Another chapter?! So soon?! Hell yes!

As a public service announcement you all stay clean and safe out there. Wash hands, stay in, use common sense. You all are great! Stay safe.

On with the show.

Chapter 12: Tick Tock

Anna had been pacing in their room for the better part of an hour, chewing her nails and muttering to herself. Seeing that she was wearing a hole into the ground, Kristoff gently grabbed her by her shoulders to stop her.

"Anna. I know you're worried, but I'm sure Elsa is fine."

She shook her head. "You don't know that!" She hurried to the desk and lifted a note that had been left by Elsa. "This note said she went to go see Dirgelaff, but that was hours ago. How do we know she's okay? What if he did something to her?"

"Hey, hey, hey! Elsa can handle herself." His voice was as soothing as he could make it. "She's probably just doing …. Elsa stuff."

"That didn't sound very convincing." said Olaf. They watched him oddly as he had planted himself in front of the collection of dolls and was focused on watching them.

"Olaf, what are you doing?"

He didn't look away as he answered. "These dolls move, but only when," he looked away then quickly back again, "they think I'm not looking!" Nothing. "Hm. Guess I have to keep staring at them." Sure it was bizarre, but chalking it up to just him being Olaf, they left him to it.

"Okay, I'm going to look for her." Anna grabbed her coat, ignoring Kristoff's calling after her, and rushed for the door, only to find her sister on the other side.

Startled, the sisters took a step back before Anna rushed her. "Elsa?! Where have you been?!" Anna pulled her into a tight embrace. "We didn't know where you went, or if you'd be back, or what Dirgelaff was doing to you, or anything! What happened!? Are you okay?!" She released her sister, realizing now that Elsa wasn't distressed at all. In fact she seemed happy. Unusually happy.

With a smile Elsa moved past her sister, placing her hand on her cheek. "I'm sorry Anna, but I'm doing fine." Anna followed Elsa's movements, observing that she had a kind of spring to her step, a dreamy far off look in her eyes and was humming to herself. Even Kristoff noticed her strange behavior.

"Uh, we were worried about you." He said hesitantly. "We were about to come and find you."

She laughed through her nose and softly patted his cheek. "Awe Kristoff you're so sweet." She drifted through the room, giving Olaf a large hug, but he was too busy on his "mission" to reciprocate. Continuing to hum to herself she came to a tray of food set up by her bed, a combination of meats, breads, fruits and veggies since Anna wasn't sure what Elsa would have been in the mood for.

"We didn't know when you'd be back so we got food for you." Said Anna as she continued watching her sister. Elsa almost seemed to be floating, she always had an elegant stride to her walk, but this was different. That weight that always seemed to be pressing down on her shoulders appeared to finally have lifted.

"Why thank you Anna." Elsa plopped one of the strawberries into her mouth, continuing to smile and hum to herself.

"Okay what is this?" Anna's sudden outburst wasn't enough to pull Elsa out of her entranced state. "Hello! Earth to Elsa! Are you listening?!"

Kristoff recoiled. "I think this is freaking me out more than not knowing where she was."

Anna stomped towards her, placing herself in her line of sight until they made eye contact. "Hey! Will you talk to me! What's going on with you? You're very, un—Elsa."

Elsa, another strawberry in her mouth, blinked a few times as if finally registering that she was back in her room with her family. After swallowing, she spoke in her usual "Elsa" tone. "Oh Anna, I'm sorry I didn't mean to make you worry."

Anna folded her arms like a strict parent. "Well you did. Now where were you? You left a note saying you were meeting with Dirgelaff and when you didn't come back for hours we didn't know what happened to you."

Elsa blinked rapidly. "Hours? What time is it?" She looked towards the window seeing that it was now night time.

"It's nine o'clock!" Anna sighed, rubbing her forehead. "Kristoff, do you see what I'm dealing with here?"

"Uh—"

"—exactly!" She turned back to Elsa, her hair brushing against her sister's face. "Now where were you?"

Elsa took hold of her sister's hands. "Anna! It's okay! I'm okay. Everything is fine." That far off look took over her blue eyes again. "Better then fine. They're," she let out a high pitched giggle, "great."

Now Anna was deeply concerned. She had never heard her sister giggle like THAT before. "Uh, what happened with you and Dirgelaff?" She gasped. "Are you under some kind of spell?!"

The mention of the name seemed to once again snap her out of whatever daze she was in. "What? Dir—no! No, no, no, no. He, um," she took her hands back and began fiddling with her fingers uncomfortably, "he just wanted to apologize for having me watch the execution. It only took a few minutes and I was done."

Anna narrowed her eyes suspiciously. When Elsa lied, her nose quivered, and right now, it was shaking like a salt shaker. "But you were gone for hours?" Before Elsa could speak, her eyes began to glaze over. "Oh no! Don't do that! That thousand yard stare...whatever thing you're doing and just tell me!"

"Okay, okay!" Elsa calmed herself and with an exhale, "I was with Drake."

Anna rose her brows, lowering her head. "That's it? You were just with Drake this whole time?!"

The strange behavior returned, accompanied by the unnatural giggle. "Yes. I was."

Anna shook her head, trying to wrap her mind around what was going on. She took a moment to really examine her sister, and the longer she did the more it gradually began to dawn on her. The goofy smile, the weird glow in her eyes, the pep in her step. Anna's eyes Grew to the size of dinner plates, with her mouth falling to the ground with a slam.

"Elsa...did something happen...with Drake?"

With a sheepish grin and a shrugged shoulder. "...yes."

Like a whirlwind of ginger and freckles, Anna tore off her coat, changed into pajamas and ushered Olaf and Kristoff towards the door.

"Wait! What are you doing? Where are we going?"

Anna pushed them out the door. "'We', are not going anywhere. YOU and Olaf are leaving, because this is girl time and boys need to leave."

She shut the door on his foot. "Hold on! What are we supposed to—ow!" She stomped on his foot, giving her a chance to shut the door on them.

"I don't know, but thank you for understanding. I love you, bye!" Anna ran back to her sister, threw her onto the bed before crashing beside her. "Okay. Girl talk. Tell me all about it."

Anna was elated to see that Elsa was embracing her inner immaturity as she settled beside her in a typical, "lying on her side with hand propping up her head" pose.

"Well once I got back here after seeing Dirgelaff I went to the dance room down the hall—"

"—we have a dance hall—"

"—yes and when I got there I accidentally walked in on him while he was working out."

Anna put a hand on Elsa's to stop her. "Was he like, 'shirt off, sweaty, working out'?"

Elsa frowned. "Anna that's inappropriate and you shouldn't be thinking about that." Her frown momentarily cracked, "but yes." The sisters giggled to each other and Elsa continued. "Then he taught me some self defense techniques without my powers, that's what I was doing for so long and I guess we lost track of time."

"Okay, okay, self defense and all that, go on, go on."

Elsa got a bit more bashful, evident by the red tinge in her cheeks and her chewing on her bottom lip. "Well… once we stopped training, we kinda fell to the floor, I kicked his butt by the way, and we were just laying there being dumb and then he just blurted out, 'I think you have a great laugh'. Then he talked more and I talked more and we got closer and closer and the next thing I knew, we… We kissed."

Anna squealed, a sound sharper than a knife, and held her sister by the neck. "My big sister had her first kiss! And I'm not counting Oscar the goat, on Goatapaloza, your first REAL kiss! How was it!? Wet, hot, like kissing a crocodile?"

"No, no, no." Elsa pried her off of her neck. "It was nice. Although I was smiling so much I think he kissed more of my teeth than my lips."

Anna squealed again grabbing Elsa's neck and pulling her close, still in disbelief that she was actually having "girl time" with her sister. The all too rigid and proper snow queen had finally melted, showing the real "Elsa". "I'm so happy for you!" They separated and took seats on their ankles. "So now what?"

Elsa tilted her head to the side. "Now… what?"

"Uh, yeah. Now what? Are you two together? Do you love each other?"

Her smile wavered as if she was just thinking about this for the first time. Perhaps she was. "Well… I… don't know."

"Well you care about him right? And he cares about you?"

"Of course I care about him, and I think he cares about me, but I don't know about… love. Anna you have to understand, I've never thought about love, or finding 'the one' or my 'knight in shining armor' or anything like that. This is all brand new to me."

"Oh no! I get it, I totally get it. I didn't know about love either, don't say it," Elsa pursed her lips, fighting not to remind her baby sister of her first romantic mistake, "but I learned. Olaf taught me that love was putting someone else's needs before yours and it made so much sense. I would say Drake is definitely putting your needs before his, especially after all he's done in this tournament."

Elsa nodded, not being able to deny her statement. "But what about me? Am I putting his needs before mine?" Elsa's hands came to her mouth. "I haven't done anything for him!"

"Well I don't think it's as simple as 'doing stuff' for each other. I don't know. What does he need?"

Elsa looked at the bedsheets they sat on, looking for the answer. "I have no idea. I mean what do you do for someone who is willing to die for you?" She thought for a bit. "Support? He was upset that Cynthia wasn't supporting him in this tournament."

Anna perked up. "That's good! He needs to know you support him. That you're there for him."

"But I have been supporting him. Haven't I?"

"Well yes, but now that you two, uh, like each other a bit more, then he needs to know—" Anna gasped and began speaking with more drama to her voice. She laid herself on her sister's lap with the back of her hand on her forehead. "He needs to know that the queen of Arendelle needs the help of a strong, heroic, noble knight to come and save her and her kingdom. Then you let him take you in his arms, the battle done, the day is won, and gives you a great big smooch. Muah! Muah! Muah!"

Elsa shoved her sister off of her lap. "You're such a goof."

Anna threw a pillow at Elsa. "And you love me for it."

Elsa threw the pillow back at her sister. "Always."

—:0:—

"Hair up? Braided? Down? What?" Anna pried her sisters hands away from her already braided hair and dragged her out of the bathroom.

"You look great! Doesn't she Kristoff?"

Kristoff waved from the table, without taking his attention away from his breakfast. "Oh yeah, yeah. Great."

Anna rolled her eyes. "The food here is amazing so he's always neck deep in it."

"I don't have a stomach so I can't eat!" Olaf raised his hand, but didn't take his eyes off the dolls asking them in a sing-song voice. "Come on, move for uncle Olaf."

Anna shook her head then slapped Elsa's hand when she went to try and mess with her hair. "Would you stop! You look amazing."

"Oh like you didn't do this with Kristoff. Or during the coronation."

Kristoff glanced over his shoulder at them. "She's kidding. I didn't spend hours in front of the mirror fixing myself up."

"Well you kinda had to with the way your hair was—"

Knock knock knock.

The sisters froze. Looking at the door then each other.

"He's here."

"What do we do?"

"Go get it." Anna pushed Elsa towards the door.

She scurried behind Anna. "You go get it."

"It's Drake, he'll want to see you first."

Elsa sighed. "You're right. I'll get it."

Anna grabbed her arm. "Wait. What if he wants to see you second? Like he comes through the door and sees you on the other side of the room and he stares at you longingly and it's like super cute and romantic. I'll get it."

"Okay, okay, I'll get it." Kristoff went to the door and opened it.

"Kristoff Wait! We're not ready—". To their chagrin, it wasn't Drake at the door, but Landon.

"About bloody time." He shoved passed Kristoff into the room. "You ladies planning on joining the tournament anytime soon?"

The sister exchanged glances. "What do you mean?" Anna asked. "Nobody has contacted us about the trial happening today."

Landon's head dipped, pulling out a pocket watch from his waistcoat and scrunching his face at the time. "The trial began at eight o'clock. No one came to get you?"

Now the panic began to set in especially Elsa. "You mean Drake has been in a trial for half an hour."

Landon shrugged. "Apparently. I thought you were just waiting for me. To enact our plan."

The Arendellions began scrambling to get ready. "Forget the plan, Drake needs us!"

Landon moved out of the way as they clambered around him. "Well technically he doesn't NEED you. I mean what do you plan to do just sitting on the sidelines?"

"It doesn't matter if I can't do anything. He needs to know I support him." Elsa turned around, bringing herself face to face with the Englishman, who had somehow silently sidled up beside her. .

"That 'you' support him? You mean, 'you lot' right?"

"No she means her."

Elsa glared at her sister, before turning back to Landon. "Yes. I mean me."

He smiled brightly. "Oh splendid. Well I won't be the one to say I stood in the way of love. Let's go cheer on your boyfriend."

Elsa narrowed her eyes. "He's not my boyfriend… I don't think… maybe, I don't know we were going to talk about it, but—"

"Elsa."

"Yeah. Let's go."

—:0:—

8 A.M

"Hello! Anyone there! Hey!"

The pounding in Drake's head wasn't helped by someone's incessant shouting echoing in a large space. Growling through the pain he attempted to get to his hands and knees, until he felt tugging on his neck. His eyes snapped open finding a collar around his neck tethered to a wire attached to the ceiling. Below him, connected to the collar, was a wire connected to a box on the floor which then attached to a nearby timer on the wall.

He groaned. "I need a better lock on my door." Looking at himself further he was barefoot, only in his nightshirt and trousers along with iron shackles and his wrists. "And no powers. Perfect." He flinched when he felt a sharp stabbing in his side. "And whatever that is."

"Hey! Can anyone hear me?!" The irritating voice was coming from the other side of a spacious room with the floor between them completely gone except for a few wooden boards lying over horizontal beams leading to the other side. Once the fog had finally cleared from his vision, Drake could finally see the other with him was Dusan. He was hooked up to the ceiling in the same fashion as himself, the difference was Dusan was wearing a helmet that obstructed his vision.

"Dusan!"

He stopped flailing his limbs. "Wha—who's there?" Dusan started walking towards the giant hole in the floor.

"STOP!" Dusan wobbled a bit, but stopped an inch from the edge. Drake could tell the collars around their necks acted like a noose and if they fell through the hole then that was it. "There's a giant hole in the floor, so don't go anywhere."

"Wha—what's going—what's on my neck—who are you?!"

"It's Drake, now calm down."

"Drake? Is this the next trail? How come I can't see anything? Can you see?"

"Yeah." he examined the area around him until he found two envelopes beside him. "Hold on I found something."

"What is it?!"

Drake didn't respond. Being careful not to pull the pin, he first tried to grab them with his hand, but they were out of his reach. He then tried to angle himself to grab them with his foot, but they were still too far away.

"Damn it!"

"What's going on!"

Realizing that he would have to pull the pin to reach the envelopes, he called to his fellow prisoner. "Dusan, you can't see, but I can. I need you to calm down and listen to me to the letter, got it?" Dusan was still shaking, but was at least trying to steady his breathing. "I need you to trust me okay?"

Dusan chuckled. "Trust you?"

"Do you have any other choice?"

Dusan continued breathing, shrugging a shoulder. "Good point."

"Okay good. Ready?"

Dusan nodded. "As I'll ever be."

"Alright." Stealing his nerves Drake pulled the pin, starting a two minute timer, and allowing him to scramble to the envelopes. One was labeled "Before", the other "After". He tore open the "Before" one and started reading as fast as he could.

"Mister Daniels. Welcome to the hanging room.

You and Mister Williams have been tethered together in a noose contraption that will tighten, breaking your necks, as soon as the timer runs out. You will have to get a key to Mister Williams and his device and thus set you free of yours. The key is hanging on your right hand wall." Looking at the wall, he saw a small brass key dangling on a string. "Good luck."

Quickly examining the room around them, on his side were a series of narrow boards, about a foot wide, that he would have to navigate to get to Dusan. His side was identical, only his boards were about two feet wider. Looking at the timer he wouldn't have enough time to get the key and then get to him. He would have to guide Dusan to meet in the middle.

"Dusan! I need you to listen. You need to meet me so I can get that thing off of you!"

"But I thought you said there was a huge hole in the floor?!"

Drake had already started navigating the boards towards the key. "There's a bunch of wooden planks you'll have to walk across."

Dusan scoffed. "How do I know you won't let me fall to my death?"

"You die, I die! Now shut up and get moving. There's a board by your right foot. Take it and walk about three feet forward." Reluctantly, Dusan did as he was told, tapping his foot along the ground to find them. Once found he began moving three feet on the board until he could touch another with his foot. "Good! Now take that one four feet." Meanwhile, Drake was balancing on the thin planks beneath his feet, inch by inch to get to the key.

"Okay now what!?"

"Take one more board about three more feet." Dusan did as instructed, shuffling onto the board.

Drake, not wanting to, glanced at the timer seeing that he now only had thirty seconds left, and still had to clear two more boards before getting the key. He swallowed now feeling the beads of sweat dripping sticking to the metal of his collar.

"Okay! Now what?"

Drake shuffled as quickly as he could to the key, but it still wasn't as fast as he needed to be, so he had to get creative. "Feel around your collar, is there a keyhole?"

Dusan ran his hands over the metal. "Yeah. In the back."

Twenty seconds.

"Okay, I need you to spin around. A complete one eighty degrees so your back is to me."

"What? Are you crazy?"

Fifteen seconds.

"Just do it! Trust me!" Dusan grunted in frustration, but turned himself around.

Ten seconds.

Drake, even though his heart was pounding, relied on his training in meditation to steady his body and his nerves. One foot in front of the other. Keep your mind and body calm.

Five seconds.

His training paid off, once he felt the cold metal of the key in the palm of his hand.

Three seconds.

I hope this works. "Dusan I need you to hold on!"

"To what?!"

Two

Drake pushed himself off the boards, leaping through the air and closing the gap between himself and Dusan.

One… zero

The mechanism sprung to life, tightening around their necks and lifting them into the air. A second later and both of them would have been dead, if Drake hadn't slid the key into the keyhole of Dusan's collar as they were lifted up. With a turn of the key, both collars came off, dropping them through the hole and onto the ground below.

—:0:—

It took the pair a moment to get the air back into their lungs after the fall. Both were hurt and uncomfortable, but alive. Dusan threw off the helmet that blinded him.

"That was your big plan? Wait till the last second?"

Drake rolled into a seated position. "Well it worked didn't it. And I didn't wait till the last second on purpose, for your information." He flinched, remembering the stabbing pain in his side. Lifting his shirt revealed a long red cut that had been crudely sewn back together.

Dusan ran a hand through dirty and matted blonde hair. "So what now?"

Drake reached into his pants pocket and removed the other envelope marked "After". "Maybe this will tell us." He ripped it open and began to read the contents.

"If you are reading this then congratulations, you have passed the first test of four. The remaining tests must be completed as a pair, but it is not required to exit. You will have one hour to navigate the rooms. Good luck."

"What does that mean?" Dusan asked. "They need both of us to get out, but only one of us survives?"

"It says its not required, meaning we can both get out of here alive, and that's what's going to happen." He crumbled the note and tossed it aside. "How much time do we have to get out? Do you know?" One of the glowing balls that monitored their progress floated towards them, showing a clock counting down.

"Looks like we have fifty minutes."

—:0:—

Leaving the hanging room the two broke into a sprint towards the next. "Why are we running? Shouldn't we take our time, rest up?"

Drake shook his head. "No time. We have less than an hour to complete this and every second counts." The hall narrowed, showing a door they were fast approaching. Whatever was on the other side was giving off an eerie red glow.

Stepping through the archway they found themselves in a stifling hot boiler room designed with steam emitting from rusted pipes that weaved above and below them. Every so often, oppressive hot steam shot from the pipes, drenching them in its moist blaze.

Dusan ducked to avoid being burnt. "Let me guess, we have to travail this?"

"At least I can see a door from here." Once some of the steam had faded, they could see, on the other side of the boiler room a door they likely had to get too.

"Well," Dusan readied himself, "tally ho." The two began to sprint along the catwalk, avoiding the sudden burst of steam from the pipes, but they weren't able to avoid all of them. Tripping, staggering, and being burned along the metal catwalk eventually paid off once they had come to the door. The locked door.

Drake rolled his eyes. "Of course. See if you can find a key or something." They looked around, but found nothing, until Dusan took a closer look at the door.

"What's this?" On the door was a diagram showing a crude drawing of a man with an arrow pointed at the side. Dangling from the drawing was a small knife.

"It's pointing to a guy?" Drake wondered. "The side of a guy?"

"But what's with the knife?"

Drake shook his head, instead focusing on the diagram. He lifted his own hands to his body and patted himself. "Something about someone's—ow." His hand grazed the bloody cut on his side.

Then it dawned on him. The diagram, the knife, the long cut with the bad stitching.

"Oh shit. It's in me."

Dusan looked at the diagram, then Drake. "I'm sorry. I-IN you?"

Drake grabbed the knife and handed it to him. "You need to cut it out." Amongst his protests and whining Drake began to remove his shirt and roll it up into a thick tube. "You wanna get outta here or not?!"

"Of course, but—"

"Then You need to cut the damn thing out now!" He took his rolled up shirt and placed it between his teeth.

Dusan, still hesitating, but not seeing any other option, put the sharp end against the cut on his abdomen. "Are you ready?"

Drake grabbed the ends of his shirt, his teeth clenching on the fabric as hard as he was able, and muffled, "No. Do it." As gently, but as swiftly as he was able, Dusan dragged the knife against his flesh.

Of course Dragon Knights felt pain, it was more tolerable at full power, but still. Without them, was torment Drake had only felt a handful of times. He screamed into his makeshift gag as flesh began to rip and tear. The only source of comfort were his thoughts, thoughts that were now consumed with Elsa.

He took himself back to the dance room last night, remembering as much detail as he could. Her scent. Her cold touch. The sound of her laughter like bells from the heavens. Her taste, after she had stopped smiling long enough for him to find her lips instead of teeth.

"Okay it's opened."

The pain grew in intensity when Dusan's hand began digging inside of him for the key, but he kept a laser focus on Elsa. The touch of her skin, the freckles dotting her cheeks and nose, her eyes one could lose themselves in, and her hair that he could run his fingers through for hours.

Slowly the pain subsided and he heard a triumphant. "I got it! Let's go!"

Unfortunately Drake wasn't done yet. His shirt still in his teeth he went to one of the molten hot pipes and placed his open wound against the searing metal.

—:0:—

Dusan winced, looked at the freshly cauterized wound on Drake's abdomen. "Your quick thinking seemed to do the trick, even if it does look like roasted elk meat." Looking over the roadmap of wounds and scars on his body, his eyes landed on the necklace. The small one made of ice and snow. "The token from the snow queen."

Drained from the ordeal he had just put himself through, Drake lifted his hand to the snowflake necklace, breathing an exhausted, "Yup."

Dusan chuckled and removed his pocket watch. "This was mine, from my friend Count Jeremiah. We only have thirty five minutes by the way."

Drake pulled down his shirt and hoisted himself to his feet with Dusan's help. "Then we need to get moving."

"Hold on, you've just been through hell back there, you can take a minute."

Drake shook his head. "We don't have time. We have to move."

"Well, here." Dusan grabbed Drake's arm and threw it over his shoulders. "How did you learn all of this? How to be so daring and brave and—"

"—stupid?"

"Well you said it not me."

Drake gargled on his laughter. "My father taught me preparedness. Which was why I was able to kick your asses in the first trial. He made me train without my powers for hours, even days at a time."

"And he taught you to be stupid?"

"Actually that was my sister." More laughter. "But my father trained me for every possible situation. How to survive, how to lead, how to follow, and how to help others. Sometimes it requires a little stupid."

They grew quiet for a moment. "I'm an Only child. Given all the best teachers, trainers, schoolers, anything I could ever hope for."

"Then why the hell are you in this godforsaken tournament?"

He shrugged. "I may have been handed everything, but there was one thing I wasn't. My parent's respect. When a family friend of ours, Jerimiah, was given a chance for this tournament he asked me if I wanted to be his champion."

"And you thought you'd use your expensive education to good use."

"Something like that." They came to a stop. "Crap." Up ahead the hallway closed off into a solid wall. No lock, key, door handle, or tunnel, just a complete dead end. The only thing out of the ordinary were, in red, the words, "Hah, Bad, Bad deviants", with the Hebrew Star below it.

"This must be the wrong way," Said Dusan, "there's no way out." They turned around, but was faced with another solid wall behind them. "What the devil—"

While Dusan began to run his hands over the wall, a loud hissing erupted from the ground followed by water slowly filling the enclosed space.

"Water?" Drake thought back to the other tests. "We started hanging in the air, then had to go through a boiler room, now this room is filling with water. The elements."

"That's impressive, but how does that help us?"

Drake looked around the four cornered room. "I don't know."

Dusan shoved passed him to the words on the opposite wall. "Well help me figure this out then." He put his on one of the letters and discovered he could move it to another location on the wall. "What the?" He tried the other letters, seeing that he was able to make different words. If the combination of words was wrong, they went back to their original position. "I think this is an anagram?"

"A word hidden in a word? Makes the most sense right now." The water had filled up to knee level, reminding both of them that they needed to make haste, trying different words and combinations. The water had gotten to their waists when they both decided their current strategy wasn't working.

"Okay we need a hint of some kind. Uh… hint!" Trying to recreate the method of getting a hint from the second trial yielded no results.

"Maybe this is a hint." Drake pointed to the star underneath the words.

"How is a star a hint?"

"Well it's not just any star," Drake clarified, "it's the Star of David, or the shield of David as the Hebrews call it."

The water was now up to their abdomens.

Dusan scoffed. "Well I knew that obviously." Drake wasn't listening, instead his mind was racing to put the clues together. Star of David. Star of David. David? He moved the appropriate letters until he spelled out the name "David". Letters once red, now turned a forest green.

"One down, but what about—". Drake was already moving the rest of the letters until it came out, "'Bathsheba and David'?" Now all the letters were green, opening the wall and spilling the water into the next room. "Bloody hell, how did you know?"

Drake shrugged. "I remember things well, my father says it's dragon intelligence so I just go along with that." That was the theory he was sharing with Dusan, but in the back of his mind something told him it was more than that. That last room was much easier than the others, even the trials before this. Something wasn't right.

Wet, but alive, the two started down the hallway with a little over twenty minutes to spare.

"So we're done right? These rooms are done?" Drake was too deep in thought to respond, thankfully Dusan was a talker. "Oh wait. You said these were like the elements," the hallway opened up to another large, dome shaped room, "we did air, fire and water, that just leaves—"

Four walls shot down from the ceiling, separating the two and trapping Drake inside.

Spinning three hundred and sixty degrees, Drake couldn't find any way out, and nothing to help him. He heard pounding on the other side of the wall. "Drake are you okay? What's going on?"

"I don't know!" He responded. "It's just an empty room!" No sooner had he spoken, words in red began to take shape on the walls around him. Slowly the letters maneuvered themselves to spell out a name. "Uriah". "'Uriah'? Oh no." Realization came too late when dirt from the ceiling above came crashing down on top of him.

—:0:—

Dusan slammed his fists against the wall. "Drake! What's going on in there?!"

His voice was muffled, but he was still able to make out what Drake was saying. "This room is filling up with sand! I can't get out!"

Panicking Dusan began searching the room. "Hold on! Maybe I can find something to get you out." He went around to the walls, running his hands along the rock to try and find anything to save him. A click and a creaking drew his attention, attention that was now on an open door on the other side of the room. He ran towards it, examining it as closely as he could, finding nothing wrong with it. No traps, wires, locks, spikes, nothing. By all accounts it was just a normal door.

A normal exit.

He thought back to the instructions. Both of them didn't have to leave the tunnel alive. One or both. It didn't matter. He cast a glance over his shoulder, hearing the sand falling, and Drake wondering where any salvation was coming from. He looked above him, not seeing any of the orbs that had been watching them, he could easily leave and lie saying he did his best to save him. He'd always lie to get his way, but he never lied about life and death. He would still be a hero, who tried his best to save him, Unlike Drake, who had actually saved his life.

He looked at his watch. Fifteen minutes.

"I can make it."

He ran for the walls, continuing to graze his fingers against them looking for something, anything. Suddenly, he felt slight movement from one of the stones. Using a bit more force, he pressed, unlocking a small chamber with a lever that read, "freedom".

He couldn't believe it, was his luck actually changing. He reached for the lever only to find that his arm was suddenly wrapped In wires. He screamed as the wires tightened around his arm enough to draw blood. Now the lever reading "freedom" took on a whole new meaning.

—:0:—

So this is it huh? The dirt had built up to chest level that was slowly starting to drag him under. This is how it ends? Drowning in dirt? The only thing he could think to do, was grab the token Elsa has given him.

At least I was able to kiss her. One fantasy fulfilled. Crap. I never made a bad ice pun. He closed his eyes, ready to accept his fate. Elsa. I am so sorry—.

There was a sudden jerk along with the sound of a door opening. Slowly the dirt began spilling out into the room, until dumping him onto solid ground. Coughing, and rubbing the dirt from his eyes he identified Dusan, supine on the ground and covered in blood.

Drake ran to his aid, his fear worsening when he saw Dusan's arm, below the bicep, was gone.

"You idiot what did you do?!" Drake removed his shirt and began wrapping it around Dusan's now stump.

Ashen, Dusan spat out blood as he chuckled. "Took a page from your book, and did something stupid."

"No shit." Drake tightened the wrapping eliciting a shriek from Dusan. "Sorry." The ground beneath began to crackle and shake. "Guess the earth isn't finished yet." Drake lifted Dusan to his feet, an agonizing chore since he had lost so much blood and was now dead weight. He lifted him onto his back and began to carry him similar to a piggy back ride. "Keep your arm above your heart!"

Dusan coughed blood onto Drake's shoulder. "You...can't carry me… it's too…"

"Don't pass out on my now. Stay awake. Can't believe I'm saying this, but keep talking."

With his remaining hand, Dusan checked his watch. "Less than five minutes."

"That's not helping." With the silo of dirt filled, the weight pulled it through the ground beneath them, opening a precipice leading into darkness. He hurried as quickly as he could, but exhaustion and Dusan slowed him down, so much that as the ground gave way, he only had a minimal amount of time to jump and catch the edge before falling to his death. Dusan on the other hand, slipped from his back and began hurtling towards the darkness. Using whatever strength he had left he quickly grabbed Dusan's hand before he fell too far.

Pain ripped through his body as the wound on his side reopened, spurting blood in every direction, including the hand holding on to Dusan. "Shit." He tried, with all of his might, to pull Dusan up to the ledge, but he was too exhausted, too weak and in too much pain. "SHIT!"

"Hey! Dragon boy." Dusan called. "It's okay."

Drake felt his grip weaken as the blood made it slick. "Don't. Don't do that. We can still get out of this."

"There's no time." He coughed. His eyes, void of color and life met Drake'a, a drained and weak smile on his face. "Thank you Drake. For everything."

Drake shook his head. "No, Dusan, no!" Unable to hold on any longer, Dusan slipped from his grasp.

Drake let out an anguished howl of rage, his other hand coming up to the edge to keep himself from suffering the same fate. He pulled himself up and onto solid ground beside the open door, his energy completely spent. He roared again, covered in blood, dirt and tears he rolled to his side, his hand connected with soft metal instead of stone. Dusan's pocket watch. Taking it in his hand he read two minutes on the face, and as much as wished to crumble into a hopeless ball, he couldn't afford it now.

Luckily for him as soon as he passed the open door, there was an open archway only feet in front of him, bathing in sunlight. Using the walls to steady himself, he used the remainder of his energy to push himself out of the tunnel and into the open air.

For those that just HAVE to know what is going to happen next, worry not, the chapter is already halfway written. Hehehehe.