EVARA (299 words)

     The group had merely gotten lucky while sneaking past the creature before - that much she was sure of. Evara was still silently reeling from the events, doing her best to keep her worries to herself so as not to annoy the rest of her team, but she found herself struggling.

     “Guys - seriously, what the hell was that thing?”

     Wolfrem let out a sigh, annoyed at the break in silence he was enjoying a little too much. “I’ve already told you, Evara. We really don’t know. We’ve never seen it awake and out of its corner.”

     Evara let out a snort, clearly displeased with his response.

     “So you mean to tell me no other Coursers have ever spread word about it? Have you even asked?” She retorted, slightly pinning her ears in annoyance.

     “Who do you suggest I ask?” Wolfrem muttered.

     She rolled her eyes, but bit back her response, not wanting to agitate him too much. Suddenly, with the silence resumed, a faint sound hits her ears. Water trickling, somewhere nearby.

     “Hey - do you guys hear that?” Evara questioned, her ears perked towards the sound. She scanned ahead, noticing torches begin to line the walls further down the halls. 

     “Look up ahead. There’s torches… and I swear, I hear water trickling…” She continued, picking up her pace to pass both Wolfrem and Esper.

     Wolfrem’s ears immediately perked up, and he quickly recognized what she was hearing.

     “Evara, wait, I don’t think we should-” Within mere seconds, the green puck was already at the curve in the hallway, staring down the lit chamber. Her gaze met the sarcophagus lying in the middle of the room, and then slowly trailed down to the floor, her eyes widening as she realized that what was beneath her, was not water.

ESPER (321 words)

     No… no, no, no. Not again.

     Esper had had a hell of a time getting Wolfrem to break away from the sarcophagus the last time, and the trickling sound was unmistakable - definitely whatever not-water they found last time. She felt her breath hitch as she heard the mare trotting off towards the noise, very uneager to have to potentially deal with this again.

     She felt Wolfrem pick up his pace, and a quick bump against her rear told her that Morvus was following cue. 

     “Something isn’t right about this,” Morvus said, pushing ahead to reach Wolfrem. “I can’t really tell what it is, but there’s magic at work here, something dark.”

     “That’d explain what happened last time we found this thing,” Wolfrem replied with a huff, his tone a little frustrated. “It’s a sarcophagus. We don’t know what the liquid is, but it definitely isn’t water. It’s dark, and congeals in a weird way - and looking in the sarcophagus, it seems like it wants to pull you into it.”

     Morvus let out a plain sigh, swishing his tail against Esper to keep her close by them. “Sounds right - it’s reading like death magic, but it’s a kind I can’t say I’ve ever seen before.”

     Anxiety started building up inside Esper, threatening to send her into a panic. She’d had almost no exposure to magic before - she’d heard about it from Lethia’s books, and she knew most of the Coursers who practiced had been around for a very long time, but she never thought she’d actually meet one, letalone have one dungeoneering with her.

     “So what do we do?” She chimed in, doing her best to hide the panic in her voice.

     “We can’t let Evara look into it, and if she does, we have to get her away as quickly as possible,” Morvus replied. “It sounds like she’s already inside the chamber - we need to hurry.”

WOLFREM (338 words)

     “Evara?”

     The mare was already roaming the chamber, looking at the scribblings all over the walls, and then once again looking at the floor, only to eventually lose her gaze to the sarcophagus.

     “Evara, we need to leave, come on. Leave the sarcophagus alone.” Wolfrem continued, trying to keep his voice stern. He wasn’t used to having to be demanding, but this mare was inexperienced, and he’d be damned if he let something happen to someone on his team.

     Evara’s ears barely flicked towards him before returning to the gurgling congealment inside the sarcophagus, her gaze never breaking.

     “Evara!” He snapped, and she seemed to freeze for just a moment before looking up to meet his eyes.

     “Wolfrem, there’s just something about it - I can’t explain it. I need to look closer, figure out what it is…” she said, her voice trailing off as her eyes wandered back to the form.

     “We know what it is, and it’s dangerous,” he retorted, rushing over to try to get between her and the tomb. “Please, we need to leave.” 

     Her body was heavy - heavier than he expected, despite them both being pucks. The drafty stature of the mare was playing against him, coupled with his inexperience around other pucks, he was struggling to put any real strength against her chest. 

     “Evara,” he grunted, lifting his gaze only for a second as Esper quickly joined him, doing her best to push against the green mare. “Evara, snap the hell out of it!”

     “It’s no use - she’s a lot stronger than you, especially with the curse starting to pull her in,” Morvus chimed in, stepping towards them.

     “I can put a protective shield over her, but you’ll both need to be there to push when I do it, so she doesn’t look at it again. And neither of you look at it, either.” 

     Wolfrem met his eyes, nervous at the idea of practicing magic being involved, but he was getting desperate. Finally, he gave him a nod of agreement.

MORVUS (300 words)

     Morvus took in a deep breath, focusing his attention on Evara as he began muttering to himself. He could feel the heat rising in his body, shooting through every vein until he swore he’d start sweating.

     “Push - now,” he demanded, continuing to mumble incoherently to himself. With a final heave, the two managed to shove the mare away from the sarcophagus, sending her tumbling into the wall behind her.

     Morvus let out an incredibly deep breath, lowering his head as he regained control of his breathing. After he finally lifted his head, the three were all standing, approaching him to leave.

     “I don’t know where that magic came from,” he began, nearly panting between every few words. “But that is bad magic. A simple protection ward nearly crippled me.”

     “So you’ve never seen it before - is there a lot of magic like that out there, that you don’t know about?” Wolfrem said, glancing back at a fear-stricken Evara. 

     “I suppose there could be, but I think I’m a lot older than you might be assuming, Wolfrem,” Morvus continued, leading the way out alongside the spotted puck.

     “I’ve seen a lot of magic around here, and usually nothing new comes in. It isn’t exactly a continuously-growing practice anymore. This is a lot stronger than I’d expect to just show up overnight - it feels more like someone’s been honing this for a very, very long time. I just don’t see how it got here without any other mages noticing…”

     His voice trailed off, followed by a frantic swishing of his tail. Something like this should have never slipped past him - but he couldn’t figure out how he’d never felt it anywhere before. With a sigh, he decided to shelf it for later, and continued on with his team.