Young Writers Society

"Yeah... I'm happy your ankle is better, though." Valeri smiled at her sibling.

Dawn hummed. "I sense magic nearby. Shall we follow Wormy?"

Valeri nodded, and they all traveled further into the jungle.

Wormy clapped her hands, pointing at a temple nestled in the trees.

Guy mumbled against the duct tape, struggling to free his hands.

Vendetta grinned. “Let’s go adventuring then.” They glared at Guy. “No thanks to you.”

Guy flipped them off.

"Woahh..." Carter's eyes were wide as he gazed at the temple. To Valeri, it looked like a typical ancient temple, with crumbling stone and moss and a forbidding pillar-lined entrance.

"You sure this temple hasn't been looted already?"

Guy ignored Valeri. José cautiously approached the entrance and gulped. "I-I suppose there are going to be traps in there? How should we do this?"

Vendetta’s snakes popped out of their shirt, winding around their shoulders and crawling down their arm. “Hey, José can familiars detect magic?”

José shrugged. “Some do.”

“Do snakes?”

José glanced at Vendetta's two-headed snake and shrugged. "Why don't you ask your snake?"

"Wait-- we can do that?" Valeri looked at her hamster. "Hey, hamster. Can you hear me?"

Of course I can. And don't call me hamster. I have a name: Amalthea. The hamster-- sorry, Amalthea-- bared its teeth.

"O-ohkay then...! Do you have pronouns too?"

I'm female. Though they/them is also fine. The hamster nibbled on a piece of muffin.

"...Got it." Valeri stared at Amalthea as she ate, trying to process that they were talking to their familiar, who was intelligent and actually not much like a pet hamster at all. "You sure familiars aren't just humans cursed into animal form?" she asked José.

José smiled. “Probably not.”

Vendetta stroked the heads of their serpents. “Hey! What are your names?”

My name is Deimos.

And mine is Phobos.

Vendetta smiled. “And pronouns?”

Deimos flicked out their tongue. Probably She/her.

Phobos narrowed their eyes. He/him for me.

“Okay! Can either of you detect magic?”

Deimos and Phobos shook their heads.

Amalthea paused her nibbling to shake her head too. Valeri frowned. "Well, that's a shame. But worst comes to worst, we could always send Guy first as a test subject. If he isn't decapitated or anything, we'll know it's safe."

Dawn hummed, displeased.

"Alright, sorry, I don't actually want Guy to die... Oh! But Dawn and Dusk, can you guys act as scouts, maybe?"

Dusk hummed. “I mean, we are magic weapons. Maybe we can detect some stuff?”

Dawn bobbed in a sort of shrug. “We can try!”

Vendetta sighed. “It’s our best shot because someone decided to throw us into the middle of the jungle.”

Guy grunted through the duct tape, but Wormy turned towards him and he quieted.

"So... in we go?" Valeri eyed the entrance. Was it just them, or did the stone lions on the pillars seem to shift a little?

"Creepy haunted jungle temple time!" Carter whooped.

“Carter, stay close to the group please.”

Dusk tapped against the front door. “Hello? Anyone home?”

The lions’ eyes glowed.

“Uh, Dusk? Maybe you should back away…”

The lion on the right creaked as it turned its head to face downwards. Its eyes glowed silver and with a grinding noise, its mouth opened. "Ah... ah... a-aachoo!"

The lion on the left's eyes glowed gold as it stretched. "Man, being inanimate for centuries really takes a toll on you." Its voice was hoarse and, well, rough like stone.

"U-uh..." At this point, Valeri was wondering if everything talked. They thought she might scream if it turned out her shoes were animate too.

Carter looked up at the lions with wide eyes. "If you guys have been sleeping for such a long time, how come you speak just like us?"

The right lion blinked. "We observe your modern world in our dreams. My brother over there attempts to keep up with your so-called 'slang.'"

The left lion shook his stone mane proudly. "Eyyy, dudes? Wassup?"

“Can all animated things talk, or do we have a knack for ruining into you guys?”

The right lion yawned. “I’ve never met an animated object that couldn’t talk. I guess they could exist.”

The left lion perked. “Oh, broskis! I totally met a dude like that. It was this coolio magic staff that totally turned out to be this wizard guy.”

Valeri glanced at her purse. "Are you secretly able to talk too?"

The left lion laughed. "Nah, dude. That purse is a hundred percent normal. Well, as normal as a purse can be. Ya know, one time I ran into this totes crazy tote bag-- haha, get it? Totally and tote bag? Anyways--"

"Ahem!" The right lion gave his brother a pointed look, then turned to the group. "You brave adventurers are here for the temple, yes?"

“Yes, we are! We didn’t mean to intrude, but we were sort of kidnapped and forced to come here. This dude-“ They gestured at Guy. “-decided to be a jerk about it.”

Guy glared at them.

Dusk looked around. “You’re not going to kill us for invading sacred grounds, right? Because we’re more than happy to leave. José, you have a portal.”

José shook his head. “It only works if I know where we are.”

The left lion laughed. "Sacred? Nahhh. That's just something we made up to get more tourists--"

The right lion once again silenced him with a glare, then bared all his teeth in a smile. "Enter... if you dare. If you succeed in safely passing through the temple, you may receive all your mortal heart desires. But beware, for the temple is a treacherous place, and you may lose your footing..."

"Bro, I thought we were going with 'you may have to face your greatest fears?' It's, like, wayyy more intimidating than losing your footing." The golden-eyed lion tossed his mane.

"Ahem. Fears. Those too." The right lion's eyes glowed silver. "Now, adventurers, test your mettle and enter the Temple of Lions..."

Both lions roared, and the doors split open to reveal a dark passageway into the temple.