Filename:        TRESRPT3.TXT
Codes:           nosex
Author's name:   Kizul Emeraldfire
Author's e-mail: KizulEmeraldfire@gmail.com
Story title:     Treasure Seekers, chapter 3

Story codes taken from
http://www.asstr.org/~Uther_Pendragon/code/scfr.htm



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Thank you for your consideration.
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    When they awoke the next morning, they set out down
the road once again. Aside from a few squirrels, rabbits
and birds, a few of which they caught and ate for dinner
("It may not taste the best, but it makes the food we've
already got last longer," Jen said), but other than
that, they didn't encounter any other wildlife. No deer,
no bears -- they didn't even run into any people. It was
almost eery that they were the only people on the road.
    After a week and a half of travelling, they finally
emerged from the trees, the forest's almost tunnel-like
appearance suddenly opening out upon a gigantic
clearing. Near the center of the clearing, a footpath of
large, flat stones led towards a large stone building a
couple hundred yards away. To the east of where they'd
come out of the trees was a large, swampy-looking area.
Ten huge statues of what looked like different angels
stood on giant pedestals, five statues to each side of
the footpath, everything made of same gray stone.
    The footpath gave way to large stone steps that led
up to heavy wood doors with rusted iron knockers.
    Vines hung off of and wrapped around everything. The
statues were chipped, cracked, missing limbs, and covered
in vines, moss and lichen. It seemed as though no one
had been even near the temple for hundreds of years.
    The sisters looked around in awe. They'd went
hunting for treasure, but they'd never found anything
quite like the temple that stood before them.
    "Amazing... who could've built this place?" Tanya
brushed some of the dirt, moss and vines away from a
heavily-tarnished nameplate on one of the pedestals, but
couldn't make out enough of the text to read it.
    "Who knows? At least the map wasn't leading us
astray -- I mean, look at this place! There's no way
this could be a hoax!" Jen spun around a couple of
times, laughing, arms outstretched, peering up at the
worn faces of the angel statues. "I just hope that no
one's looted it before WE could."
    "Wanna see if there's anything left?" Tanya grinned,
knowing that her sister couldn't wait to go inside.
    "Definitely! I'll race you inside!" The older
sibling began running towards the stairs at top speed.
    "Hey! Jen! That's not fair, I'm carrying more than
you!" Tanya yelled at her sister as she tried to catch
up, laughing as she ran.
    "I'm carrying all the heavy stuff, sis! Besides,
think of it as excercize -- you'll be able to get back
to town easier, too!"
    Tanya won the race, Jen close behind but very out of
breath. "Congrats, Tanya," the winded older sibling
panted, "You won." Jen held out her hand, and the two
shook, congratulating the other on the good race.
    "Now let's see what lies beyond these doors." The
two stood before the enormous doors, each one ten feet
tall and six feet wide.
    "I can't help but wonder if we should knock," Tanya
giggled.
    Jen laughed. "Get real, sis -- nobody's been here in
at least a couple hundred years! Come on, help me open
this door." She stood by the left one, holding the
large, rusted iron ring in both hands. Tanya hesitated,
but grabbed onto the knocker as well.
    "On three. One -- two -- THREE!" Both sisters pulled
on the ring with all their might, but couldn't budge the
door.
    "Well, that was a bust. The door must be rusted shut
on the inside or something." Jen and Tanya were a little
exhausted from pulling on the door.
    "Well, we could always try PUSHING, sis," suggested
Tanya, leaning against the doors to catch her breath.
"It might be that we're just not trying to open it
right."
    "Alright then, on three -- again." Jen stood from
the stone floor on which she sat, grabbing the knocker
again. "One -- two -- THREE!"
    Try as they might, neither pushing nor pulling
worked -- the doors still stood closed, stubborn as
mules. The sun was beginning to set.
    "Well," said Jen, "if there's been anyone here
BEFORE us, at least they probably weren't able to loot
this place, either. Come on, Tanya -- let's go set up
shelter before it gets dark."
    "There's something we haven't tried yet, though,"
protested Tanya. "We've not tried knocking."
    "I told you, sis -- there's nobody HERE. Hasn't been
for hundreds of years by the looks of things."
    "Still, it took us weeks to get here, we can't just
give up now! I'm gonna try."
    Stubborn as ever, thought Jen. "Alright, I suppose
we could try it. You take that door, I'll take this
one."
    Together, they used the rusted iron knockers to
knock on the doors in unison. Jen wasn't surprised when
again, nothing happened, but the sisters both were
disappointed at the thought of having to turn around
empty-handed.

    They set up camp at the edge of the clearing near to
the entrance to the `tunnel' that they'd emerged from
earlier that day. It was nighttime as they ate at their
campfire.
    "All this way, only to be stopped by a rusty door.
Hmph!" Jen took a frustrated bite out of a large piece
of roasted potato on her stick.
    "At least there haven't been any monsters, and we
haven't run out of food yet," Tanya said as she cooked
some rabbit meat on another stick.
    "It's still frustrating, though -- we should be able
to get inside the temple. Heck, maybe there's a secret
entrance, just like we'd said when we were making up
stories about this place back at the inn." Jen gave a
small smile.
    "We can look for one tomorrow if you want," Tanya
offered with a grin, handing the meat-on-a-stick to her
sister.
    "Oh we'll be looking for one tomorrow, you can count
on THAT," Jen grinned back. "For now, though, let's eat,
then we can get some sleep and look for it tomorrow."
    Suddenly, a toe-curling, tooth-grinding,
flinchingly-horrible groaning noise cut across the
clearing.
    "Agh! What WAS that?" Tanya uncovered her ears.
    "I don't know, sis -- I couldn't tell where it was
coming from; it was echoing all over this clearing." Jen
rubbed hers.
    "It sounded awful!"
    "Amen to THAT!"
    "Do you think it could've been a monster or
something?" Tanya shot a worried look at her sister.
    "I dunno, but I sure wish we'd brought some extra
weapons -- all we have are our hunting knives, and if
that was a monster... it'd probably be way bigger than
we could handle." She returned her sister's look, but
tried to look confident. "Just keep quiet, stay as still
as possible, and don't make any sudden movements -- if
there IS anything out there, we don't want to attract
its attention."
    Minutes passed. Aside from the sound of a gentle
breeze rustling the leaves in the trees overhead, all
was quiet.
    A large bird flew over the clearing, cooing eerily
in the black night, startling the sisters.
    After several minutes of waiting for something to
leap out from the darkness and eat them, the already-low
fire was on the verge of going out, and nothing had
appeared other than the bird.
    "...I don't think there's anything out there." Jen
looked at Tanya as she put some more wood on the fire,
building it up again.
    "..." The younger sibling still looked rather
worried.
    "You okay, sis?"
    "I'm still scared."
    Jen got up and hugged Tanya from behind. "Don't
worry, sis -- it was probably just swamp gas or
something."
    Tanya hugged back. "Thanks, Jen -- I don't feel
quite as worried now."
    Jen giggled. "No problem, Tanya. Hey, what say you
and I go take a look around?"
    "...for what, secret passages?"
    The older sibling grinned. "Who knows? Something
might've opened up."
    "Okay -- come on, let's grab a torch!" Tanya slipped
from her sister's embrace, and they walked over to the
fire.
    The sisters each took a branch from the fire for a
torch, and walked off to investigate the source of the
noise.


               
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This story was written as an adult fantasy. The author
does not condone the described behavior in real life.

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