Prompt: At the far end of this cavern, a huge and hairless creature is crouched in silence. It twitches occasionally, perhaps asleep, but does not seem to notice your presence. With its muscular back turned, you may be able to sneak past…

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As Paladin watched the two heads argue while the others continued to debate. The bay tobiano had honestly tuned out the debate among his colleagues as he watched the two talking stone heads, wondering how in the world their mouths were moving if they were made out of stone. As he watched them argue he noticed something odd about the leaves on the stone frames directly on either side of the heads. Looking back and forth between the two entryways he saw that the leaves everywhere else were identical except for these ones. The ones on the left door pointed away from the face. The one on the right door pointed towards it. Paladin wasn’t sure what this meant but had spent enough time with Majesty that he knew she’d give him a kick in the rear if he did not point this out to the others in the group.
“Umm…” he tried to speak up.
“I don’t think we should just trust the sad face,” Cordula said.
“That smiling face is clearly lying!” Majesty chimed.
“Okay, let’s calm down. There has to be some kind of clue,” Jin tried to reason.
“I think Jin’s right?” Paladin finally got in.
Everyone was surprised by Paladin speaking up and so they all quieted down at his statement despite the unsure and questioning tone.
“What do you mean?” Majesty asked.
“The leaves directly around the faces are different.”
The others all turned to look at the doorways and began to really analyze the leaves. The heads were still gabbering, completely oblivious to the scrutinous looks of the coursers for some time until Cordula spoke up.
“Oh!”
The two faces suddenly focused on the coursers. The left face that had been smiling was still smiling, but it felt forced or as if he was trying to frown but couldn’t. The right face still looked sad but now had a hint of confusion on its face.
“Oh? OH?! Oh what? Did you finally realize he is lying?!” the left face went off.
“He’s a noisy one, ain’t he,” Majesty chuckled.
“Noisy? You’re very rude, you know. I’m trying to help you. Save your lives!’
The right face was quiet, looking a bit defeated and no longer bothering to fight. It clearly knew the coursers had made their decisions and decided there was no longer a point to try and convince the group otherwise.
As the left face continued yammering, Jin wished he could kick it in the face.
“ENOUGH! We made our decision,” Jin yelled at the right head.
The left face finally went quiet, the forced and fake smile still plastered on its lips.
Without another word, Jin turned to the right and gave the head a little nod as if in thanks and then began to make his way down the right tunnel. Cordula followed next and then Majesty.
“NO! STOP! YOU’RE MAKING A MISTAKE!” the left face cried.
Paladin paused and wished he had not. The left face was now distorted, expression angry, the leaves of their hair and beard withering, cheeks sunken in and eyes now just empty sockets. Looking up at the right face, it was now smiling, serene and happy. It had managed to convince them and hopefully saved the teams’ lives. Paladin was only then certain his comrades had made the right decision for them.
“Thank you,” Paladin said to the right face before hurrying down the tunnel to catch up with the rest of the crew.

The tunnel spiraled and inclined downwards. The tunnel was not quite as wide as the tunnel leading up to the doorways but it was comfortable enough for them to walk through, just not side-by-side. Eventually the tunnel evened out into a long, straight tunnel. The whole system was clearly made by some intelligent creature and was too neat and even to be natural. That made them hopeful that this place was definitely created to hide some kind of treasure. At the end of the tunnel they could see the tunnel leading to some kind of chamber and then the tunnel continued just beyond. Jin slowed as they approached the end of the tunnel and stopped before entering the new chamber, peeking around the corner.
“Gosh, dang it,” he grumbled.
“Uh oh, what’s there?” Cordula asked.
“Remember the giant naked thing from the last dungeon?”
“Yes…”
“There is another one here, though significantly smaller.”
“Please tell me this is some bad joke,” Majesty grumbled from behind Cordula.
“I really wish it was,” Jin replied.
It was much smaller than the previous monster they saw of this type but had the same dark gray, hairless skin with black specks and thick wrinkles rippling across its form. Twice as long as it was tall. It was facing them at the moment showing its four stumpy legs tipped with long, sharp claws. Its face had a long muzzle that opened and closed as it breathed, revealing multiple rows of sharp, pointy teeth. A draconic nose on its rounded muzzle and a tiny set of ears on top of the head. No eyes where there typically would have been, just more skin. A long, lizard-like tail was laying loosely in front of it, tip twitching slightly as it dreamt. Suddenly it began to roll over, showing the spikes on its back that were smaller than the previous creature but still present. Clearly this creature was younger.
“It's turned its back to us, now is our best chance to get through,” Jin said.
The others nodded. They planned to use the same plan as last time. This time there were no bones or skeletons in their path so they believed they would be find this time as it worked well until Paladin accidentally kicked a rib.
“Paladin first this time,” Cordula added.
They all turned to Paladin and motioned him forward. He squeezed past the others, grumbling a bit. Looking around the corner, he relaxed. While he didn’t want to wake it, mainly to please his friends, he wasn’t quite as intimidated by this younger creature. Paladin stepped out from the tunnel and walked as slowly as possible, one hoof at a time, able to focus on controlling his weight and speed this time without worrying about any bones in the way. Soon he slipped into the far tunnel and turned around to watch the others.
“I’ll go next,” Cordula volunteered.
Jin nodded and let Cordula pass. Jin and Majesty watched with worried eyes as Cordula carefully and slowly crossed the chamber. It was painfully slow but safety and not being noticed was more important than speed. Cordula then slid into the far tunnel and the two could briefly relax.
“You next, Majesty.”
“Are you sure?”
“I am,” Jin replied.
Majesty was a little worried about Jin going last but knew he would not take no for an answer and so she went. Slowly and carefully, as the smallest of the team she had the best luck being quiet and so made it across more quickly than either Cordula or Paladin had. Then they all turned to watch Jin.
Jin took a deep breath and carefully set a hoof out of the tunnel’s safe embrace and into the openness of the chamber and at the mercy of the monster should it awaken.