Malcolm arched his back, bones cracking, and watched the group amble ahead without him. Pelhiglo's purple skin caught the dim cave light as he waved wildly toward the ceiling talking to Valgrin and Izzy. Ylnah and Skwilly sometimes pulled a little closer to listen or say something. Once again Malcolm was glad he was bringing up the rear, along with another almost chicken. At least this one stayed silent, even if it gave him the side-eye from time to time.

  He shifted the travel bag the paaluns had gifted each of them with to ride a little higher on his hip. For the tenth, perhaps the eleventh time, he lamented the fact that the mushrooms couldn’t go into anything using folded space. Something in the magic caused them to spoil within a few minutes. They each had enough mushrooms to cover four or five days and in enough flavors to keep things fresh, the pros easily outweighed the cons. Malcolm considered grabbing one at the moment, then changed his mind.

  The cave mouth framed a landscape of ash-gray rocks and sickly green gas. Pelhiglo stabbed a finger leftward, his chittering voice urgent. Malcolm's feet picked up pace, carrying him forward to catch the conversation.

  “…it be three miles longer but save you twenty minutes.” Pelhiglo turned as Malcolm came to a stop. “The ridge goes away first. But take it. Get narrow, but save time.”

  Several pats on the back, a few hugs, and the occasional instruction from Pelhiglo later the group turned around a waived good-bye on last time.

  “Think this is safe?” Izzy asked, again.

  “As safe as we can make it. He’s going to be able to do bad stuff, unless we move in there and make sure he doesn’t.” Valgrin pointed out, again.

  “I know. My head knows and realizes I’m asking the same thing over and over again. My heart is a little scared.” Izzy sighed, “I just don’t want to come back to a mess.”

  “A mess it may be,” Malcolm grinned. “But I don’t think there will be any evil intent behind it.”

  Malcolm's boots slid on loose gravel as they followed the ridge, his calves burning from the steady incline. The noxious green haze had thinned, revealing jagged peaks that clawed at the alien sky. Boulders crowded the path, forcing them to walk single-file, their shoulders occasionally scraping against rough stone. Two hours in, Valgrin's voice echoed between the rocks ahead, "Hold up!" He stood frozen, one hand raised, eyes fixed on something just around the bend.

  Poking his head around the last boulder, Malcolm's breath caught. Two massive slabs of brass rose from the mountainside, reflecting dull amber light. Vines twisted across the metal surface, each leaf rendered with such detail he could see individual veins. Strange fruits hung from the etched branches, pear-shaped but covered in what looked like scales, their surfaces worn smooth by time, or something else. His fingers itched to trace the intricate patterns that seemed to shift and dance in the dim light.

  “Huh?” Was his grunt to the world to exclaim the beauty of the doors.

  “Sums my thoughts up,” Valgrin stood staring, his arms folded.

  “But why here?” Malcolm almost kept the whine out of his voice.

  “Izzy, tell your boyfriend here what you told me.” Valgrin stepped aside to allow Izzy to come along side Malcolm, she glared at Valgrin as she did.

  “Watch yourself there ya byrick.” She grinned as she growled at Valgrin, then turned to Malcolm. “I think it’s a leveler or filler dungeon that just randomly appears at stays there until its done. Some how one showed up here and is been waiting for who knows how long.”

  “That’s a thing?” Malcolm raised his eyebrow.

  “First one I’ve seen, but heard of them plenty.” She answered.

  “Randomly? Really?” Malcolm drew out the last word.

  “Does it matter. Placed or random doesn’t change the decision to go in or not.” Izzy argued.

  Malcolm shook his head, “Wrong. There’s the principle of the thing if nothing else. Don’t want to be nobody’s entertainment.” Malcolm finished by crossing his arms and making a pouty face.

  “You’re everyone’s entertainment.” Valgrin drawled, “Keep hoping you’ll turn into good entertainment, still hoping.”

  Malcolm ignored his friend. “And we have to go in?”

  “Nothing is compelling us.” Ylnah observed, “Right now if we decide to go in, there isn’t any magic influence the choice.”

  “So go in or not?” Izzy asked and got agreement from everyone but Malcolm. “You’re the last vote. It has to be unanimous.”

  “You agreed Skwilly? Thought at least you’d see some sense.” Malcolm looked around the group then shrugged his shoulders and sighed. “I vote we go in. I’m not your entertainment!” He shouted at the sky. “Next problem, getting through this door.”

  “Been looking at it.” Valgrin pointed, “Don’t see any Black Dove art. Ylnah was double checking me.”

  “Haven’t found any either.” She responded.

  Izzy turned to face the door. “And you haven’t found anyway in?”

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Malcolm shook his head, “No handle, no hinges, no…”

  Izzy touched the door and the air shimmered right before the door disappeared. She walked through with a “hmph”.

  “Should try touching it.” Skwilly said as he sauntered through the opening.

  Malcolm grinned, then added, “You know been meaning to practice my field goals, you’d make a nice practice ball.”

  Skwilly answered with a snort.

  The door reappeared behind Malcolm as he brought up the rear. “Door shut behind us. Told you we shouldn’t go in.” He reached back and turned the knob on the door, it opened back out to the mountains. “Well, that was the first surprise.” He mumbled.

  Malcolm's boots scraped against the uneven stone floor as they advanced through the corridor. The walls narrowed slightly, rough-cut and cool to the touch. After twenty paces, darkness pooled ahead like spilled ink, shimmering where occasional flecks of silver and gray danced across its surface. Without hesitation, Malcolm reached forward, his fingertips disappearing into the void.

  “Malcolm!” Izzy yelled at him.

  He brought his hand back and wiggled his fingers. “Not the smartest, but at least we know we can go through.”

  A bright light glared from the floor, causing Malcolm and the others to shield their eyes.

  “Skwilly warn us next time.” Ylnah scolded, with little heat to her words.

  “Sorry,” Skwilly replied. “Had an idea and just did it. My light didn’t show anything though.”

  Valgrin snapped his fingers. “Ylnah, have you looked at the magic?”

  “Am now.” She said her eyes fixating on something in front of her. “Tracing…might be able to…”

  The darkness rippled like a pond disturbed by falling stones, silver specks swirling and splitting before Malcolm's eyes until where one had floated, two now danced. “More sparkly now.”

  Ylnah sagged, “Best shot I had. I can tell it’s not harmful, meaning it won’t do us any harm.”

  “At this point, break on through to the other side?” Valgrin tried to hid a smirk, but failed.

  “Boo,” Malcolm jeered. “Seriously though, seems to be best answer. I’m just standing around in a purple haze.”

  The others stared and Valgrin and Malcolm as they got lost in the giggles for a minute or two.

  “That,” Valgrin gasped a little, “Was uncalled for and probably much needed.”

  Malcolm turned to the others, “Couple of old Earth song titles. Something we did from time to time in our games back home. Might be funny, might die on the vine. Worth a shot every time.”

  Izzy exchanged looks with Ylnah and Swilly, “Yeah, I don’t follow either.” She said.

  “I’m heading in. Everyone ready to follow.” Valgrin shifted his pack. “At least as long as I don’t scream or melt.”

  “Stop that, it’s not funny.” Ylnah complained.

  Malcolm watched Valgrin disappear into the black, no trace of him remained on this side of the black. He then watched each member of the group do the same, leaving him alone. Don’t like this, don’t like it at all. Ain’t having fun. But here goes. Malcolm stepped through the shimmering, magical curtain.

  Malcolm's shoulder collided with Ylnah's back, making her stumble forward. "Sorry," he muttered, sidestepping to steady himself. A cavernous hallway stretched before him, wide enough that he could have lain down twice head-to-toe across its width and still had room to spare. Six doors punctuated the walls—red, blue, and yellow marching down the left side, their counterparts orange, purple, and green standing sentinel on the right. Malcolm ran his fingertips along the nearest wall, its surface the exact shade of the hot chocolate his mother used to make when she'd added too much milk, watery but comforting. His nail caught on one of the countless dark speckles dotting the surface. "Swiss dots," he whispered, hearing his mother's voice from decades ago, pointing them out on her favorite curtains.

  Valgrin came back from the first doors, a good fifteen feet away. “Nothing overly weird about the look of the doors. Other than each a different color. Clues? Guesses?”

  Izzy looked up from the floor, “Certainly the cleanest dungeon I’ve ever been in. No dust in the corners or anywhere else.”

  Ylnah walked down the hall, “Check on if they were locked?”

  “No, just looked at them.” Valgrin called back, “Was hoping someone had an idea before commit…”

  “Red is locked.” Ylnah walked across the hall. “But orange isn’t.” She walked to the end of the hall trying doorknobs and then came back to the group, "Blue and yellow are unlocked as well. Purple and green join red in the locked category. I didn’t open any of them, just twisted the doorknob.”

  “Orange is the closest unlocked, I vote we start there. Need to watch for keys and clues related to these doors, just in case.” Malcolm watched everyone nod, then turned and headed to the orange door.

  Malcolm ran his hand over the orange door's surface, feeling the slight ridge where paint had filled old scratches. The six panes caught the light oddly, just decorative indentations pressed into the wood. He jiggled the faux-tarnished brass knob, which rattled loosely in its housing like the front door of his childhood home.

  Ylnah closed her eyes, her fingers hovering an inch from the surface, then nodded. "Nothing magical here," she whispered.

  Malcolm knelt, examining the threshold and hinges before standing with a shrug. When Valgrin finally twisted the knob, the door swung open with a soft creak, revealing not a room but another shimmering black curtain, silver and gray specks dancing across its surface like stars in a midnight sky.

  “Anti-climatic,” Malcolm grumbled. “Going through?”

  A chorus of yeahs sent Malcolm through the black and into the industrial gray of the next room.

  Malcolm stepped into an oval chamber that stretched the length of two tennis courts. His footsteps echoed off polished gray walls that soared upward like the inside of a missile silo. Halfway across the space stood a clear barrier, like the sides of an aquarium, containing a bed of lime-green gravel. A smaller enclosure of pink gravel occupied the near half of the room, with an opening cut through its transparent wall. His boots clicked against burnt orange tiles as he approached six dials arranged in two columns at the center of the pink gravel section. The dials mirrored the hall doors perfectly, red, blue, and yellow lined up on the left with orange, purple, and green on the right.

  Each dial had a radial black line painted on it, the lines were all in the noon position when looking at it from the doorway.

  One could also see a few plants along the edge of the oval, seeming to grow out of both colors of the gravel.

  Izzy and Ylnah had walked over to one, the pink gravel crunching under their feet. “These are plastic.” Izzy’s shout echoed through the room.

  Ylnah nodded, adding, “With all this color and the way the dials are painted there must be some correlation to the hall we just left. Guessing this is another of those puzzle rooms.”

  “It seems to be,” Valgrin groaned. “Seems like we keep going from one to the other. Kinda wish for something a little more straight forward. At least wishing for it until I get it and wish thing were back to the way they were. At least this isn’t one of my rooms or one I’ve seen before.”

  “I’ve seen it before,” Malcolm interjected as he looked down at the dials. “Get your feelings on that colored tile room a bit more now. This one, it’s mine.”