Basic Sacrifice - Sacrificestuck

    It was time.  Two students stood in silence before the Magical Linguistics building, hands clenching and releasing, eyes trained upon the tower where they spent nearly everyday studying and learning how to perfect their magical abilities.  But it was more than just an educational facility that day.  No, it was something far more.  This day, and for the entire month, it was a madhouse--a collection of various mazes, scavenger hunts, obstacle courses, and puzzles all fit into one lone tower that would test every student who enrolled in Magical Linguistics.

   The two aforementioned students were about to embark on a trying journey through the halls and various other chambers in order to complete their assignment . . . and win "the prize."  The first of the two, a dark-skinned she-demon known as Bloody turned to look at her upir companion.  "Well.  We're here. Are you ready to begin?"

    The tall ginger-haired male seemed to hesitate before looking to his classmate.  "I suppose I am, it's just. . ."

    "Just what?" she questioned quietly, an ear twitching as if betraying her impatience at wanting to get a move on.

    "I-its the way that Razik has structured the assignments," he admitted quietly, looking a bit unsure.  "Does he honestly expect us to . . . sacrifice our /lives/ in order to complete the trial?"

    The demoness was silent for a moment, considering the instructions given to them by their professor, and the gleam in his eyes as he did so.  "I'm not sure," she admitted facing the building ahead of them again.  "I don't think he'd want us to willingly give up our lives, per se.  I suppose that he meant something else entirely.  For instance, blood is often seen as life, i.e. the expression life's blood.  Though, we might have to sacrifice parts of ourselves after all to complete the course."

    The upir lowered his head, sighing.  "That would make sense . . . this /is/ a dark arts school, after all."

    The she-demon looked to him again.  "So are you ready?"

    The male's response came sooner than it had last time.  "I am."

    "Alright.  Then here we go-"



  The two students had went inside, almost immediately rushing as if the test was something life-altering and demanded swift execution.  Once inside, they immediately went down into the basement as that was where they were directed to go to begin.  The room at the bottom of the stairs continuously sent up gusts of air, and appeared to be very dark and shady.  Upon descending the stairs they came to a large room lit by torches, casting their odd, blue light upon a hoard of . . . giant, yellow salamanders?

    "Well . . . that's something you don't see everyday," the female student muttered, stepping over one that had happened to crawl in her path.

    The male, Rose, meanwhile, was looking around at them all.  "What are we even supposed to do in here?"

    Bloody shrugged.  "I'm honestly not sure.  Look around, maybe there's a clue or something."

    The upir nodded and began to scan the amphibious consorts littering the ground while Bloody went on to studying the walls, ceiling, floor, and even the doors and stairs themselves, just in case there was some kind of clue written and stuck somewhere that they could use to solve this little puzzle of theirs.  After all, nothing about the scene really screamed "sacrifice" what with all of the floppy, yellow lizard-things hiccuping and gurgling about.

    Just as Bloody had concluded her search, her foot bumped something, and a grinding noise was heard.  Looking down, she spotted what seemed to be a crystal or glass ball rolling around after having been moved by her foot.  "Uh . . . what's-"

    "Bloody!" hissed Rose from a ways behind her.  The she-demon turned around to face him as he looked on in surprise and wonder at one of the larger amphibians on the ground.  "Look at what it's doing!" he breathed.

    Walking over, Bloody soon saw what had captured her partner's attention.  The creature seemed to be coughing something up, as a bulge was apparent in its throat.  The obstruction moved further up the animal's throat before it suddenly coughed up a large, round crystal ball.

    Bloody's eyes widened a bit.  "What the absolute hell?"

    Rose, meanwhile had already bent down to the orb, carefully and hesitantly reaching out to it.  "Is this . . . made of glass?" he asked.

    Bloody glanced over her shoulder to where the other ones still rested.  "I don't know."  She shrugged.  "Whatever they are, these things obviously throw up a lot of them."

    "I . . . think I see something in it!" Rose suddenly exclaimed, causing Bloody to look to him questioningly before she too knelt and stared into the orb.  Inside was some sort of misty image, she was surprised to discover, and that image was /moving/.  Leaning closer, both students watched as, incredibly, a sort of scene unfolded from within the object.  Many salamanders were seen walking about on two legs, their upper arms strangely absent.  They would snap their large mouths, stick out their blue tongues, and would cough up bubbles which would float off or pop.  Some were even dancing or wearing scarves and bows on their heads.

    "This is bizarre," Rose muttered, frowning.

   Bloody, however, watched intently for a bit longer.  "Do . . . you think that these have something to do with our hunt?"

    "How do you mean?" Rose asked, glancing to her and fixing his eye upon her face.

    "I mean, maybe this thing-" she lifted up the ball.  "Represents something.  But what. . ."

    Rose frowned.  It seemed a bit of a stretch to him, though it did appeal more than actually sacrificing something real.  "It . . . could.  Maybe . . . a memory?"

    Bloody considered this then shook her head.  "But this doesn't look like something that actually happened."  She glanced away to where a pile of salamanders were snoozing soundly, more of the orbs around them, their miniature images dancing inside.

    "Then . . . perhaps they're dreams?" Rose suggested, following her gaze to the sound sleepers.

    "I think you could be right, Rose," Bloody agreed, standing up.  "When Razik said we had to sacrifice things, I was wondering how random animals would tie into all of that.  For awhile I was wondering if we had to instead sacrifice their aspects of self rather than our own, but it would be too difficult in some cases to extract what we needed, like memories or something."  She tilted her head, looking again to the orb.  "I bet we have to find something to represent each of the aspects he listed to us, and this-" she held up the ball with one hand, holding it up.  "Is most likely a dream, as you said."

    Rose listened quietly before nodding, seeming to understand and agree with what Bloody had hypothesized.  "Makes sense."  He looked on to the next door.  "Should we continue, then?"

    "Yeah, let me just put this in here," she murmured, taking the orb and carefully storing it inside of a simple, black messenger bag she'd brought with her to contain clues and supplies and what not.  "'Kay.  Let's go, then."

    Together, both students walked over to the next door and pushed it open, preparing for whatever was waiting for them on the other side.



   Carefully, the duo surveyed the next room, this time lit by purple-flamed torches instead of blue as in the room prior, and it was much brighter, though it seemed to smell faintly of rain.  A quick scan around the location ended up with nothing standing out other than a single book sitting upon a high table in the center of the room.  Both Bloody and Rose shrugged as they went over to it, looked it over, and opened it.

    "Those are . . . pink turtles," commented Rose as he turned the pages of the book, Bloody reading it over his arm as he did so.

    "They are, indeed."

    "Why?"

    "I don't know . . . it's a children's book.  Children tend to like colorful things, however inaccurate they may be," she said, sniffing.

    Rose gave a small, amused smile.  "Haha, but it's still pretty cute."

    Bloody gave him a look and leaned back again, a hand on her hip as she looked at the floor and thought over the new item.  "Alright, so this one is easier, I feel.  We have to sacrifice a thought, yeah?  This book is all about them.  So why not sacrifice this book?"

    Rose almost didn't hear her as he read the book, chuckling to himself.  "Hm?  Oh, yeah.  I agree."

    Bloody frowned and tilted her head.  "Rose . . . are you enjoying this?" she asked, holding out a hand to the book.

    Rose froze for a second, looking to her before awkwardly giving a half-shrug.  "I mean . . . the turtles seem to be rather stupid, despite the different tasks they are shown to be doing.  It's a little funny.  Look!"  He held up the book in front of her face.  "They made cloaks out of bed sheets!"

    Bloody gave him a long look, saying nothing, and eventually the other student awkwardly handed her the book, saying nothing as he went to the next door, leaving Bloody to put the children's story in her bag next to the crystal ball.



    The two silently entered the third room, seeing that this time the torch light was green, and there were, oddly enough, piles of snow built up in the corners of the room.  What was even more bizarre than the snow and eerie lighting were the frogs hopping about, plopping into the snow and burrowing, some climbing small, living trees that were somehow alive and growing, most likely kept alive by the magic that kept the snow from melting and the frogs from freezing to death.

    As Bloody looked over the odd display, Rose moved ahead and off to the far right corner of the room.  "Um, Bloody?  I've seemed to have found something else. . ."

    Bloody blinked a few times as she made her way over to him, trying to see what he was looking at.  "What is it now?" she asked him quietly.

    He faced her, looking very unsure of what he had retrieved from within the branches of one of the smaller trees.  It was . . . an iguana?  A blue iguana, to be exact, and it was not only dead, but stuffed--mummified, rather--and standing upon a solid base.  In its clutches was a sign, sewn into its little clawed hands that read "remember me."

    "Well, there's your memory," Bloody deadpanned, glancing away to scan over all of the other trees.  Sure enough, more and more of the iguanas showed up upon analysis.  "Why are these even here?" she asked, brows furrowing.

    "I've no idea," Rose said, shrugging.  "But at least the items are obvious enough to figure out, now.  Hopefully they'll stay that way."

    Bloody grunted in agreement, holding open her bag for the vampire-kin to store the new object inside.  It was a bit odd to fit the lizard mummy into the bag around the ball and book, but he made it work, and Bloody was able to close the bag again.  "Alright," she said, sighing.  "Let's keep going.  We've almost found everything."

    Rose nodded and led the way to the next door, holding it open for Bloody and allowing her in first.



    Bloody entered with a murmured thanks to Rose, and the male filed into the room after her.  This one was filled with oddly-colored torchlight as well, this time being pure red.  Bloody let out a hum of approval at the shade of the color, most likely due to her own fire's coloration being red.  The room was also much warmer than the ones before it, and the walls were lined with clocks and gears.  There were even gears on the floor filled with . . . "lava?" Bloody questioned aloud, walking over to one of the giant, metal gears.

    Rose watched her as she proceeded to bend down, lean in and sniff the molten liquid, and then actually put her tongue in said scalding material.  Startled, he gave a jump back, throwing up an arm, like someone might do in defense or if they just witnessed something horrifying or disgusting.  "B-BLOODY!" he spluttered before running over and taking her shoulder, pulling her back from her attempt to drink the lava.  "WHAT ARE YOU-"

    He broke off as she looked up at him, unfazed by what she'd just done.  ". . . What?"  Pulling her tongue back nto her mouth she swallowed.  "It . . . tastes like apple juice. . ."

    Rose stared at her for a long while, wondering if perhaps she meant that all lava tasted of apple juice, or if it was solely that batch that did, but decided he'd ask later. Shaking his head he released her shoulder, regaining his composure.  "Don't do that, please," he breathed, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose.

    "Don't do what?" she asked, standing up again and wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, giving him an even look.  "I drink this stuff all of the time, I thought you knew that."

    "I . . ." he trailed off, trying to remember if he had indeed witnessed her ingesting the molten liquid before, but couldn't actually remember.  Shaking his head and shrugged, he sighed again.  "Just please be careful, alright?"

    Rolling her eyes, Bloody walked past him.  "I thought we've been over this before, Rose.  You don't need to worry about me.  I can take care of myself."

    He frowned as he watched her walk past, but said nothing more on the matter as she stooped to look over more gears, trying to locate something that would match either an emotion or a life.  There was once again nothing that stood out as obvious.

    "You were saying about this being easy?" she said with indifferent sarcasm.

    Rose ran a hand through his hair and helped her look.  "Well, it was for awhile at least," he said, secretly cursing himself for having jinxed them both.

    Bloody stood up again, coming up with nothing inside of, beside, or even remotely near the gears that would represent the other aspects they had yet to find, assuming they were correct in what they had found already, though nothing here fit what they had thought they already located, either.

    Just when she was about to ask Rose if he had any idea what they should do now, the clocks all struck in unison, and an assortment of bells, gongs, ticks, and cuckoo clock chirps arose while the gears all suddenly spun on the floor.  Amid the chaos, however, she spotted something flicking in and out of a clock.  It was no bird; rather, it appeared to be a little red crocodile, the light shining off of it as though it were made of plastic.

    Watching it zip in and out of the clock's little doors a few more times, Bloody lifted a hand and poised to grab it before flashing out and snatching it, prying it off of the device that thrust it in and out of the hole each time.  Upon closer inspection, she discovered that it was more than just a plastic figure, it was a hollow toy--a squirt gun.

    "O . . . kay."  She looked perplexed.  "Does /this/ thing come across as representing life or emotion?" she asked Rose, looking up to him.

    The boy shrugged and looked back at her.  "It's an animal, and animals are a form of life . . . wait!  Is it a squirt gun?" he asked, suddenly sounding excited.

    "Yeah, sure is," Bloody replied, confused by his joy.

    "And they squirt water, or can even produce single drops depending on their use!?"

    "Yes, Rose, that constitutes the basic principals of a squirt gun," Bloody deadpanned, obviously not following where he was going with this.

    "Okay!  Well, a drop of water is sort of like a tear, just less salty, and you know the expression 'crocodile tears,' don't you?"

    Bloody's brows rose as she finally got the connection he was making.  "And tears can show sadness, anger, or joy!  Rose, you're a genius!" she suddenly gushed, surprising the other student by her display of amazement coupled with the heavy praise.  But they were right--they had successfully found and identified their sacrificial "emotion."

    Bloody dropped it into the bag, gave Rose a high-five and an approving half-smile in passing, and opened the next door for them both.



    "Okay," she said upon entering.  "We just have to find something to do with life, and a crab or whatever."

    Rose nodded, humming in agreement and looked around the new room with her.  "Perhaps it'll be a living animal like I thought it would be last time?"

    "Maybe."

    They both looked around the room.  It was unlike the others so far in that it was far larger and lacked any torches and instead was filled with fireflies, dense jungle-like vegetation, and . . .

    "Those are tiny bulls with wings," Bloody stated, staring at a few of the dainty fairies.

    "They . . . are," Rose also stated, watching them flutter about with her.  A few of the flying bull fairies flitted over to them and sniffed at them, their blank, white eyes staring into Bloody's and Rose's own before turning and going back into the trees and thick vegetation.

    Bloody tilted her head.  "So . . . we have to go in there and find the crab, don't we?"

    "Looks like it, yes."

    Bloody sighed.  "Then let's get this over with. . ."  Moving forward, she pushed aside some vines and softer tree branches, making a way for Rose to go in after her as she journeyed into the wild room.  There were noises here and there--probably the bull fairies or insects or something--that weren't coming from either student as they moved deeper into the growth.

    For awhile, things weren't easy.  The plants and branches tugged at them both and nicked their skin, leaving stinging sensations or small cuts.  It seemed that they were approaching a clearing, fortunately, as there was more space up ahead and the plants were thinning out.

    "Hey, we're coming up on something," she informed Rose over her shoulder.  He merely grunted in response, obviously not enjoying his hair getting tangled in the twigs and such as they went.  Bloody led on until they were able to stand freely in the clearing without anything threatening to poke their eyes out.

    "Okay, now do you see a crab anywhere?" Rose asked her.

    "Uh- not really?  It's supposed to be white, right?  That's sure to stand out, I'd think."

    "True," Rose murmured, beginning to look with Bloody around the clearing.  There was a pool of water a few feet away that they both walked over to almost in unison and looked inside.  Sure enough, there was a very large crab sitting at the lowest point of the shallow pool.

    "Alright then," Bloody muttered, staring it the hefty crustacean.  "That's . . . the life aspect?"

    "So, we're supposed to sacrifice this crab, then?"  Rose asked, looking a little doubtful.

    "I guess so.  We don't have really any other option."  She reached into the water carefully, keeping her hands out of the crab's sights to avoid becoming pinched while Rose looked on.

    "We should probably carry that one.  It wouldn't be wise to have that in your bag where it could pinch you through the fabric or latch on to one of the other aspects," he suggested to her, watching her progress closely and carefully.

    "Yeah," she replied, standing up with the crab again.  "I think I'll just carry it."  She stopped, frowning and tilted her head, turning the crab around.  "What the- Rose.  Can you get that thing in its claws?" she asked, holding up the crab to her classmate after having spotted something in its larger claw.

    Rose looked hesitant to reach for it, but after seeing Bloody offering the crab up higher for him, her eyes serious he nodded to her and reached carefully, taking the end of whatever it was that the animal held.  Of course, it didn't want to let go, and Bloody and Rose stood there for almost another fifteen or so minutes trying to get the waterproof parchment out of its grasp when it suddenly opened its claws and released its precious treasure.

    Rose caught the slip of paper before it fell, wiping it off a bit before unfolding it and looking it over.

    "What is it?" Bloody asked upon lowering the crab again.

    "It's a clue. . ."

    "Yeah?"

    "Yeah.  And it says something about not needing to look very far, because the professor is very near by?"  He looked up at her, brows furrowed.

    Bloody stared at him.  "What?  What does that mean?" she wondered aloud, looking at the paper as well after having moved around to his side to read it.  Sure enough, it stated that their professor was not far off and that they wouldn't need to trek very far to find him.  "Does that mean Razik is in here somewhere?" she asked, wondering aloud.

    Rose shrugged.  "I'm not sure."  He looked around, trying to spot any movement from behind the wall of vegetation.  "I don't think he would be.  He had no idea we'd be going here at this time, so I doubt that he'd wait until someone came around."

    "Mm . . . yeah, you're right."  She sighed, looking around.  "Well . . . what do we do now, then?"  She headed towards the trees that were opposite from the way they had come in, squinting and peering at what lay beyond.  "Go back here, maybe?"

    "Yeah, why not?" Rose responded, moving around her to take the lead so he could hold aside branches and foliage while Bloody carried everything.  He would continuously give heads ups whenever there was something that could trip her up or catch her in the face.  Luckily, Rose's warnings were enough to keep her from running into anything.  Before long, they came to yet another door.

    Both stopped in surprise before looking at each other and then nodding.  They had one more door to go through, one more room, and it was over.



    Once Rose had managed to pry open the door and go inside, he stepped aside for Bloody.  This room was darker, only one or two regular torches adorned the otherwise bare stone walls, and in the center, strangely enough, aside from the sacrificial alter and a pot of boiling water was a giant frog statue that . . . resembled the professor Helmy?

    Bloody and Rose stared at it for a long, silent moment before Bloody shook her head and went froward, shrugging and shifting her bag around.  "I'm not even going to comment on that statue.  Let's just get this done with."

    Rose agreed with her and moved forward to help her unload the bag while she went to hold the crab above the pot.

    "Alright, well.  Here goes nothing."  Bloody released the crab with both hands at once, letting it fall the short distance into the pot of boiling water.  A piercing scream went up, though the she-demon seemed unfazed, knowing that it was just the air escaping the creature's shell.  She then joined Rose at the altar and nodded to him, signaling that she was ready to continue.

    Rose took the book and the crocodile toy while Bloody took the orb and the iguana and they began to place the items.  Rose's work was easy--he lit the book on fire and filled the water gun with a little of the boiling water, paying special care not to scald himself, and then dripped a few drops onto the stone surface.  Bloody, in turn, smashed the orb by dropping it a few times from a few feet up, utilizing her wings to complete the task.  However, when it came to the mummy, she was at a loss.  Eventually, she decided she would settle for setting it alight as well, an leaned forward to blow flames across the stuffed reptile, causing its flesh to sink as it burnt and fell apart.

    With their task completed, the duo took a few paces back and looked over their work.  "Well . . . I think that does it," Rose said at last, sighing and running a hand through his hair.

    Bloody nodded in affirmation.  "Finally."  Opening her eyes again she caught sight of something suddenly glimmering at the feet of the Helmy frog shrine.  "Hey, what are those?" she asked, walking over and stooping to retrieve the shimmering, golden items before returning to Rose, reading them over.

    Rose was handed one and accepted it, turning it over in his hands.  "This is a ticket," he stated, thinking nothing more of it.

    Suddenly, Bloody's face went blank as she read the face of her scrap of gold paper.  "No . . . it's the prize."

    Rose looked up to her in disbelief and then back to his ticket, focusing more on the cursive text and realizing that she was right.  "/This/?" he said in disbelief.

    "This," Bloody confirmed.  "This is it."  She slowly lowered the paper, stood in silence, and without any warning simply walked out of the room, leaving Rose to follow behind, still struggling with the realization that they had gone through the rooms collecting and searching for the aspects for the sake of a grade and a golden ticket.