(Austin and Seek are young teenaged here, like around 14-15 young; this may be OOC on Austin's part as his 6th ep just inspired me to project onto his character, my bad-)

Austin and Seek had only been in the jungle temple for seven minutes and already nearly been killed five times. Setting off two traps at the entrance, Sekah waking up dormant skeleton guards, then guessing the wrong combination to get past the first room. The punishment being the floor opening up beneath them and dumping them into a concrete corridor.

"This is your fault, you know," Sekah mumbled as they walked down the endless darkness, lit only by Austin's occasional fire.

Austin glared at his back and flicked a flame just past him. "What do you mean my fault?!"

"I wanted to wait to figure out the combination but nooo you wanted to just blow it open! If I hadn't tried to open it, you would've blown me and the artifact up."

"We don't even know exactly where it was! Who's going to hide an artifact right behind a wall with three levers, stupid."

Sekah huffed, crossed his arms, and purposefully walked a bit faster. "You're the stupid one." A column of fire blew past him, filling up the corridor floor to ceiling. He yelped and flattened himself against the wall while his face felt like it was being torched.

"What'd you say!?"

"Nothing! I said nothing!" Sekah spit out. The fire dwindled down and he glared at his brother before picking up the pace.

The strained silence lasted a whole three seconds before both of them were ready to yell at the other again. Before either of them could say anything or attack, the walls around them rumbled. They stopped dead in their tracks and glanced at each other.

The stone walls behind them opened up with a grating groan. Out stepped short stone-stacked golems with glowing light green lines carved into their bodies. They staggered towards them and Sekah nervously gulped.

"Uh, we should go."

Austin laughed. "Tch, look at them. What are they gonna do to us?"

One golem materialized an obsidian club from its back and swung it at Austin. He ducked at the last minute and the club rammed into the wall, going right through and striking in a human-sized crater.

"That's what they'll do to us."

All the golems pulled out similar clubs and the two brothers turned hightail and ran. Thunderous stomps bellowed behind them, never slowing but not getting faster either. Sekah feverishly vined the ceiling, swinging himself ahead with Austin flinging flames forward to light their way.

"I see light ahead!" Sekah called back. He disappeared into the dark and Austin cursed.

Before he could fill the entire corridor with magma, a vine emerged from the darkness, grabbing Austin, and yanking him forward. He saw a glimpse of green before he slammed into his brother and was shoved to the ground.

He landed face first and bit down a yell when his nose crushed in on itself. Something thin and tangy stuck itself in his mouth and spat it out. Blades of grass. He coughed and stuck out his tongue, batting the taste off. "What was that for?"

Sekah stood over him, looking him over. "Saving your life obviously. You were running too slow."

"You weren't even running! Doesn't count."

"Does too! Anyway get up, look what we found."

Austin leapt up, only because he wanted to, not because Seek told him to. They were at the mouth of a large cavern showered in green light. The cavern could've been mistaken for a garden on the surface if not for the dark, rocky ceiling. Grass grew from along the floor, weeds and flowers flourishing amongst the multitude of trees. Vines fell from up above and curled around the floral floor.

Austin looked behind them and stared into the corridor. Nothing. "Well, looks like we lost them."

"Maybe the artifact's in here somewhere," Sekah guessed, smiling down at all the fauna. He could feel the bountiful life pouring out from the cavern, warming his heart in the cold air trapping them in.

"Let's find out!" Austin flicked his hand and a meteor formed from the cavern ceiling; stone cracking away and rolling into a ball held together by lava. It flung itself down like a pinball and crashed into an area of grass, settling it ablaze and rendering it charred and devoid of plantlife.

"Hey! No, you idiot!" Sekah shoved Austin out the way and swung over to the damage. He stomped out the fire and glared up at his brother. "Are you insane? If the artifact's here, blowing up life isn't going to help us find it."

"It's more of an effort than you can make in here." Austin shrugged and joined him down on the garden floor, pushing vines out of his way like they personally insulted his mother. "What's your idea, ask the trees where it's at?" he taunted.

"At least the trees would be more of a help than you are. All you do is meteor everything and hope it works. How would you like it if I ruined your precious lava?"

"Colin's not here with his dumb water, so what're you going to do to my lava?" Seek opened his mouth to retort, but Austin pushed past him, cutting him off. "That's right, nothing! You can barely do anything on your own besides grow plants and annoy us with your vines."

"I just saved you with my 'annoying vines'! Those golems would've smashed you into the ground, you're lucky I was here."

"I'm never lucky to have you here. Every trip we take, I got to save you from every measly thing that attacks us. Heck, even from things that don't want to hurt us I have to save you!"

Sekah gritted his teeth. HIs face deformed into an anger that Austin had never seen him have, "I can handle myself!"

"Oh can you?" Austin chuckled but something bitter cut through it.

"Yeah! We're in my domain now- hey!" Sekah lunged forward and shoved Austin's fiery hand away from a tree. "Have some respect would you?"

"Respect? What do you know about respect? I'm the oldest and I don't get any respect from you!"

"Why would I respect a hot-headed jerk who sets fire to everything! Can't even control your powers, blowing up our island, ruin mine and Colin's places."

"Who are you calling hot-headed?!" Austin shoved Sekah away, setting his brother partly on fire. He yelped and furiously hit his arms to put out the fire. Austin merely watched him panic, face scrunched up. 'That fire won't hurt him, he's fine.'

Sekah batted out the fire and balled his hands into fist. Thorned weeds sprouted up around his feet and circled around his ankles. "I definitely don't need your help if you're just going to set me on fire every time I insult you! Why don't you go swim in lava or something where you're not bothering me."

"Fine! If you want to be so mature, you clearly don't need your big brother around. I'll see you back at home after you find the artifact!" He shot a beam at the nearest rock, splintering it into pebbles before blinking away.

Across the cavern, another higher up tunnel was carved into the stone. Austin teleported up and completely calmly walked down the tunnel, leaving flaming footprints behind. Totally on purpose. As was the wave of fire that appeared behind him when the tunnel led him back to the temple entrance, the hidden corridor covered in thick vines.

He set one heavily steaded foot on the stairs and hesitated. Could Sekah find his way back home? Colin knew the coordinates of anywhere they were on the ocean, and he himself was just good with directions. Sekah had never had to find his way home before alone.

Austin shook his head. Not his problem anymore. Sekah was the one who said he didn't need him, that included helping him get back. He could swim in the wrong direction if he wanted to, Austin didn't care!

Stupid Seek, stupid artifact, stupid vines everywhere. Austin lit up his hand and watched with a grim face as the vine shriveled up into a charred black mess. He was tired. He was tired of saving him all the time. He was always annoying about it too and just expected it every time. Not even just when it was life or death! Every trouble that came, he was the one expected to bail his brothers out. Even their parents expected him too! And he was sick and tired of it.

He was never going to save Seek ever again.

"AHHHH!"

Austin whirled around. "Sekah!" He skidded his feet on the cracked stone and took off back down the stairs. He ran as fast he could back down the tunnel, rounding corners on lava-slidded feet. As soon as he hit the end, he scanned the cavern.

The golems from before had found them. They stood menacingly, clubs raised, around Sekah in the trees, on the ground, everywhere. He had no opening out.

"Hey!" Austin yelled, gaining their brief attention. "I'm the only one that gets to bully my brother! Back off!" Flames rained down from the ceiling, surrounding the golems in a ring of fire and torching a few. An ungodly screech came from what he assumed was their unanimated mouths. With them distracted, Sekah swung out of their circle and reach and onto a far enough away boulder.

"I got an idea!" He held out his hands and clenched them into fists while twisting his wrists. The entire cavern shook, debri falling all around them and caking the air in dust. A group of rocks in the grass sunk into the ground, followed quickly by the grass itself. A hole opened up and swallowed it all in with no bottom in sight.

Sekah vined the golems' legs and strung them up over the chasm. Austin burned through the vines and down they went, screeching until they were mere echoes in the dark. The grass around the edges stretched across and intertwined until the chasm was covered up.

Austin blinked treetop to treetop until he landed on the boulder next to his brother. Sekah fell into his arms, gripping them with shaking hands. "This is your fault again, fireheaded numbskull."

"Shut up and let me get you out of here already." But he didn't move just yet, waiting until both of them steady. The two left the cavern and headed up the tunnel Austin had taken. They walked out of the templed, artifact-less, but into the bright daylight.

As soon as the burning sun hit their skin, Austin wrapped an arm around Sekah's shoulders and pulled him into a hug that the other didn't protest to. They were still close in height, but Austin was gaining on him enough in height to hide their smiling faces away from the other easily.

Sekah sniffed. "I'm just letting you hug me because I know you were scared."

Austin patted his head and rested his own on his brother's shoulder. "Yeah, yeah whatever you say."

".... Kane and Pele don't have to find out about this right?"

"Oh heck no. Not even Kevin's going to know."