Having left behind the encampment and its strange GALATEA ghost, the two newfound dungeoneers kept walking along the paths with old, carved stone walls. Something about these were more appealing than the organic passages, and Astera refused to admit that it was simply more familiar. Despite wanting to be a traditional Dungeon Courser, the idea of jumping headfirst into the oftentimes dangerous tunnels didn't sit easily. Of course, she was here, she did it, she had convinced herself to go inside, but she had brought someone else to buffer the fear. It was easier to mask it, to keep it at bay when the chestnut tobiano did such a good job of filling the role of a frightened greenhorn. She knew that she still felt apprehension, but when there was a void for bravery and courage, what better thing to fill it than the glowing light of an Amethyst Star?

        Finally, their long, straight path with its moss and vine-laden ceilings and walls opened into a new room. It was circular, with four paths including there own leading away from it in perfect equidistance. In the center, the black hole. There were no fanciful decorations around its perfect edge, but what did surround it were scribblings. Spuds immediately halted before even entering the room. "Wait... I don't like this."

        Astera contained a sigh, letting it drift from her nostrils slowly to hide it. "You said that last time and nothing happened."

        "This time I really don't like this." Spuds was firm and rooted in place. When she glanced over her shoulder at him, white crescents danced along his chocolate eyes. She followed his thousand-yard stare towards the hole in the upcoming room.

        "It's a hole." She commented, trying to get his attention with a brush of her royal purple tail. He still only stared ahead, his body weight leaning back on his haunches. Whatever, if he didn't want to investigate she would. This was becoming routine, she going in first while he dawdled behind - not that she was complaining, it was probably smart not for both of them to run head first into whatever dangers lurked in unknown dungeons. Raising her head high Astera walked into the room with a carriage that betrayed her self-importance, one she couldn't shake no matter how much she had despised the etiquette lessons. The moment her hinds crossed the threshold something seemed to slither into her brain and sing its hooks in. She immediately stopped, but the pause was interrupted by the desire, no, need to approach the hole. Astera could feel she was no longer in charge. She wasn't the one making her legs move. Fear gripped at her chest as her lavender eyes flicked about the room frantically. No matter how hard she tried to find some mage or magician compelling her, her gaze fell back to the gaping hole in the center of the room.

        "Astera?" Spuds called behind her.

She tried to say something and no words came out, her throat and mouth felt dry and sewn shut. Panic swelled in place of the fear. Each second she came a stride closer to the hole.

        "Astera!" Spuds called louder.

        She couldn't say anything, there was no fighting whatever force was compelling her body to act. Was she going to die this soon as a courser? She didn't want her fathers to be right, that it wasn't a place for a lady like her. She wanted so desperately to prove them wrong, to return with riches to refill their dwindling coffers, but here she was - a pawn to some unseen magic.

        "Astera!" Spuds yelled this time, and she could hear that he had finally entered the room. She wanted to yell to warn him not to come closer in case he also got caught in whatever trap she'd tripped. It was the end of both of them, oh gods, so soon, they'd barely managed to explore. Just as her hoof started to hang over the pit - the eternal pit, so black and bottomless that she knew it wasn't right, something was inherently wrong with wherever they had wandered - she was pushed. Thrown from her hooves she fell to the left. The impact shook some of the hooks in her brain lose and she was able to look away from the hole to her companion. Fearful eyes looked down at her but Spuds said nothing as he kept snaking his head and pushing her away to the left. 

        "Thank you," she croaked through the remaining phantom hands that controlled her.

        Spuds didn't say anything but continued to push her towards the left passage as best he could until they both stumbled into it. Panting breaths filled the eerie silence they hadn't previously noted, or at least she hadn't, as they found reprieve outside the chamber. "Didn't you see what the writing said?" Spuds finally managed. Astera shook her head. "They were warnings."

        Astera gulped. "I couldn't move. It had full control."

        "Can we please get away from here?" Spuds groaned, and she was reminded of young colts who'd not yet found their courage. She nodded with affirmation and left the cursed room behind without another word.