Ancient Chinese Temple, Greenland - Thursday Morning
Tony
And nothing quite said fun times like nearly falling down a crevasse, right? Right!
Tony dropped down next to Gene, breath coming in visible puffs with the temperatures as they were. "That was fun," he said, peering over at the cave that, if the map was right, housed the next temple and ring. "We should go again."
Gene
Gene dusted himself off. Yes; this was the next temple. He could feel it. He winked at Tony-- it had been fun.
Then promptly nearly fell on his ass as the temple began to tremble.
Tony
Tony's grin faded quickly at that. He grabbed Gene's arm, yanking him along to make it into the temple before some giant chunk of ice fell down and crushed one of them.
Hey, once again an instance where running came in handy. No one must ever tell Mr. Rogers this helped him. Never.
Gene
Gnghghghg running would be a good thing now.
Gene rushed on along with Tony, trying to get to the temple door up ahead - and finding to his annoyance that the door was closing. He ran faster, hurling himself over the gap in the bridge, Tony matching him step for step for giant leap of faith.
They barely managed to slide under the closing door and into the dark room on the other end, but they got there, that was the thing.
Heart still racing, Gene sat up. Looked to Tony. And promptly burst out laughing.
He'd blame the adrenaline.
Tony
Adrenaline was an excellent thing to blame. Once Tony got the snickering under control, he pulled himself to his feet to look around the temple. The center of the room lacked a pedestal, but there was a character there instead.
Surrounding them lay dozens upon dozens of discarded weapons.
"If the last temple was wisdom, this must be the temple of cutting and stabbing!" Oh god, that was a terrible joke.
Gene
"You're funny," Gene deadpanned.
Tony was not.
He glanced around the room, making note of the signature character on the floor. "This character translates as courage."
He walked towards it-- and then his rings began to glow, with the by now predictable consequence of the temple giving a good shake. The panel with the character on it slid away and revealed a large statue, which began to rise up from the floor.
Tony
"Huh." Tony looked at the kneeling statue and then shrugged.
"That's not scary. If this is the test of courage, I think we're safe," he said, glancing around for the other chamber that had to be there. "It happened like last time. The door to the ring chamber opened when we came in. I wish I knew how this worked."
Gene
It worked because Gene was smuggling active rings into the temples with you, Tony.
"This statue is different from the dreadknights in the temple of wisdom," Gene said. He examined the statue. "The question is... how do we trigger it to begin the test?"
Tony
Tony stopped at that, making a face. "Oooor we could not trigger it. Thinking maybe we should go a different route this time."
Gene
"But the test must be passed--"
Tony
"--to activate the ring," Tony finished for him. "We don't even know what that means. We do know that we can take the ring out of the temple without passing the test."
He shrugged, looking at the statue again. "After all, my dad did it. That way I can have a ring to study and we won't have to worry about creepy, living statues or whatever."
Gene
Now that would be very unfortunate, Tony.
"Everything I read in the temple of wisdom said the rings are worthless without passing the test," Gene pointed out. He pulled back and crossed his arms. "And this one is right here. Don't you want to see what happens when it's activated?"
To him, the rings were useless if they weren't.
He picked up a sword... thing... lying on the floor.
"Perhaps if we use one of these weapons..."
Tony
"No," Tony said with more conviction than anger behind the word. "Weapons never solve the problem. They only create more."
Gene
Gene squinted at him. "What?"
Tony
Tony sighed again, looking away. "Just something my dad said to me," he said quietly. "The last time we started one of these tests, we barely made it out alive. This time, we look before we leap."
He nodded over toward the ring chamber. "Coming?"
[[Preplayed with endsthegame! NFB and for one!]]