As Yugi descend the staircase, he slowed to a walk. The edge of the stairs on either side was a sheer drop, and he wasn't to keen on going splat. Reaching the bottom, Yugi took a deep breath and entered a doorway.
"Would ya look at that?" Yugi breathed out as he looked at the golden chamber filled with treasure.
"Whoa!" Joey, in monkey form, chirped as he stared at the piles of gold and other treasures that filled the room.
"Just a handful of this stuff would make me richer than the pharaoh!" Yugi breathed out, thinking about how he could easily disguise himself as a prince with all this treasure.
"Yeah!" Joey cheered as he hopped off Yugi, changed back into a human, and bolted for all the gold and gems.
"Joey!" Yugi yelled/snapped, making his friend stop before he touched a treasure chest of jewels.
"Don't... touch... anything!" Yugi ground out. "We gotta find that lamp."
"Sorry." Joey mumbled sheepishly as they begin to make their way through the room.
A rug on the floor began to move. It had felt someone step on him. Looking around, he spotted two people, rose off the floor, and began following them. But quickly laid flat on the floor as one of them slowed to a halt.
"Huh?" Joey turned around, but didn't see anything. "I was sure we're being followed."
Continuing on, Joey didn't notice the carpet following again. Getting the same feeling, Joey turned back, noticing that the carpet that had been on the ground the last time he looked was rolled up and leaning against a pile of treasure.
"Yugi!" Joey yelped, starting to panic as the carpet moved, and bolted when it realized it had been spotted.
"What is it Joey?" Yugi asked.
"That carpet is following us!" Joey complained as he pointed to the rug, which was now peaking out from behind a pillar.
"A magic carpet!" Yugi gasped, and proceeded to coax the large rug out from behind the stone pillar like he had when he gave the two children his portion of bread two days ago. "C'mon. C'mon out. We're not gonna hurt you."
The carpet slowly came out, shyly, as it flew over to the two boys, a tassel extended.
"Yugi." Joey moaned in distress as he ducked behind his friend.
"Take it easy, Joey." Yugi giggled as he shook 'hands' with the rug. "He's not gonna bite. Nice to meet you to."
"Yeah." Joey muttered and repeated Yugi's action, and then started to grin. The carpet wasn't so bad after all. "You got a name?"
The carpet nodded and held itself up as if it was a wall decoration. The two boys were then able to see the hieroglyphs that spelled the rugs name.
"Ryou." Yugi muttered. "That's a nice name. Do you think maybe you could help us?"
Ryou looked excited and wrapped himself around the pair.
"Whoa!" Joey exclaimed and gently pushed Ryou away. "Okay. You see, we're trying to find this lamp."
Ryou grew excited. They were looking for the lamp. The cave had finally let someone in! Gesturing wildly, Ryou flew down a hallway, the two humans following as fast as they could.
"I think he knows where it is." Yugi gasped as they ran along.
"Really?" Joey asked in a teasing manner as they passed through a long cave, and emerged in a giant underground cavern.
In the center of the room was a tall pillar, surrounded by water, with a staircase going up to it. Unevenly placed stones forming a bridge across the water. At the top of the pillar was a beam of light.
"Wait here" Yugi instructed his friend, remembering the tiger head at the entrance saying that only he could touch the lamp.
"Okay." Joey nodded as his friend started to cross the bridge. "Huh?"
A shrine with a golden demon of Egypt had caught the shifters attention.
(Nithul: Think Mushu from Mulan except with wings and a human head. I used Egyptain Demons in my 'Sphinx King' story, so yes, I did my research).
One of its claws was resting on top of a giant ruby, but the gem could easily be removed. Joey's eyes widened as he was hypnotically drawn to it, thinking of how much money he could get for it. Never mind Yugi, he would never go hunger again!
Ryou glanced around, just as Yugi reached the stairs and began to climb them quickly, and panicked as he saw Joey reaching for the treasure. Grabbing Joey's tattered clothes, Ryou tried to hold him back, but it was very hard to when your hands were tassels.
Yugi, unaware of what was happening down below, had reached the beam of light. In the center of the light was a mound of rock, and on top of that was what looked like an old oil lamp.
"This is it?" Yugi asked as he picked up the metal item and turned back to his friend. "This is what we came all the way down here to-"
Yugi felt in eyes widen as Joey broke free of Ryou's hold and lunge toward the ruby.
"Joey!" Yugi yelled in horror. "NO!"
But it was too late. Joey grabbed the jewel, and the consequences were instant.
"Infidels!" the voice of the tiger head rang out.
"Uh oh!" Joey muttered as reality set in and the room begins to shake.
"You have touched the forbidden treasure." the voice growled as Joey put the jewel back in its place, then watched in horror as the ruby and the shrine melted into lava. "Now you will never again see the light of day!"
The rock that had held the lamp burst in to flames, and Yugi quickly leapt away, racing down the steps. But the cave had other ideas and flattened the stairway into a ramp, making Yugi slide down until an upward curve made him fly into the air. It was then that Yugi noticed that the water had turned into lava. And he was falling right towards it.
"Oh Ra, help!" Yugi yelled, and praised the deity when Ryou appeared and caught him just in the nick of time.
"Yugi! Here!"
Sweeping around the room, Yugi spotted Joey waving his arms, standing on one of the rocks of the bridge. Which were exploding as the lava made them to warm.
Sensing Yugi's panic, Ryou put in an extra spurt of speed, allowing Yugi to catch his friend's writs and pull him just before the last rock exploded. But the worst was yet to come. The lava made a tidal wave and raced after the three as they dodged walls and falling debris.
"Ryou, let's move!" Yugi yelled, not keen on the idea of being over cooked by the heat.
Racing back through the cave, Joey kept grabbing Yugi's head, covering his eyes.
"Joey let go and stop panicking." Yugi snapped as he pulled Joey's arms off his head just in time to see they were flying into a wall. "Start panicking."
Ryou went into a dive as the boys screamed. But the route Ryou had chosen had them emerge in the treasure room, which was destroyed as the lava flooded the area.
Outside, the disguised Dartz watched as the cave began to growl and close. Curses! He was so close to getting what he wanted.
Back inside, Ryou had done an expert job of avoiding falling rocks and burst of steam from the ground. Almost to the top, Yugi never felt happier to see the night sky, when a boulder dropped onto Ryou, pinning him to the floor. Yugi had grabbed the rock wall which was the remainder of the staircase and held on as Joey shifted to a monkey and started to climb out.
"Help me out!" Yugi shouted when he saw the old man at the top, within reach.
"Throw me the lamp!" the man replied with his hand outstretched.
"I can't hold on." Yugi called back. "Please give me your hand."
"First give me the lamp!" Dartz snapped, loosing his patience.
Yugi reached into his pocket and pulled out the lamp. Stretching, he handed it up, and the old man laughed as raised it above his head.
"Yes!" Dartz cheered as he stood straight with no hunch before putting the lamp in a pocket. "At last!"
A grunt caught Dartz's attention. He looked down to see his 'diamond in the rough' had nearly climbed out all the way with the assistance of his shifter friend. Sneering, Dartz roughly kicked Joey aside, making him moan in pain, and grabbed Yugi's wrist.
"What are you doing?" Yugi gasped, surprised at the tight grip and angry that the man had kicked his best friend.
"Giving you your reward." the old man replied in his scratchy voice, before changing it to a deeper, more sinister voice. "Your eternal reward."
Yugi's eyes widened as the man pulled out a crooked dagger. Just as the arm was about to come down, Joey leapt up, changed to his monkey form, and bit the creep on the wrist. Screaming in pain, he let go of Yugi, who fell back into the cave, and threw Joey after him.
Death seem certain as Yugi hit his head on the cliff and passed out. Thankfully, Ryou managed to get unpinned and raced up to catch Yugi and Joey before anymore damage could be done to them, lowering the two to the floor as the lava cooled, hardened, and changed back into sand.
The cave head roared one final time before permanently sinking back into the sand. Chuckling, Dartz pulled off his disguise, allowing Weevil to breathe freely after being stuck under there for hours.
"It's mine. It's all mine!" Dartz chuckled as he reached into his pocket, and found nothing. "Where is it? No. NO!"