Daring Hearts

by Silent Pegasus

Chapter I

The Temple

The air was dry and filled with dust as Grant Doyle looked at his new surroundings; he could tell that he was laying on stone, but it was too dark to see anything further than three feet in front of his hands. His head rang like a church bell in St. Peter’s Square as he tried to stand up. Doyle stood at six foot one with a lean muscular tone, his hair was blonde with dark roots to contrast his dark green eyes, his skin was tan to show all his hours spent outdoors. The man had a dark brown collared shirt that complemented his dark brown boots and tan colored pants.

“I’m gonna feel that tomorrow.” He groaned as he cracked his back. Doyle got back on all fours and started looking for his bag that he had on prior to his arrival in the odd place. He felt his hand touch cloth and smiled in victory. He dove his hand through his leather messenger bag and started fishing for his flashlight. Doyle hit a rubber button and saw a bright circle light up in his bag. “Success! Now to find out where the hell I-” As he removed the device from his bag his eyes shrank to the size of pin tips as the light showed a long stone hallway with several statues lining each side.

The dust acted like fog that lightly covered the floor. “Nice one Grant. What’d you get yourself into this time?” He scolded as he started to move down the hallway. His shoes scuffed along the stone as he kept following the path. Grant turned his light on one of the statues. It was roughly the same height as him, wearing some weird armor that had a long spike coming out of it’s head, another thing was that there were no boots for the supposed soldier who once wore this armor.

On it’s back was a long bow, handcrafted with several markings etched into the fine wood. He took it off the statue and pulled it back. Nice and tight. I hope I remember how to use this thing. He thought as he put it over his shoulder and attached the matching quiver as well. The quiver only had a few arrows in it and they looked like they would break apart any second, still it was something. The pathway then came to a split, each leading down a dark tunnel.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out an ordinary quarter and set it in on his thumb. Heads left, tails right. He flicked the coin up into the air and caught it as it came back into his palm. He then placed his hand on the back of his left hand and lifted his hand up to show the tails side facing up. With that he pocketed the coin and continued his trek further into the unknown.

After what felt like hours of walking and choosing random passageways that seemed to go on forever, Grant finally felt something, his foot had started to sink. He looked down just in time to see the floor open up beneath him. He felt himself falling into darkness as he screamed in a tone that if anyone would hear they’d think he was a girl. His butt hit a hard stone slab and he started sliding down as the opening closed up. In the confusion, he dropped his flashlight and cursed as he fumbled trying to catch his source of light.

As his hands wrapped around the stick he felt the incline end and he tumbled a bit before getting his bearings. “Fuck, that hurt. Can this day get any better?” Sarcasm covered his words like butter on popcorn. He fished out his flashlight and steadied himself on a hard wall as he stumbled down the corridor. As he pressed his hand against the wall he felt a stone he had his right hand on push into the wall and several clanks could be heard.

Oh great now what, a giant boulder? The portion of the wall ahead of him began to shake and the floor started to shift. The wall slowly slid down into the floor making air rush into the crypt. Grant sighed and pointed his flashlight into the crypt and his eyes widened. The light showed a massive room, piled with shelves occupied by scrolls, books, maps, an egghead’s wet dream. As he entered the room the door slammed shut behind him. He banged on the stone wall several times before continuing his search. Grant shined his light and saw something in the center of the room, a pedestal with something covering it.

The man slowly approached the small protrusion and removed the old cloth to show a glass case surrounding a gauntlet. The gauntlet looked like it covered the hand, wrist and fore arm and ended a bit bellow the elbow. It appeared to have a metal covering over leather, the metal had several glyphs and symbols carved into it. What Grant noticed the most was on the back of the glove portion of the artifact was a glowing white jewel.

His hands acted on their own as he reached forwards and removed the glass casing. His eyes seemed to be entranced by the shining jewel. As he reached forwards the gauntlet came alive and jumped out at him. The object fitted itself on his right hand and the man felt incredible pain circulating through his body. He was on the floor rolling around like someone had just dumped fire ants down his shirt. Soon the pain stopped and the man grunted as he examined the odd artifact.

“Fucking perfect.” He retrieved his flashlight and saw a large desk with a hooded figure sitting at it. “Oh shit.” He approached the desk and sighed. “Sorry about that man. I didn’t see you there.” No response came from the stranger. “Hey you wouldn’t happen to know what this place is would you?” Still nothing. “Are you okay?” As Grant gently nudged his shoulder the hood on the stranger fell back to show a perfectly preserved skeleton. The man fell over in shock and started panting heavily.

In the light he could see a bone protruding from it’s head and the skull looked misshaped. The skeleton fell out of the seat it was occupying and shattered into tiny bone fragments. “Oh man, I am SO going to hell for that.” He noticed something amongst the cloak and bones, a brown leather bound journal that had a few scratches across the face and had seen better days. Grant swiped the journal and opened it up to see a mess of letters and symbols he couldn’t understand. He did notice drawings of the gauntlet that had made a home on his arm sketched into the book.

Grant put the book in his bag and stood back up before he broke anything else. The man’s heart jumped into his throat as he heard what sounded like chains being pulled through a pulley. He cautiously followed the noise that was coming from the far end of the room where a large wooden door was standing. He slowly and quietly cracked the door open only to wince as light filled his eyes. He saw two chains hanging from the ceiling that lead down to a large wooden beam that something was shackled to.

Grant’s eyes shrank as he saw five human looking things surrounding the one that was being held by the chains. They were bi-pedal and wore clothes, so they had some intelligence. Instead of skin the four had a layer of fur of different colors. The one in chains looked like a light brown color with a grey head of hair and tail. Wait tail? At a second glance he saw that the other three had the same tuff of hair sticking out through their cloths just above their rear ends.

The subdued one looked different than the other four, from this angle he guessed it was female due to it’s chest size and it had wings. The leader of the gang had dark brown fur and a combed back jet black mane and tail.

“Well, well, well now. Such a pleasure to see you again Ms. Do.” He had a suave accent and a cocky grin on his face. The woman struggled in her restraints and wanted to yell but she had a gag over her mouth. “Still have some fight in you no? That’s good, then you can answer my questions.” He reached a hand out and one of the goons handed him a large machete used to cut through thick foliage.

The creature removed the gag only to get a wad of spit in his eye. “So unsanitary.” He said as he wiped his face with a red polka dotted ascot. He reached up and grabbed her by the cheeks. “Where is the gauntlet?” Grant gulped as he looked down at his armored right arm. The woman remained silent and stared back at him with angry magenta eyes. “I don’t have all day Ms. Do.”

“Go buck a hydra.” The interrogator sighed and slapped her across the face with the back of his hand. That made Grant’s blood boil, he was never sure why he always got so angry when someone mistreats women. The interrogator put the gag back on her mouth and nodded to one of his henchmen. The minion moved behind the woman to where her wings were restrained, he grabbed the right wing and yanked it down making a popping noise.

The woman’s muffled cried echoed through the halls and tears filled her eyes as she thrashed in her restraints. The chains rattled against one another and she was panting as she felt her wing dislocate. “I won’t ask again Ms. Do.” The woman still gave him the death glare. The waved the blade in front of her face.

“If you won’t tell me, then I will have to search you.” Her eyes shrank as he reached for her dirty tan shirt and started unbuttoning it and moved his hands across her fur. “I always admired you for your body Ms. Do.” He said as he licked his lips and grabbed her right breast. She closed her eyes and prayed that something, anything would happen.

Grant couldn’t take any more of this. He didn’t care who they were, no one deserves that. He pulled out his newly acquired bow and loaded an arrow. He pulled back the cord and steadied his aim. Remember, deep breaths. In and out. In and out. He slowed his breath and focused on the one in the center. He felt a burning sensation in his right hand and released the arrow. The bolt shot through the air like a crimson spear and struck the interrogator in the arm before exploding. Holy shit!

The male cried out in pain as he clutched his arm as he put the flames out. The group then all turned around looking for where the shot came from. All they saw was the walls lit by torchlight. “Come out and fight like a stallion!” One of them yelled.

Stallion? Grant thought as an idea hatched in his mind.

“FOOLS!” He made his voice echo through the stone walls thanks to the architecture of the building. “YOU HAVE DISTURBED MY SLUMBER AND I SHALL NOW FEAST UPON YOUR BONES!”

“Wh-who’s th-there?” The four were shaking like children trapped in one of those Halloween fun houses at carnivals.

“I AM THE SPIRIT THAT HAUNTS THESE HALLS. THOSE WHO WAKE ME NEVER LIVE TO TELL THE TALE!” Grant fired another arrow that stuck one of them in the shoulder. “LEAVE NOW, OR DEATH AWAITS YOU WITH SHARP POINTY TEETH!” That was all the convincing the four stallions needed to make themselves scarce. The leader pushed two of the thugs out of the way and dropped the weapon along with something shiny from his pocket.

The mare was awestruck at what she just witnessed, four of the toughest thugs she’s come across running and screaming like a bunch of frightened bunny rabbits. If she weren’t in chains then she’d be on the floor laughing until her lungs gave out. So she settled for a chuckle. “I can’t believe that worked.” Her fun would have to wait as she heard a male voice from the balcony that overlooked the room. “Either I’m a better actor than I thought, or they’re idiots.”

Do couldn’t move her head due to the restraints but she heard grunting noises as Grant climbed down from the balcony, using the carvings in the wall as footholds. “Damn, Ezio makes this look easy.” His right foot slipped and he fell a good ten feet before hitting the hard floor. “Fuck me.” He groaned as he slowly got up and shook his head. Grant saw the creature from the back and saw that she had hooves instead of feet and she was wearing a pair of tan shorts that went down to her mid thigh.

The mare’s eyes shrank as she saw a bald ape standing six feet tall with a bow on his back and wearing clothes. He reached towards her and she closed her eyes. She opened her eyes when she felt the gag coming loose and he removed the cloth and stuffed it in his pocket. “Are you okay?”

“My wing is busted and I’m chained up. What do you think?” She deadpanned.

“You’re welcome.” Grant rolled his eyes. Daring grunted and looked him over. Her eyes shrank when she saw his right arm.

“The gauntlet of Artemis! Where did you find that?” Grant looked down at his arm and shrugged.

“Found it in some dead guy’s office.” He pointed up to the balcony.

“How did you unlock the door?” Here eyes were like two burning embers as she gritted her teeth. Grant folded his arms.

“Why should I tell you?”

“Because I’ll beat you into the ground if you don’t.”

“I think you’re the last person who should be making threats.” He said as he eyed the chains. She thrashed in them and saw that the thug dropped the keys to her locks.

“The keys are over there.” She motioned with her head. “Get me down from here.”

“You just threatened to beat me to pulp. Why should I?” She gritted her teeth at the words. “I just saved your ass and all you’ve done is insult and yell at me. I could leave you here to rot ya know.” Do started chuckling at the words. “Something funny? It’s been a tough day, I could use a laugh.”

“This place has thousands of tunnels running through it. Take a wrong turn and you’ll never get out.” Grant had to admit it was only dumb luck that got him this far and he knew everyone’s luck runs out eventually. “I can read ancient Equestrian, so I know the way out.” She said in a cocky tone.

“It seems we’re at an impasse.” Grant scratched his chin as he thought. He walked over to the keys and picked them up in his hand. “I’ll make a deal with you Ms...”

“Do. Daring Do.”

“Right.” He said as he raised an eyebrow at the name. “Tell you what, I’ll let you down if you tell me where I am and what you are.” She frowned at the words. “When you lead me out of this crazy Indiana Jones set, I’ll give you this.” He pointed to the gauntlet. “Deal?” Daring bit her lip and weighed her options.

“Deal.” Grant unshackled her wrists, wings and hooves before helping her down off the restraints. Daring stood at only a few inches shorter than Grant. Daring walked over to the corner where a safari hat sat. She dusted it off and set it atop her grey mane. “Let’s go.”

“Okay two things I should point out,” Daring turned to look at him with a groan. “since we’re going to be working together temporarily, name’s Grant Doyle.”

“And the second?” Grant crossed his arms and chuckled.

“You sure you wanna go adventuring like that?” He pointed at her. Daring followed his finger and looked down. Her eyes shrank and her face turned scarlet when she saw that her shirt was still unbuttoned showing off her bra covered chest. She covered herself with her left hand and slapped him across the face with the other.

“Pervert!” She yelled as she buttoned up her shirt and stormed off into the tomb with the human following close behind.

“This is gonna be fun I can already tell.”

Author's Note

In honor of my 700 follower milestone! Enjoy!