The draconic-looking Tress R. Hunter grumbled as she leaned in close to the door in front of her. It was sealed shut and a few hard raps dispelled thoughts of breaking it down. It was unlucky to find something that held up to the ravages of time. And worse still, she knew exactly what she needed to do to open the door. Two panels on opposite sides of the room had conspicuously popped up from the floor. Blatantly buttons, but they only remained pressed when standing on them. Obviously, if she weighed both down the door would open right up (things usually worked out that way), but nothing in her bag, or even her bag itself, was heavy enough to weigh one panel down alone; she’d checked. The buttons seemed built for specifically the weight of a person; a frankly impressive feat of engineering given how precise yet vague of a goal that is. Tress acknowledged this only as much as it meant that whoever built this probably gave this setup a lot of thought and didn’t want her to cheat it.
So as long as I’m the only one here, I’ll be stuck. Unless I just need more weight…? Tress looked around, but the room was empty besides the buttons. There were still all of the other rooms to take stuff from, but all that’s left in them was unwieldy furniture. She begrudgingly had to have some respect for whoever designed this dungeon for punishing her pot-destroying habits, but she didn’t regret her actions. Pottery shards always made for better trinkets than regular old jars.
Does this temple really expect me to come here with someone else? It’d be weird if this was the first ruin that I couldn’t fully explore on my own…
Tress was considering this conundrum
[1]
Considerations that included trudging back and lugging over the sledgehammer she’d left earlier to see if it was heavy enough to weigh a button down. She had brought it in case she needed to open entrances, although it wasn’t the way she expected to use its weight.when the sound of someone approaching put the thought at the back of her mind. “Hey, can I ask you something?” politely asked a voice Tress felt was nearly familiar.
Tress did not turn to face the approaching man right away, not wanting to waste this perfectly good chance for drama. “Oho, competition huh? Thought you could sneak in here and make off with my treasure first? You’ll find yourself out of your league soon enough!” She closed her eyes and cackled as she quickly turned around, her scarf, bag, and tail dramatically whipping across her body in unison. “For I am the one who aims to be the greatest treasure hunter of our time!” Tress’ eyes popped open with lightning sharp intensity, glaring directly at the newly arrived Reece “All treasure I set my sights on will be mine, else my name isn’t Tress R. Hunt-err…” Tress blinked a few times, making sure she wasn’t mistaken. Once she dispelled her doubt, her body visibly loosened up, and she transitioned smoothly into a friendly wave. “Wooooah, hey it’s Reece, isn’t it? Reece Archer? It’s been years! What are you doing here?”
Reece’s mind began racing when he saw Tress’ face, keeping him silent as he sorted out his thoughts. It really had been years, and seeing her now so suddenly was… well, honestly it tracked for her. Even having only been around her for a few months before, he had the sense that the inexplicable happened around her. Just being around her had roped him into more trouble than he’d ever had in the rest of his life. So, in truth, suddenly meeting her several years later was perhaps one of the most on brand things for her.
…Still was weird though.
“Tress, what are you doing here?” he finally asked after a few seconds of delay. “I see you’re still mispronouncing my name.”
“Ah, come on! I don’t know why you insist on the less cool and less sensible pronunciation.”
“I get it’s spelled that way, but it’s a ch like chorus and – wait, did you do it on purpose?”
“Well,” Tress shrugged with a mischievous grin on her face. “Anyway, Reece Archer,” Tress segued, pronouncing his name flawlessly “for the earlier question, you heard the spiel. Treasure hunter, ancient ruins? Isn’t it obvious?”
Reece begrudgingly reconsidered his question “…Okay, fair enough, so let me rephrase that: Tress, what are you doing here?”
“Oooh, sorry. Not really any reason, I was just nearby, and I wanted to explore a ruin. Same as always, really.”
“Is that really all?” Reece supposed this was possible, but he had a hard time believing it fully. She had been so fascinated by magic items last he saw her that it put even his archeologist colleagues to shame. And now here she was, somewhere he knew for a fact had had a magic item at least at one point in time? He thought he was the only one who knew about those tablets at the moment… Was she hiding some secret knowledge, or was she honestly just here by chance?
“Hm…” A smile crept onto Tress’ face “I take it that you doubt me so much because there’s a pretty big treasure here, right? Probably a magic item?”
…huh, guess it was chance, Reece conceded. Not that there’s any distinction now. There wasn’t any real reason to hide the fact from her, but Reece deflected the accusation anyway with a simple, straight-faced “No.” It wasn’t even a lie, as there was little reason to believe the Roc’s Feather was still in this building. And yet, the fact that Tress kept smiling made it clear she wasn’t buying it.
“Ha! Knew it. That’s something to look forward to.” Tress snapped her claws, realizing something “Oh, actually, you have perfect timing! Stand here, okay?” Tress forcibly pulled Reece onto one of the raised panels, and quickly hopped onto the other one herself before Reece could move – or worse, protest. With the loud rumbling of moving stone, the pressure plates fell into place and the door leading further into the temple opened, an impressive and quite dramatic sight – which Reece did not bear witness to, as he was far too busy glaring at Tress
[2]
Even if Reece would’ve willingly helped here, he didn’t appreciate being literally pushed around on principle. This disapproving intent was not recognized by Tress, who was watching the spectacle with rapt attention. And the moment the rumbling stopped as the door finished opening, a voice echoed from within the temple.
“Wuh…? Wait, are there–” the voice yawned, barely audible, before with a sudden realization, it excitedly boomed out
“FINALLY!”
Reece and Tress winced from just how loud this was, but the voice quickly fell back to a more reasonable volume “Er, I mean, friends! Visitors! Let me welcome you to the Temple of Friendship! It’s been forever since we’ve had any visitors—er, quite literally, because I believe you’re the first!”
Reece and Tress were both at a loss for words, which was quite the rarity for Tress. As far as what either of them expected from this temple, a reception was not one of them. “Oh, no need to be so shy,” the voice continued, “you’re here to test your bonds of friendship and win a prize, right? …right? …right!” The voice had fully convinced itself from the two’s silence.
Tress eventually managed to shake off her shock, “I’m sorry, who are you?”
There was a considerate pause, and Reece wondered for a moment if the voice could even hear them, before the same cheerful voice echoed out once more “Oh golly gosh, silly old me, I would’ve thought you’d have heard of me! Did you wander in here unaware of just what this place is? A bit odd, but we can make do! My name is Roc, Mage of Friendship! And as I said before, this is the Temple of Friendship! Trust me, friends like you two will want to test yourselves here. The prize is wonderful~! Now come on, come on, let’s get these tests underway!”
Wait, Roc? And Mage of Friendship? Reece’s mind began turning upon hearing that name. Okay, let’s be reasonably, he’s not the same one, those tablets were centuries old… But maybe the title was passed down? The chance that this was a direct ancestor of the Order of Mages excited Reece. There’s so much he could ask this “Roc” and learn about his ancestors’ civilization…
While Reece was pondering everything Roc had said, Tress was shaken to full alertness from Roc’s introduction. A mage??? Here??? She put up no effort to contain herself as she called out in response “Hey, instead of these trials, could I just ask you to–”
Roc cut her question off. “Sorry, but I’m ‘on the clock’ as you might say, I’m not allowed to do anything if you don’t complete these trials.”
“Tch, typical.” Tress shook her head and turned instead to Reece. “Okay, can I ask you to help me with this then? I’ll be in your debt if you do.”
Reece uncomfortably avoided Tress’ intensely serious eyes as he thought it over. He already knew he had to do this, even just so that he could learn more about this Roc fellow, but knowing they were both up to it was a relief. Although, a small part of him felt off about the prospect, especially with how much of an unknown Roc was. Still, learning about the unknown is one of his goals as an archeologist… Reece nodded his head in affirmation.