Zenkoh's Adventure

Chapter 23

As they were walking down the empty corridor Irya had a thought.

Irya: What did you do to your mother Varna? Did you...?

Zenkoh: No, I didn't kill her. I couldn't bring myself to do that, no matter how much I might hate her.

Maria: I can understand that, she is your mother. Even if what she has done warrants killing her.

As they were talking they came upon another split and had to pick between left or right.

Irya: How are we supposed to tell which way Kenzo went?

Zenkoh: With how this place smells, especially with the witherlings around, I can't really smell much of anything so I can't track him like that.

Maria: Stone doesn't really leave footprints either so I guess we just have to guess and hope we're right.

Irya let out an irritated sigh and slowly rubbed her closed eyes.

Irya: I guess we go right then.

As they go down the right hallway they see sconces where torches could go on the walls along with more moss and vegetation making its way to the ceiling.

Irya: I completely understand why you didn't want to talk about the witherlings before. Just looking at them was absolutely awful!

Zenkoh: Looking at the taut skin over bone would already be bad enough but the skin having holes and knowing that they had been stripped to the bone only makes it worse. Now on top of all of that, imagine it was also likely someone I could have known from my old clan that my mother oh so graciously decided needed to be turned into a witherling!

Maria: Yeah...that context would make it a bit worse.

With an audible click Kenzo had finished picking the lock before pushing the door open. As he walked in he could barely see inside the room. There were no light sources so he had to take time to light his lantern. After doing so he went around the outskirts of the room lighting torches to better illuminate what was in the room. Once there was enough light to see reasonably he began to search the room. For the most part the room appeared to be empty except for what appeared to be a large tablet at the end written in some kind of language he couldn't read!

Kenzo: Just great! I did not come down here just to be stopped by a language I can't read!

Just before he could get anymore frustrated at his situation he had a thought. What if the ones chasing him might be able to read it! Maybe he could hide and let them do all the work! With that thought a smirk grew across Kenzo's face.

As Zenkoh and the others continued their way down the corridor they had begun if it was ever going to end when the doorway at the end came into view. As Maria tried to open it the door didn't move.

Maria: Locked it seems.

Irya: Unfortunately I don't have my lockpick as I lost it the one time and never got around to replacing it.

Maria: That would be the one that I have! You really should be more careful with your stuff don't you think?

Zenkoh: If you two take any longer I'm just going to kick the door in!

At Zenkoh exclaiming this Maria got an exasperated look on her face before pulling out the lockpick. As she got to work on the lock Irya and Zenkoh had nothing better to do than wait.

Zenkoh: I believe at one point you had told us the strangest thing you had ever eaten was tree bark? Why in the world would you ever eat something like that?

Irya: Well...like I told you kobolds can eat basically anything. The choice was I eat tree bark or I starve and starving wasn't the decision I was going to make.

Zenkoh: I can understand not wanting to starve but still, I couldn't imagine eating tree bark.

Irya: Well...what's the strangest thing you have ever eaten?

Zenkoh: Oh that's easy, Maria's cooking!

Irya gave her a confused look while Maria made an annoyed huff in the background.

Irya: What? Her cooking can't be that bad can it?

Zenkoh: Be careful saying something like that, she might decide to cook instead of me one of these nights. But in all seriousness no she isn't that good at cooking. Honestly I hesitate to call it food!

Maria: You know I can hear you right? I am right here!

Zenkoh: Oh I know you can hear me!

Irya: I'll uh...I'll keep that in mind.

As they were discussing Maria's inability to cook she had been picking the lock, as much as she wanted to whip around and smack them. She was right here! If Zenkoh wanted to talk about how she doesn't know how to cook well she could have at least waited till she wasn't around to hear it! There was an audible click and she pushed the door open.

Maria: Door's open.

As they walked into the room they saw that the torches were already lit.

Zenkoh: These torches didn't light themselves, someone has been here!

Irya: Could it have been Kenzo?

Maria: That is a possibility. Does he know how to pick locks?

Irya: Yes, actually. It's one of the few things he knows how to do himself.

As Zenkoh was looking around she made her way to some kind of writing in the back. As she was looking over it she realized it was Gnollish! It seemed to describe how to open some kind of hidden room in here that leads to a sealed off room. But if it was sealed off did they want to open it?

Zenkoh: I'm not so sure we should be here! Opening this seems like a mistake.

Maria: Why is that?

Irya: What does it say?

Zenkoh: It says that there is a sealed off room connected to this one. I'm inclined to believe it was sealed for a good reason!

Just then they heard shuffling behind them and then Irya made a startled scream!