Grave Danger Delights

      Pure_Decadence, or Deca as her friends know her, was a tad bit worried about leaving her precious petpet, Bliss, with M0n0xide for the weekend. If it wasn’t of such importance that she made her grand appearance at the board meeting for planning the Annual Chocolate Ball, she would keep Bliss with her. She had to go to the meeting though, otherwise who knows how atrocious the Ball would turn out. They were absolutely dependent on her fine taste in decorating and they’d be utterly lost without her. M0n0 was a nice Kougra, and his petpet, Carb0n, would be good company for Bliss. However, being good company and a good influence were two different things. Did Carb0n even own a mirror? Come to think of it, weren’t his paws covered in twigs and dirt last time she saw him? With a heavy sigh, she tossed her mane and let her worries go. Worrying too much could cause wrinkles, and Deca never spent time doing things that could negatively affect her appearance.

      “Bliss, dear…it’s time to go to your very first slumber party!” Deca called for her delicious little Birthday Kadoatie so they could be on their way.

      Bliss was extremely excited for the slumber party. She’d met Carb0n once before, briefly, and was intrigued by the Cloud Gwalla’s carefree nature. He didn’t even seem to be carrying an emergency hair brush, and that told Bliss that he must enjoy taking risks. She’d never take the risk of not having a hair brush nearby (her mom taught her better than that), but she was curious about how the weekend would unfold: she could use a good adventure!

      They arrived at M0n0’s home in Faerieland late in the afternoon and were greeted at the door by M0n0 and Carb0n. Carb0n had a curious look on his face as he inspected his weekend playmate, like he wanted to share something exciting with her but was still deciding if he should.

      “M0n0, dear, lovely to see you! I’ve brought all of Bliss’s things with her, and I’ve written out some instructions on how to follow her beauty regime in case you…uhmm…didn’t already have one planned.” Deca greeted M0n0 with a hint of her previous worry cropping back up. “She’ll need to apply her Black Cherry Lip Balm every hour to keep her lips moisturized, and this Ruby Eye Cream needs to be applied every 4 hours. At bath time, make sure she uses her Coconut Soap and Super Shiny Shampoo, followed by this Coat Shiner when she’s done. This Paw Sponge will need to be kept handy in case she gets anything on her paws…and she has her very own Compact Keychain so she can keep an eye on things as well.”

      M0n0 listened to the beauty instructions with his mouth open… Bliss would be lucky if he remembered to tell them take a bath at all, let alone this entire list!

      “Ermm yes Deca that’ll be fine. We’ll be fine. Have a nice time at your meeting!” M0n0 reassured her as he rushed her out of the house before she could give more instructions that he wouldn’t follow. He knew it would be best to have some deniability.

      After Deca had departed, he turned and looked at his charges with his hands full of beauty products.

      “You guys can go outside and play, I’ll just set this stuff here if you need it” He said as he put the mountain of beauty supplies by the door. “I’ll be here if you need me. I’ll be reading in the study.”

      “Wow do you really do all that stuff your mom was saying every day?!” Carb0n asked Bliss as soon as the adults were gone.

      “Yes of course! It’s very important to look your best so people get the right impression.” Bliss answered automatically before she realized Carb0n sounded incredulous to the idea.

      “Well if you want to stay here and primp all day you can, but I had another idea. My dad will be pretty immersed in books all weekend, he’s been addicted ever since he got used to the Book Smarts Boon a few skirmishes ago. So I was thinking we could probably ask to go visit my uncle Farren in the Haunted Woods but really head over to Neovia and check out Grave Danger!” Carb0n excitedly spilled his plans.

      “Are you mad?! Grave Danger… there’s a 93.7% chance that we’d get cursed in there! Not to mention it looks absolutely filthy from the pictures I’ve seen.” Bliss responded with unease, although secretly her blood was pumping with excitement. Not only would she be skipping her beauty regime, but she’d be on an adventure to find treasure! She couldn’t help but be interested in something so different from her normal routine.

      “Have it your way princess, I’m going. Just so you know, my dad has no idea how to apply beauty products, and those Kougra claws are awfully sharp so hopefully you aren’t too attached to your eyes.” Carb0n warned as he scribbled a note to his dad. He hoped his warning would scare Bliss into coming with him—he’d never been to Grave Danger and was a little apprehensive about going alone. He’d always wanted a friend to do fun things with—he was too unsure to try new things alone.

      “No, no... I’ll go!” Bliss answered hastily. “I have a backpack I can carry my essentials in and it does sound like it could be fun.”

      “Good, let’s go! Don’t wanna get there after dark, do we?” Carb0n led the way, with Bliss following in amazement at her sudden desire to put her life in grave danger.

      Their journey went peacefully, after Bliss got used to the feel of dirt under her nails. There was fog covering the city even though they arrived in Neovia late in the afternoon. It had a very eerie feeling and Bliss’s heart was already pumping harder. Once they were standing at the entrance to Grave Danger, Bliss was questioning her life choices that got her here. She looked uncertainly at Carb0n to find him smiling from ear to ear.

      “What on earth are you so happy about?” She asked, confused.

      “Oh I was just thinking how much fun this has been so far and how it’s been nice having someone to do different things with.” Carb0n had answered before he saw the fear in his new friend’s eyes, so he hastily added, “We’ll be ok because we have each other's back, so there’s nothing left but having a good time.” His confidence in them reassured her, and inside they went. At first it was just dark and damp but nothing too terrible happened as they were only finding empty corridors to explore. A few corridors later, they stumbled upon a treasure room! They were about to pick out something nice for their parents, but the scent of cinnamon rolls drew them away before they took anything. They hadn’t realized how hungry they were, so they followed the scent with hopes of finding some warm, gooey treats. Or maybe even some bacon…mmm catacombs bacon! They quickened their pace at the thought of bacon. As they went down a tunnel that was slightly lit and had the awesome smells coming from it, they got tangled up in some discarded cultist robes. They would’ve considered it troublesome, had there not been a serving tray with the cinnamon rolls and bacon behind the mess of robes. They untangled themselves and gobbled up as much food as they could, laughing at their good fortune in between bites.

      Now that they were feeling bloated, they started thinking of where to go next. All of a sudden, they heard some music coming from a nearby catacomb. Curious as always, they followed the sound. Turning a corner, they found themselves in a round room filled with cultists. Everyone was dancing to some sweet jazz music and one friendly cultist came over to them and asked them all to join in the fun. They all danced for such a long time, they were exhausted! The friendly cultist invited Carb0n to be the mascot of their cult. He declined the offer. They had to find their way back to Faerieland before the weekend was over.

      The friendly cultist took them back to the treasure room, and they all agreed they could find their way out now. Saying goodbye, they turned and scampered through to exit Grave Danger. Just as they were about to go through the opening, they were horrified to see a skeleton acting as a sentinel! He must’ve been busy looking elsewhere when they entered. But now, he saw them and started shooting arrows at them as they cowered in fear. Bliss found an old shoe (probably left by an unsuspecting victim of the skeleton)! She threw the shoe at the skeleton and hit his skull, knocking him over in a crumbled pile. They both cheered and RAN!

      “You know, it’s too bad we didn’t grab any treasure to take to our parents before we were attacked by that skeleton.” Bliss broke the silence of their journey home to start reminiscing already.

      “I thought the same thing, but as it turns out we did manage to get some treasure! They were stuck to our feet!” Carb0n answered excitedly as he saw the Grave Danger Stamp on Bliss’s paw. He stopped to check his own paws and sure enough, he’d manage to get one stuck as well. He knew his dad wouldn’t mind their journey with such a valuable stamp to add to his collection. He could just tell Bliss’s mom that he’d given it to her, no reason to get into the details.

      Safely back home in Faerieland, the first thing they had to do was to bathe! Bliss had never been so dirty in her life…or so happy!

      The End.