Gruff & Bones: The Quest For The Last N-Word Pass

Chapter 9

We had been walking for about 5 minutes when we stumbled across a stone path. Next to it was a discarded sheet of paper. Bones walked over and picked it up, he read it aloud to me.

"Freedoms End is….. fake…" His voice drained of emotion as he read that last word. He turned to me for something, anything I could say.

"We've come this far, there's no turning back now". I reassured.

He nodded and threw down the paper, and, with a pep in his step, walked ahead of me and continued down the stone path. I stared at his ass the entire time, not in a gay way of course. But in a friend way. 

I snapped out of my fantasy when I heard Bones yell from up ahead. 

"Gruff!!! I found it!" He hollered enthusiastically.

I smiled and ran ahead through the trees and leaves to where he was. I finally caught up to Bones in a large opening, and in the middle? A big ass stone temple. We both looked at each other with pure excitement in our eyes, he leaped into my arms and I held him close. This was the moment we had dreamed of. I put him down and looked towards the temple, no doubt filled with booby traps. We started towards it and, just before the opening, I looked at Bones once more. 

"This is it, listen, stay behind me and you'll be ok. I'm not risking you getting hurt. Hang close, but stay… behind… me… do you understand?" I asked. 

"Yes! I understand!" I could tell he was too eager to calm down, so I just let him be. 

We walked into the temple, water droplets from the roof fell onto our heads, our footsteps echoed throughout the whole place. We walked slowly and didn't let our guard down. I stopped when I saw a long, narrow, hallway. Pressure plates on the ground, holes in the wall. Seemed to be a trap I've seen in a movie before.
I gestured for Bones to stay as close to me as possible as we walked over to the wall. We shimmied along the wall and did our best to not slip up. I could see Bones' grip was breaking so I grabbed his arm and allowed him to regain balance. We finally made it to the other side after what felt like a million years, but was probably no more than a minute. 

Now what stood in front of us was a door, a big door. A door with a face, and the eyes were, oddly, lit torches. I tried to push it open with no luck, the thing must have weighed tons. I looked towards Bones to see him staring at the door. For once, he was just as lost as I was.
I noticed a bunch of skeletons and blood around this door, there was a consequence for failure. I handed my map to Bones and retrieved the folder from my bag, next to a photograph of the door it said in red ink:

[Needs blood sacrifice of a noble warrior!]

I figured that was where the blood on the ground and, obviously, the door came from. I put the folder back in my bag and grabbed a small dagger.

"It needs the blood of a noble warrior… one of us has to cut our palms". I explained.

"What? One of us? That would have to be you right? You're stronger than I am!". Bones reasoned.

"I mean, we only have 2 options. The alternative is death". I said

I started to think long and hard about this. What if Bones was the warrior between us? There was only one way to find out. I grabbed Bones' arm and brought his hand to me.

"HEY LET GO!" He yelled. 

I cut his palm and smeared it against the door. He jerked backwards and got some bandages from his bag to nurse his wound.
The door rumbled, and then the torches on the eyes turned green. The door quaked loudly, rocks fell from the ceiling, the entire place shook as the door slowly retracted upwards into the ceiling. I turned to Bones who had a look of shock on his face, staring at the door.

"Looks like you are cut out for war, kid." I said

Behind the door was a long, torchlit, hallway. I saw a big room at the end with a golden pedestal. We were just one walk away. I looked down at Bones. He stood back up and looked at me.

"You're a dick." He said in annoyance.

"My bad, but hey at least you're a brave warrior right?" I said.

He hid his smile by looking down at the floor.  I chuckled at his naiveness, then led the way into the dimly lit hallway. Bones was almost skipping out of excitement but I did my best to keep my cool. After all, this thing might not even exist..