The Remnants of Time (Original Version)

The Minotaur's Cursed Treasure

The rustling wind blew the dead leaves off of the lifeless trees and carried them round the gloomy grey skies in the woods, and the stone cave only seemed to add to the mysterious aura that the forest emitted.

Inside the cave, a black scorpion was scurrying around the ground, its beady red eyes glowing in the dark. However, a pair of feet suddenly stomped down on the ground near the small bug, and the scorpion was forced to scamper away.

Another pair of feet followed suit after the first pair as the two of them walked further into the cave.

These explorers were actually two children, both with caramel colored hair that each had a distinct, white streak shaped like a lightning bolt and brown eyes.

The kid walking in the front was a girl, who was wearing a brown leather jacket over an olive green shirt and denim jeans with her boots. She was holding up a flashlight in front of them so that they could see where they were going. All of her attention was focused on the dark path ahead of them.

The boy walking behind him was wearing a black shirt, grey pants, and a navy sweatshirt over it. He also had a green backpack slung over his shoulders. While his sister was concentrating on what lay ahead of them, his eyes were trained on the area all around them.

"You sure this is the right one, Athena?" the boy asked, gesturing towards the scorpions scurrying across the cave floor as they walked past. "I don't remember anything about scorpions inhabiting the cave."

"I'm positive" Athena reassured, her eyes still glued ahead of her. She directed the flashlight's beam at the cave wall, where there were geometric lines engraved into the stone. "See these markings, Aris? Their design dates all the way back to the Greek age. This is definitely the right place."

Aris pointed to a series of seemingly random vertical scratches etched into the cave wall.

"I suppose this is also some sort of abstract Greek art?" he asked.

"No. Those are tally marks. One for each man who entered this cave" Athena replied bluntly, bending down onto one knee and etching two more lines into the wall. "You think any of them made it out alive?"

Aris shrugged.

"I don't know, why don't you ask him?" he said, pointing to his left.

Athena turned around to see what he was talking about, only to yelp in alarm and nearly drop the flashlight.

Lying on the ground was a human skeleton, frozen in a petrified position with its jaw open in an eternal scream.

Horrified, Athena shone the flashlight around the cave, revealing dozens of other human skeletons frozen in a similar stance.

Aris squinted at the skeletons, not the least bit alarmed as he started to count them.

"Hmm. Let's see. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven...twelve skeletons" he counted. "If I remember correctly, there were twelve tally marks not including ours, right?"

Athena pushed the horrified expression off of her face, and marched forward.

"Let's try not to make it fourteen skeletons" she said with a serious tone, both of them now more alert than ever as they continued to journey even further.

Suddenly, they heard the sound of something cracking, and they both looked up towards the source of the noise.

Dangling several meters above them was a stalactite, and it appeared as if there was a crack growing at its base.

Suddenly, the stalactite snapped right off the ceiling, and started to plummet down to the Earth, heading straight towards where they were standing.