Chapter 15: Chapter Fifteen: Forbidden Temple Run

The Chosen One looked thoughtful for a moment.

 

“A save point is… well it’s a Hero thing.” He finally said. “I was just surprised you could see it now.”

 

“Have there been other ones?” She asked.

“Yes.” The Hero said bluntly.

 

“Oh!” Qube chirruped, instantly satisfied with that answer. “Okay!” After a few seconds of silence she continued. “So where do we go now?” The Hero, after looking at her for a few seconds more, turned back to the chest. He tried to pry it open.

 

“We don’t have the key to open it.” He mused. “Maybe it’s back in the room we skipped over… hmm…”

 

Meanwhile, Qube’s thoughts were whirling.

 

How could she now see a Hero only thing? Was she becoming more in tune with the Chosen One? Were they not in sync enough before? Was it because of the strong temple magic? Was she somehow secretly becoming the Hero?

 

No. She was the Chosen One’s Companion. She narrowed her eyes at the mystical Save Point. The fact that these Save Points had been hidden to her before… there had to be some deeper inner meaning to it.

 

Maybe… by allowing Sexy Screamy Spider Lady to join their group, and not feeling threatened that she would take her status as Companion, she had proven herself worthy of some secret test, and was now more in tune with the Hero.

 

Slowly, she reached out to touch the blue ball of light. Maybe now she was able to learn more, be more, become more somehow.

 

“Oi!” The Chosen One shouted from the doorway. Qube jumped. “Don’t touch that. It’d probably melt your brain or something and mess up my file.”

 

“Your file?”

 

“Come on. I think one of these monsters has the key we need to open the chest.” The Chosen One gestured at the pit they had so recently climbed out of. 

 

“Shouldn’t Sewer Bard first try and pick the lock?” Qube asked.

 

“Nah. Wouldn't work.” The Chosen One said, still looking at the pit

 

“Then maybe we need to go through it on foot and defeat all the clearly evil monsters?” Qube suggested sweetly.

 

“Do not worry, my most delicate of forest flowers. I will not allow any beast to bruise your tender petals.” Sewer Bard said, bowing deeply to her.

 

This time, Qube pushed him into the pit.

 

---

 

The aggressive twisted forest beasts that were gathered at the bottom of the ladder ignored the Sewer Bard shaped splat on the ground, continuing to look up at the Chosen One with pure hatred in their eyes. Enough of them had gathered that the friendly forest creatures had been driven back.

 

In fact, Qube was reasonably certain that almost all of the clearly cursed animals were gathered underneath them, drawn by the Chosen One’s heroic mad dash through the temple after he’d parted ways with his truly ingenious improvised tightrope in a very graceful manner. She watched the Chosen One look down at the mob of monsters and nod to himself. Was it possible that this had all been part of a plan, she wondered.

 

“Did that hurt at all?” He called down to Sewer Bard. Sewer Bard sprang to his feet in an instant.

 

“Haha, it would take more than a little fall like that to hurt me!” He bragged.

 

“Cool. Can you stab one of them?” The Chosen One looked at Qube and whispered conspiratorially. “I want to see what happens.”

 

Okay maybe this wasn’t all part of a plan.

 

“Surely this is something that you would be better suited for, Chosen One?” Qube pointedly asked. “I feel fighting your way through a temple is rather what Heroes are for.”

 

“Nah, where’s the fun in that.” The Chosen One waved her objections aside. “Instead we’re going to do what I love best.” He grinned, his expression like a wolf in a sheep’s pen. “We’re going to break it.”

 

---

 

“Mush! Mush!”

 

This was not why Qube had become a Prophecy Approved Companion. Technically, yes, she hadn’t had any choice in the matter since the Prophecy chose her, but she could have refused. Maybe. Or at the very least she could have decided to be really bad at it until it gave up on her.

 

But no. Instead she had worked her entire life to become an important figure in the Golden Prophecy because at no point did it mention that the Chosen One would decide to crouch on her shoulders and force her to run through a temple.

 

“Giddy-up!” The Chosen One shouted, swinging his sword at the enemies Qube was stampeding over. While crouching, his sword was level with the tallest monster’s head, and the smaller monsters he would either kick or force Qube to run in circles around them until he could get a good downwards stab. The only thing stopping him from sliding off her shoulders was the fact that his left arm was wrapped around Qube’s head, his hand under her jaw, which he wrenched in the various directions he wanted her to go.

 

Sewer Bard had been too tall to be a pony. Instead he got to stand up the top of the ladder and shout out directions as they hunted down every last monster. When Qube had, in a very calm and reasonable manner, pointed out that Sewer Bard could simply crouch or bend over to allow the Chosen One to stab the shorter monsters, the Chosen One had said that horses didn’t talk. Sewer Bard had been uncharacteristically quiet, and had winced every time he looked at the Chosen One/Qube rodeo, as if his brain was trying to tell him that such a sight couldn’t possibly exist. Either that or the Prophecy was trying to preserve its Champion’s dignity and trying to get him to stop witnessing such a humiliating act.

 

Qube couldn’t decide which of the two men she hated more. Sewer Bard for not being a part of it, or the Chosen One for… well, the whole thing. The Chosen One wrenched her jaw to the left, accidentally shoving his thumb into her mouth. She resisted the urge to bite it.

 

“Bad pony! No eating people!” The Chosen One scolded, pulling his thumb out.

 

Yup, it was definitely the Chosen One she hated the most.

 

The only reason this whole stupid thing even vaguely worked was because Qube’s invisibility curse preventing the monsters from seeing her. As soon as they got back to town she was going to find the most powerful mage she could and promise them anything they wanted as long as they broke this accursed curse. Otherwise she could just foresee the Chosen One trying to ride her through every temple.

 

It was only after they’d stabbed the very last twisted forest creature to death that a giant key popped out of where its body had been a moment before.

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And hadn’t that been a shock, the first time a monster had died? The only other time Qube had ever seen anything ‘die’ were the skeletons inside that basement. Even then it had more been her madly flailing around, knocking over the gem, and then everything was on fire. She’d never actually seen what happened to the skeletons’... corpses? Bones? Unanimated bones? Bits. She’d never seen what happened to their bits.

 

But here, in the Forbidden Forest Temple, she’d gotten to see up very close and very, very personally what happened when a monster died.

 

First the Chosen One would stab it. Then it would make some kind of horrifying noise, fall over, and disappear into thin air. Occasionally several items would pop into existence where the body had fallen. Other times a bag of coins would appear, and the Chosen One would jump to the ground and scoop them up before demanding Qube kneel so he could mount her again. It always took several attempts before he was able to crouch-jump onto her shoulders and she was able to stand up without him falling off again.

 

So now Qube hated coins almost as much as she hated the Chosen One.

 

And yet, when she tried to express her very deep, sincere hatred of the Chosen One, Prophecies, and Temples in general, the only words that would come out of her mouth were:

 

“Please don’t do that, Chosen One!”

 

“Oh dear! I don’t think that’s very nice!”

 

“Oopsie, teehee!”

 

She was too stressed to express herself properly. Clearly the strong Temple magic was interfering with her ability to talk, maybe it was trying to warp her into one of those twisted forest creatures. Her head was throbbing painfully, as was her neck and jaw, thanks to the Chosen One’s tender directions. She honestly wasn’t sure if it was the Prophecy’s magic attacking her in outrage at her straying so far from her path of guidance, the Temple’s magic trying to change her, or just from the Chosen One being a total - 

 

She blinked. The Chosen One had jumped off her shoulders, and reached out to touch the Golden Key. As soon as his hand got within the golden glow around it it disappeared with a loud PACHING sound.

 

“Sweet!” He exclaimed.

 

“Don’t taste the key. It won’t be sweet.” Qube instantly responded. Oh, thank the words! She could speak normally again! The Chosen One gave her a long-suffering look.

 

“This should open the giant chest.” The Chosen One explained patiently. Qube narrowed her eyes at his tone.

 

“Yes, I know what keys do, thank you.” She said.

 

The Chosen One laughed, then set off back to the room with the chest and the Save Point. Qube caught up with him just in time to see him enveloped in a golden light. When the light faded she saw he was holding… a stick.

 

It was a very nice stick, true, well polished with art painted on the side, but it was still a bent stick. Qube frowned, but before she could comment on the inefficiency of using a chest easily capable of containing a child for a small stick, part of the wall shifted, and slid away.

 

Oh! The chest must be on some kind of very sensitive pressure plate, that would allow the door to open when the stick was removed. She’d never actually seen a pressure plate in action before. She walked over to the chest and inspected it.

 

“What are you doing?” The Chosen One looked down at Qube, who was attempting to lift up the treasure chest.

 

“Just-nrrrgh!-trying to see under it.” Qube grunted. She sat down and started using her feet to try and push the chest. It didn’t move.

 

“What-why-” The Chosen One was staring at Qube like she’d grown a second head. “Walk me through this. You want to see underneath the chest?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Because I … wanted to see the pressure plate underneath… it.” Qube sheepishly stood up and brushed the dirt off of herself. The Chosen One was right. She shouldn’t be wasting time on frivolous curiosity when the entire fate of the world was at stake! It just… had seemed so cool. 

 

The Chosen One was still looking at her incredulously. Qube felt herself slowly turning red in embarrassment and shame.

 

 “Or if it was some kind of spell.” She mumbled. “Anyway we should probably get going.”

 

“So you saw me take an object out of the chest, then the door opened.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“And you deduced from that that there must be a pressure plate or spell, to connect the two events.”

 

“Yes, I just thought… it would make sense.” Qube was starting to get confused.

 

“That is… some incredible advanced reasoning.” The Chosen One said eventually.

 

“Truly, our gentle Healer has vast wisdom.” Sewer Bard said. The other two ignored him. The Chosen One continued to stare at Qube, as if he had never really seen her. It took all her self control to avoid squirming and instead appear like the calm and wise guiding light he needed. A surprisingly difficult look to pull off when one still had dirt on their butt.

 

“Thank you.” She said, head up, back straight. “Now, maybe we should continue on our quest?”

 

“Your wish is my command.” The Chosen One said, smiling slightly. He turned and looked at Sewer Bard. “Sewer Bard, did you think there must be a plate or spell connected to the chest to open the door?”

 

“I fear, Noble Patron, that my mind was rather filled with thoughts of the perils before us. I have not our fair Mage’s talent for analysis.” Sewer Bard gave Qube a flourishing bow. Qube looked at him in disgust. “But I console myself with the reflection that my baser preoccupations will help protect our delicate flower from said perils, so she may spend her energy on more academic pursuits.”

 

Qube frowned. Nice as the speech was, she was pretty sure that Sewer Bard had just said the only reason she was able to be smart, rather than him, was because he only thought about protecting her. Which was pretty rich coming from a guy that had only sung a few songs and made a few lights.

 

While she would never dream of asking anyone what spells they knew, she was also reasonably sure that, magically speaking, she could wipe the floor with him. Not that she ever would, of course. Because she was Good. They! They were Good! As a group! So of course they would never fight with each other!

 

And yet… Qube was still pondering how her Healer spells might be used offensively (just in case she got attacked on her own or some such! Purely hypothetically!) as the party approached the newly exposed doorway, and the dangers it would reveal.

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