Episode 9: The Spirit of Adventure (Part 7 of 8)

"Lilanei!" Locke cries through the sheet of ice before he then drops to his knees and begins to plunge the blade of his dagger into the ice to try and break through it with the blade; however, it merely scratches the surface. As his tension and frustration mounts, he hears a sudden "kekeke" echo throughout the room.

"DAMN YOU, AMUN!" Locke roars with his new feminine voice. "If I find you, I will turn your ugly little head to dust! Release my Lilanei at once!"

The skull's usual cackle echoes a short while longer before Amun finally titters, "Turn Amun to dust if you must, but my actions are quite just!" Amun then pauses for a brief before tittering again, "You do quite nice when facing ice, but will you pay the price when ice strikes twice?”

"Stop with your stupid rhymes!" Locke cries, now slamming his free fist onto the sheet of ice.

Amun merely cackles as his voice suddenly appears to grow further and further away. As it does so, Locke feels the ice beneath him begin to feel damp as it wets his green skirt. Locke looks down and sees the ice begin to melt, which he reacts to by springing off his knees and landing in a heap on solid ground beside the sheet of ice. As he does so, he watches as the large and thick slab of ice turn to nothing more but water as it begins to melt at its center, before the outer layer of the ice follows in a ripple-like fashion.

"Lil," Locke breathes as he anxiously crawls to the edge of the pit and dangles his hand down it. "Lil, if you can, try to jump and grab my hand!"

However, despite an opportunity at freedom, Lilanei simply stands in the pit of ice water and trembles violently as she holds herself, with her arms wrapped around her torso. Grunting, Locke then retrieves his staff and lowers one end of it down into the pit.

"Can you grab this?" He calls down to her.

Gritted teeth now chattering as she shivers due to the frigid cold, Lilanei glances up at the staff before very slowly and weakly reaching for the end, which she grasps tightly. Feeling Lil's weight on the staff, Locke leans back so he now sits on his backside as he digs his heels into the ground as best as he can in his foreign body and pulls on the staff with a loud grunt, which lifts and therefore elevates Lilanei out of the ice water. Locke then continues to slide backwards, causing the staff and Lil on the end of it to finally emerge from out of the pit. Immediately, once Lil is out of the pit, Locke crawls to her and hugs her tight, his hands running up and down what strangely is his own body as he tries to warm her back up.

Shivering wildly from the intense cold, Lil looks to Locke and stutters, "T-t-thank. . . y-y-you. . ."

"Think nothing of it," Locke replies as he hugs Lil tightly once more. "Are you going to be okay?"

As Locke hugs Lil tightly, she hisses very slightly due to the pain of her very stiff and cold limbs, before she shivers again and stammers. "Fire. . . Please. . ."

Withdrawing the spell book once again, Locke flicks through the pages and finally comes to what appears to be a fire spell. Resting the book on the floor in front of him, Locke begins to wave his hands in a circular motion next to each other and after a minute, a spark ignites in the space between his hands. The spark then grows into a flicker and the flicker grows into a ball, which pulsates further and grows into a large sphere of fire. Locke lowers his hands causing the flaming sphere to rest on the ground beside Lil as the heat begins to radiate onto her body.

Curling herself in front of the fireball close enough to warm herself, but not enough to cause herself harm, Lil grins through her gritted teeth and stutters, "You're. . . n-not so. . . bad at t-that."

"Well, I've watched you do it enough times," Locke replies as he sits in front of the fire ball, putting the spellbook away as he does. "Rest a while and then we'll carry on. If that monster's anything to go by, we're really going to need all the strength we can muster."

Still shivering, Lilanei nods before slightly shuffling over towards Locke and resting her damp head in his small lap as she curls into a fetal position on the ground and attempts to keep warm in front of the fire. A few hours pass as our Heroes rest on the frosty floor and recover from their ordeal thus far. Locke remains seated in front of the fire ball while Lilanei still lies curled up with her head on his lap, every so often almost falling asleep; however due to the intense cold, Locke remembers what Akorrin taught him about how dangerous it is to sleep in such a situation and therefore coaxed her to stay awake each time. During their long rest, fortunately, they do not see or hear anymore monsters in the area – a mere gust of wind flowing through the room and the hall behind them being the only recognizable noise they hear.

Finally, Lilanei shifts slightly in her curled position, before saying, "I think. . . I'll be okay now."

"Let's carry on then, if you're strong enough," Locke replies.

Weakly, Lil takes her head from Locke's lap and pushes herself back so that she is now sitting up, before she sniffles and says, "Okay. . . I think I – achoo!"

"Bless you!" Locke replies with a laugh.

With a groan, Lilanei wipes her nose and says, "Ngh. . . I can't wait until we switch bodies again. Then I won't have to deal with this horrible cold – you will!"

"Oh great!" Locke says sarcastically. "And there was me looking forward to getting back into my own body."

Lil meekly grins before saying, "Aw. . . It can't be that bad being in my body. Your body isn't too bad, either. I must admit it's nice to have a bit more strength."

"Glad to see you enjoy it," Locke says with a grin. "Feel free to enjoy it just as much when we've switched back. On cold winter nights quite like this, you could keep me warm that way."

After sneezing again, Lil smirks and slightly chuckles as she says, "We'll see. Now let's keep going."

On that note, our two Heroes stumble to their feet and stiffly make their way through the chamber, as the fire ball which warmed them up until this point slowly disappears. As it does so, Lilanei retrieves the last of Locke's sunrods from his ruck sack on her back and lights it, after which slipping it into the belt around her waist. With caution, they turn the bend and find themselves looking down a primitively dug slope which appears to lead to a lower level.

"Well, only one way to go now," Locke announces. "Judging by the shoddy workmanship here, I'd say the beasties dug this tunnel."

With a grimace, Lil responds, "Well, for our sakes, I hope there aren't too many more 'beasties' down below."

"Let's find out!" Locke announces again before making his way down the tunnel.

As they emerge on the other side, they find themselves facing a very thickly fogged room. Due to the heavy, cold fog, they can only see a mere five feet in front of them and nothing more. As they glance around the room, Lilanei gasps suddenly as she sneezes with a shrill squeak. As she does so, the two hear a sudden rumble before they see a large stalactite drop down from the ceiling and crash a mere few feet in front of them, sharp shards and debris hurling just in front of their feet.

"I think we need to keep the noise down," Locke says, whispering to Lil. "This room seems sensitive."

Simply wiping her nose as she sniffles, Lilanei nods in agreement. Slowly, Locke and Lilanei walk forwards. Every five feet they walk, they stop so that they can try and get their bearings through the dense fog. The two eventually reach what they believe to be the middle of the room; however as they do so, the pair begin to hear a faint moan which comes from the sides of the chamber, causing our Heroes to perk up in alertness. They slowly move forward five more feet, and as they do, Lilanei's nose twitches before she lets out another shrill sneeze. The sneeze echoes through the room causing an unseen stalactite to shake on the ceiling and break off as it plummets to the ground on which Locke and Lil stand. It crashes into them both, the weight of the object dealing them a harsh blow. As the stalactite shatters around their bodies and the faint icy dust clears away, our Heroes groan from the painful blow before pausing suddenly as they hear the faint moaning grow slightly louder.

"We're not alone," Locke points out.

Feeling a strong sense of urgency, Locke and Lilanei quicken their pace and traverse the next fifteen feet of the room, until they see a passage leading out of the fog. Quickly the two pass through it, Locke's heartbeat thumping strongly from the sense of urgency he felt to get out of the room. As they rush into an adjoining hallway, which is clear of the deep fog, they hide against the walls and listen behind them as they hear the moans begin to slink away slowly.

"That sounded eerily familiar," Locke notes. "The zombies from earlier made the same type of sounds. . ."

With a grimace, Lil quietly cries, "Then let's get out of here before they find us!"

"Right," Locke replies.

Without hesitation, the two rush through the hallway until they emerge in a very massive room. They slide to a halt on the slippery ground beneath them as they realize that they stand on a ledge made completely from solid ice. After the ledge lies nothing more than a massive pool of ice water; small broken blocks of ice float about the water serenely as our Heroes notice many larger blocks, almost like stepping stones, also float in the water. The two watch as one of these large blocks floats away slowly as they realize that they can only see about ten feet in front of them, due to another deep and cold fog.

"How are you at hopscotch?" Locke asks as he watches the stones float in the water.

Lilanei frowns and asks, "What's hopscotch?"

"Never mind," Locke replies with a slight sigh. "We're just going to have to get across this pool by jumping from stone to stone."

Lilanei sighs and mutters in frustration, "Why don't we ever have it easy? I just wish that one day we could go through one of these ruins, or caves, or what-have-you and NOT encounter something stupidly dangerous or hazardous to our healths!"

"That would be too easy," Locke simply replies with a smile. "We need the challenge, so let's do it!"

As the two debate on how to cross the pool of water, their senses are alerted as they notice a quiet clicking sound coming from one of the floating stones.

"Oh no," Locke says slowly and ominously.

Bobbing slightly in the air on one of the floating stones, Amun appears as he cackles and says, “Why so scared? Aren't you prepared?"

Locke slaps his forehead and runs his hand slowly down his face in annoyance as he sees Amun bobbing in front of him, before he shouts, "Get lost!"

"If Amun gets lost, you'll pay the cost, as you'll freeze in all this frost!" Amun replies in a sing-song voice.

Lilanei groans and cries, "What is your problem, Amun? Are you helping us, or what? I can't tell whether you're on our side, or if you want to kill us!"

"Why, killing us would be frivolous, silly sniveling wuss!" Amun announces.

"I don't have to take that from you!" Lil exclaims angrily with a growl.

"Listen, bone head," Locke then begins. "If you're not going to help us, you don't need to be here. I don't know if you're the caretaker of this place, but you're really getting on my last nerve."

"Helping you could be the right thing to do, but Amun would be blue to merely aid you! Heroes true must do as they do; fight evils askew, and rewards will be brought to you!"

"Well, a stone's about to be brought to you, bone head!" Locke announces as he picks up and throws a nearby stone at Amun. "Get lost!"

Amun merely dives out of the way of the rock before cackling and crying almost in annoyance, “If that's how you'll play, then cursed shall you stay, from this very day until Amun has his say!"

Locke growls and then shakes his head with a sigh as he announces, "We're going to get nowhere if we just talk to this bone head. Let's just cross this pool."

Finishing Locke's sentence, Amun adds, "That would be cool!" as he cackles and appears to jump away towards the back of the room.

"Argh!" Locke cries. "I hate that skull!"

Grumbling, Lilanei adds, "He is quite strange, isn't he?"

"I can think of better words," Locke says with a snarl.

"Well, in any case, let us continue. . . It doesn't seem like Amun is going to leave us alone any time soon, so we'll just have to deal with him as he comes," Lilanei simply says with a sigh.

Holding hands, Locke and Lilanei then ready themselves, and in unison, they both jump – leaping over the pool of ice water before landing on the stone to their far left. In front of them through the fog, they now see two stones which bob up and down as they calmly float in the water. Locke points to the stone closest to Lil and together they leap forwards and land on it safely. After hopping to the next stone, they can only see one more stone appear in front of them as they immediately leap forwards and land on it.

"Which way now?" Locke asks as he motions to two floating stones.

Lilanei ponders over the two options, before her gaze centers on the rightmost stone as she whispers, "There's something. . . gleaming on it."

Locke looks over to the stone and exclaims, "You're right! Let's check it out."

Our Heroes then leap forth and land on the rightmost stone. As they land on the stone, they hear a light tinkling as a bottle of potion begins to roll towards the edge and towards the pool of water. As the potion begins to roll away, Lilanei quickly reaches down and swiftly snatches the bottle from the ground, which she immediately places in her ruck sack.

"Good catch," Locke praises. "Let's take the stone right ahead."

Lil nods and complies before the two leap across yet another stone and find themselves faced now with a stone which floats to the left and one which floats directly in front of them.

"Let's keep going forward," Locke suggests.

The two leap and land on the next stone which was ahead of them so that they now can see two more stones, one floating off to the right and the other floating off to the left. Tugging on Lil's hand, Locke prepares to jump over to the left stone which they both do successfully. As they leap to the next stone, which teeters slightly under their weight, they realize it is a bit wider and larger than many of the other stones that they had crossed. Suddenly, they hear a slight squeak which is quickly followed by many squeaks, as from the fog they notice several rats swarm and begin to emerge towards them viciously.

"Vermin!" Locke cries as Lilanei simply shrieks girlishly with her new masculine voice; grunting with annoyance, Locke adds, "Must you do that?"

Growling, Lil replies, "Shut up, and kill them!"

Following her own advice, Lilanei immediately reaches for the double sword on her back which she slashes towards the swarm of rats with a disgusted cry. The slash hits a part of the swarm, knocking some which climb on the backs of others off and into the main swarm of rats that continue to scurry about around them. As the rats continue to rush them, Locke grips his staff tightly and takes a violent swing at the cluster of rats, sweeping a fair few of them off their feet and knocking them violently back as they land in a heap on top of each other. As Locke then retracts his staff, he realizes many of the rats now cling to the end and begin to rush down the staff and towards his arm. Distracted by these rats, he fails to notice that the rest of the swarm gathers at his feet and bite viciously at his legs as the rest bite his arms.

"Argh! Get off me, you parasites!" Locke cries in frustration.

"Ew, ew, ew!" Lilanei cries in fear and disgust as she watches the rats swarm Locke's, or rather her, body.

With a sour grimace, she begins to swat at many of the rats around Locke; however they merely keep coming. Still biting at him, the rogue – or the rogue in the wizard's body – becomes angered and thrusts his arms outwards, knocking some of the rats from him.

"You like eating things? Chew on this, furballs!"

With that, Locke holds his palm out to a conglomerate of the swarming rats in front of him before an orb of white light appears and pulsates in his hand. He relieves the tension in his fingers, allowing his grip to loosen as the orb shoots from his palm and collides with the rats, knocking them dazed as they now appear very weakened. With another growl, Lilanei once again brandishes Locke's double sword, which she slashes at the swarm wildly – allowing both blades of the sword to carve and swipe into as many of the rats as she possible can. Blood from some of the now dead rats covers the stone beneath them as dead little bodies lie at their feet. Other rats weakly squeak as they try to retreat; however with nowhere to go, they are subject to our Heroes' full fury, as both Locke and Lilanei kick the remaining live rats off the rock and into the freezing waters below.

"Vermin," Locke spits.

Groaning, Lilanei adds, "I hate them. . ."

"Me too!" Locke exclaims before looking ahead.

Beyond the rock on which they stand, Locke sees an even larger ice rock floating beyond and points to it, before the two leap across and onto the rock. Once they gain their footing on the large stone, the pair look ahead and see a small pile of what appears to be bones. A skeletal hand protrudes from the pile of bones as it clutches a single bottle of potion.

"I'll take this!" Locke exclaims as he leans forward and snatches the potion from the skeleton's dead hand.

Immediately, Locke removes the top, throws the cork into the water, and drinks the entire potion. Feeling refreshed, Locke tosses the bottle away into the water, which then begins to bob and float away. Her eyebrows cocked slightly at Locke's hastiness, Lilanei looks around to see no more floating stones are ahead – merely the one behind them.

"I feel like we're going in circles," Lil groans with a sigh. "I wonder how big this room actually is?"

"Let's not waste time and ponder," Locke responds. "Let's just get out of it."

With that, our Heroes leap back two stones, returning to one they had previously been on. From there, Locke leads the way and they leap to the stone on their left. After doing so, they see that only one stone appears in the fog before them. They leap onto it, and from there Locke and Lil see a ledge that resembles the one they entered the room from. On the ledge, they notice a slope which curves downwards, which to their reckoning is the exit.

Excitedly, Lil cries, "I guess I spoke too soon! Finally, we can get out of this place!"

Locke and Lilanei then leap from the stone to the ledge, their feet slipping slightly in their hastiness. Wasting no time as they regain their footing, they then follow the slope out of the room. As they complete their descent down the long and winding slope, they find themselves in a medium sized room which they can see through the sunrod Lilanei has conveniently kept in her belt. Glancing about the large chamber, they finally realize it leads to nothing but a black abyss.

"Heh," Locke mutters. "What do you suppose this is?"

With wide eyes, Lilanei cries, "A dead end! I thought there was supposed to be a big nasty bad guy around here or something!"

"Maybe there this," Locke responds quietly as he walks forwards to the abyss.

Following behind him, Lil whines, "It's just a big black hole. . . and I'm not jumping down it!"

Locke looks into the abyss and kicks a small rock near his foot into it. He then waits, and waits, and waits – before finally hearing an extremely faint tap as the stone reaches the bottom of the pit.

"Well, I don't think we can jump down there," Locke muses as he then begins to look around the room to see if there's anything else they may have missed; seeing nothing, Locke grumbles and shouts, "So where are you now, Amun? No stupid rhymes or riddles to go with this absurd room?"

Just as Locke completes his challenge, he hears the extremely grating sound of teeth clicking against teeth as he snaps his head back and sees Amun floating just behind them.

"Explain this!" Locke says, gesturing with his hand to the abyss.

The jewels in Amun's skeletal eyes simply twinkle slightly as he cries, "This? This – this is an abyss!"

"We were told that there was a monster to be defeated in these ruins," Locke explains, ignoring Amun's sarcastic response. "That's why we came here. . . Where is it?"

Amun simply bobbles in mid air as he cackles and says, "Monsters lurk deep in the frosted dirt, but first one must brave the turf!"

"What?" Locke utters with a grimace.

Immaturely, Amun titters, "What, what? Owlbear butt!"

"I'll tear you a new one if you don't be clear!" Locke grunts.

With an exasperated sigh, Lil then says, "Please. . . I'm cold. This place is terrible, and smelly, and cold – and I just want to go home! Where is this stupid beast so that we may leave this horrible place?"

The floating skull tilting slightly to the side, Amun cackles, "Kekeke. . . If you wish to face the evil in this place, first you must cross with grace! For Heroes. . . you two seem like quite big zeros! But Amun helps you, for it is the fun thing to do!"

"Argh!" Locke cries as he takes Lil by the hand. "Let's just jump!"

Amun simply cackles again and cries, "As brave as a naive, with screws as loose as a Goose! His life, Locke will surely lose! Zero heroes, I bid you adieu, as for an appointment Amun is due, kekeke."

The skull then turns and hops off merrily up the slope, as Lilanei shrieks with wide eyes, “You can't be serious! Please, don't make me jump!"

"But Lil, where else is there to go?" Locke asks in frustration.

"Home!" Lil howls as she tries to pull her wrist away from him. "You might be crazy, but I'm not – despite the fact I'm in your body! I think I'd rather stay switched than do something as stupid as jumping to my death!"

Releasing her wrist, Locke simply turns back towards the abyss and with no hesitation walks onto it. Immediately, he is taken back in surprise when he does not fall or even lurch forward – a slight shine rippling under his feet as a single silver floating stone appears beneath his step.

"Lil!" Locke announces. "I haven't fallen – this must be some kind of path. . . or a bridge! Let's go!"

Gritting her teeth, Lil whines, "But. . . is it safe?"

"Have I fallen?" Locke asks.

"Well, you might!" She snaps back. "You don't know if there are any more stones up ahead. . ."

Shaking his head, Locke takes three steps forwards as each steps causes a new stone to materialize beneath him before he calls back, "Come on! It is safe. The sooner we find what we're looking for, maybe we'll be changed back!"

With that, Locke rushes across the rest of the bridge. Grimacing, Lilanei daintily places her foot on the first stone before pressing her full weight onto it. Once satisfied that the stone will not collapse beneath her, she hesitantly but quickly rushes behind Locke and across the bridge-like path. Once the two complete their crossing of the bridge, they find themselves on solid ground once again as they peer around another large room. Nothing lies in the room; however, they can see in front of them two large doors made of solid ice.

"Let's knock," Locke announces as he walks forwards, takes Lil's quarterstaff, and taps the orbed end of the staff lightly on the door.

The quiet knocking echoes through the room for a few moments, before the door in front of Locke appears to merely give way slowly as it quietly creaks open. As it does so, they see a bright glow begin to emit through the open passageway.

"Let's go," Locke softly says to Lil as he walks through the door, undaunted, with Lilanei following.

As the two finally enter the room, they are met with the beautiful sight of many crystal-like stalagmites and stalactites which protrude from the ground and ceiling above them. These crystal-like structures appear to give off their own light, as they glow and twinkle in the room in a wide array of colours.

"Oooo," Lil softly whispers. "Pretty. . ."

"Yeah, but not exactly what we were looking for," Locke bluntly replies.

The two then step a bit further into the room, before they are met with the sound of a loud crack of ice. As they stop in their tracks, they see a massive shadow loom from behind one of the stalagmites before they see the blunt end of an ice hammer poke out from behind this structure. In moments, their eyes widen as what appears to be a large man made completely from ice emerges into the center of the room.

"Whoa!" Locke cries as he looks up the ice man. "What is that?"

"I. . . I don't know!" Lil states in bewilderment.

The faceless man looks across the room to our two Heroes as it begins to utter something deeply in a strange tongue.

"What's that noise?" Locke asks.

Lilanei simply gulps as she says, "Erm. . . I don't think we're very welcome here."

"Do you understand that. . . thing?" Locke asks again.

As the man utters a few more unintelligible words, Lilanei gulps again and attempts to translate as she says, "Despicable mortals. . . I do not. . . erm, take kindly? To. . . intrusions by. . . lowly creatures!"

"Oh yeah?" Locke asks. "Well, you tell that thing we're here to evict it!"

Before Lil can speak, the ice man continues to utter strange words; Lil immediately translates, "I. . . managed to. . . defeat my Godly master. . . so two puny mortals. . . will not stand. . . in my way! This land. . . shall be my, erm. . . kingdom?"

"Not for long!" Locke replies as he lifts his staff. "One way or another, we'll destroy it – his Kingdom and all!"

The man now roars loudly as he thrusts his ice hammer forwards and roars deeply in his strange language. Lilanei slightly steps back as she cries, "Puny mortals! I will. . . destroy thee. . . and ensure the survival. . . of my kingdom! A little female and her ugly friend. . . shall not vanquish the mighty. . . Ice Archon!"

"We'll see about that!" Locke replies. "Come on! Let's see what you've got, Frosty!"