My eyes close for a moment as I take a deep breath of fresh air. I'm not sure if it is the size of the trees, but for some reason the air in the Wildwood is so much more pleasant to breathe. I have to remind myself we're in a dungeon. Things have gotten so peaceful it is easy to relax, as we've figured out ways to avoid the monsters in this wood.

  Staying away from the trees is important--Everything here is either living on the trees or is a tree, so just keeping your distance mitigates the danger. Keeping your eyes turned upwards at the canopy is also important to avoid ambushes by constrictors.

  "Oh, there's another ruin up ahead!"

  "I hope we get another dungeon lantern, and not more potions."

  "Those potions are for emergencies. They're important, too."

  The three of us make our way to a ruin we haven't visited before. It's nestled between two rises in the ground, with lots of moss growing over its walls. Teddy leads the way as usual. He holds our dungeon lantern to light the dimly lit interior.

  We kept finding the lanterns--the first two we sold, but the third we decided to keep.

  Honestly I don't know why we didn't think of using it sooner.

  My focus returns to the ruin we're in as I hear a twang of a wire snapping. Teddy lets out a sharp gasp as an arrow pierces his calf. He drops to one knee, cringing at the pain of having an arrow impale his leg. I quickly fumble through my bag in search of a healing potion.

  "I-I got it!" Will exclaims, uncorking a healing potion of his own.

  "Wait! Remove the arrow first!" Teddy hisses.

  Will does as he's told. Teddy yelps in pain as the arrow is pulled out of his leg, blood oozing from the wound. I avert my eyes as Will splashes the potion on the wound. I can hear Teddy's breathing steady as the healing potion knits his wound closed.

  "Shit... those rumors about traps were true."

  Neither Will nor I make a comment as we glance nervously around the mossy ruin. The structure is fairly small, about the same size as the first ruin we explored. This one has two rooms, the larger one we're inside now, and a smaller one at the back. I take the lantern from Teddy and cautiously enter the back room.

  Inside is a treasure chest. Will follows me in to watch as I crack the lid open. There's no sign of the usual glow from a dungeon lantern, so I'm expecting there to be a few healing potions. Will scoffs in disappointment. When I fully lift the lid we both pause.

  "Is that a key?" Will murmurs.

  "Uh... Yeah. It is a key."

  I pick up the key and inspect it. It's fairly plain in design, but it is made of the same green metal that binds the treasure chests together. Teddy walks in to see what we're up to. He is walking fine, but he is still shaken up.

  "What are we supposed to do with a key? I haven't seen any locks in the dungeon."

  We are all equally confused by the mystery key. No one has found any sort of locks in the dungeon thus far, at least there haven't been any rumors or official statements about them. Teddy makes the executive decision to pocket the key and continue searching for more loot. We also take the time to bag the copper coins to trade in at the guild for a few usable coppers.

  The sunlight outside is a welcome sight after lingering in that dingy moss covered ruin. The faint scent of blood from Teddy's mishap with the arrow trap made the enclosed space more unsettling than it should have been.

  We walk in a new direction, keeping our movement directed away from the edge of the safe forest. Venturing toward the tangled bramble covered areas of the Wildwood are suicide--huge things people have nicknamed woodwalkers roam that area. The vegetation itself is also hostile.

  It takes some time for us to catch sight of something new. We've been hiking through the forest for around ten minutes when we finally see something worth checking out. It's unlike the ruins we've explored thus far: It's some kind of temple.

  "We have to check that out!" Will urges us.

  "Okay, but we turn back if there's traps."

  I nod along with Teddy's words. We already had to use some of a healing potion for that arrow trap earlier, it wouldn't be wise to push our luck. If that arrow trap had been aimed at the head, or if there had been monsters around, the encounter would have played out very differently.

  The walk down the hill to the large ruin is nerve wracking. We get near the structure, and hear voices from inside. Someone else got here before us. Teddy shushes us, and we listen to their conversation in hopes of figuring out if they're friendly or not so much.

  "I say we leave and come back with a pickaxe!"

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  "If we do that someone else will find it first, and what if they find a way to open it?"

  The group is squabbling back and forth. They're trying to figure out how to go about opening an apparently locked door to this big ruin, but they don't have a key. Teddy looks ready to sneak off and return after the group leaves.

  "Wait. Someone's here."

  The three of us stiffen as several pairs of eyes peer at us from the dilapidated archway of the building. They're all older than us, adults who seem vaguely familiar. They probably live in town, or at least visit town often enough for me to have seen them.

  "It's just a bunch of kids!"

  "We don't know if they're not planning something, they were skulking about."

  Teddy quickly recovers from the shock of being discovered. He clears his throat, and straightens his posture to try and appear more approachable.

  "Ahem! I'm Teddy, and this is my little adventuring group. We don't want any trouble! We just saw this ruin and approached it, but heard voices and didn't know if you were friendly or not."

  The men and women of the group exchange cautious glances. These people all look like farmers, bakers, and cobblers. None of them seem suited to combat. They probably started adventuring when they heard there was easy coin in it.

  "Really now? Well why don't you run along. This place is ours."

  Teddy cringes at the man's gruff attitude. No place in the dungeon belongs to anyone, it is meant to be open to all who are qualified--at least when there isn't an emergency. The guild makes sure of that.

  "What if I told you I know how to open that door?"

  The group pauses, seriously considering what Teddy might mean by that. They look suspicious of us. I can't tell what they're thinking as they lean close and whisper to one another. After a moment of deliberating the leader of the group speaks up.

  "If you open that door for us you can explore this place with us, but we want all the good stuff."

  "Good stuff? What exactly is the good stuff?" I interject.

  "The items! We want any lanterns and potions we find, stuff like that. You kids can have the dungeon coins. Do we have a deal?"

  That's a complete scam! Dungeon coins aren't worth hardly anything, what with them being made of copper and useless as currency. The only reason they're worth taking is because the guild will give you a bit of real coin in exchange, as long as you have a large amount. This deal won't favor us at all.

  "I'll agree to that deal on one condition--You let us take any monster parts we want."

  The man leading the other party scoffs as if the monster bits aren't even worth his time. I don't blame him for thinking that way, selling monster parts is incredibly hard. The guild won't take most of them because they have too many and too few uses for them.

  "Hah! You've got a deal, kid."

  "My name is Teddy."

  "Is it now? I'm Bran. Let's get along nicely."

  Bran and his companions let us enter the ruin alongside them. It's a very old looking entry chamber, the roof and walls collapsing near the top. The room is empty save for debris and rubble strewn about.

  At the back of the room is a large locked door. It's square, inscribed with simple leafy vine patterns. The front of it has a large green tinted metal lock.

  "So, how do we open it?" Bran asks.

  "With this..."

  Teddy pulls out the gleaming metal key from his bag. It reflects the sunlight streaming in through the broken roof brilliantly. Bran's party all looks both impressed and a bit irritated. If they had the key they wouldn't have to share the loot with us. Luckily, Bran and Teddy's deal means we won't be taking much of anything they actually want.

  Approaching the door, Teddy lines the key up with the lock. His confidence is admirable considering we don't actually know if this key goes to this door. Luckily for us, Teddy's gamble pays off. The key slides easily into the lock.

  With a distinct click, the door starts sliding down into the floor. The key is stuck in the lock and Teddy is unable to pull it out as the door falls away.

  "Well, there goes your key, kid."

  "It's fine. We can always get another."

  Bran raises his brow at that, but doesn't ask any further questions. He rallies his group and they lead the way into the temple. Teddy leads Will and I behind them, we take cautious steps. The temple is much more intact inside.

  We get barely a few paces in the door when a sharp scream of pain erupts from Bran's party.

  Teddy and I crane our necks to see what's happening. A particularly eager woman has an arrow buried in her thigh, in a situation mirroring what happened to Teddy earlier in our delve. Bran leans down and pulls the arrow out. He makes quick work of bandaging her leg, but she's sweating profusely. No one makes a move for a potion. Perhaps they don't have any?

  "Can you walk?" Bran asks her.

  She stands, and nods. There's an obvious limp in her gait. She winces whenever she puts weight on her wounded leg. Bran doesn't stop her from moving on her own.

  "Everyone! Keep your eyes peeled for traps. This place is dangerous."

  "Aye!" Bran's group shouts their assent.

  Teddy and I exchange looks as we follow the group deeper inside. We don't get much father before an argument begins. There's a fork in the corridor, one path turns right, the other goes straight ahead. Bran's group is squabbling about which way to go.

  "We can't go that way! You always get through a maze by following the right wall."

  "This isn't a maze, you dolt!"

  The arguing only stops when Bran speaks up, apparently having had enough of watching his comrades jabber about inane reasons for going one way or the other.

  "Let's just split up. How about we have half the group go straight, and the others will go right."

  Everyone quickly nods their heads at Bran's suggestion. Then one woman furrows her brows, and points over to us with a questioning tone.

  "What about them? Where do they go?"

  Bran taps his chin for a moment and then tilts his head toward the right pathway.

  "How about you three go with a smaller part of my group, down that hall?"

  Teddy considers it, peering down the corridor. There really isn't any way to tell what might be down each path. They both end in closed wooden doors. No visible traps or monsters to be seen, and no loot either.

  "Sure, let's do that."

  With Teddy agreeing, our next move is decided.

  We will go down the right path.