"Good morning, sleepyhead."

"Hmm??" She blinked awake, confused, flinching a little at the sunlight. "Ow..." She mumbled. "M-Mark??"

Mark nodded and gave her a smile. "Yup, I hope you slept well."

"I... I think so?" She sounded a bit confused before glancing around a little. "Looks like we didn't have any trouble last night?"

"There were no ambushes, no cops, no bears, no monsters in the woods, no nothing. For once, a plan went off without a hitch."

"Huh... Convenient."

"All you need to do is sit back, enjoy some breakfast while I drive us back to home base." He held up a pan to her.

She stared at the pan before carefully taking it. ".... thank you."

"No problem." The car began to make sputtering sounds.

"Um... That doesn't sound good."

"This is fine. This is fine." Mark tried to reassure her. "It's fine because I don't think we're that far from base, so we could always just walk straight through the woods over there and find it. Conversely, I could try to fix the engine. I've seen at least one YouTube video on engines, so I kind of know what they look like. I'd have to guess, though. I've never seen this one before. But how different could engines be, honestly?"

"Um..." She hesitated. "We can look and see if it's obvious? And if we can figure out what the problem is, we can always search up more youtube videos?" She suggested.

"Sounds like a plan."

"Alright then. You want to take a look while I finish eating?"

"Could you hold on to my little buddy here? He's pretty special." Mark handed her the box and opened the car door. "Now, let's see what this engine is all about."

She accepted the box, did a quick double take as she swore it's gem glowed at her before placing it in her bag. "I'll come help when I'm done." She told him, starting to eat.

Mark nodded and hopped out of the car, popping the engine open.

She watched him but startled when the ground rumbled in timing to the opening of the engine.

"Uh-oh, that can't be good...." Mark looked at her.

"Uh, yeah..." She hesitated. "Try.... try lowering it back down?"

Mark shrugged and put the car hood down.

The rumbling stopped.

Cassidy looked at him through the windshield confused. "Um... I'll admit. I didn't think that'd work."

"I mean, yeah... I haven't even touched the engine yet."

"Want to try opening it again?" She asked, taking another bite.

"Opening and closing the hood isn't going to fix the engine." Mark rolled his eyes but still opened the hood back up.

The ground rumbled again. "Especially if that keeps happening..."

"That... that can't be the car, right...?"

"I... dont know. I'll come look." She set the food down and hopped out of the car and walked over to him.

Mark frowned. "I don't know what's up with it, everything looks fine..."

She hummed softly. "I'm guessing if I lift this the ground will shake again but we can just try opening it a crack this time?" She suggested, placing her hands on the hood, ready to open it.

"Alright... ready...?"

"As I'll ever be." She replied before popping it open, and it seemed okay so she opened it further and leaned forward to get a better look at the engine, having tied her hair back in a ponytail. "Let's see what's going on here, shall we?"

"What? H-how the?" Mark was taken by surprise when the ground didn't rumble.

"I don't know but I'm going to take that as an all clear to fix the car, so mind lifting it up all the way so I can see better?"

Mark nodded and lifted up the hood.

As he did the ground started rumbling again and Cassidy looked back at him, still leaned over the engine. "What did you do?!"

"I have no idea-!"

Suddenly the ground caved from under them and they fell into a tunnel.

Cassidy cried out, hitting the edge of the car on the way down and landing on her back. "Ow...."

Mark groaned as he began to stand up from the ground, dusting himself off. "Are you okay?!"

Cassidy took a moment before carefully sitting up. "For sure gonna bruise at the very least but I'm functioning." She replied, wincing as she moved.

"Alright..." He was quiet for a moment. "Well, that was, um... that was weird."

She looked over at him from her spot on the ground and gave a slow nod before stopping. "Do... Do you feel that?" She placed her hand on the ground, feeling a rapidly growing rumble.

"Feel what?"

"That... rumbling. It's getting closer."

"Ah, now that you say that, I think I do..."

She looked around before spotting something and her eyes widened and forced herself to her feet. "Mark!" She quickly tried to warn him.

"Wh- AH!" Mark screamed as a large boulder came barreling their way.

"Run!" She told him, stepping back, able to avoid it.

Mark ran away as the boulder soared by, right on his tail. He disappeared into the cave.

Cassidy watched, her heart racing. 'Please don't be a dead end down there....'

Suddenly a man came running by, stopping when he saw Cassidy. "Hey, was that you screaming?"

She turned to him and did a double take when she saw him. "Uh, partly? My... friend, just ran off in an attempt to get away from a large boulder..." she explained.

"Really? Well, there's no need to be afraid now. I showed that boulder who's boss." The man put his hands on his hips.

"But... my friend?" She glanced down the tunnel.

The man didn't listen to her, having been distracted by something on the ground. "Whoa..."

She turned and followed his gaze and her eyes widened as she saw the box had fallen out of her bag and popped open during the fall. "Oh!" She quickly moved to grab a hold of the box pieces and saw the crystal statue that the new comer was staring at. "Um..." She hesitated, holding the box pieces now.

He picked up the stature and inspected it. "This looks like it belongs in a museum. You didn't steal this, did you?"

She glanced down at the box, in thought for a moment. "No." Technically Mark stole it, it was his treasure, not hers.

"Eh, nah. Not you. No way. I know a fellow adventurer when I see one."

"Right..." She nodded a little, clutching the empty box.

"Well, I better figure out where this belongs and take it back there." He nodded.

Cassidy just kind of nodded, glancing back towards where Mark ran off too.

"You could accompany me if you want. I lost my last assistant to an unfortunate boulder incident. It's like that thing was hunting me."

"...Huh..."

"But, anyway, you seem up to the task. What do you say?"

"Uh... Sure...?"

"Oh, great. That's awesome!" The man grinned. "It's not every day that you meet someone that's willing to face almost certain death on a daily basis."

She shrugged. "I mean, we're all going to die at some point, right? Why not give it a chance of doing something interesting."

"Exactly!" His smile grew.

She gave a small smile back before glancing towards the tunnel. "Would you mind helping me find my friend and make sure he's alright if I help you with this?"

"Of course! Favor for a favor is what they say!"

She smiled wider. "Thank you!"

"No problem!" He smiled "And this thing, it's incredible. I've never seen anything like it. But I have seen a lot of monkey carvings on the walls in this temple, so they're probably related."

"Well that's convenient."

"I think this is destiny." He replied.

"Yeah, I mean, it could be." She agreed with a shrug.

"Mmhm..." He nodded and handed the statue to her. "Why don't you hold on to this for me? But be careful. It might be cursed. So, don't look into its eyes for too long."

She glanced down at it, barely making eye contact but found her gaze locked onto it before pulling it away and choosing to place it in the box for safety. "Right."

When she looked up The man was already headed down the cave. "Come on, slowpoke. You gotta keep up if you want to roll with the big boys."

She quickly hurried after him. "Who are you anyway?"

"The name's Illinois." He tipped his hat towards her. "Pleasure to meet me. And I know what you're thinking. Yes, I am single. But I'm married to the job and my associates never last long, so best not to get too attached. And you are?"

She rolled her eyes a little at his cockiness but gave a small sassy bow. "Cassidy."

"Well it's nice to meet ya, Cassidy." Illinois said, leading her down the cave.

She smiled and followed after him. "So, what are you doin down here?"

"Adventuring, of course!"

She chuckled. "Fair enough."

They continued down the cave, soon reaching a tunnel of swinging axes.

Cassidy stopped and stared at them. "Oh, how fun. Traps."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about the traps. They always seem to be perfectly timed to miss you if you're going at a casual walk." He reassured her.

"Huh." She hesitated before following after him at a calm pace. "Alright."

"I think they count on people panicking and jumping around. But you? You're cool as a cucumber. I like that. None of my other associates ever had the stones to make it this far." Illinois explained.

She chuckled a little. "Believe it or not I've been in and seen some pretty sticky situations."

He nodded. "You seem like you've been through alot."

"Y-Yeah..." She replied softly, as they walked, not paying the traps any mind.

Soon they entered a large cavern with a stone structure in the middle. "Well, well, well. Here we are." Illinois said.

"Wow... That was pretty easy."

"Yeah, that was a lot easier than I expected. If I had to guess, I'd say this is where the monkey statue goes."

"Worth a shot." She agreed, opening up the box and pulling the statue back out.

Illinois nodded. "You know you've been an incredible help on this adventure, and I can't help but thank you. So why don't you just hand over the monkey statue and make this place whole again?"

Cassidy started to hand it over but caught a glimpse of the eyes again and stared at the statue, hand starting to shake a little.

"Come on. What's the risk?"

She hesitated before shaking her head and handing it to him.

He took the statue from her. "All right. Thanks, buddy."

"Yeah."

"You know, for a second there I thought that crazy joke I told you about cursed monkeys was actually true. No, I've lost associates to cursed snakes, cursed tigers, cursed elephants, cursed beavers. But cursed monkeys? That couldn't possibly be true."

Cassidy looked confused. "I mean, you never know."

Illinois set the statue town on the pedestal.

The statue started to glow once it was set down and soft music filled the air. Cassidy looked around in awe before looking at the statue again before getting blinded by the light. When she shielded her eyes she saw Illinois walking in front of her and followed after him.