Daring Do and the Quest For the Sapphire Stone

Old business

"You thought you could evade me and  capture the relic for yourself"

"But you were sadly mistaken, Miss do"

A cold, drawling voice was speaking that sounded eerily familiar to her.

It made her flinch, not because she was afraid, but because she wasn't listening.

The only thing her mind was focused on right now, was retrieving the statue and taking it to its rightful place.

Her vision was becoming normal again and Ahuizotl's sneering face came into view.

She gathered the strength to stand and try to put up a decent fight against him.

But,she could barely lift her leg, and ended up wincing in pain.

Ahuizotl seized the opportunity as fast he could, and drew out his whistle.

He was delighted to see a look of panic on her face, and relished it for a good few minutes before blowing a sharp whistle.

At first she thought it backfired, but gulped when she saw every animal heeded this call, and would do whatever was expected of them.

And sure enough, when she awoke she could barely move.

She found herself stuck: confined to a mahogany board by endless coils of rope.

He was tying them even tighter, enjoying watching her struggle.

Then, laughing like a manic, he took off. He began clutching a lever, set it to the highest it could go, then waved a cheery goodbye to her .

But Daring wasnt going to let him have the last word.

"You won't get away with this" Daring retorted, her voice, full of bitterness and hate for someone who could commit such an act

"But I already have", he snapped back, grinning, looking back, and noticing his plan already staring to work.

Contrastingly, it had taken Daring a while longer to realise what the lever really did.

Darings eyes widened in horror. She gasped as the realisation hit her.

It was not regular sand, but quicksand and the terrors didn't stop there.

Snakes and spiders scurried out of their holes, and both of them skuttled horribly close to her face.

She tried her best to avoid screaming, but a small squeal slipped out.

The quicksand continued to rise even higher

But worst of all for her, were  enormous spikes, drawing nearer and nearer with every second, threatening to squash her flat.

Daring squirmed and tried wriggling out, but it consumed every bit of her energy, And she was getting nowhere.

"Feels like the harder I struggle,  the tighter the ropes get". Daring choked out, attempting to claw air into her lungs.

A feeling of despair welled up inside her: this was it, this was the end, she was done.

She would need a sheer stroke of luck to  save her now.

But she wasn't going to stop, at least not without knowing she had tried.

Her eyes darted around her sorroundings - someone - something.

With that, a sudden idea came flickering to her.

Daring grabbed a inch of her hat, flung it across the room, which darted past spikes, spiralling round symbol and finally richocheted off the walls: She had reached her target.

It hit the lever with a mighty push, and it retracted, causing everything to go back how it were.

No quicksand, no spiders and no spikes that took up up half of the room.

She stood back up, dusted the ash off her hat, looking triumphant.

"Another day, another dungeon", Daring remarked calmly, setting off to reclaim what was hers.

Then she walked off towards the wooden door, appreciating the golden sunset like never before.

Meanwhile, Ahuizotl was stroking his white kitten, who was purring contentedly, and looking like a fluffy pillow in his lap.

"With Daring do out of the way, the world will suffer my terror". He cackled with delight, and raised both his fists in the air.

Ahuizotl kept only a malicious look in his eye, and hadn't the slightest bit of remorse for what he had just done.

He was too busy chuckling idiotically to notice the small snicker of someone else beside him.

When sure he wasn't looking, she leapt and swung towards him, clutching it out of his grasp in one single fell swoop.

I'll take that, she retorted, chuckling to herself.  ( if this wasn't karma at its finest)

NOOOOO Ahuizotl cursed so loudly that a swarm of birds flew from the grove of trees overhead.

His most famous cry could be heard from the far depths within the jungle.

CURSE YOU DARING DO

"And so, with Ahuizotl defeated, and the sapphire statue secured..."

"The world was safe and sound once again, thanks to Daring Do!"