This time, I knew what we were running from. There was what seemed to be a golem. I knew about golems, but this was made of stone and seemed to chase ALL of us, not just one like a normal golem.

“Divide!” Devin shouted and we all stayed with our groups we had in the line, except Devin was with me and Sunny. ‘WHO DARES ENTER THE TOMB OF THE ANCIENTS?’ a voice asked, booming in my ears and I heard a ringing. I covered my ears, as did Sunny and Devin. I guessed the thing was built to be loud enough to cause ear damage to elves. And the last I saw Cove, Ashter, Birch, and Mercedes, they had disappeared into the darkness of the many rooms. And then after what seemed like an eternity, we stopped in a corridor to catch our breath.

“What was that thing!?” I asked through panting breaths.

“The tomb guardian.” Devin replied in an equally tired voice and he must’ve been able to tell I was confused, because he began to explain, “In every ancient tomb of a priest, a guardian was assigned a tomb. They’re sensitive to loud sounds, so the scraping of the door, the stomping of boots.”

“Then why was the door blasted?” I questioned, managing to catch my breath and standing up straighter.

“The war has taken a toll on everything.. and everyone…” Sunny said quietly. She had curled up against the wall, her arms wrapped around her legs and her chin resting on her knees.

“It’s ok Sunny. We survived last time.” Devin assured and sat next to Sunny on the floor, gently putting a hand on her back. I’d never seen Devin sound so calm or act so kind towards anyone. I was also about to ask what last time meant, but I didn’t say anything before the booming voice, ‘WHO DARES ENTER THE TOMB?’ I helped Sunny and Devin up and covered my ears.

“We need to run!” I exclaimed.

“Ok, but which direction?” Sunny asked and I pointed to the left.

“The voice sounds loudest that way!”

“That’s the point!” I said and then I ran that way, Sunny and Devin close behind.

“Forrest, slow down!” Sunny called out. She wasn’t running very quickly.

“Celeritas!” Devin said and immediately, Sunny was running FAST and I mean fast, she was running almost as fast as me, and I’m a fast runner.

“Volare!” Devin exclaimed, and as soon as he said that, we lifted into the sky and the tomb guardian ran past, and I realized, the voice wasn’t coming from the guardian, the guardian heard the voice and defended the tomb when it heard the voice. ‘Over there’ I signed, then I realized, they don’t understand sign language. I pointed towards the door the guardian had gone through and they nodded.

“Descende.” Devin muttered and we gently landed on the ground.

“Thanks, Devin.” I said with a smile and I could’ve sworn he blushed a bit, but he mumbled a quiet you're welcome and we ran towards the door. We were about to run in when the voice spoke, ‘STOP.’ I covered my ears and winced, the voice was louder and deeper the closer we got. Sunny and Devin also covered their ears, but it didn’t seem to affect them as much as it did me. Maybe it affected me more because I was a half-elf, or I’d lived with humans for so long.

“Come on! We have to keep going!” Devin exclaimed and started walking towards the door with me and Sunny followed close behind. Just then, a smaller voice spoke, it had a slight British accent.

“I’m terribly sorry, but the priest isn’t-” A short Cyclops walked out of the doors and stopped short when it saw us. He had one large honey brown eye and was wearing.. A tuxedo? “Elves! Why, I haven’t seen elves here in over a millenia! Since the war started, elves haven’t set foot in the temple!”

We stared at each other before the cyclops spoke again.

“Oh! I’m terribly sorry! Where are my manners? My name is Thepis! May I ask your names?”

Sunny was about to speak when Devin stopped her and spoke instead.

“We aren’t here for chit chat, today is about getting them and their friends home.” He said as he pointed towards me and I could hear the annoyance return to his voice.

“Uhm..” Thepis looked around nervously and fidgeted with his fingers. “Well, to travel to a different universe, there’s a series of three challenges.”

“What kind of challenges?” Devin questioned and I saw a competitive light in his eyes (well, eye, one of his eyes is covered by a bandage, remember?).

“It depends on the universe you want to go to..” Thepis responded quietly and looked even more nervous than before.

“Forrest, what universe are you from?” Devin asked and I shrugged. I never knew about other universes. I’d only ever lived in mine.

“You’re kidding, right?” Devin asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Nope. Never left my universe before.” I replied with another shrug.

Sunny sighed. “Ok, so we don’t know which universe.”

Devin huffed and crossed his arms over his chest in annoyance.

“Well, I could send you to a random universe?” Thepis offered.

“I’m desperate, so I’ll take it.” I agreed, nodding slightly. “But we need to get the others.” ‘BRING THEM’ I winced, the voice rang in my ears louder than ever.

“Ah, I’m sorry, the empire had it turned as loud as they could to stop elves from coming.” Thepis said quietly, an apologetic look on his face.

“I-It’s ok, just hurts a bit…” I mumbled, shaking my head to get the ringing out of my ears.

“Follow me inside, I’ll turn the volume down and help you locate your friends.” Thepis said and began walking into the room, followed by me, Sunny, and Devin.

—

My first reaction when we entered was, “THIS PLACE IS HUGE!” and I said it a bit too loud, causing it to echo. It had a gorgeous diamond chandelier, a tinted gray couch that looked like one of those therapy chairs from movies. There was a plethora of flowers and gems in and on the walls. The golem looking beast was perfectly fit into a space in the wall that was its exact outline.

“Yes, it's quite big.” Thepis said with a slight chuckle and continued walking before he stopped at a wall on the other side of the room. He placed his feet on a door mat that said, ‘Welcome!’

“Please stand on the identical mats.” Thepis instructed and pointed towards the floor as 3 extra mats appeared. We all stepped onto the mats and were left face to the wall.

“Uhm, what n-” I asked, but before I could finish my sentence, we plummeted into pitch black darkness.