Tempting Fate

The roof, floor, walls, doors, and now two glass windows were all in place. Perfectly straight, and flowing with the energy of the world, like one happy stream, just burbling on it's merry little way. It had only taken all of yesterday and the day before it to get done, too. Simon stood, tired, but pleased, as he looked the new home over.

Lewis was appreciating the whole sight from bed. With his face down, buried in the make shift grass bed.

"It's not dark yet." Simon walked over and dug into the human's side with the toe of his boot. "You can't sleep now."

Lewis turned and looked up at him with a scowl that rivaled the dead glare of a creeper. "Leave me you slave driver!"

Simon grinned at that. For the most part Lewis had been a willing aid in getting things the way they ought to be, but the whole project was keeping him from 'Figuring out how to get home', and he'd finally gone on a little tirade about everything from ugly rocks, to the merits of crooked architecture, to his views on false gods in all known and unknown universes discovered and undiscovered by Kirk and Spock.

Whoever they were.

Simon didn't know, and didn't care, so long as three things were met for the dwelling place. First it had to be safe. That they had finally achieved late into yesterday. Second it had to be functional. Doors and windows gave it that, while two stoves and the crafting bench completed things.

"You could have gone back to waving that little scrap of tech at the dirt all you wanted. I said so yesterday, but you didn't, did you?" Simon asked as he dug his toe in again.

Third it had to line up properly. The whole world had a flow and rhythm to it, and you didn't just go messing with that. Clearly Lewis couldn't hear the soft sing-song hum of the world in his chest, so he had no idea. What a pity. He'd have loved it, probably.

Lewis turned away with a snort, and curled up tighter on the bed. Straw was sticking out of his hair again. "I'm not the one who wouldn't stop whining into the communicator every time we so much as stopped to..."

What ever he was going to say was interrupted by a low mooing from the kitchen area.

Simon turned to look and saw the cow, who they had accidentally let back in that morning, nosing her way into the chest where they were storing their meager food supplies. She snuffled around before finding an apple and swallowing it whole.

"Get out of that!" Simon snapped. All of that work and little food was trying, and his stomach had not stopped grumbling through out all of it.

Lewis sat up and stared, a little disbelieving. "Ilatchedthat. How did she get it open?"

Simon started to walk over to her, already knowing that what little they had gathered was possibly gone. "She probably just tore the latch off. Cows are pretty strong."

"Maybe, but they can be clever too." Lewis got up to follow him, as much straw stuck to his body as was still on the ground. "We'll need to resupply now."

Simon shoved the bovine away, nodding. "Yeah, I know." The cow stood solid against him. "Out, girl, before you leave us another gift on our new floor."

She turned away, looking indignant, and started to walk towards the glass.

"No, no, not that way!" Lewis reached for her, but she walked face first in to the glass and bumped her nose rather hard. Then, despite being a cow, she turned and looked very sheepish.

Simon couldn't help but laugh. "Oh, stupid beast, you don't understand glass do you?" He reached out and scratched her nose. She mooed and pulled away, then lifted her nose high out of his reach.

"I think you offended her." Lewis grabbed a hold of one of her horns and gave her a small tug. "Come on girl. Simon get something for me to lure her out side with. An apple? Did she eat the last one?"

Simon peered into the chest and found one last apple. It was the last of the food. "No, still have one." He scooped it up and held it in front of the cow's nose. "Want it girl? Come on."

She reached for it, and Simon pulled away. "Get the door."

Lewis hurried around and opened the door, dead grass falling like oddly yellow, straight snow behind him. "Maybe I should be the one to lure her out, she is quite big."

"No." Simon darted under her, and waited for her to turn around. "I can handle a cow."

She looked down at him, eyed the apple, eyed the open door, then with as much grace as her heavy pregnant body would allow, she laid down and started to chew her cud.

Simon worked his mustache for a moment. "Well."

Lewis snickered. "Are you sure you don't want any help?"

He swore an oath to whatever Aesir was responsible for the lives of cows, then shook his head 'no'. "Up, stupid beast!"

She leaned in close to his face and billowed. He breath stung with the acrid smell of half digested grass.

Lewis coughed to cover up his amused laughter.

Frustrated Simon tossed the apple at Lewis. "What we need is wheat."

Lewis caught the red fruit with ease and gave him a dubious look. "And just where are you going to find that?"

Simon rolled his eyes. "I still have a bone, don't I?"

Lewis started at him blankly.

"For bone meal?" Simon prompted.

The cow turned to look at Lewis with him, as if expecting the human to just understand.

The human did not understand.

"Oh for crying out loud." Simon pulled at his beard and stalked out of the open door. "Never mind, I'll be back in an hour."

"Be careful." Lewis called after him.

As if he needed to be reminded.

He couldn't hail Simon. something must be wrong, but it could just be a communicator malfunction.

Lewis was not pacing with worry. He was inspecting the walls.

There were a lot of reasons a communicator might not work. Maybe Simon had somehow turned it off.

The cow was watching him with glassy brown eyes, her head swaying back and forth as he walked from one end of the cave to the other.

Simon had been gone for much longer than an hour.

"I think this wall needs to be reinforced here, don't you?" He asked.

The cow gazed at him from where she was still lying.

"Maybe with some of that stone Simon dug up, it would be more sturdy than the wood, right?" Worry knotted, but he was sure it was all for the structural integrity of the walls.

And not for the structural integrity of the dwarf.

The cow shook her head and shifted, turning away.

Lewis slumped against the wood and toyed with the apple in his hands. Once more it was the only food between him, Simon, and now their new pet.

The cow turned back to him and eyed the little red treat.

"I'm not going to eat this one." He said out loud, looking at her from the corner of his eye. "And neither are you. If you are hungry you can go out there." He jerked his thumb towards the still open door. "This one is for Simon."

She stuck her tongue clear up her nose and tilted her head a little.

"You are such a delicate lady." He slid down the wall, and let his hands drape over his knees. He disliked inactivity, but he couldn't think of anything to do at the moment. He had no idea what was and wasn't possible to create with the crafting bench, and was afraid that if he did the wrong thing it might just turn out a little tragic. He considered reinforcing the walls with stone, but after the fit Simon had pitched about the flow of the world's energy and what have you he decided against that.

He was tempted to try and do that whole feel-see magic thing again, but did not want to loose him self to whatever echoes came with his new set of bones.

Just the thought sent shivers down his spine.

Which made them start to...

No.No don't go there.

He stood, stepped past the cow, and opened one of the other chests. Inside of it there was stone, wood, some sand, and a bit of dirt.

Lewis raised an eyebrow at the dirt. Who would save dirt? And what for? As far as he could see things the dirt belonged outside. But then again so did cows.

He turned to look at her. She looked back at him. They gazed passively at each other for a long moment.

At length he closed the chest, leaving the dirt in place.

At a loss for anything constructive to do he once more slid down, this time against the black and white beast lounging in the center of the floor. He glanced up at the celling and wondered idly what his shipmates were doing.

He ought to be building up, high, and straight. Something they could scan, something that didn't look natural. Something only human, or humanoid, hands could make. Something huge.

Simon had said there were other people, other humans, and all but admitted he was half human, so Lewis found himself wondering where they were. Humans, even very primitive ones, were prone to building huge structures. It was a power symbol to the rich, a sign to the gods, or a supposed physical manifestation of ones libido. Humans couldn't help but build them.

So where were these massive structures?

Belatedly Lewis found himself wondering how in the hell humans even ended up here. There were reports of one of the Fleets captains being stranded on a planet called Amerind where pre-European native Americans had been deposited by a race unknown and even more advanced than what Earth had going for itself at the time.

The details of that report were foggy, as Lewis had only half read them during one of the captain's very long, and rather rant-prone meetings regarding another planet and primitive race, and there had been one more round of 'all hail the prime directive' before they had gone off and left the planet to rot from whatever calamity had befallen it.

Lewis felt a wave of unease at that memory. His ship could have abandoned this planet in the same way if they had found traces of civilization. The prime directive held evolution in its natural course to be of the highest importance. Even over the survival of a whole planet's worth of life.

Then again the only other humanoids here appeared to be dead. Whatever calamity had happened, may well have been over long ago.

Still, if he knew himself as a commander, then he knew his still-ship-dwelling doppelgänger would be pressing hard to come back and understand what had happened during the beam down. Alive or dead this planet was a mystery. His ship was a science vessel as much as anything else. They would come.

He just had to show them where to start looking.

Alive with a plan he started to stand up, only to have his living furniture chose at that very moment to do the same thing. She rose with speed she shouldn't have been capable of, and thrust him forward. He tried to catch his balance, but couldn't, and had to toss himself forward or be trampled by her hooves. He landed hard against the wood floor and came to a stiff halt, slivers digging painfully into his chin.

He turned to the cow, who was carelessly walking outside, her big tail swaying gently. In a moment's time she vanished from sight.

"Of all the. . ."

The door at the other end of the cave slammed open, and Simon came bounding in. "Lewis, I'm home!" He called sing-song. "I have wheat! Now where is the cow?"

Lewis glared. "You just missed her."

Simon cursed. Lewis heartily agreed.

Simon had not taken more than two steps into the cave before Lewis had started to lecture him. On what he had no idea. He wasn't listing in the least.

"...and I wasn't sure if you did or didn't but I know those creepers are out there..."

Simon opened the chest, set the meager amount of wheat on the bottom, and closed it.

"... because that's what the communicators are for and you had to have somehow turned yours off..."

It wasn't a lot of wheat, not even enough to feed themselves with, but just out back where there was a little waterfall Simon had plowed a small bit of farm land and planted some seeds. It would be awhile before the wheat grew, but it was something, anyway, and they could hunt in the mean time.

"... no idea what direction to even start looking in! And the cow still wasn't going any where so I..."

It had taken a little while to get the seeds, to be honest. Simon had never gone looking for seeds before. He'd never needed to. Back home there were seeds in the store houses, and only the very old women still went out to look some times. They liked to bring in new seeds to rotate out the old ones, so there was never a point when all you had were old, and possibly dead, seeds. But the women hardly shared their knowledge of where to find them.

"... towers here. I'll start mine today but I need to know what not to use. It's more important than..."

There were seeds for hops and seeds for flowers and seeds for cocoa and all sorts of seeds. He more or less had an idea of what wheat looked like, but had gotten a wild flower seed mixed in and though he had enough bone meal for three stalks of wheat the mistake in identification meant that there would be no bread tonight.

"...need to check it. It might be damaged because I tried hailing you and I just didn't..."

He went on to look for more seeds, and that had taken him down past the hut they had stayed in the first night, and along the beach quite a ways. The snowy biome wasn't the best place to look, he knew, but he also had his eyes out for pigs.

"... together or not at all, because I have no idea what any of this even does! You have to..."

Because he loved bacon and pork and sausage and whatever else you could eat off of a pig. No self-respecting dwarf could say they didn't.

"... look for you on my own but there was still the cow in here and I don't know if..."

He'd gone down to the shoreline and walked along the beach. Out in all of the watery blue something yellow glinted in the light. Almost like gold. Very much like sand. Simon had almost walked on, ignoring it, but it had been shiny.

"... Leaving me alone again just isn't what I've ever been able to think of in the way that..."

Pointed and tall, the thing out in the water was most certainly a crafted structure, not just a pile of sand. He'd thought about going and investigating, but it was just ruins to him. Lewis was the one looking for buildings on the surface.

"... tall enough to get a signal out to them, so I have to start as soon as possible..."

A human looking for humans. "Lewis?"

"... because you just don't know what is out there! I've been in a lot of odd places but this planet..."

"Lewis!"

"... What?!" He took a couple of deep breaths and leaned back against the wall. He ran a hand through his hair. "Where in the hell were you?" His odd, foreign accent was heavy in the last two words.

Simon grinned. He couldn't help it. Lewis was all wild looking, hair everywhere, straw tucked in here and there, and his uniform was starting to look more brown the red. A swim to the strange building would do him some definite good. "Oh, looking for loot." He waved his hand, blasé.

"Looking for..." Lewis worked his jaw for a moment like he wanted to finish that sentence, but didn't know how. Finally, exasperated, he tossed his hands up. "What loot?"

"Treasure, gold, that one odd pyramid in the ocean, food..." He let the sentence hang, and watched satisfied as Lewis processed all of it, one bit at a time.

Predictably he asked "What pyramid?"

"Help! Murder! Animal attack!"

Lewis ignored Simon's less than helpful squeal, as he all but pinned him down and yanked the communicator from his scant outfit. "Why didn't you answer my hails?"

"I never heard them!" He replied, grinning a toothy, orange fluff grin. "Isn't it always supposed to work?"

"Yes!" Lewis turned the communicator over in his palm and found that, yes, some how Simon had deactivated it. "You turned it off."

"I didn't do it on purpose!" He protested.

Lewis pried the back cover off and fiddled with the internal switches. They were small, hard to see, and unless you knew what you were doing, impossible to mess up. You had to know the activation codes for flipping them before they would take a new command, so unless Simon could read his mind he'd have no way to alter its operation again.

"What are you doing?" Simon leaned close. "Don't you want to know about that thing I saw?"

Pyramid. Man-made. Yes, he wanted to go there immediately. But, as small as it was, he had to make sure his team was on a communicative level.

Since when is this my team?

He shook his head to clear it from that line of thought.

"You don't?" Simon asked, watching him intensely.

"I do, but not until I make sure this doesn't happen again." He set the communicator to be on at all times, replaced the cover, then grabbed Simon by the armored shoulder. "Hold still."

Simon waited, still as a statue, while Lewis put the communicator back in place. Once released however he hopped back and bounced on his toes. "It's in the water. We'll have to swim to it."

"We need to find food along the way." Lewis stood straight and tapped his own communicator. Simon's clicked, signaling it was indeed on and ready.

He nodded at that. "Yeah, we don't have much of anything, do we?" And at that his stomach made its own set of sounds.

Lewis reached into his pocket and pulled out the apple. He held it out to Simon. The dwarf gave it a cool look.

"Um..." He glanced down, and then back up at the offered food. "And where were you keeping that?"

"Oh come on, it's not like I... I mean... this isclean."

"Thanks, but I don't know you well enough yet to eat food you've keep in your pants."

Lewis rolled his eyes. "Oh for the love of..."

"Never mind the apple, Lewis." Simon turned and headed towards the door. "If we go now we may be able to go looking for food afterwards."

"Right." Lewis set the apple on the chest, and followed.

"Besides we have the cow, we can get milk." He opened the door and glanced at the fruit. "It's not like we are really that desperate."

"Right, yeah, I hadn't though of that." He followed Simon out into the light and winced back at just how bright the sun was. He lifted his hand and squinted at the bright orb through his fingers. It felt so incredibly peaceful right here. The sound of the waterfall filled the air, and the smell of damp earth and clean, fresh vegetation was lulling.

"I started a farm." Simon was bouncing on, pointing to a patch of dirt where he'd plowed incredibly neat little rows.

"Oh, a renewable food supply?" Lewis lowered his hand and stepped over to the tilled earth. "It's not much yet, is it?"

"Not yet, but we can get more bones tonight, and then I can grow it faster." Simon smiled brightly.

"I'm still not sure how that works." Lewis knelt and pulled his scanner out. All it told him was what he already knew. This was dirt before him, and it had plants in it. He sighed and shoved the device back in to his pocket.

"Bones are the foundation of life, Lewis." Simon said flatly, as if reciting something he'd learned. "From bones comes the blood. From the blood the flesh. From the flesh the heart, and from the heart the mind."

Lewis frowned and stood. "You do make blood in the marrow of your bones, but they don't create everything."

"There's magic in your bones, Lewis."

"Magic." Lewis scowled down at the dirt. "I'm kind of getting sick of that word to be honest." And the talk of bones, he added to himself.

"All I know is that when you put bone meal on the plants they grow really, really fast. How do you think I got the wheat I did?"

Lewis shrugged. "OK, fine, magic. But I want to know how it works, and why." He looked back up at the sun. "Energy has to come from somewhere, and this magic, it can't be more than just some sort of advanced energy application I don't understand yet."

Simon chuckled.

"What?"

"You looked so serious for a moment there!" He slapped Lewis on the side. "Come on, figure the whole world out later. Right now we have one building to go snoop in. It might have gold in it."

Lewis relaxed a little, and forced his own smile. "All right. OK. Lets go then."

Simon nodded and bounded off, up and around the hill.

Lewis lingered for just a moment where he was, enjoying the fresh scents and warm noon sunlight.

Simon stood at the line between the light of the noon sun, and the dark of the building. This dark was hot. It smelled familiar some how, like charred stone and baked dirt.

Lewis stood a little behind him, his scanner out again, a frown of his face. "It's old, friend. This building is at least five hundred years old, if not older."

Simon touched the wall, closed his eyes, and tried to pick up the soft rumbles of the rock under his feet. Here the world was silent, as if muffled by something soft and not quite solid. There was also a liquid gurgle here. "Lava." He glanced back at the human. "There is surface lava in here."

"Lava inside a building?" Lewis stepped up next to him. "Maybe they used it as a power source at one time?"

"Or a deterrent to keep people away from treasure." Simon added, remembering a few old dwarfs who had done just that. "I hope it's gold." Or bacon. No scratch that, bacon that old would be awful.

"Well, shall we?" Lewis asked, squinting into the dark.

"OK." Simon braced himself. The elders had horrible stories about these sort of places. "Lets do this." Even his own mother had horrible stories about these sort of places.

Lewis strode in first, solid looking, determined. His scanner was out, flashing lights, and squeaking.

Simon followed, every step heavy with whispers of dread. Humans were supposed to be animals. Creatures that tossed materials up with out rhyme or reason, and squatted in their fake burrows. He shook off those stories, but couldn't quite forget that Lewis had done a horrible job of putting up the wood. "This wasn't a house was it?"

"With lava in it?" Lewis asked.

"Well..." Lots of Dwarf dwellings had lava in them, but no one that he knew of ever spoke of human's having lava in their homes.

"You said it might be to detour thieving," Lewis added. They came to a split in the hall way. "I'll go left if you go right?"

Simon nodded and wished he had a sword. "Right. And if I find the gold first, I get to keep it."

"Sure," Lewis agreed, already stalking off down his side.

Simon watch him vanish into the dark like he was at home here. Like it was natural for him. Simon turned and took a few of his own steps, realizing that he'd never been inside of a fully human structure before. It was exciting, and strange, and twisted the energy in odd pointy ways. It was like claws, almost, and teeth, but dull teeth, flat and without bite. Just like a little human jaw with it's little plant chewing purls.

Not that a dwarf's teeth were more impressive, mind you, but dwarfs had sharper teeth and, though small, they had sharper more pointed teeth in the back. Carnivores they were, with short guts and sharp teeth. And rightfully so, plants didn't just grow underground like they did above the surface.

The heat was growing more intense the farther into the structure he went. It wasn't intolerable, not yet, not here. He glanced around and noted the walls were clean flat things, with no interesting pictures or runes of any sort. He was still gazing at the walls when he rounded the corner. Right then the full fury of the lava hit him, and he felt the hair on his arms curl. It burned and stung his eyes. Quickly he lifted his arm and turned away.

After a moment his acclimatized and lowered his arm. Before him, like a vehemently angry pond, lava bubbled and bucked. Reds and yellows pulsed from just under it's dark crust, and embers shot up, small sparks like the glaring eyes of spiders. The lava spread out almost the whole floor of the old building in one big square. Jutting out of the lava were a number of stones, worn down on the tops, like many many feet had stepped on them over the supposed five hundred years they had been here. The walls, all tilted in towards each other rose up in true pyramid fashion. At the very top a glitter of pale yellow light glowed, neither flickering, nor pulsing.

It wasn't a torch, that much was clear, and it certainly wasn't lava. He'd heard of technology that glowed steadily – seen it in Lewis' things – but this was unlike anything he knew of. Even as far away from it as he was he could feel its energy. Not just light, but weight too.

Weight that pressed down on you, and crushed you and...

He heard a cough from the other side and looked. Lewis was leaning against the far wall, his arm up over his mouth. "Simon, how can you breath in all of this heat?" He rasped.

"Dwarf, friend." Simon replied.

Lewis closed his eyes for a moment, nodded, then slowly lowered his arm. "I don't know how long I can stay in here. Do you see anything?"

"Other than lava and that funny light above us?"

Lewis looked up, held his scanner towards it, made a face, and lowered the device back down. "Still not enough range." He coughed again and this time it sounded like gravel had somehow found its way into his lungs.

"I can look around, if you'd like. Just stay where you are."

"Don't," he said with worry.

"I'm used to this." He waved the worry off. "I just need to be very careful." Slowly he eased himself closer and let the heat soak into him. It didn't take long before he felt his body relax into it, like a really intense hug. "See these stones? I think this was some sort of challenge." He squinted past all of the burning liquid rock and saw some chests. "There has to be something very important in there."

"But is it really worth it to us?" Lewis asked.

"Maybe." Simon reached his foot towards the first stone. "Gold is always worth it." Wasn't it? The elders had pounded that wisdom into his head from the day he was born. Gold was what you dug for. Diamonds were good, very good, they helped you get more gold. Gold was layered over your dry bones, and your baby things were gilded and everything... everything had some relation to gold.

It did feel so very nice to hold. It definitely had the smoothest energy flow there was.

Dwarfs had been driven mad with the need to find it. Cave-ins, getting trapped or lost... it happened. But was it worth it?

"No, gold is not worth it!" Lewis replied, sounding a little irritated. "It's too hot in here." He added, sounding miserable. "I'm getting heat rash!"

Simon pulled his foot back and stood, absorbing the information. Heat rash and no lust for gold.

Great grim gods, maybe the propaganda was right after all. Maybe the humans really were just animals that had learned to talk and use tools. "A heat what?"

"Heat rash. I suppose you dwarfs don't get those?"

"Never." he replied, and turned to look at his companion. Lewis was red-faced again, and leaning against the far wall. He was breathing hard and mostly dry after the swim they had taken to get here. Still around his neck and under his arms were wet. His face was dripping too.

"You look like a greasy pig over there, sweating so bad." Simon trekked over to him, amazed at just how low the human heat tolerance was.

"Yes," he hissed. "Lava tends to have that effect on us common people."

"Cranky too." Simon noted, and got a death glare sent his way. "Look, you stay here, or back a little even, I'll go over and get the loot."

Lewis glanced at the far wall, frowned even harder, and then looked back down at Simon. "I don't want you to."

Too damn bad, Simon thought with a roll of his eyes. "Gold, Lewis, has got to be over there. Maybe even something to help you."

"Your dwarfish greed will come back to bite you in the ass," Lewis replied. "But that isn't going to stop you, is it?"

"No." Simon grinned. "Want to come?"

Lewis looked at the stones, tilted his head, then shook it. "I know, for a fact, that I'd never make it, Simon. I sort of don't want to die yet."

"No, I suppose you are right." Simon patted him on the soggy sweaty side, then headed back towards the path.

"Be careful," Lewis called after him. "Just, just be very, very careful." The worry in his voice was palatable.

Simon ignored him as he stepped out on to the first rock. All of his focus had to be here, now, and not slip. Even his dwarf skin burned here. "I think I have to do this running."

"Like walking over hot coals." Lewis added. "If you go quick enough, and light enough, it won't burn. But can you, Simon, can you? I don't. . ." He coughed again. "Don't if you don't think you can."

"I don't know if I can or can't," Simon backed up, eyed the stones, tried to determine the best path, and then ran.

He heard Lewis say something as he leaped over the first stone, but he ignored it. The second stone was slick, and he nearly lost his footing. He threw his weight and scrambled on to the next rock, and had to lurch backwards to keep from over shooting it. That slowed him down, and the heat here, in the center, was suffocating. He swallowed hard and leaped again. This time he did slip and his toes landed on the not quite solid crust. He pulled back quickly, but not before just cracking the surface. It burned, but he bit down hard on his lower lip and forced himself to move on.

"Oh Simon! Simon..."

"Hush!" He made it to the last rock and pitched forward wildly. He flailed for a moment, then rocked back and reclaimed his footing. The last jump looked nigh impossible.

"SIMON!"

"What?" He gasped. He was starting to sweat now, the heat licking up all around him, like dragon tongues.

"The stone in your inventory! Do you still have it?" Lewis asked. "Can you maybe craft a bridge?"

"That's not really the spirit of the test." Simon wheezed. He mopped his head and looked up, if only to get his face out of the heat for a moment, and saw that dim steady light again. "I can try."

"Do it." Lewis commanded, some iron to his words.

Simon opened his inventory and saw only a few small chunks of stone. "I don't know, pal."

"Do it," Lewis said again, forcefully. "Hurry."

Simon pulled the stone out and hastily slammed it in to place as best he could. The energy went wild around him, and the stone started to slip.

He looked up once more at the light. It was still steady, like one beady eye, watching him. Unreal. Evil. "Lewis..." The stone under him shuddered, then started to sink. "Lewis!"

"Simon forget the treasure, come back to me!"

"No." No, gold was everything. The hoard. He had to gather the hoard. You weren't a dwarf without it. He backed up as far as he could, charged forward, and bounded off the rock he had placed down. It crumbled under his feet as he launched. For a moment he was in the air, nothing between him and the red, then he fell and slammed hard into black glass.

"SIMON!?"

"I'm alive." He heard the tremble in his own voice and held still for a moment. His foot hurt, but that too he ignored. He was alive, and he'd had worse burns. After a moment he picked himself up and eyed the chests. "And now..." He opened the first one and saw, much to his satisfaction, the glitter of gold. "Oh... Lewis... I was right." It shimmered, like gold should. He ran his fingers over it, felt the way it sang, and closed his eyes for a moment. Just for that moment, there was nothing else, no danger, no human, no lava.

The energy rolling through the sunny little bar was warm and cold and pure and rich. The most alluring energy any energy could ever be. It was like having enough to eat and drink and all of your friends around you. On your birthday. It washed over his whole body, tingling and feathering his skin.

The moment he pulled his fingers away the feeling vanished. It was like a dream: you couldn't live in it forever, you had to wake up some time. But you could dream it all over again. He petted the metal once more. It was the same this time, and maybe just a little stronger. Better.

The pain in his foot melted away. The heat all around him became a soft, hearth heat. His hunger vanished too. Gold. He slid his fingers over it, mesmerized.

"Simon, focus." Lewis' dry voice cut through the haze. "You are trapped. Now what?"

Trapped with gold. He groaned to himself. A blissful way to die, yes, but the active word there was die. "But, it feels good!" He gave it a dreamy caress. The human would never understand.

"Simon!"

He picked one of the bars up, it was heavy.

"SIMON LOOK AT ME!" Lewis snapped.

Simon turned, blinked a few times, and shook his head. "What?"

The lava between them was bubbling up from the center and starting to fountain up and out.

"Simon the lava!" Lewis made a move like he wanted to come closer, but recoiled and choked.

"I see it!" Simon groaned. "Stupid, Stupid. Stupid!" He dropped the gold back in to the chest. Illusions, he was abut to die for an intoxicating illusion.

"Open the other two chests." Lewis sounded suddenly, chillingly calm. "Maybe there is something you can use. More stone. Stone would be good."

Simon pried open the middle chest and found it was full of the dark black shimmering stone, and there was a book as well. The book was old, dusty, and covered in runes. The black volcanic fire-glass he could use to make a bridge, but it would be a tricky thing. With the lava rising he'd have to build his way up and around the edge of the building, minding the tilted walls and all.

"Well?"

"Volcanic fire-glass stone." He pulled the book up. "And some text."

"Obsidian."

"A puny man-word if I ever heard it." Simon shoved the book in to his inventory, and added some of the obsidian. He then picked up more and turned to lay it down. The moment he did, however, it too started to sink. He hurried to the walls and tossed some down, but it fell like sand and sank even faster in to the lava. "Lewis, it's not working!"

"Try the gold, Simon!"

"The gold?" He turned back and looked at the first and last chest. The last chest was irrelevant now. Gold-filled or not it didn't matter, if this didn't work he'd be dead. "All right." He pulled the gold out and with a shiver of echoed pleasure stroked it, then set it firmly into place. It held, but started to melt rapidly. "I think this'll work, but Lewis..." He watched as it dripped and vanished out of his reach.

"I know, Simon, just try not to think about the loss, OK?"

He nodded and slowly, step after step, block after block, inched his way back. He had to start building up the more towards the center he got, and worried that by the time he crossed there'd be no room to descend thanks to the tilted walls.

"Hurry, friend." Lewis urged, sounding tight and desperate and somehow cold all at the same time.

Cold. Simon wanted water now more than the gold in his hands. Even if it the water was salty. "I'm coming." He tossed down the rest of the gold as fast as he could, and found himself short a few paces.

"Jump." Lewis said.

Simon crouched a little, felt his foot flair with pain, and bit down on a yelp. "I can't."

"Do it." Lewis stepped closer, winced, and reached out.

From the higher angle Simon could see the shimmers of heat rolling up, messing with Lewis' hair and clothes. He was soaked with sweat and cringing from the heat. "Friend, hurry!"

Simon nodded, once, and braced himself. He coiled back and leaped. For the second time he was in the air, with nothing solid between him and his death, then he landed hard and was snatched back from the edge by Lewis with enough force to topple them both over backwards. They landed in a sticky, painful heap.

All of the air was knocked from Lewis' lungs, and he gasped for air like a drowning man.

Simon pulled himself up first, hobbled over, grabbed Lewis, and started to drag him upright. The lava bubbled up over the ledge and crawled towards them.

"Lewis! Get up."

The human scrambled to shaky legs and lurched towards the path he'd come from. Lava rolled over the ground, blocking the path. "No." He sagged.

Simon grabbed his wrist and pulled, limping, towards that way he had come. "Almost there, don't give up!"

"Hot," was the only reply.

"Yeah, gets like that around lava." Simon grunted. He spied the red hot liquid racing for the other path and started to limp faster. "Go gogogogogo!"

Lewis shook himself and started to move faster. A thick strand of the lava poured between them and the way out. "We have to jump this Lewis."

"I don't know if I can," Lewis rasped.

Simon pulled him on anyway. He took only a moment to pull the last scrap of rock from his inventory and slammed it down in the center of the growing stream. "Step over it then, hurry!"

Lewis nodded and pressed past. He took one steady breath, then jumped as best he could. He made it to the rock, and then to the other side. He wobbled badly on landing. Once more, though spent and exhausted looking, he reached back. "Come."

Simon waisted no time in making the small jump. It was easy compared to the other jumps, but no less painful. Once more he landed hard and this time his knee gave out as foot met stone. He couldn't keep from yelping this time, however, and gladly accepted Lewis' offered hand.

With lava literally licking at their heals they retreated. The halls were still dark, but from behind them they were growing lighter. And cooler.

With every passing step Simon felt the chill of the surface world and welcomed it. By the time they hit the exit he was panting for air. Lewis dropped to the sandy shore, wheezing.

"Keep going." Simon grabbed him again, yanked him to his feet and pulled him on, racing along the outer wall of the pyramid.

Lewis stumbled behind him, his breaths choking out.

Right behind them lava erupted from the door and oozed on towards the water, missing them bodily, but still burning the air around them. It hit the water and instantly boiled it, causing the brine to hiss and foam and gurgle.

Simon kept pulling Lewis until they were clear away form the lava, round back of the structure, and only a few steps away from the water. There he let the human go. Lewis collapsed in the sand gasping for air and weakly trying to claw his boots off.

Simon grabbed one lanky human leg and ripped the hot footwear off, then repeated the action with the other.

Lewis scooted to the sea and shoved his feet in, then a look of utter bliss enveloped his face, and he flopped back. For several minutes he was sprawled like that, eyes closed, sweat still dripping from his face.

Simon eased down next to him, itching to follow suite and dip his feet in the water, but knowing that the burn would make that more torture than pleasure.

"Oh, this, this is heaven." Lewis finally said, then looked up at Simon, gave him a half-hearted scowl, and pointed up with a shaky finger. "You almost got us BOTH killed!"

Simon reluctantly pulled one of his own boots off. "And now you know how far a dwarf will go to get his loot."

"Too far." Lewis lay back down and closed his eyes. "You scared the hell out of me, Simon."

Simon then grabbed onto his badly burned boot. "Hmmm." He took a breath and braced himself. "Makes two of us then." He pulled, felt part of his foot try to come off with the leather, and stifled a cry of pain.

Lewis dragged himself up and frowned. "Oh, Simon, is it bad?"

"I don't know." Simon let go of the boot and set his foot back down.

Lewis turned and knelt, carefully taking Simon's booted foot in one hand, and reaching into his pocket with the other. "Better let me have a go at that."

It was starting to throb so bad Simon couldn't think past it enough to make any snide remarks about Lewis' pants.

A small knife was drawn out and carefully Lewis cut the boot away, exposing swelling red toes that sported a nasty looking heat rash around watery little blisters. With cold fingers Lewis prodded one blister.

Simon bit down on his lip hard – he felt burned in more than one way - and groaned.

"It's not that bad, it just looks ugly. It'll heal in a few days." Lewis dipped his hand into the water and cupped some of the brine. Carefully he pored it on the angry looking little toes.

The chilling cold of the ocean burned in its own way, sizzling somehow and shredding with icy claws. Simon sucked in a breath and waited for the icy hot feeling to stop, but it didn't. After a few moments of it he couldn't help but snarl as the pain danced around the burn.

Lewis froze and looked up at him, eyes wide. Water dripped from his finger tips. "Um, Simon?"

"Sorry." Simon looked down at the sand by his side. "I'm sorry."

Lewis slowly leaned back a little. "I didn't expect you could make that sort of sound." He cleared his throat. "But I don't blame you, because it looks like it..."

"I am an idiot." Simon cut him off, not listening.

Lewis set the blistered limb down carefully. "Don't worry about it, OK?"

Turning back to Lewis, Simon shook his head. "For what? For what did I go and get us half-killed for? Gold. I'm a greedy, freaking idiot."

"You are a dwarf." Lewis shifted and settled tiredly in the sand. "And even if I haven't met one before you, I know as a dwarf, you are irresistibly drawn to gold. I don't know why but I'm not going to blame you."

"It felt so good in my hands!" Simon admitted. The memory wasn't nearly as nice as the moment he'd touched it, and a very deep part of him wanted to go back some how and see if there was any he could find again. But he looked up at Lewis, saw how exhausted and singed he was, and the urge died then and there.

The elders could swim in lava for gold all they liked, but Simon knew now that it wasn't worth it. "I'm so, so sorry Lewis!"

Though he was tired, and sourced out, Lewis stood and once more offered his hand. "Lets go home, OK?"

"But we still need food and secure the farm area and get more coal and. . ." Simon trailed off. The to-do list was too big to even think about at the moment. Just pondering getting the food made him feel exhausted.

"We'll split the apple, roast wheat berries, and call it a day. Tomorrow we'll go look for food, OK?"

Simon took the hand and allowed himself to be pulled up. "Yeah, OK." He glanced back at the structure. "I think we've shared enough between us that I can eat whatever comes out of your pants now."

"Simon!" Lewis gave him a glare, a gentle one, then laughed. "That's disgusting!"

From there on back to the cave Simon found himself arguing the merits of clothing storage versus inventory, the items you could and should have in one's pants, and the items you should not keep there, and so on and so forth.

And through most of the swim and following walk his foot didn't hurt all that bad.

And he did not miss the gold one bit.

Lewis wasn't sure if he was holding Simon up, or if Simon was holding him up, as they crawled up and onto the shore where he had first arrived on the planet. There they stopped, and both sank into the snow. The cold felt good now, and Lewis was more than glad to be out of the pyramid.

"Well, Simon, you know a lot more about this world than I do, what did you think of that place?" He asked after a moment of chilly bliss.

"That place had evil in it," Simon replied solemnly. "There was a strange light, and I've never seen lava do that. That stone should have held too." He shuddered. "I don't like it."

"It's to bad you didn't get any thing for your efforts." Lewis set a hand on a wood plated shoulder.

"Well, I got fire-glass rock," he replied. "And this." He pulled a book from his inventory and carefully opened it.

Lewis leaned close and started at the writing. He couldn't read it, but saw that there were some pictures drawn in the margins. There were people dressed in black, sporting sun crosses, and lifting their hands up to a black moon. "What does it say?"

Simon thumbed through the pages slowly, his expression slowly becoming darker. "Well, it says that this book belongs to some sort of death cult, and that they are trying to build a doorway to hell. The word 'cleansing' is repeated an awful lot." He looked up, made a face, and slammed the book shut. "The elders used to tell us horrible stories about things like this." He frowned and looked away. "Humans don't really try to build doorways to hell do they?"

"Not most of us, no." Lewis replied, though he couldn't lie. Earth's history had dark chapters, all written in wake of horrible people doing horrible things. "But sometimes there are crazy people who try crazy things for power."

Simon looked down at the book in his hands. "Oh." He stood with a little effort and stared at the book. The look on his face was disappointment and anger. "So the stories might be true."

Lewis stood as well. "What stories?" He prodded.

Simon glanced back. "Huh?"

"Tell me about the stories your elders told you. Maybe it'll help us understand what just happened."

"Well," He scratched under his beard, "There's this legend that the god of the underworld has a door to this one, and that one day that door will be opened and all sorts of bad things will happen."

Doorway. Lewis took a breath. Most legends had roots in fact. Some of the worlds he'd been to before this one called the transport energy beams doorways. There had been energy in that pyramid, and 'magic' was rampant here. "And this book is about that doorway?" Lewis pressed.

"Something like that." Simon lifted it up and gave it a pouting look. "I should have dropped it in to the lava."

"No, Simon, may I see it?" He had to hold his hands still, or he would have snatched it up.

"Why?" Simon asked dubiously.

"I just want to see it." He reached for it, slowly.

Reluctantly Simon handed the book over. "All right."

Lewis thumbed through it quickly, looked mostly at the pictures, and followed Simon absentmindedly as they started to walk. One picture showed the people around a dark doorframe, made presumably out of obsidian. Tired as he was Lewis felt curiosity overwhelming him.

There were undead walking around in the world at night, and Simon didn't know where they came from. They had to come from somewhere. More than that they had to be revived somehow before they could be brought or sent or summoned here. The dead didn't revive themselves, so someone had to be actively reviving them. If this was a portal of some sort, it could open the door to the answer to all of the questions he had about "Magic" and the dead rising.

Lewis stopped walking and glanced up from the pages. "Simon may I see some of that Obsidian?"

Moreover it could offer him a way home.

Simon stopped and looked up, exhaustion clearly carved in to the lines of his face. "Why?"

Lewis forced a smile he hoped was reassuring. "I want to see if it has any special properties."

Once more with reluctance Simon handed the requested item over. "What are you going to do?" Worry was tinting his voice.

Lewis took the smooth, yet sharp stone, and rolled it over in his hands. His body ached, his stomach growled and every joint in his body felt creaky. Yet his mind was springing to life, demanding action. If this portal had as much power as he suspected it might he could contact the ship this afternoon. He could be home and in his own bed by evening. "Would you hate me if I tried to build this? I think I can use it to contact my people."

Simon stared at him. "You want to build a portal to hell?" His eyebrows hefted and he made a face. "But. . . but Lewis!"

"I want to construct this thing and see if it has any powers I can use to contact my people. I don't want to open a door to hell." He tucked the book under his arm then set his hand on Simon's shoulder. "I'm not from here, Simon. I want to go home. I miss my people, I miss my friends. I even miss my stuff."

Simon looked down at his foot, the one that had been burnt, then nodded. "I get it. I wanted the gold that bad. I'd have... well I did... walk through hell, but this isn't the same."

Lewis frowned. "Simon."

"This is different. These are people. I guess that's more important... but Lewis." He looked up with dark eyes. "Lets not build it in our house, OK?" He wrung his hands together. "I don't like the thought of that. Besides, what would the neighbors think?"

"The non existent dwarfs? Or the occultists who want to build this anyway?" Lewis asked, smiling.

Simon smiled a little as well, though it didn't quite reach his eyes. "You have a point. Still..."

"Yeah, I don't want it in the house either." He looked around and saw that, not far off, was the dark cave from before that had the creeper running around in it. The cave was impressively big, and well-suited for something as awful as a hell-gate. "There?"

Simon turned and looked wearily up at the cave. "Good as any." He sighed reluctantly.

"Right!" Lewis turned and started to ascend the slope that lead to the dark cavern.

"Wait, we are doing this NOW?" Simon asked, hurrying to catch up with him. His speed made the limp even more pronounced.

"No time like the present, friend." Lewis looked back and grinned. "If this works we'll eat like kings tonight, and sleep above the clouds!"

"And if it fails we'll be dragged to hell." Simon laughed a little, and it sounded just a touch hysterical.

Lewis brushed the laugh off and kept going. "It won't come to that, Simon, trust me."

All he got was another shaky laugh, then, "Oh, sure, I'll follow you wherever, pal."