Reviewer responses for Chapter 7:

Crazy Pigwidgeon: Hey! I'm glad you like this fic. I'm sorry it took me so long to update...been busy with work and all. But I didn't want you to hex me! looks hopefultell me I'm not too late!

DepplUVER: Ok...you're right, Elizabeth needs to be stronger. I will do better in the future...thanks for pointing it out. Thanks so much for reading and I'm glad you like the story. I was hoping I had Jack close to right...he isn't the easiest guy to write!!

InsanePirate624: Hey there...yeah, this is definitely not as good as my LotR fics...only because I neglect this one kind of. I was not going to post it when I first wrote it, but I am glad I did.

CommodoreJewlz: Sorry this took so long! I have too many stories going! Glad you like it and hope this isn't too short or stupid an update...

Brenda: Glad you like...sorry bout the wait.

Staci: OK...I will not forget about this story indefinitely! It might take me a while to update though...sorry about that. I hope you have this on author alert or something so you will get the updates when they come! Glad you like it!

Chapter Eight: Three vials

Light began to filter in through slitted eyelids. Will groaned. "Lizbeth? Are you all right?"

A small laugh rang out. "Yes, Will. Can you open your eyes all the way for me, love?" Leaning forward, the woman put a hand on Will's face. "Come on, you can do it."

And do it he did. Once he was more awake, Will looked to his side where Gwen was coming around as well. Neither one of them made a move to rise, but at least they had regained consciousness.

Jack and Nate were nearby, speaking in low tones. They looked agitated and in supreme disagreement over something. But Elizabeth had not bothered to see what it was about, she was too busy tending and worrying over Will and Gwen.

"What's going on?" Gwen muttered, pushing herself into a sitting position, waving Elizabeth aside. "I'm all right."

"No, you're not," was the slightly exasperated reply. "You two were poisoned by some 'creatures' I have never seen the likes of before. You are not fine, no matter how much you try to convince me you are."

Will and Gwen looked at Elizabeth in shock. She was sure a commanding presence when she wanted to be! "Okay, sorry. You're right," Gwen muttered again.

Now the woman smiled. "That's better. Come on, up you guys go. We can't sit here forever, those things might return and we are now short two members."

"We're still here," Will protested. "We can fight. Just not well, or fast, or strong, or...hmmm...I don't know that I could fight now that I think about it." He confirmed his words by teetering dangerously, only preventing himself from falling by latching onto the wall.

Jack and Nate came over now. "Glad to see you up and about mates. What do you make of this?" He held out a piece of dirty, torn and yellowed parchment. "Found it lying on the ground there."

Will, Gwen and Elizabeth looked at the paper all at once. It had a multitude of strange drawings on it, but the meaning seemed somewhat obvious. "Looks like a warning. Tells us if any of us are bled by their weapons, we have to drink the vial of liquid or we die," Gwen said sarcastically. "Is this for real?"

Jack nodded. "Quite. The little devils left it, skewered to the ground with a sword. Seems you two have a big problem on your hands."

"On their hands?" Elizabeth countered. "You do mean we have a big problem on our hands! We can't abandon Will and Gwen to figure this out on their own!"

Jack raised his hands in front of him. "Now hold on just a minute, mate. I didn't say any such thing! Hold your curls, Miss Turner, we aren't abandoning anyone."

Elizabeth huffed angrily, flipping her hair out of her face. "Hold my curls," she muttered darkly. "How funny."

Gwen turned to Nate. "So we look for this bloody vial, choose one and that's that?"

He nodded. "Yes, so it would seem. But I'd reckon the wrong vial would be deadly. Otherwise this wouldn't be no legitimate treasure. All of those have their lovely booby-traps and poisons."

He was being sarcastic, but his voice held an air of worry as well. He had grown quite fond of Gwen and didn't fancy the idea of losing her. Will winced lightly, his head was spinning and his wound was beginning to throb.

Seeing Will waver on his one good leg, Jack suddenly surged forward and flung the young man's arm over his shoulder, beckoning for Gwen and Nate to do likewise. "Come on then, let's be off to find that vial."

The posse quickly set off into the nearest tunnel, hoping they would find the vials and that when they did it would not be a difficult choice. Of course, there was no such luck as they were soon to find out.

Turning a bend in the tunnel, Will and Jack, who were in the lead, gasped in awe. "How in the world will we know which to choose," Will groaned.

The others quickly caught up. Peering into the chamber, their eyes were met with hundreds of vials of all different shapes and sizes. Gwen's heart leapt at the sight. "There must be hundreds of them? We'll never figure this out in time!" Her normally unemotional voice was tinged with panic.

"Well, look at this here paper again, it looks like these vials are short and fat, many of these here are long and thin...we can rule those out." Nate gestured to a nearby group of vials. "Look, these are closer to the drawing."

Hope rekindled, Will and Gwen joined the others in searching for the vial in the picture. Soon, they had it narrowed down to three. Each was identical in appearance, but contained a different color and smelling liquid.

The first was a pungent, sour odor and a colorless liquid. The second was bluish tinted and smelled sweet. And the third was red like blood, with a musty odor akin to that of red wine.

"Great, now what?" Elizabeth said, frowning as she looked at the three vials. "Which is the right one? Are there no more clues on that paper?"

Jack removed it from his breast pocket and poured over it again, twirling his hair nervously around his pointer finger. "Looks here like the liquid in the vial has a color, it's colored in with whatever they used to draw this."

Gwen and Will looked at each other with worry. This didn't sound like the best of detective work to them, who had everything to lose if they chose wrong. "Well, I guess we have no other clues...we can rule out the colorless one," Gwen said.

Jack continued. "I don't see any other clues here," he said, handing the paper to Elizabeth to assure her he wasn't just pushing them to hurry.

When no one could come up with any answer to the riddle, Will suddenly perked up. "Wait a minute!" he called out. "What if the creatures wanted us to choose wrong! What if they colored in the vial on the paper to make us think it was not that liquid!"

Everyone nodded in approval, agreeing with Will. Gwen, being the voice of reason, frowned. "Good thought, unless of course there is no cure."

That put a damper on the temporary thrill of solving the riddle. But Will took a deep breath and stared at the clear vial. "It's our only choice," he said quietly. Taking the vial, he looked at Elizabeth. "Let's hope this works."

Then, he drank. Gwen, not really happy with the idea, followed suit, finishing the liquid in the vial. It didn't take long for the liquid to begin reacting.

Gwen's eyes widened and she looked at the others. "I think I'm going to be sick," she muttered, turning and lowering herself to the ground.

"Me too," Will added, doing likewise, a little awkwardly.

In seconds, both had thrown up. But it wasn't just their lunch that came up; there was a reddish tint to it.

Blood.

"They're throwing up blood," Jack muttered as Elizabeth and Nate looked on in equal terror. "This can't be good, can it?"

Neither of his companions could find the will or strength to answer as their friends continued to shiver and spit up blood.

Was it blood? Jack stooped closer, no longer so sure.

What in the world? That looks like blood, but I just don't think it is. But if it isn't, then what in the world is the stuff?

He didn't know. But it kept coming out.

A/N: I never thought anyone would really like this story...but thank you all for reading and I hope I will be able to update more often for you! Real life is busy right now...but thanks for sticking with me and don't forget to drop me a review to remind me you are all still reading!

-Gwenneth