AberrantKapro | Strohmeier / Senbonzakura

While Röl was now thankfully convinced to not pursue the screaming any further, the risk of staying here and the creature making its way over still stood, and waiting around for danger was not a very smart call. 

Senbonzakura hence urged the group to keep going despite the cries echoing still. They made their way forward through the dungeon, and now mostly the sound of their hooves clopping against the cobble bouncing between the walls could be heard, with the occasional yawn or bark from their beloved pets. While it wasn't too dark or cramped, there were very few things to absorb sound in their vicinity, so they could hear almost any little pebble roll on the floor as they accidentally got kicked around. It felt both peaceful and unsettling at the same time. 

After walking for a little while they found two big doorways next to each other, leading in different directions. Senbonzakura feared that they might choose the wrong one and end up encountering that very mimic they had just avoided, or maybe something even worse. Just as the soft pink coloured courser was about to speak, the two ornaments over the doors did so instead. He hadn't noticed it until now, but they had faces in their ornate arches, one looked friendly and welcoming while the other raised more caution with its frown. 

“Ah, lost adventurers. What a pleasure to make your acquaintance!” the frowning door uttered, ironically enough. 

“Welcome all! What brings you here today?” the smiling door then asked. 

Senbonzakura looked back at the rest of the group with a disgusted grimace on his face, utterly unamused by this dungeon trick. His shiba inu companion, Kinka, pinned back her ears and growled at the doors as the coursers began to gather up for a discussion. 

Strohmeier made his way to the front with his fox Micke skipping along next to him. He looked down to his red furred friend and nodded to him that he should go over to Kinka and help her relax so the little fox happily ran over to invite the tense shiba for some tag. 

Strohmeier smiled briefly as he watched them start chasing each other around, before then looking up at Senbonzakura and the suspicious doorways. 

“What are you all waiting for? We pose no harm! Why would we ever do anything to innocent adventurers such as you?” the smiling door said menacingly, and Strohmeier was almost convinced its grin grew more and more ominous and wide as it spoke. He could also almost swear the eyes emitted an unsettling glow or aura. He didn't like it one bit. 

“I really don't like this, Sen.” Strohmeier muttered, hoping the doors wouldn't be able to hear him. “What should we do?”

The madder champagne sighed heavily. He was born and raised for war, for glory and honor, not silly little mind games. He stood way above unnecessary things like that, in his own proud opinion. 

“Seeing as the.. Questionably friendly door.. Is trying the hardest to convince us I would assume that one is the least trustworthy of the two.” he quietly replied and looked over to the other two coursers and the green pygmy drake, nodding for them to come over and join the discussion. 

“I suggest we just take the frowning door and move on, unless any of you have any better ideas. I do not trust the way the smiling one is trying to tell us it means no harm.. It feels extremely suspicious.”

586 words

Dillyweed | Röl / Söl

Röl was processing what had happened in the previous part of the cave. The scream sounded so real. And he knew that the other coursers had more experiences than he had. But it was hard to shake the feeling that they had done something wrong. That they were supposed to do some good. Help whoever screamed. He looked behind him. It was already too late. The scream had stopped. If it was someone alive and not just mimicking it, it would have long since died. He sighed quietly to himself before shaking it off. The only way forward was ahead of them. The small, green pygmy drake that had followed Röl for a while now bounced on his neck. It held its bigger forearms in his mane and let the fluid motions of the Courser carry it forward so that it only had to flap its wings to keep afloat in the air rather than flap its wing to keep heading forward.  Röl didn’t mind. The Drake that he had first had named Charlie the Inconvenience was at the end of a day a good companion. It didn’t scream. It didn’t cause problems. It was happy as long as it was fed and got to hang around him.

Söl kept his place at the back of the lead. It has been a calm journey so far. But compared to Solas and his previous adventure there wasn’t much that qualified as wild anymore in his eyes. Not this early at least.

Ah, lost adventurers. What a pleasure to make your acquaintance!
Söl heard the voice before he saw the massive faces. He had been preoccupied by the insects moving in the opposite direction. He had seen similar ones in a different cave and wondered if the caves were somehow connected. He and Röl made their way towards the doors. There were two doors, with each a smiling and frowning face above them. Söl kept his eyes on the faces as they spoke. He did understand what Senbonzakura meant. There was something eager about the two faces. But as Senbonzakura, Röl and Strohimer looked away from the faces the faces glanced at each other and despite the fact that one of the faces were frowning they both seemed to get a glint in their eyes. They quickly turned back towards the group again. He wondered if they knew that he saw them. Söl pinned his ears back as he flicked his eyes to the ground. The ground was covered in insects. He followed them with his gaze.
They all came from the smiling face door. There were no insects at all coming from the frown face. He picked up a big insect and walked up to the doors. He walked up to the frowning door.  It sighed at him.
“Enter me. I have treasure and all you can want.” It’s voice was trying to be convincing but it’s face lacked the enthusiasm it’s voice was putting forth. Söl didn’t answer but instead put the insect as close to the door as he dared. It barely landed before it started to scurry away towards the smiling door. It headed underneath together with a couple of other small insects. Söl didn’t say anything to the doors but instead walked back towards the other Coursers and in his lowest voice he said.
“I think it’s the smiling door. The insects won't even walk close to the frowning door and there must be a reason for it. Insects are perhaps not the smartest creatures, but they know what to avoid.” Söl said. In the end he wasn’t sure if it was just the insect argument that had convinced him. The doors were suspicious, both of them. Were they really trying to convince them to go through their own doors, or where they rather try to convince the coursers to walk through a specific door. He could feel the smiling faces glare into his back. He tried to give the group his most confident look as he gave his argument. This was something he was almost good at. Insects.
Röl seemed to be less convinced by the insect theory but he looked to the other two Coursers to see what they were thinking. It was clear that he would follow the other two over the smaller Söl who was more interested in insects and moss than loot and glory.

732 words