The Geraptiku Temple

      My older brother, Kougra, was dragging yours truly, Prince, to the Deserted Tomb of Geraptiku. He's the goofy one, and let's say there's not much in that noggin of his.

      "We're here!" my brother said happily as we entered the city. It was deserted and had a dark aura to it. I looked around carefully, seeing nothing but deserted huts and near-death plants. I shivered from the chill in the air and the chill of dread.

      "Kougra, I really don't think we should do this..." I muttered, taking in the giant temple in front of us.

      "Whatever, little bro," Kougra only said back. He went up to the entrance. "We may not come out alive, but who cares?"

      I gulped. "Who cares, Kougra? I CARES. Because I'd like to stay alive, THANK YOU VERY MUCH." I spun around to leave, but Kougra gripped the back of my shirt. "Prince, come on. Are you SCARED?"

      I snapped back at him, anger bubbling up. "I'm not scared," I spat.

      "Scaredy-Kyrii! You don't want to go in." He motioned to the now open door, revealing only blackness and darkness within.

      I tried to puff out my chest and act brave. "No, I am not a Scaredy-Kyrii and I SHALL PROVE IT!" I stomped over to the doorway and my brother only smirked and followed. Darkness consumed us and the door behind us slammed shut.

      I stopped, resulting in my Kougra brother slamming into me. "Hey, watch it, Prince!" he yelped, but I didn't look back. It was too dark... too dark! My heart was beating about a million miles an hour. I knew even the bravest heroes probably couldn't face this! It was too overwhelming!

      But I couldn't show my brother my fear, so I took in a big breath and kept on going. Kougra snorted, probably already noticing my fear and dread. Ah, let him notice! At least I had the nerve to walk in! My brother Nicky would've cried and screamed and run off even at the mention of coming to Geraptiku.

      I took in a shaky breath and began to walk again. The hallway became wider, giving us enough room to walk side by side. Kougra smirked at me. "I'm surprised you're actually going through with this."

      "Why wouldn't I?" I asked, glaring at him even though it was too dark for him to see my face.

      "Dude, you get scared at the sight of a Spyder."

      "Only because they bite! And Nicky's more of a scaredy-Kougra than me!"

      "Yeah, but he's a BABY."

      "Yeah, but he's actually OLDER than me."

      At that, we walked in silence for a while until I stopped in my tracks. "Kougra, did you hear that?"

      My brother looked at me. "What?"

      "Behind us... a noise..."

      Before I could continue, a giant Ghost Hissi was suddenly behind us. "RAWR! ME HUNGRY!" it exclaimed.

      We both stood frozen for a second, then took off down the hall, screaming our heads off. The Hissi followed, announcing he was hungry as he chased us. We kept screaming in return and ran as fast as we could. Even faster than the time we were chased by those meepits.

      We took random turns and chose random staircases, the Hissi following us still. Finally, we found a small hole in the wall and dove into it. We watched, panting silently, as the Hissi scanned the room. Confused, he disappeared, back to wherever he had popped up from.

      "That... was... close..." my brother panted, still crouched beside me.

      "I... know... he... could've... eaten... us..." I replied, looking around wildly to make sure that Hissi wouldn't come back. It was far too dark to see though, unless he would appear right in front of us.

      "Let's... just... go home," Kougra said quickly, as if he didn't want to be heard.

      I laughed. "Leave? We barely... started." My panting was faltering now as my breath came back. I backed up in the hole. "I wanna... stay. It's really... cool... except for that... Hissi..."

      Kougra looked at me as if I had gone crazy. "Stay? This is horrible, Prince! We could've been eaten right there! Let's just leave! If I go home and tell Melina you were eaten by a psycho Hissi, she'd ground me for sure! Well, probably first go through sadness, then grief, then anger... like when I broke her lamp."

      I shook my head and began to back up more until I was completely in the hole. How was this hole so deep? Kougra grabbed for me, but I kept backing up... until I noticed I was suddenly in another room. I stood up and looked around. That hole wasn't a hole... it was a tunnel!

      "Kougra!" I called through the tunnel. "Kougra!"

      Kougra laughed. "Are you stuck in there now, Prince? Cause if you are, it serves you right."

      I rolled my eyes. "Kougra, it's not a hole... it's a TUNNEL!"

      Next thing I knew, Kougra's snout poked out from the hole. "Whoa... you weren't kidding. This must be some secret tunnel."

      I nodded and scanned the room. It seemed so... bare except for a bunch of vines hanging everywhere and mildew and dirt on the walls. "That's odd... there's nothing here." I announced, giving the room another inspection.

      Soon, Kougra was next to me. "Huh... ya think the treasure might be near?"

      I shrugged. "To be honest, I don't think its anywhere close..."

      Then, my foot hit a wire.

      I yelped as arrows shot towards me. Kougra yanked me to the floor and the arrows barely missed us. They shot deep into the concrete wall, proving they were extra deadly.

      "Don't trigger traps!" my brother yelled, and I cringed. "It wasn't my fault!" I yelled back. But, right when I said that, I triggered another one. A net of vines fell on top of us. I sighed. "Okay, so maybe it is... it's not my fault these people are so overprotective of their treasure."

      After gnawing through the vine net, we quickly escaped from the room. I triggered a few more traps on the way and we were screaming, waving our arms, and jumping up and down. I almost stumbled into a pit of spikes, and very nearly was stabbed by a sharp arrow.

     Someone was good with mechanics.

      We were soon walking down a very dark hallway. I couldn't see anything. I punched my paw out to make sure I wasn't running into a wall.

      "OW!"

      "Sorry, Kougra."

      Whoops. Guess Kougra had been walking in front of me. I couldn't see him, but I knew he was probably shooting me a dirty look.

      I looked up from the floor to see that there was dim light in front of us. "Kougra!" I yelled of joy. "I see a light!"

      "What?!" My brother whirled around and grabbed me, a scared look on his face... I think. "Prince, are you too hungry? Do you need water? Did you hit your head?"

      I rolled my eyes. "Brother, not THAT light. THAT light." I pointed in front of us. Kougra looked and gasped. "I see the light too! ...We're not dying, are we?"

      I laughed and grabbed his paw, dragging him behind me. We entered the dimly-lit room. I looked around. All that remained in the room was an empty box sitting on a pedestal.

      Someone else had gotten the treasure.

      "Fiddlesticks!" my brother shouted, stamping his paw in anger.

      "Fiddlesticks? That's a low word, Kougra," I muttered, crossing my arms.

      "I can't believe we didn't get the treasure!" Kougra yelled.

      "I can. We were too slow. You snooze, you lose."

      He glared at me. "Whose side are you on?"

      "Wha... I'm on nobody's side!"

      "You're not on my side, that's for sure!" Kougra kicked a bone on the floor. I cringed at the sight of it. "I shall devote my life to finding this person and writing them a stern letter!" He whipped out a pencil and paper and began writing furiously.

      I rolled my eyes. "Kougra..."

      He erased something.

      "Kougra..."

      He folded the paper and put it in an envelope.

      "...Kougra?" I was confused now how he had random things.

      He sealed the envelope and stuffed it in his pocket. "Now, when I find that person, they shall get that note!"

      I hit my forehead with my palm. How was I even related to this guy?

      Then I heard a growl. I slowly looked up. My brother did too.

      There was the Ghost Hissi.

      I screamed. Kougra screamed. We both screamed at the same time. Then we dashed out of there so fast, you would've thought the Darkest Faerie was chasing us. We soon hit the doorway and were out of the tomb, but we were still running and screaming until we arrived home, exhausted and our throats sore from all that screaming.

      My owner was at the doorway of our home. "For Fyora's sake... where were you two?"

      I pointed at Kougra and he pointed at me. "His fault!" we both called, doing the old Blame Game.

      My owner shook her head. "Well, I just came from the Geraptiku tomb! I found the treasure!"

      My brother and I were silent.

      "I spent the money on this cute plushie." She held up a plushie. "Isn't it adorable? It only cost me two thousand neopoints! Pretty much all I found. And I sold the other stuff that was in there."

      Silently, Kougra reached into his pocket. He pulled out the envelope he had written and shoved it into my owner's hands. She blinked as he walked into the house. She opened it, read it, then threw it to the floor. "KOUGRA!" she yelled, running into the house.

      My family isn't normal.

      But you've probably figured that out already...

The End