and reeling from the thrill of the kill. After staring down at the dead scorpion and dropping the giant stinger on the floor beside it, he finally started to catch his breath.

And he started laughing. Maniacally, of course.

He'd been following the conversation, and let out a deep sigh as he brushed his hair back from his face and straightened up his robe, which has been twisted around in the brief scuffle.

"Dangerous. Dangerous, of course. Probably for whoever's tied up in them."

He walked over to the chest with the others, looking a the runes and the rope.

"Hm. Maybe the scorpion could be used as a sacrifice. Though I doubt a creature like it would be suitable, seeing as it isn't as intelligent as any of us. Then again, I have no idea what the heartless god would require, but my best guess is someone with a heart."

His eyes lit up. That gave him an idea.

"Either it has a heart we need to find, or we need to give it one of ours! Oh, yes, that makes sense. That would explain everything."

He paused, looking down at his wrist.

"Except for these stringy things."