Pain.

That's all I could feel as I lay on my back. Droplets of water slowly hit my face. Fortunately, my backpack cushioned my fall, saving me from worse injuries. I grunt as I slowly open my eyes, barely able to see in the darkness.

"Reece—are you ok? What the hell just happened."

No response.

I try to sit up, back aching as I do.

What the hell is this?

I see a figure laying on the ground. I crawl over, assuming it was Reece. I shake the body, turning it over onto its back. Reece lays in front of me, not moving. I slap his face, hoping he'll wake up. After a moment, his eyes open as he groans.

"Oh Reece, thank god you're fine. I thought I would've been all alone."

Reece tries to sit up, looking me in the eyes. "I'm not getting away that easily."

I smile and consider slapping him in the face again, but instead, I stand up. I look up and see the top of the pit, not too far up.

"I bet you could stand on my shoulders to get yourself out, then you can lift me. What do you say, Reece?" No response back.

I look over at Reece, who's standing straight up looking away from me.

"Reece?" No response again.

I walk over to him, seeing what he is blocking. A large lit up opening with signs that have shapes on them.

"What is a tunnel doing here?" Scratching my head as I approach it.

The placement was peculiar, I didn't expect to see anything like that here. I turn to look at Reece, who's still unresponsive. I walk over to him, standing in front of his face with my arms folded.

"Vince," Reece says as he points to the tunnel's entrance. "Can you take out Auriferous and compare the cover to these signs?"

I take my bag and swing it around to my front, unzipping it and taking out the book. Reece and I walk over to the front, standing next to the signs. I place the book directly next to the sign, and both have the same star-shaped image. The two of us stare in shock.

"Well," Reece says while walking forward. "It's now or never."

He could care less about being safe. Although I do want to go in, it could very well be a trap.

"Let's just wait-" Reece cuts me off as he decides to walk right in. I place the book back into my bag and zip it up.

I roll my eyes as I see him walk away. I sigh and end up walking in as well, hoping nothing dangerous will be in our way.

The two of us walk down the tunnel. Torches line both sides of the walls, inviting us to enter. I didn't have a good feeling about this, but it was the only way to crack Auriferous.

Making our way towards the end, we take a right and come to a small opening, barely able to fit. It was the only way to get through. The other side was barely visible from our end, but the path continues. Reece gets down on his hands and knees and crawls through.

Unsurprising he'd be going in there first. Who knows what could be on the other end.

"Hey, Vince! You gotta get in here man. This is unbelievable," Reece's voice echoes loudly.

I take a deep breath and get down low, crawling through to the other side. I squeeze through the tiny hole and make it through. I stand up and brush myself off. I look up and stare in awe. We stand on a huge cliffside with a waterfall coming down from the top, a large opening to the outside. A large lake sits at the bottom with a flat cave floor. The path leads down like a staircase, and of course, Reece begins to make his way down. I follow in behind him, keeping watching to make sure nothing happens. The path becomes rough and rigid, having some holes and stairs missing.

We reach the bottom, walking on the flat, rocky surface. The temperature was much colder now that we were further down. We walk towards the lake, admiring the waterfall and settling into it.

"So," I say while placing my hands into my pockets. "What now?"

"Beats me," Reece says enthusiastically. "Look at where we're at. We can just hang out here whenever we want. No one would even find this. We can have our own lake and waterfall. Plus, this is out in the middle of nowhere."

I was set back by his response.

"Reece, we aren't here to hang out. We need to find the treasure and the clues that go with it. We can always come back here when we finish. Besides, if we stumbled across this I bet someone else would too."

Reece was visibly upset with my response, but he nods in agreement.

"You're right. Let's just keep going. There has to be another way to go here. Let's spread out and look."

Reece walks away, looking around to find our next direction. I look around, unknowing of what this place could be.

Is this man-made? The signs outside tell me to enter, but there's nothing else here.

Walking around and admiring the rock structures on the walls, I come across a pile of bones around the corner.

We weren't the first ones here, and we definitely won't be the last. I can't believe Reece would want to hang out in a place like this. I still have a bad feeling about this. Bones can never be a good thing.

I look down at the bones, assuming it was from one person. It seems as though there was no other way out than the way we came in, so how could this person have died? Suddenly, screaming comes from behind me as I turn around to look at Reece.

When I gaze over, I see a bird on top of his head attacking him.

I sprint over to help him, hitting the bird away from his face. The two of us look up at the bird, flapping its wings in place and letting out a loud shriek.

"That raven came out of nowhere and attacked me. I think it flew in from the opening up top."

The raven swoops down to attack again, both of us dodging out of the way.

"What does it want?" I ask nervously.

"I-I don't know. I think it's guarding the cave," Reece's voice was shaky. He was more scared of this raven than he was of the bear.

I move away from Reece to spread away from the attack. But, the raven wasn't coming for me. It continues to fly down and attempts to attack Reece, who runs away and dodges. At that moment, I open my bag to take out Auriferous. I turn the cover around and face it towards the raven, who suddenly flies in place and stares at me. It immediately comes right for me, straight at my face. I hide my face behind the book, looking away and grinding my teeth. I stand my ground, questioning why the bird hasn't plummeted into me yet. I slowly look up from behind the book, seeing the raven sitting on top of it not moving.

"Hey there little bird, I'm not here to hurt you."

The bird moves its head and shrieks in short spurts, echoing profoundly throughout the cave. The bird flaps their wings and flies right into my shoulder, talons digging deep into my shoulder. Reece slowly walks over to me, eyes and jaw wide open staring at me.

"So, the raven is friendly?"

I chuckle and say, "I guess so. Maybe it just hates how you look, making the bird so angry it had to attack you."

Reece rolls his eyes at me.

"Very funny Vince, maybe if you didn't run away it would've gone for you instead."

The bird yells at Reece, who then sticks his tongue out at it.

"Maybe instead of that thing squealing it could help us find out what we need to do in here," Reece says aggressively.

He's still agitated by this raven. I would be too, but it seems to understand us.

I look over at my shoulder, and the bird turns its head at me.

"Uhhh...can you help us?"

The bird shrieks, pushing off my shoulder and flying away. It flies around the cave in circles multiple times before swooping back down and into the waterfall. Reece and I both stand there, waiting for the bird to return to us.

"Maybe we have to go into the waterfall?" I suggest to Reece while shrugging my shoulders with my arms out.

"Let's go and see then," he says while power walking.

We walk over to the lake, stepping inside the cold water. It was waist-deep as we traverse our way through. The floor of the lake was smooth as we reach the waterfall. After contemplating, I power my way through the water and onto a platform on the other side. Reece makes his way up as we shake the water off of our bodies. We look up and gasp at what's in front of us.

The raven was perching on top of a chest.