My one-shot for the boo game (I was booed by the HermittpadRoleplay)!
Prompt: Skeleton.
Word Count: 2,977 words.

»»———✧✦———««

It was a somewhat sunny day, with more clouds scattered around than the sunlight and both Zloy and Pixl were exploring.

But then the weather changed and it started to lightly rain. Yet, the sun was still out.

Zloy let out a short yell, as he felt droplets land on him. His hand quickly flew to his head.

Pixl looked at him concerned, "You okay?"

"Nope! It's raining! The sun's out though."

Pixl glanced up, as he realised droplets were falling on him too. "Huh, that's interesting."

"Yeah, you think we should find shelter?"

"It could get worse, so probably," Pixl nodded, "I don't fancy getting too wet either," He giggled.

"Uh-huh, I'm sure you don't."

"You're going to tell the opposite, that you don't want to get too wet either?"

"...no, I don't want to get too wet either," Zloy slowly admitted.

"Ay, he admitted it! Good job!"

Zloy gave him a look, though fondness was laced all over it.

He glanced back up. "I think I saw a cave somewhere..." He mumbled. "Yeah, I did, c'mon follow me!" And like that, Zloy started walking in a different direction with Pixl following behind him.

After one small lost turn, they found the cave and took shelter there. By now, they were half-wet. Striking a torch, their surroundings were now more illuminated.

"It goes down I think," Pixl said, peering down the cave that seemed to stretch on and on. "You think we should stay here or go further down-?"

"I say, go down! We're supposed to be exploring, after all."

"I was afraid you'd say that."

Zloy chuckled. "Well I mean, if you want, we can always wait up here?" He offered.

"Nah, it's fine. Besides, if something comes up I'll just push you in front first."

"I- wait, hey! Pixl!" Zloy wheezed. "And they call me the evil one."

"You're not." Pixl momentarily glanced at the ceiling, thinking if he wanted to say the next part. Thinking that yes he did want to say it, he said it anyway. "You could be my knight in shining armour though," Pixl teased, and he winked.

Zloy's face turned a shade of red, his eyes a bit open having been caught off guard. "I-" He stood quiet before a small smile came to his face. "And what would you be: a damsel, someone, in distress?"

It seemed it was Pixl's turn for a blush to form. He blushed, "Uh.. well- oh."

Zloy lightly laughed, "You didn't think this far, did you?"

"Yeah... I didn't-"

"Of course," Zloy shook his head. He walked forward and pulled Pixl into a hug, wrapping his arms around him. Pixl leaned into the embrace.

They stood there for a little bit before Zloy pulled away. "We should probably continue exploring, shouldn't we?"

"We probably should."

"Great!" Zloy paused, his eyes sparkling with mischief. "And we'll make sure to definitely push Pixl in front if anything goes wrong!"

"Excuse me? Zloy, you can't just use that against me now!"

"Of course I can, there are no rules against that."

"I- anyway! Exploration time?" Deciding that he was going to lose the conversation, either way, Pixl quickly changed the conversation.

"Absolutely!" Zloy smiled. "Got any more torches on you?"

Once checking on what he had, Pixl nodded. "Yeah, a couple."

"That's good, 'cause I've only got a couple. Mine should last for to get us down the tunnel."

"We can use mine if the cave leads somewhere else... plus we can pick up any coal we find too."

"That's true. Anyway, too much discussion, not enough exploring!" And like that, both of them started to head down the cave while rain poured heavily outside, the sun completely hidden by the dark clouds.

It turned out the cave was larger than expected. It led to multiple smaller and medium-sized caves that in the end, led to one connected cave that continued to go further down.

This cave finally seemed to end with it going down and only had two small branches, or so it seemed.

"How far down are we?" Zloy questioned. They were both taking a break and were currently sitting on the stone floor.

"That's a really good question, I'm not entirely sure. The meter's broken, so I can't check."

"It broke?" Zloy tilted his head in curiosity and surprise. "When did it break?"

"Umm... not that long ago. Like in the last two caves, while you were making more tools." Pulling out the meter, he showed it to Zloy.

The meter was a small square contraption that was often used to measure the height or depth of a certain location. A communicator could show the basic y-levels but a meter was often used to show the pressure in the air and other related stuff.

"Huh, that's weird," Zloy raised an eyebrow. The meter's screen seemed to be glitched, with unsymmetrical lines buzzing up and down. "That's never happened before. We've been near bedrock before so it can't be the void's presence, can it?"

Zloy glanced at it for a couple more minutes, before he sighed.  "I honestly hadn't noticed that earlier-"

"Which is completely fine!" Pixl suddenly broke off and tilted his head.

"Pix? What's wrong?"

"Do you hear that? It sounds like..."

"Water," Zloy finished the sentence, realising what Pixl was talking about. "There must be an underground stream nearby."

"Yeah, it must be fairly near because the sound of water is a bit strong."

"How did we not notice that before?"

"...Now that's a mystery! But it's good timing, we're going to need more water soon."

"So, which cave do you think it's in? I'd say the one on the left."

"Left, it sounds like it."

Zloy chuckled, "He agrees!"

Getting up from their sitting position, they both packed any loose items they had lying around before making their way to explore the left cave to see if they could find out where the sound of water came from.

And it was a good thing, they chose the left one. In the right cave, a surprise visitor was there... one they would encounter quite soon.

The stream wasn't far off, they found it in a branch of the cave that went up.  The water came from a hole in the wall that flowed down and at the bottom, it merged into a lava lake. Part of the lake was covered with water, obsidian underneath it.

Taking out some water bottles, Zloy refilled the bottles with water. Pixl, himself, was mining some copper during this.

"We have water now," Zloy declared.

"That's good, I've got more copper too!"

Zloy shook his head fondly, a grin on his face. "Of course you do."

"There doesn't seem to be too many ores around here, you think we should go back?"

Zloy paused for a minute, before nodding. "We probably should."

Collecting up their tools and random things, they both headed back. After somehow getting lost, despite leaving a supposedly visible trail behind.

"We're lost again?"

"What? Of course not, I don't get lost y'know. I absolutely know where I am.." There was a few minutes' pause before a sigh left Zloy's mouth. "This is a cursed cave I swear...that's the problem."

Zloy's eyes looked around, analysing his surroundings before landing on Pixl.

Feeling someone's gaze on him, Pixl lifted his head, avoiding Zloy's eyes. "What's wrong?" Pixl asked.

"Nothing... Why are you leaning against the wall? Are you hurt?"

"No I'm fine... don't worry! I'm just... just thinking."

"Huh?" A confused expression came across Zloy's face.

It took Zloy a couple more minutes before he figured out what was bothering Pixl. Following Pixl's gaze to where he was looking, he spotted the broken torches that had been snapped in half.

They had been finding a couple of those along their path. It was rather strange, Zloy didn't remember stepping on any torches and he didn't remember seeing Pixl step on any either. But then again, there was always that slight chance that one of them had so it was difficult to say.

"You're thinking too much," Zloy declared (despite his thoughts being of much thought). He moved closer to Pix, pulling him into a hug.

"Yeah... sorry."

"And now you're apologizing too much." Breaking the hug, Zloy gently nudged Pixl in the shoulder.

Somehow, this broke Pixl into a burst of giggle which slowly, but surely turned into laughter. The sound of laughter was like music, it broke the still, worried air into a far better one.

"Success!" Zloy cheered.

Pixl shook his head. "Terrible," He lightly complained.

"Hey, guess what?" Zloy randomly asked.

"Hmm... what?"

"I figured out the way out of here! I remember now!"

"That's great!" Pixl gave a small smile. "Honestly the shift of conversation."

"Ha, true. Oh well, c'mon follow me. I've got it now."

And making their way out, they both found their way back to the cave that they had previously rested in.

Taking another minor stop, they started to set up a small station to boil water, in case it was somehow contaminated. Spillage of potions (especially harming ones) was quite common and one could never know where it would occur...even in a cave that hadn't seemed to be explored previously.

"I'm pretty sure the water will be alright."

"You never know... you never know. For all we know, someone could have spilled a potion of poison around there or on it even and it got contaminated."

"Fair point, we don't have a regen or harming potion on us."

"Surprisingly."

A cauldron had been set up with a campfire underneath it and it was now bubbling away. The occasional drops of water spilled onto the floor.

Humming a small tune, Pixl was fiddling with the broken meter when a chill passed through him. He looked up and in front of him, not noticing anything different.

Turning around slightly, he looked behind him and to the side. He quickly placed a hand over his mouth to stop himself from making any sounds of surprise.

Pixl glanced at Zloy and then back at their visitor before speaking. "Hey Zloy, have you seen our... uh, our guest?" He asked, somewhat calmly.

"What guest? Oh."

For next to the right tunnel of the cave was a skeleton. A skeleton who was simply standing there, staring at them. It carried no bow, or at least it appeared to not be carrying any, but what appeared to be... a potion in its hands.

Zloy gazed curiously at the item in the skeleton's hand. "Is that a potion?" He quietly wondered out loud.

"Yes," A voice answered him. It belonged to the skeleton.

The skeleton walked forward, approaching Pixl. With great care, it placed the potion, which had different shades of white, grey and black swirls and bubbles inside, next to him.

"I will not hurt you," It said, seeing that Pixl was fairly tense.

Pixl glanced at Zloy for a second opinion, who was carefully looking at the skeleton. Feeling a glance, Zloy nodded, seeing as it wasn't doing any attempts of anything and Pixl relaxed a little.

Walking back to the right tunnel of the cave, the skeleton paused and looked back at them. A sad and what looked like guilt was on its face. "I am sorry," It said. That was the last thing it said before it disappeared into the right cave.

The gears in Zloy's head twisted and turned, as he attempted to analyze and find the context of the skeleton's apology. It made no sense, it wasn't like it had hurt or had done any damage to anyone. It was quite confusing.

The sound of Pixl's voice, however, brought him away from his thoughts. "Hey Zloy, a strange thing happened... I feel quite... strange I guess?"

Exciting his thoughts, Zloy focused his attention on Pixl. Though what he saw astonished him. "Pixl!? Why- why are- how?" He stumbled over his words. Zloy swallowed and took a deep breath.

"I might have... drank the potion-" Pixl slowly announced.

"I- I can tell. Do you uh, feel different?"

"Not really? I mean, I do feel kind of strange though."

Thinking of a way he could show Pixl what he was seeing, Zloy stood quiet for a couple of minutes. "Can I see your axe?" He finally asked.

Pixl nodded and he handed over his axe.

Taking a quick check to see if it was polished and naturally it was, he checked if he could see his reflection, before giving it back to Pixl. "Look at your reflection." That was all Zloy said.

A puzzled expression was on Pixl's face. After checking his reflection, it quickly turned into an expression of horror. His skin was fairly whiter with different shades of grey and black intertwined, and his bones were far more obvious. His overall appearance resembled... a skeleton.

"Am I...?

"A skeleton," Zloy finished. "Yeah, I think you are."

"It was the potion, wasn't it?"

"I think it was."

"I look like the undead... I look terrible," Pixl mumbled. He blinked, before quickly speaking again. "No offence to the undead, of course, I mean they're lovely in their own way."

Zloy chuckled, "I'm pretty sure there won't be much, it's fairly understandable.'

"That's good to hear," Pixl breathed a sigh of relief. "How long do you think this will last?"

"I'm not entirely sure." Zloy was about to say something else, but a white glimmer caught his eye. Walking towards it, he picked up a loose sheet of paper from the ground.

"What did you find?" Pixl curiously asked.

"This piece of paper," Zloy replied. "The skeleton must have dropped it." Turning it to the other side, he read it out loud. "Potion of [blank]... huh, the name of the potion has been erased."

He continued reading. "The potion of [blank] is a potion that has been specially designed so that whoever is on the receiver's end will turn into the choice of [blank], that whoever made it chooses." 

"Does it say anything about how long it lasts?"

"Let me see." Zloy skimmed through it. "Here it is: The duration is [blank], but it is commonly made to last for a short period. However, this duration can vary greatly. As the most common duration is only for a short time, this is most likely a great assurance for the receiver's end."

"I can agree with the last statement."

"I think the potion's effect won't last that long... possibly a day or so."

"In that case, I hope it does. It's an interesting experience I won't deny."

"The water!" Zloy suddenly gasped. He placed the piece of paper in Pixl's hands, before rushing over to the angrily, bubbling cauldron.

He grabbed some water bottles. Filling up the bottles, he placed a lid on top of them and carefully packed them away. "There we go, we have water now," Zloy said. "You think we should start to head up?"

"Probably," Pixl replied.

After destroying the cauldron and campfire that was underneath it, they both made sure they hadn't left anything behind before they started to make the journey upwards.

It was a bit of a long journey, having gone through many different tunnels and caves but eventually, they both made their way up.

A sharp, clear stream of light flooded the original cave they had first entered before they had made their journey. Pixl peaked through the entrance, "It's night."

"Thank goodness, I was hoping it would be."

"Why? Wouldn't it be better to wait for the day?"

"In most cases, it would but uh, you're currently a skeleton so we don't know if you would burn in the daylight. I would rather not have you roasted and then turned into a pile of ashes."

Pixl wheezed, "Fair point."

Luckily for them, it hadn't been that long since the sun had gone down but the moon itself was already shining brightly. The rest of the journey went by in a breeze. They ran into one or two issues, but it was quickly resolved and before they knew it they had arrived back at their place.

Deciding to unpack and fix everything later, hoping that perhaps with sleep the time would go quicker as well as being tired, they both crashed in their specific rooms. And soon they both fell asleep.

-
Pixl had woken up not that long ago and was sitting on the edge of the bed. A soft knock was heard on his bedroom door and Zloy's voice came softly from behind it. "Hey, Pix?"

"I'm awake, you can come."

A creak was heard as the door opened and Zloy came inside.

"I didn't think you'd be awake."

"Yeah... The weirdest dream happened, Zloy."

An odd look, one Pixl could not distinguish, crossed Zloy's face. "What was it about?"

"I- uh," Pixl sighed. "I dreamt that it started raining, and so we went to hide in a cave, which we then ended up exploring. A skeleton gave me a potion? And I drank it and then I had turned into an actual skeleton, after drinking the potion that was given to me by the skeleton."

"Hey, sunshine..." Zloy said, somewhat hesitant while looking at what appeared to be a piece of paper in his hands.

"Yeah...?"

There was a pause before Zloy giggled. "I don't think... I don't think it was a dream, y'know. I think it was real." He placed the piece of paper, which was a photograph, in front of Pixl.

"What? I- how? Where did that come from!?"

"I have a feeling it came from the skeleton, the one that originally gave you the potion."

Pixl continued to stare at the paper before he groaned and buried his face in his hands. "I- It's too early for this."

"Yeah...it is. It really is," Zloy fondly shook his head.

-♡