Chapter Three : Daring and the blocks
Daring Do stood at the entrance to the central temple chamber. At last, she was face to face with the legendary Sapphire Statue!
She made to step towards it, but drew her hoof back when she saw the different pictures on the "tiled" floor before her. Wait a minute! she thought, It CAN'T be that easy... The floor surrounding the pedastal in the center was made up of different tiles that all had a picture of a certain animal on them; and when she looked at the walls, they were dotted with holes. She looked around for something to test the floor with.
She saw a rock and kicked it, where it landed on a tile with an eagle on it. Immediatly when it landed, the rock weighed the tile down and dozens of arrows flew out of the wall above the rock, embedding themselves in the opposite wall in the perfect shape of a jumping pony that could have been Daring Do herself. She kneeled down to examine the pictures on the floor.
"Hhhhmmm..." she said to herself, unaware that she was now speaking out loud instead of just in her head, "There must be a pattern here. What do all these animals have in common? Aha! These animals are all predators! Except... RATS!"
Daring looked at the rat panel closest to her, and then then looked for any more rocks. There were none. Well, here goes nothing, she thought. Sweating, Daring slowly and carefully stepped on the rat panel.
Nothing. Another swipe to clear more sweat from her forward, and she started looking for the next one. She jumped on it, then the next one, then the next, and the next, almost losing her balance at the next, the walls remaining motionless throughout, did a couple of tricks during the last few, and then she was there.
Looking back at the still-silent tiled floor of death, she smiled to herself in celebration of the task of completing the gauntlet. Then her attention was again focused on the Stone. She walked up the steps to the top of the pedastal ang gazed at the glittering, beautiful, completely sapphire replica of an animal that most likely didn't exist and was just another object of worship from another ancient marean tribe.
Of course, there was bound to be one last trap guarding the stone. Daring walked around the small rock pillar, looking for anything that might have a grudge against her. Sweating again, she nervously rubbed her hooves together, and then- casually grabbed it in her mouth and turned to leave. Just like that.
She took off her hat, stowed the Stone in it, and put it back on. Suddenly, there was another grinding-stone noise, and Daring turned around to see a small cylinder rise from the spot where the Stone just was, and then drop back into the hole.
Of course. Daring made to go back the way she came, but the tiled floor of death broke apart and fell into a pit of lava that was under it. A flame rose from the pit and almost licked her hoof before she pulled it back. The temple was now falling apart, columns and pillars were falling and the pieces of the roof were breaking off and falling into the now-growing pit of fiery orange liquid beneath the pedastal.
Daring lept up the steps to avoid being engulfed, and was at the top where the Stone was when she watched two pillars that were near her fall over each other right near a hole in the cieling that was already there. Bracing herself, she jumped. She landed the bottom of the pillar and ran to the top of it. The hole was relatively close, but with no wings to help, she would have to rely on complete horse-power. Once again she braced herself for the longer jump she was about to make. Then she jumped the jump she had braced herself to jump.
As soon as her hooves left the pedastal, it was swallowed up by the ever-rising lava. She barely caught the edge of the hole in her mouth, and used her front hooves to pull herself halfway out. She only made it halfway out, though, because just then a burst of steam erupted from the hole she was in like a volcano, shooting her into the air as lava actually started seeping out of the top, exactly like a volcano.
Daring Do rose very far into the air, and on any other expedition this would have been fine, but on this one her wing was out of order, so when she landed, it wasn't the light, controlled landing you would expect from pegasus. It was more of a loud, jarring, painful thud. Or to sum it up in one word: WHAM! The Sapphire Stone landed about a foot in front of Daring, but she had managed to snag her hat and put it back on.
She was in no condition to move, of course, but she tried to grab the Stone anyway. Especially since a four-toed blue foot had just landed next to it. Attatched to the foot was an animal that had four more of those feet, along with a long tail with a four-fingered hand at the end of it, and a jackal's head.
His face, though, eyes and everything, was all at the end of his long snout. He had a lot of sharp teeth jutting out of his mouth, and was wearing golden earings, leg bracelets, and necklace. It was Ahuizotle.