//------------------------------// // Chapter Eight // Story: The Quest for the Sapphire Stone (Daring Do #1) // by BookeCypher //------------------------------// The ruins Ahuizotl had taken up residence were in far better condition then most of the ruins on the island. Whether that was by some fluke or because Ahuizotl had taken the time to rebuild them, she wasn't sure. What ruins that had suffered to time – or hadn't been rebuilt – were covered in tarps and roughly built structures of logs and palm leaves. Between the obvious construction and the occasional glimpse of a feline felon pacing around the joint told her that he was in the right place. The clearing around the impromptu lair was filled with a menagerie of barrels and crates that Daring took shameless advantage of. She ducked behind and between containers, trying her best to stay out of sight as she closed on the front door. It would have, she admitted to herself, looked a lot more impressive – or at least more appropriate – if she had been doing this at night instead of in broad daylight. But she didn't have a flashlight on her had she had lost Burny somewhere around that stupid pit, so at least this way she wasn't knocking her shins into everything in the dark and letting every cat in a league know where she was. So Daring figured she could live without the proper levels of drama for once. This entire trip had been dramatic enough as it was. Daring took one last look from behind the box she was hiding behind, making sure the lynx had moved on, before she dashed for the door. She kept herself low and hugged the wall while keeping one eye on the slowly shrinking cat as it walked away. She covered the last few paces as silently as she could, smirking as she felt the surface behind her transition from cold stone to the warm texture of aged wood. She took one more look around before turning around and hooking a hoof through an aged door knocker. “Gotcha.” She gave the door a good tug. It didn't budge. Daring blinked owlishly before giving the door another tug. Still nothing. Her eyes widened as she hooked another hoof around the knocker and gave it a few frantic yanks. Still nothing. “Really!?!” Daring complained to nopony in particular, and perhaps a little louder then she should have been. Luckily her outburst seemed to go unnoticed. After it became clear that the door was not going to be opening for her, Daring spun back around, scanning to make sure that none of the cat's had shown up while she was preoccupied. Luckily the only thing keeping her company were the array of boxes stacked around the barred entrance. Suddenly feeling very exposed, Daring slowly started her way toward the side of the building, keeping her back to the stonework as her ears swiveled around like they were on pivots. She only dared to relax once she was around the corner, letting out a relieved sigh as she slipped back into the ruins shadow. “Okay, so the front door won't work.” Daring thought out loud. So, now she just had to find the back door. Thats assuming they had a back door. She really, really hoped they had a back door. She snuck around the side of the building, still weary of any patrol, looking for a way in. All she found though where old wall slits or what looked worryingly like oubliettes. Daring quickly moved on, and eventually reached something that looked promising. It looked like it had once been the entry way to some sort of subterranean area, but the stairwell had been covered with a roughly built door. All in all, it looked like someponies apple cellar had popped up out of the side of some ruins. Daring gave it a testing tug, but sure enough it was locked as firmly as the front door. Unlike the front door however, this one looked surprisingly flimsy. Maybe she could... Daring took a quick glance around, weighing her chances and the risks. She could try to find another way in, but there were no guarantee's that there even was another way in. And if the sound carried further then she thought, or she was wrong about where she thought to patrols were, she was a goner. “Ah, buck it.” Daring cursed as she turned on the door and reared back. The wood cracked and splintered with a thundering crash, planks and splinters flying inwards. Daring more-or-less dropped down into the space, skipping the stairs entirely, tucking into a roll at the bottom that she was careful to keep off her bad wing before rolling onto her hooves ready for a fight. An empty basement greeted her. The room was unoccupied save for herself and a worn table with a trio of chairs around it, an overturned cup and dice resting on it. The rest of the room was filled with more of the crates. An unlit lantern hung from a nail in one of the wooden columns supporting the floor above her, and she could hear the occasional creak of the floor. Whether it was from some cat walking overhead or simply the old structure settling itself, she didn't know. She held her breath for a moment, but when no attack came she let out a relieved sigh. She quickly picked up the remains of the door and settled them over the opening as best she could, hoping it would be enough under cursory glance to prevent more thorough investigation. Her tracks covered, turned her attention to the crates. Now that she wasn't worried about immediate capture, she was starting to wonder what was in them. Luckily, somepony – or some cat, most likely – and left a crowbar lying around. Well, they say that an archeologist's most important asset is curiosity, Daring mused as she hooked the tool under the nearest crates lid and heaved. The lid popped open with a creak and the soft popping sound of nails freeing themselves from wood. She dropped the crowbar with a clatter, and pulled herself up on the crates edge to peer inside. As she expected, it was full of packing straw. Rolling her eyes, Daring reached in and started feeling around until her hoof caught on something. She pulled the unknown item from the straw, dusting some of it off as she studied it in the dim light. “A miner's helmet?” It was a standard, run-of-the-mill miner's helmet in dull orange, complete with a small lamp mounted on the front. “Why the hay does Ahuizotl need this?” She dug further into the crate and found a couple more helmets, as well as pick axes, sifting boxes and collections of buckets, ropes, and pulleys. “What's he digging for?” He was after the stone, right? Why did he need all of this if he knew what he was after? Daring dropped the pulley assembly she was holding back into the crate as she considered what this meant. It meant...well, she wasn't sure, but it meant something. “As if I need more questions right now...” Daring sighed as she walked away from the crate, but she quickly noticed she was no longer alone. The lynx was staring at her, fixed in spot as he seemed to try and process what he probably assumed was a dead pony walking around his basement. “Darn.” Daring's shoulder's slumped. “Guess it wasn't the building.” The lynx leapt at Daring with a snarl, and Daring ducked underneath the attack, spinning around as the feline crashed into still opened crate, sending straw flying as it disappeared into the packing before appearing again after a moment, a pick axe in his jaws. Daring found herself taking a step back. “oh boy.” The lynx's first swing was slow and easy to dodge, but the stacks of crates and various little columns in the room made dodging a tricky proposition at best. Daring ducked and weaved around the swings until the cat overextended and Daring swung a forehoof around in a hay-maker that sent him reeling back. Daring shifted around the room, keeping her eyes locked on the cat. She found herself back near the opened crate as her hoof ran into something cold and hard with a small clink. Daring had no time to even glance down before the lynx charged her again. Instead, she simply kicked the object that had nearly tripped her upward with a hoof, catching it in her mouth a moment before the lynx's attack landed. The air rang as the cat's pick axe collided with the crowbar, a small shower of sparks as metal ground across metal in an impact that made Daring slide back half a pace. That was all he would get though, as Daring pushed back, managing a step forward before twisting her improvised weapon and forcing the cat to back off. The cat glared daggers at Daring, and Daring simply grinned back. “Lets see how you like a fair fight, hairball.” Daring taunted – or at least, tried to . I was muffled by the metal pole held in her teeth. The message seemed to get though to the lynx anyway, who charged at Daring again, bringing his pick axe up in a high overhead swing. Daring replied with a low swing of her own into his now completely unprotected side. Unable to block, the lynx took the hit at full force, giving a yowl as it crumpled to the ground as it slid across the floor. Even that sort of blow, however, wasn't enough to keep the cat down. It shakily pulled itself back onto his feet, heavily favoring one side as it hefted its pick axe again and glared daggers at Daring. If it wasn't angry before, it was now. The Lynx charged again, this time coming in with a low swing that would have probably put the pick through Daring's head if she hadn't parried it. The lynx took the parry in stride though, quickly bringing the pick axe around in another swinging arc from the side that Daring ducked under before swinging her crowbar up at the cat. The lynx leapt back, and for a moment the two just stared across the floor at each other. “Sweet Celestia,” Daring said past the crowbar. “Have you been practicing with that thing or something?” The lynx simply replied by charging at her again. This time though he seemed to be aiming for her legs, its swings alternating between coming in low and parrying any of Daring's own attacks. For Daring's part, she found herself either parrying the strikes herself or simply jumping over them and letting them swing under her. Sparks flew as metal glanced off the floor. The screech of their improvised weapons across each other punctuated the soft whistle of them slicing though the air. Daring found herself stalemated as she tried to press any opening only to find herself rebuffed. Her only consolation was that the lynx wasn't having any better luck against her. Even with one good hit against it, the cat was holding up supremely well. Daring needed to think of something unless she wanted to try outlasting him. Given everything she had been through though, she wasn't sure if she would actually win that bet. It was time to come up with a new plan. All that was down here though were stacks of crates up to the ceiling. Well, there was an idea. Daring started pressing her attack with new vigor, driving the lynx back until he was side-saddle with a particularly tall stack. “Duck, furball.” Daring spat as she swung her crowbar as hard as she could. The lynx obediently complied, letting the crowbar sail over his head – and straight into the stack of crates. The entire stack jolted at the impact, teetering back before keeling over the opposite direction and pouring down on the lynx like a wooden avalanche. Daring watched for a moment as the pile stirred, the lynx managing to half pull itself out before passing out. “Take five, buddy.” Daring spat out the crowbar. “You look like you could use it.” Daring left the half-buried lynx behind and slowly made her way up the narrow staircase, every step carefully testing the wood to make sure it wouldn't creak before committing her full weight to them. A few tense minutes later she finally peeked her head out past the stairwell to look around. It turned out her caution had been unwarranted. The entry room was completely abandoned, save for a scattering of yet more crates. She could see the front door, the wooden plank barricading it obvious from the inside. Save for those, however, there was nothing. No patrols, no lounging cats. The Lynx must have been the only guard for the door. Still, Daring was weary as she made her way up the last few steps. There was something waiting for her in here somewhere – she could feel it. She just wish it would show up already so she could get it over with. “Alright,” Daring thought out loud. “If I was some sort of nasty surprise, where would I hide?” Daring tapped her chin for a moment before pausing and, slowly, looking straight up. She let out a sigh when there was nothing above her. “Well, thats a relief...” Daring froze as soon as she finished uttering the sentence, eyes flitting left and right. When nothing happened after a few moments, Daring let out a huff. “Really? I practically walked into that one. Nothing, really?” Well, fine then. If it wasn't going come out on its own, Daring would just have to find it. With her luck, it would be waiting next to whatever else she was looking for in here. Their were three doors, along with the front door and the staircase she had come up, and she started with the nearest. It lead into some sort of cooking area, a small fire having burned down to smolders, the pot above it forgotten even as something inside started to congeal. Considering the probable diets of Ahuizotl's mooks, she decided against taking to close of a look at anything in the the pot. The rest of the room was occupied by a rough wooden table and benches as well as, in a nice change of pace from boxes, an assortment of barrels. She did avail herself of a couple of the apples that were sitting in a bowl on the table, polishing off the first before taking the second with her. The room lacked any other doors, so Daring returned to the front room, taking another bite of her apple before simply picking a room at random. She opted to go for the one opposite of the little galley, and the only one that had its own door. The door opened with a muted creak, and Daring found herself staring at several rows of bunk beds. There were maybe half a dozen of them, and exactly none of them had been made. The chests at the foot of each bed were in similar levels of disarray, most of them left wide open, and the few that were closed didn't look locked. She idly poked through some of the chests, and all she found were various coat care products and a dizzying array of socks. She continued through the aisle of beds until she reached the back of the room and found a small table tucked in next to a window. A deck of cards was splayed across it in a series of small piles – it seems that a game had been interrupted by something. Maybe it had been her. In the middle of the table was a pile of knickknacks – small stones, coins, some dice, a small rag doll, a pile of what may have been catnip, and oddly enough a set of keys. Daring brushed the other baubles aside and picked up the keys, letting them softly jingle as they slid around their metal loop. They were large, heavy duty looking things. They were the types of keys used on old doors and heavy locks, or on the clasps of ancient, dusty tomes of secret arcane knowledge. Or, she was guessing, a set of some cat's chests. Still, perhaps he had put the key to a door on the ring. She pocketed them just in case before moving on toward the other feature that had caught her eye. Unlike the last room, this one actually had another door inside it. Daring tried the door but, unsurprised, it was locked. So, figuring it was worth a shot, she pulled out the keys she had just pilfered and slotted one into the lock. No luck. She started her way though the keys one by one until she reached the third to last and the lock gave a soft click. Daring gave the door a small push but it didn't budge. The door was much more cooperating when she gave it a pull, and its swung toward her with a muted creak and a low groan. The room room past it was small and dimly lit by the rays passing through a dingy, dirt-stained window as they scattered across the sparse furniture inside and the sleeping form resting in the lone chair. Daring froze as she saw him. He was at least twice as large as any of the cats she had seen up until this point. He was a large, tawny cat with massive saber-like teeth hanging from his jaw, on display with the rest of his sharp-looking teeth as his jaw stretched as he snored. Daring's breath caught as the over-sized feline twitched, one claw idly scratching at his belly before he settled back into his nap, tongue lolling out of his mouth. Daring slowly backed out, trying to make as little noise as was possible with hooves on hardwood floors. Her eye's never left the big cat as she stepped back over the threshold, closed the door, and reset the lock. She let out a sigh as the lock clipped back into place before grabbing one of the nearest chairs and wedging it in front of the door. She considered it for a moment before dragging a few more chairs and adding them to the barricade before heaving a couple of the barrels on top of them. “That should do it.” Daring dusted her hooves off and headed back to the front room. Her other options exhausted, Daring turned her attention to the doorway that was opposite the front door. It was a simple stone entryway, off-center relative to the front door due to the stairs leading up from the attic. With that since of looming doom still lingering in the back of her mind, Daring slowly started her way through the entryway into the hall beyond. Sunlight shined in through unpatched holes in the roof and the soft sound of wind whistling through the half-rebuilt structure and past rooms and wings that remained nothing but piles of rubble. A few of the rooms were, however, still intact. The first Daring found looked similar to the chamber Ahuizotl had left her in, with a large stone carving hanging from one wall overlooking a long low-slung table that stretched down the center with a series of stone benches along either side. The remains of a long-past feast were still strewn across the table, a collection of stone dining ware laid out in a frozen snapshot of the past. Daring lingered for a moment before pressing on. Other rooms she past seemed to hold similar stories – ancient shrines surrounded by the decayed remains of votive offerings, a small forest of shelving rotting away along with the sea of scrolls they held. Column filled halls with massive skylights, areas of congregation that had long since been left empty. They were echoes of the past, memories of another time and another kinds way of life. Daring walked past them all, more pressing matters at hoof. She pressed on, past the abandoned and often ruined rooms, before she finally found herself at a dead end. “That's it?” Daring muttered to herself. “That can't be it. There were no turn-offs back there. I couldn't have made a wrong turn...” A hoof came up and rubbed at her chin. “Unless...let's see.” Daring leaned closer to the wall, letting her gaze slowly drift over the surface as she examined every stone. “Maybe...ah. This one looks a little looser then the rest.” Daring pressed hoof against the stone which, after a moments resistance, slowly slid into the wall with a steady grinding noise and a heavy thunk as it bottomed out. A moment later, the entire wall swung inward slowly as stone ground against stone until it slid to a halt. Beyond the false wall was a stairwell leading down into the depths, all the steps of which beyond the first dozen or so invisible in the inky blackness that seemed to swallow the little light that leaked into the space. “Okay then,” Daring said with a smirk. “Now we are getting somewhere.” She wouldn't be going anywhere though until she could find a way to see where the hay she was going. She ducked back down the hallway, heading back toward the barracks room. It was still as abandoned as she had left it, her barricade on the door unmoved. She paused briefly, cocking one ear until she caught the faint sound of the big cat in the side room still snoring. Her worries at least partially alleviated, Daring started digging through the room for a usable light source. She found several lanterns, but they were all broken or out of oil. She set them aside anyway just in case. She was still lacking anything to burn anything to light it with. The latter was found with a box of cigars buried inside one of the cats chests. The supply of cigars had been depleted until but one remained, but the supply of matches inside was more then enough for her purposes. That only left fuel. She had started digging through another chest when a heavy bang echoed through the room. Daring's head spun around and her eyes locked on the barricaded door just as it shook again. A soft string of hisses and growls that could have been cursing were muffled by the door as the rooms occupant tried to escape. “Guess he woke up.” Daring muttered to herself as she quickly tried to finish her search. She bit back a curse as she reached the bottom of the chest and found nothing as the door shuttered again. Daring took one last look at the chests before bolting over to the barricade. One of the barrels tumbled to the ground and the entire stack shifted as the door slipped open a crack. Daring threw her self at the door, slamming it shut as a single large clawed paw peaked past the edge, getting itself caught between the door and door jamb and eliciting a pained yowl from its owner. It withdrew a moment after only to be followed by a crash that nearly sent Daring tumbling to the ground and managed to dislodge most of her barricade. She pressed herself against the door but found herself in a losing battle. The big cat was well and truly awake and finding itself locked up seemed to have left him in a foul mood. Daring realized that the cat would be escaping the room sooner or later, and her chances of getting out of this latest problem were getting smaller by the moment. The crashes against the door were getting further apart and harder, and she could just hear the faint sound of footfalls as he ran up before throwing himself into the door. Thinking fast, she waited until she could her the incoming steps and, at the last moment, dove to the side. The door slammed open and the massive saber-tooth tumbled out, unbalanced by the sudden break-through. He recovered just in time so see Daring's hooves flying toward his head. Another cat found itself down for the count at the archeologist's kick as the oversized feline's legs crumpled under it, forward momentum sending its now limp form crashing through the small table in the room and sending clutter flying. The sound of splintered wood and broken tableware tumbling back to the ground echoed in the room until dying out, leaving the small space in almost complete silence. For a moment, all Daring could here was her own heavy breathing as her every muscle tensed for action. A cloud of dust settled around the cat as Daring watched and waited to see if it would rise again. After a tense several moments, the feline let out a low groan before stirring one final time and going still save for the gentle rise and fall of its sides. Daring finally relaxed and let out a relieved sigh as she let herself fall to the floor for a brief respite. “Next time I think I'll just risk the dark.” she mutter to herself as considered the now unconscious cat. She noticed for the first time that the cat was actually wearing some sort of vest – it was almost comically small on the big cat, almost invisible save from the back. Covered in a collection of pockets, several of which were bulging with their contents. Playing on a hunch, Daring started sifting through the pockets. The first few contained nothing of use to her – bags of catnip, a few coins, a set of dice that felt oddly weighted in her hoof, and even a collection of various knives. It was in the last pocket that she found what she was looking for. It was a small tin, tipped with a little spigot for pouring. A quick sniff confirmed that it was in fact the lamp oil. “What was he doing keeping this in his pocket?” Daring muttered to herself as she took the small tin over to the pile of discarded lamps from before. A few had been in range of the cat's crash and were now little more then scrap, but a quick sifting through of the pile found one that was still mostly intact. The lamp was rusted and protested under her hooves, but she eventually managed to wrench the reservoir open and tipped the lamp oil in. the small tin was quickly drained and, after a quick check of the wick, Daring fished out one of the pilfered matches and lit it. The wick caught and the flame inside slowly grew into giving off a warm glow that dispelled the shadows of the dim room. Light source in hoof – or mouth as it were – Daring started back toward the hidden staircase. No longer trying to figure out where she was going, the second trip took quite a bit less time then the first, and after a short trot Daring found herself back at the top of the unlit staircase. Under the light now, she could actually make out the curve of the staircase as it sank into the ground and disappeared from view after a few dozen steps. She couldn't see any sconces for torches or hooks for lamps. It seemed that whoever had carved the flight of steps had expected a pony to bring their own light. The steps were steep, poorly lit, and completely without hoof rails. If she fell, she wouldn't be stopping until she hit the bottom – not that she would be in any condition to appreciate the fact by the time she reached the end. Daring gave her head a quick shake to dismiss the macabre thoughts and started down the steps. The light behind her slowly shrunk until it vanished, leaving her entombed in her own small bubble of light in the otherwise all-consuming darkness. Her hoof falls echoed up and down the darkened stairwell and she quickly lost track of how deep she was or how long she had been descending the steps. She gentle curve of the stairwell, the seemingly endless dark stone on either side blurring together as she found herself dozing on her hooves. The steady rhythm of her steps and her breathing filled her ears as her eyes slowly grew heavy. The familiar feeling of an adrenaline rush fading away as her body realized she was no longer in a possible life-or-death situation and decided that it didn't need to keep running at full steam. Daring briefly found herself stumbling, and the adrenaline briefly returned as images of her tumbling head over hoof in the dark as she quickly caught herself, one hoof against the wall to steady herself as another clutched at her chest where her heart felt like it was trying to burst its way out of her rib cage. She sucked in deep breaths around the lamp clutched in her teeth, trying to slow her heart rate back down to something resembling sane levels. After a few moments she let out a slow breath and started back down the steps. The next few minutes – at least, she thought it was just a few minutes – went by uneventfully. She had just started dozing again when she caught something out of the corner of her eye. It was barely perceptible, but she could just make out a faint glowing from somewhere ahead of her. Her pace increased and the glow steadily increased, until soon she could finally see beyond her own lamp light for the first time in what felt like ages. Within a few moments she could make out the end of the staircase, a simple doorway with everything beyond it obscured by the glare from the room past it. Daring didn't even bother trying to stay quiet as some part of her, an older part of her brain, drove her from the dark and into the light as fast as she could. She stumbled as she crossed the threshold, nearly tripping over her own hooves as here eyes squinted shut in the bright light after being in the dark so long. She rubbed at her eyes, trying to clear them of stars before she finally got to see what she had run into. The lantern fell to the ground as her jaw dropped.