The only sound ahead of them was Squish’s squishing. The wibble wobble of the cube as it hopped up and down on the ground. Turning into a ball as it went up, flattening to a pancake as it went down, the items inside sliding as if pushed by water. A happy gelatinous cube was preferrable to an angry one. Sometimes it swallowed the living. The slimy cliff had raised its spirits.

Behind the cube, Elrim walked, keeping his pace casual but brisk. Behind him, Cordarius and Valahar trudged as Nell brought up the rear. Their tumbling down the hill had been perfectly timed. Nell and Elrim had caught up with them in a mixture of limbs at the bottom as they’d taken the stairs tucked to the side, carved from adventurers far more observant than them.

When a familiar bickering started up ahead, Cordarius groaned.

“I don’t want to deal with those two again! They’ll only tell us lies.” He grumbled out a huff as he glanced at Valahar beside him. His prince was standing tall, ignoring the limb that he had betrayed earlier. Truly the most noble of courser’s he’s ever seen.

Elrim shook his head quietly as he approached the two heads, bowing his deeply as he did.

“How about the door we can’t see instead?” he asked, watching as the two faces turned to look to each other and magic raced across the floor, the wall creaking open to a passageway, dusty and old.

“A dangerous door that one is.”

“Dangerous indeed. Tread safely coursers. Disaster follows you wherever you go.”