They were soon back to finding the treasure. Soon they came to an area where the path disappeared but a few little towering pillars.
"Let me guess," said Eberk, "we have to jump on these things to get over there?"
"Ok, how about we jump one by one onto the pillars 'till we get to the other side," said Tordek. They all jumped one by one onto each pillar and almost succeeded when,
"Whoa!" yelled Lidda
"Hey Lidda!" yelled Eberk, "Be careful!"
"Whoa, I'm trying, ahhhhhh!!!!"
Lidda lost balance and fell off the pillar bringing the rest of the group with her. They were free falling down into what looked like red hot lava when, all of the sudden, they stopped and suddenly ended up at the beginning of the pillar area.
"Whoa!" exclaimed Kerwyn, "what just happened?"
Tordek wasn't paying attention and was already starting to cross again. It took them about five more tries before they finally made it across. When they reached the other side they took a break and had a small snack. When they finished they headed on down the temple path. Soon they reached a small, slimy room with many doors.
"Which one do we choose?" asked Naull.
"Let's try the middle one first," said Lidda.
They opened the middle door, which let out a burst of fire. The next door they opened was the one to the right, which contained a snapdragon flower.
"Yeow!" yelled Redgar. The snapdragon had gotten his arm and was tearing it apart. The group pulled Redgar out of the plant's grip. Naull dabbed the wound with cure potion to rid his blood of poison. Then they opened the first door to the left of the middle and let loose a wild hoard of dire rats.
"What are those things?" asked Lidda, "they look like over sized rats!"
"They look like that 'cause they are," said Kerwyn.
They hurried to the next door to see if they could escape from the awful dire rats. That door didn't only not grant their wish, but did exactly the opposite. Behind the door was a cage full of wild tarantulas. The cage door opened and the tarantulas scurried out of their confined space. The next door they opened was what they were looking for, an exit from the small room. The dire rats and tarantulas tried to follow them but the door snapped shut before any of the ugly, lethal creatures could get through. As they were descending down a long downhill slope, the floor started to give.
"Traps!" yelled Kerwyn.
They all started to run to avoid being a victim of the cleverly set traps. At the end of the hill, was a large, well-lit room with a highly decorated tomb resting in the middle of it, not to mention highly protected, for there were thousands of sleeping hellhounds covering the floor that surrounded the tomb.
"This is it!" yelled Eberk not noticing this.
"Be quiet," whispered Redgar as he pointed towards the blanket of hellhounds.
"Naull, is there anything you can do?" asked Mire.
"I don't know," answered Naull, "I could use my call of the lightning spell."
"Well what are you waiting for?" yelled Kerwyn. This awoke the hellhounds, their glaring red eyes staring at them, and the group prepared for battle. Mire morphed this time into a rather large hellhound herself. Naull used her call of the lightning spell and her quarterstaff became charged with electricity. A hellhound lunged at Naull but she was too quick. She fried the beast with a blast of electricity. Redgar used his rapier to slash one of the hellhounds across the leg. The hellhound let out a loud yowl and backed off. The hellhounds growled. Mire barked loudly at them and they suddenly became quiet. Mire seemed to be controlling them, as though she had become the hellhound goddess. Mire started howling and the hellhounds cleared a path to the tomb. Eberk walked up to the tomb and opened it carefully. He removed the large diamond that was lodged in the velvet interior of the tomb. As they started to walk up toward the entrance of the tomb a hellhound blocked the way. It seemed to know what they up to. It knew that they were taking advantage of Mire's morphing powers. The hellhound yowled back at the others and summoned them up to him.
All of the sudden, the hellhound started to transform. Suddenly, Zuru was standing where the hellhound once stood.
"Told you he'd be back," whispered Naull.
"Looks like you're trying to fool me," said Zuru in an unkind voice.
"Look Zuru," said Tordek, "we don't want any trouble."
"You don't want any trouble eh," said Zuru his voice getting colder by the second, "I wont give you any trouble, as long as you give back that diamond."
"Yeah right!" said Redgar.
"Well, ok then," said Zuru. He raised his arms and fired another purple blast, but this time, the group was ready. They withstood the heavily dark magic and wearily began to engage in battle. Mire rammed Zuru in the stomach. He began to pour blood. Apparently, he hadn't been able to repair his life factor. Noticing this Redgar dismantled his leg with a swift swing of his great sword, causing him to kneel down and howl with pain. Kerwyn took advantage of this opportunity and dislocated his shoulder with a whack of his war hammer. Naull thwacked Zuru over the head with her quarterstaff, which knocked him to the ground, and caused his head to bounce off the ground several times before it came off. Suddenly, the glowing red ball, which was looking pretty dim, started to levitate from its original position between his shoulders.
"Yes! We killed him!" Yelled Naull. Every one started to stare at her. It was rather unusual for her to yell something like that.
What Zuru had also managed to do before he was killed, was knock out all of the hellhounds.
"Let's get out of this place," said Eberk. As they left the Temple, they heard a yelp of pain. A small black creature crawled out from a shadowy hall.
"Hello," it said in an old cranky voice.
"Who are you?" asked Kerwyn.
"I'm magic," said the creature, "I can take you out of this place if you want, I haven't got anything better to do."
"That's all right with us," said Eberk.
"Speak for yourself Eberk," said Naull, "How do we know you're a trust worthy creature?" she asked as she turned toward the black creature.
"Oh come on," said magic, "I'm not gonna hurt you, I'm just a shadow nymph, haven't you ever heard of a shadow nymph?"
"I think I've read a bit about you and your kind," said Lidda, "there supposed to be nice creatures."
"Well, if you really think so Lidda," said Tordek, "but don't blame me if we get into trouble again."
Soon they were out of the gloomy temple and out into the bright desert. They came out to find that their wagon had been stolen.
"Hey!" said Mire, "what are you looking at me for?" The rest of the group was staring at her; "Oh fine." said Mire as she morphed into a giant bald eagle.
Soon they were back home in Wallabog. When they returned, Merlo was so delighted to see them, he didn't hurry them into giving him the diamond like any other artifact collector would, for he wasn't greedy and was a very kind man.
They all celebrated with a picnic along the riverside, and when the fun was all over, they all received their pay of fifty gold each and each left for their own homes.
Lidda decided to buy herself a home, some new clothes, and food for the month with her new wealth. She opened a bank account with Wallabog city bank. She settled everything with the city in court. She couldn't wait for the next adventure.
