Young Writers Society

Not for the first time, Raptor realized Nikolai and him weren't really all that different.

"It's alright," he softly - and awkwardly - reassured him. He turned his attention back to the axe. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to do with it when he wasn't trying to fight something, but he knew he had to be the one to carry it. He was probably the only one who could lift it. Having armor was an added bonus.

"We should keep looking for a way out," Raptor said, resting the axe at his side. He would figure out what to do with it soon.

...Why couldn't he have an inventory to keep it in? None of the games he played ever showed what people did axes when they weren't holding them, and it wasn't like Dresden or Mist regularly whipped them out.

“Yeah, we should go...” Nikolai glanced at his glowing ribbon. His mist-colored light blended in with the others, resulting in only slightly different colors shining through the darkness. It wasn’t much to help them find their way.

There was the small leather bag on his hip that he hadn’t checked yet, and it could possibly be holding a flashlight or a candle. He glanced at it and reached for the clasp. But by the time he was about to open it, he thought again and decided it wasn’t large enough to hold either of those.

Nikolai decided against checking its contents for now. It could probably wait a bit longer, and they needed to get moving.

Slowly, after the fire was put out, and Aumrauth's charred flesh remained, Aumrauth's body started to mend itself. Before their very eyes, the deformed skin started shifting, splitting, and pulling together.

It was his face that started to come together first. Partially restored eyelids slit open, and Aumrauth released an ungodly wheeze as he felt life begin to return to him with the urgency of a snail.

He tried to test his vocal cords.

"Well," he said, his voice weak and hoarse, but somehow staggeringly confident. "Did anyone check if anything's inside it?"

Elias, speechless, could only shake his head. This was everything his years of research had been dedicated to. And this man had resurrected himself nearly effortlessly. What was his secret? Was this ability genetic, and if so, would Aumrauth allow him to harvest some DNA?

Ainsley gawked at Aumrauth as his body repaired itself. He'd never seen anything like it before. When the man spoke, Ainsley shook his head, clearing his racing thoughts. "It was on fire," he stated stupidly, still in a daze because of the explosion, Aurauth's death, and his resurection.

Aumrauth laughed wickedly - as an almost-dead man would - and sat up.

"Of course it was. Whatever's inside is either burned or was never there in the first place," he said in a sing-song voice as he got to his feet.

Well, so much for being the prettiest one in the room. He was pretty sure his burned face would take an (unironic) hot minute to come to full restoration. Oh well. Not all good things last.

He took the new robe offered to him and changed, tossing his charred one on the ground. Now he really looked like he fit in.

With his head spinning and the wine wearing off, he wasn't feeling quite as chipper as before.

"Well. Stop gawking," he said, shooting a look at the doctor. "We have more chests to open and hearts to find."

Well. At least he wasn't dead.

Mel couldn't help but stare at Aumrauth's recovering charred body. How he brushed all of this off nonchalantly, she had no idea. She didn't know whether the chest was a trap to begin with, or if there truly was an item, but they burned it in the process. Regardless, they didn't need to be in this crispy room anymore, especially since they didn't have the key for the metal door.

After taking another second to process everything that happened, she slowly started to turn around and head back the way we came from. "Let's go, then," she said softly, her mind still processing the fact that chests could be literal bombs.

"You're going to brush this off?" Elias said incredulously. "You're not going to question the fact that this man was dead just moments ago?" He turned imploringly to Aumrauth. "How is this possible, sir? How did you do that? Is it a genetic adaptation?" His eyes were gleaming with interest, and his entire body was quivering excitedly. "Please, tell me."

Aumrauth stood up a little straighter. Oh. Getting attention like this was nice. He smiled through charred lips, and they cracked, before slowly starting to mend together again.

He started walking down where the tunnel turned, away from the mystery door the explosion.

"Oh, you know, it's just my neverending bond with the river," he said almost dismissively, flicking a strand of singed hair over his shoulder. That was going to take a minute to grow back. Oh gods, he was probably partially bald, wasn't he?

"The first time I died, the river brought me back because it just loved me so, so much. I really devoted my life to it, so of course, it had to do the favor."

Elias sensed sarcasm, but he pushed on. "Does this river have healing properties? Where is it?" He glanced around the room. Facing the tunnel they had come through, there appeared to be two others. Upon further inspection the tunnel on the left branched into two others a short way in. The tunnel on the right looked narrow, but navigable. He could see the iron door laid into the wall near that tunnel's entrance.

Aumrauth laughed wretchedly. "You have to have magic, first. And you definitely don't."

"What if I could procure it?" Barring all disbelief, of course. Up until these past few minutes, Elias had been a purely scientific thinker. After so many failures, though, he was willing to try anything. He followed Aumrauth down the winding tunnel, glancing back over his shoulder to see if the others were coming after him. The tunnel seemed to grow narrower and narrower as they went.

Aumrauth brushed his fingers across the wall, watching as the burned skin started to twist back over his muscles and bones like it was bubbling back to health. Now, it was a familiar sight, but still fascinating.

"Oh, honey, my dear. Sweet thing." Each pet name came out more and more condescending. "That is not how it works."

Mel fell behind Aumrauth and Elias leading the way. They bickered about magic, and although it was an interesting topic, she didn't want to get involved. Something about the way the doc asked the questions made her skin crawl.

She looked back to make sure Ainsley was following too. "So, uh. That was something, huh? I guess we're no longer going to get a chest full of wine," she said in an attempt to make conversation while the other two voices echoed around the cavern.

Armed with an axe that he would never be used to holding, Raptor left the room with the chest and headed back out the hallway. They had reached the end of the tunnel they had picked. He didn't like the thought of running into the other group if they cut through the main room to get into another tunnel, but he wasn't sure what other options they had.

As he walked down the hallway, he caught sight of the doors they had all been quick to avoid earlier.

He glanced at his axe.

Then he glanced back at the doors again, slowing until he came to a halt.

He didn't say anything at first. He just looked at the doors, trying to decide if it was worth running the risk of some monster appearing the moment they opened them. But the doors had to have something behind it, and there was nothing to rule off it being an exit.