Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone

by ifiwaspinkiepie

chapter 4: you know gymnastics, right?

Daring pressed forward and climbed the stairway of the temple. The oily flickering torches cast eerie moving shadows on the walls. A smell of decay and danger hit Daring Do as she peered into the dimly lit entrance of the ancient temple. As she walked down the entryway she felt a cobble shift slightly under hoof and heard a jarring smack of stone striking stone. Throwing herself to the floor, she avoided being sliced by three wicked-looking throwing axes. A slight ticking sound warned her a split second before a fiery maw opened beneath her. Daring managed to grab the edges and flip forward, barely avoiding the flames that came shooting out. From above, a series of vicious alligators swung down snapping at her mane, trying to get a bite to eat. ‘Seriously, who puts alligators in the ceiling? That's insane!’ our tired traveler griped internally.
Pulling herself along just barely out of their reach, Daring slid on her stomach past the gators, but before she could catch her breath she had to leap over an axe arching toward her in a pendulum of death. Running forward she just managed to dodge a series of deadly darts that came flying out of the wall. She almost met her untimely demise when a spike from a hole in the floor shot out, trying to impale her onto the ceiling.
Looking ahead, our intrepid explorer saw the stone door sliding down, threatening to bar the path forward. With a desperate burst of speed, Daring Do dashed forward, sliding toward the door, but her momentum gave out halfway through the doorway. With a grunt, Daring pulled herself through and just avoided being crushed by the heavy stone slab. Safe! Or was she? Growling an oath under her breath she looked around as the hallway she found herself in quivered and crumbled, the end already partially blocked by yet another sliding stone slab. Another corridor? Ugh. Wasn’t there a rule about only having one of these per trap-infested obstacle course?
***
Daring rushed past the stone slab intent on crushing her, finally past the second hallway. She quickly brushed off the darts her hat had acquired in the last hallway and took her bearings. Daring Do stood at the entrance to the central temple chamber. At last, she was face to face with the legendary sapphire statue! The light from the skylight ceiling shone on the startling sapphire stone as Daring Do pondered what her next step would be. Riiiight. Just across the room. Daring thought, eying the walls intently. And those arrow-sized holes in the wall are just for ventilation and the huge Doom Masks are just for show.
Looking at the floor before her she saw a series of varying images inscribed on each tile leading up to a series of stairs connected to the pedestal. She kicked a stone onto the tiles and watched as arrows came flying out from the holes in the walls. Each tile had a different picture of some kind of animal: dingoes, jackals, wolves, rats... "Huh, there must be a pattern here. What do all these animals have in common?" the tan Pegasus said pensively. Trying to figure out the pattern proved to be a different kind of challenge from the rest of the temple. "AHA! These animals are all predators, except...RATS!" Lowering one hoof on a tile with a rat etched on it, she gingerly closed her eyes. Opening one eye, she let out a relieved sigh, knee still intact and theory proved. Hopping from tile to tile, she slowly made her way toward her goal. Reaching the final tile, Daring Do back-flipped onto the stairs with a triumphant grin. Taking off her hat to let out some of the heat that had been collecting under it, she looked up at the beautiful carving in awe. Donning her hat again so as not to drop it, she carefully studied the pedestal, looking at it first from one angle, then the other.
Finally coming to a decision, Daring gripped the priceless statuette with her mouth and snatched it off. “No point avoiding the inevitable,” she said to herself. Daring stored the statuette under her hat and started to set off when she heard a grinding series of clicks coming from behind her. Eyes widening, she whirled around to see a slender pillar of stone sliding up from the spot where the statuette had sat. Before she could reach it, the cylinder fell back into the pedestal. Turning back to make a speedy trip across the floor, she watched as it crumbled before her into a pool of lava.