Tales of Arcadia-- Space_Thief AU!!

Teamwork - 10

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Chapter 10:

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We come down to the caves halls where I see Douxie squinting to the front of the lot, before he suddenly shouts at everyone to not move another step.

"Don't move!!" He hollers, which scares the shit outta me.

We all stop in our tracks immediately as Douxie carefully bends down to pick up a pebble. I watch him as he very gently tosses the pebble over Aja, Krel and Archie and it lands on the floor inches away from their feet. A big-ass (bear) trap the size of a space door snaps up in front of us. They scream and jump back into us.

"Arrien!! Why didn't you tell us that we were entering the trap zone?!" Aja scolds me.

I scratch the back of my neck, embarrassed.

"Because, I uh, kind of forgot to mention that the halls before the heart ... move?"

"They move?!"

"Well, yeah, that's kind of the defenses this place has to keep intruders out of the heart."

"Oh great."

Aja looks back behind us and gulps.

"Uhm. you guys?"

"Huh?"

"Where did the staircase go?"

We all turn around to see a dead end behind us, no longer the way we came in.

"Oh, hahaha, that's fantastic!" Krel laughs, before grabbing Douxie's shoulders and shaking him, "We're all going to die!!!"

"Ok, first of all, take a damn breath for a second. Ok?"

He does so, breathing in.

"And secondly, we are NOT going to die."

"How can you be sure?"

"Because. I have a map." I smirk, reaching into my satchel.

Pulling out a scroll, I unroll it and reveal a paper pretty size-y in my hands. It's filled with corridor paths in many different arranges.

"How'd you make all this? It would've taken years-- or many many months at best-- to map all this out...!" Douxie notes.

I laugh nervously.

"It... Doesn't matter. All that matters is that we have a guide, and a look out." I turn to Douxie.

"It'll be your job to keep an eye out for more traps."

"What? Why me?"

"Yeah! Why him?"

We all look to Krel unhappy with his little peanut gallery comment. He steps back, almost into the bear trap, before Aja pulls him back over. She rolls her eyes as Krel rubs the nape of his neck. I sigh, going to answer their question.

"Because, Douxie was the ONLY one to notice the trap a moment ago! If not for him, I'm pretty sure we'd mostly be shredded up by now."

Douxie nods, "I guess I can live with that."

"Cool."

"Cool."

"Lively!"

We look at Aja and laugh.

"OK! Douxie, check out the path!"

He walks up to the front, peering out into the dark. We reach into our satchels and bring out the flashlights. Now with the rest of the hall light up, Douxie can properly determine if another trap is set ahead.