Mystryl looked back up to the secret entrance she had accidentally discovered. "Now how the heck am I supposed to get back up? Well, I guess I'll take things one step at a time." One of Mystryl's shortcomings was talking to herself. She decided to take her own advice and keep going.
It may seem strange that a woman entered an unexplored and potentially dangerous burial crypt alone, but Mystryl was not a typical woman. She was what many call a tomb raider or thief. She preferred the term "treasure hunter" to these and any other names of course.
As she picked her way through pieces of the ceiling and wall that fallen to the ground, something told Mystryl she should drop to the ground and fast. She did, using her finely honed reflexes. "That was too close!" she commented as a dozen or so tiny darts ricocheted off the wall above her. A few seconds went by, though they seemed more like minutes or hours to her adrenaline charged mind. Cautiously, Mystryl sat up and reached over to pick up one of the deadly darts. "This is probably stupid, but here goes nothing." She touched it's tip to her tongue and was both satisfied and disgusted with the taste she had all but known was coming. "Poisoned. I thought as much. I'm really going to have to watch myself in here. I sure hope the treasure will be worth it."
Continuing on, she passed through tunnel after endless tunnel. All were making a gradual descent, though in one place she had to jump down several feet. The color of the wall was different from then on, which Mystryl thought was a nice change of pace. Finally the corridor opened into one of the largest and most spectacular cavern chambers Mystryl had ever seen. She was tempted to forget her quest and just explore for a while, but she had no idea how long her lantern would last. I can spare a moment or two. Besides, after being in those tunnels, I could use a quick rest. Mystryl held the lamp as high as she could and stood there gazing at the ethereal beauty of the delicate formations scattered about the chamber. Looking further out, she saw huge columns stretching from floor to ceiling, and closer to her were long thin formations that reminded her of crystalline ribbons when she held her lantern up to them.
After filling her canteen at a quiet stream that flowed through the cavern, Mystryl reluctantly crossed the "room" to a narrow staircase leading further down. At the bottom of it she found herself in a small square room with grating on the floor. There were also two sections of the floor that protruded higher than the rest. "Well, since this appears to be a dead end, There's nothing left to do but step on one of these things and hope it's a switch." She stepped on the one nearest to her and it sank into the floor. "I guess that didn't do it. May as well try the oth...what the...?" The second switch also sank down, and Mystryl felt the ground beneath her begin to rumble. Her fear was quickly becoming evident in her youthful features and violet colored eyes. Before she had time to react there was water nearly up to her knees and quickly rising. She turned back to the staircase, but cried out in dismay to see that it was now sealed off. Frantically, she scanned the walls and ceiling for something to trigger a stop to the water. The water was now reaching for her shoulders and still rising. Her airtight lantern was still lit and floating a few feet away, so she still had some light. Mystryl could no longer touch the ground, and the ceiling was becoming dangerously close. She sucked in one more breath, and then there was nothing to do but dive. A few powerful kicks brought her down to the floor, but she could find nothing of consequence. She was starting to see spots in front of her eyes, but failure was not an option. She looked around one more time and then she saw it! A tiny peg sticking out from one of the corners. Can't...take much more of this. But...gotta...push that peg in...YES! The water began at last to drain. With her last remaining strength, Mystryl swam to the surface, the last breath she had taken expelling from her lungs like a tiny explosion. She sucked in breath after breath long after the water had drained away. Exhausted by her efforts, she fell asleep, completely forgetting about the lantern.
She awoke hours later. Rested, but in complete darkness. Mystryl searched blindly for the lantern, and finally her hand bumped into it. It wouldn't turn on and her backup battery wouldn't work either. She held out her cupped hands and concentrated. "Please let this work!" A small sphere of light seemed to materialize from nowhere into Mystryl's hands. She sighed with relief as the darkness receded from the tiny room. She picked up her small amount of gear and went on.
Mystryl soon came upon a tunnel so low she had to lie down and push with her feet to get through. "Good thing I'm not claustrophobic," she muttered to herself. After the water incident, she was a bit more cautious and looked out of the entrance before she crawled out. The passageway looked perfectly ordinary...except for a long, thin slit about waist high. She continued to crawl until she was out from under the slit. Her caution was rewarded as a razor sharp blade harmlessly slashed the air over her head.
From then on nothing much seemed to happen. Mystryl passed many tunnels and galleries; each becoming more decorated and elaborate than the previous one. The colors and patterns in the ancient tapestries that adorned many of the walls awed her. As with the cavern, the tunnels eventually opened up, but not into a cavern. This was a huge tomb, with a ceiling so high; Mystryl could barely see it. Then, lowering her eyes, she looked to the middle of the room and laid out on a dais was a ceremonial coffin with the face of the deceased painted on the outside. A small shaft of light coming from a nearly invisible hole in the ceiling illuminated the coffin's brilliant gems.
About to pass the coffin as she walked over to inspect the horde she had uncovered, Mystryl stopped a moment and whispered, "Hey, I hope you don't mind my intruding. I'm sorry about that. But the way I see it, I need this loot more than you do. Just...don't come back and haunt me, okay?" At last she had reached her goal. Before her lay the largest mound of treasure she had dared to imagine. Beautifully crafted swords, crowns, necklaces, bracelets, rings, loose gems just rolling around the floor, enough gold she could nearly swim in it, there were even golden table settings enough for fifty people. (Though some of the forks and spoons were broken.)
Mystryl took out several large bags from the sack she carried her supplies in. She then set herself to carrying as much as she thought she could fit through the low tunnel she would have to go back through. Finally, her sacks full nearly to bursting, Mystryl had to give up the rest and hope there would be no more traps that would force her to drop some bags. As she turned to go, she noticed something over the doorframe. Words that said,
When she got back to the flood room, she was relieved to see that the stair leading up had been opened again when she had pushed the peg to drain the room. Once Mystryl reached the cave, she felt a bit safer. It was so peaceful there. Perhaps too peaceful Mystryl thought, as she sat down on a rock to catch her breath. It was a perfect little rock; just the right shape for sitting on, it even had a backrest to lean on.
Without warning, the "chair" sank in a few inches. Mystryl heard a distant noise, like the creaking of ancient gears grating against one another. Oh great. I do not have a good feeling about this. A few pebbles fell to the ground near her. Then the pebbles started getting larger. Mystryl realized with horror that she had set off a cave in. In an instant she was on her feet and sprinting for the other side of the cavern. A boulder crashed to the floor just a few feet away from her. "That was TOO close!" The rocks were falling in greater size and quantity, and Mystryl was just barely halfway across the chamber. Finally she reached the other side, and dove for the tunnel ahead of her. As she crossed the threshold, a huge pile of rocks sealed the door to the cavern. Mystryl only had a minute to get her breath back because the walls began closing in on her. Literally. "Things just get better and better, don't they?" she said. The positive side was that the walls were moving slowly, but the negative aspect was that she had a quarter of a mile before she could jump up to the next level of tunnel and be out of harm's way. Mystryl made it to the ledge just in time, since she now had to move sideways to walk. This made jumping difficult. She crouched and released as hard as she could, and as her feet cleared the tunnel behind her, the walls closed with an echoing BOOM.
She made her way back to the entrance. Thankfully, the wall had exhausted its supply of darts. At last, Mystryl was under the hole that she had fallen through. She looked up at it. It was at least twenty feet above her head. "Now this is a dilemma. Well, if I remember right, I bought a hook at my last stop. I hope it's still there." The hook was still in her pack and Mystryl tied it to the rope she always carried with her on treasure hunts. She threw it up out of the hole, but it didn't catch on anything. After several unsuccessful attempts, it finally caught on a rock and she was able to haul herself up. She walked to the mouth of the tiny cave after having hauled her treasure up after her. "That was certainly an adventure. Well, on to Providence to see if I can sell some of this. I need to find myself a good ship with a trustworthy captain, too." Saying this, Mystryl walked out, as the morning sun streamed down through the mist.
"Ooof!" The groan echoed through the dusty passage as Mystryl Nightshade tried to climb back to her feet. She pushed a few loose strands of brownish-blond hair off of her face. 
