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A Wild Carro Hunt By Lockely Fox “And you're sure we'll find some there?" asked the young man to his friends. He brushed his blonde bangs out from behind his glasses once more for the tenth time this hour as the two tread down the old path through the forest. He shoved his hands in his blue hoodie pockets to warm them from the brisk chill of the autumn afternoon. After crossing a small dip, he trudged upwards through the tree-lined path and ignored the small crusting of mud that was building up on the bottom of his jeans. “Of course, the internet says they've been spotted here pretty regularly," replied his brown haired friend from slightly further ahead, he was similarly dressed in a gray hoodie and jeans while his own hair tossed in the crisp wind. “Why? Don't you trust my sources?" “Zeelo, anyone can post anything on the internet. Your sources also say that people end up disappearing around here too. If any of that had merit, wouldn't the whole area be fenced off or something?" Lockely pulled his hands out of his pockets and breathed into them, rubbing them together. “Still think this is a wild goose chase, to be honest." “Wild carro chase, if you wanna be accurate!" Replied their third friend, pulling his own color blocked jacket tight against the wind. “C'mon, we can't be far!" he called back towards Lockely who was falling steadily behind the other two. Lockely was unconvinced. He never really believed in all this cryptid stuff, and going out into the woods without any real supplies on a spur of the moment search for 'squirrel-fox things with glowy tails' seemed like a recipe for disappointment at best, disaster at worst. Still, the scenery was nice this time of year. He pulled out his phone to check the time and grimaced, “Hey, are you having any luck with a cell signal? I don't have any and if one of us gets hurt--" He stopped and looked up, noticing that he no longer heard either of his friends' footsteps crunching the dry autumn leaves nearby. “Zee? Jak?" He pocketed his phone and looked around, neither of the two were anywhere to be seen. “Yo, where'd you go? Not funny guys!" Lockely slowly walked further up the hill, scanning behind each tree as he passed for a friendly ambush. Jak should have been easy to spot with his amazing technicolor dream coat, but even still he couldn't be seen. Lockely picked up the pace, bringing himself to a brisk jog towards the top of the hill and a large rock jutting out of the hillside. They were probably sitting behind that, if anywhere. He quickly turned the corner, hoping to find them, but instead only found Jak's phone lying face up in the dirt with GaggleMaps open. “What the hell-- why would he leave this? Hm?" He knelt down to grab it, but his attention was immediately drawn to the rear side of the rock, a strange rectangular carving, almost like a plaque with words written in a language he didn't understand. He glanced around once more, trying to find hide or hair of his two friends, but they were still absent. So, instead, he had to focus on the singular clue he had. He stepped over to gather Jak's phone, hearing and feeling the ground under the leaves take on a different form. Almost-- metallic in sound. He had all the time in the world to contemplate the meaning of it until it swung open from underneath him, dropping him immediately into the darkness below. Lockely screamed as he fell what ended up being a relatively short drop into an incredibly large pile of leaves, twigs, and what felt like hay, as if someone had meant to soften it. It was pitch black, but he could hear a commotion up ahead. Pulling his phone back out, he flipped on the flashlight and looked up to see the trap door mechanism that dropped him, and presumably the other two in. It was a few feet above his head, and even if he could reach it, there didn't appear to be anything he could grab to pull it back open. Logic dictates that one doesn't build a one-way entrance without an exit, so he instead turned and stumbled down off the piled vegetation and moved towards the cavern opening. “Jak? Zeelo?!" He called out, his voice echoing off the walls. “You guys in here?" “L-Lockely?" came Zeelo's reply from somewhere up ahead. “Oh, thank goodness, we thought you might not find it." “What do you mean by---" Lockely continued along the cavern, his flashlight bouncing off the shiny rock walls. A red glow appeared ahead as he finally turned towards an opening into a larger room, his two friends admiring a large stone monolith with what appeared to be three incredibly lifelike carro statues mounted on top. The middle one was twice as large as the other two. “--it?" He blinked a few times, “Guys, what are we looking at?" “It looks like some kind of shrine, maybe?" said Zeelo, tracing his finger across the incomprehensible text. “There are three slots down near the bottom, kinda small but big enough for… oh!" He stepped back and looked towards Jak, “Did you bring the stuff?" “The stuff?" Jak patted down his multi-colored pockets before realizing he was missing something vital. “My phone! Where-" “It's up by the trap door, it's fine but I got dumped in when I went to pick it up. We'll circle around for it once we get out of here." Lockely interjected, “What stuff is Zeelo talking about?" “Oh, uh…" He checked his zippered pocket and pulled out what looked very similar to an acorn, except about twice as big with the lower half more resembling a pine cone. “He asked I bring a few of these? The tree in my backyard grows them, I think they're called Poff Balls?" “Poff Nuts," Zeelo corrected, “and the internet says these carros love them. Lemme see one." He put out his palm expectantly and gathered the nectarine sized nut from Jak, before holding it up against the carvings right above one of the slots. “Lockely, shine your light here for a second." As the phone's light illuminated the tablet next to Zeelo, the three could see that the carvings directly above the slots were clearly shaped like the nut that Zeelo held next to it. And then much like a child inserting a coin into an arcade cabinet, Zeelo dropped the Poff Nut into the slot, where it rolled into place with an audible click somewhere inside the monolith. “Zeelo! What are you doing?" Chided Lockely, “We don't even know what that thing does!" Before he could say another word, Jak sided up to the slot on the right and dropped another Poff Nut in, making the same audible click as before. “Jak? What did I just say?" “That we don't know what it does?" Jak smiled deviously, “And we won't know until we activate it. Don't act so [i]squirrelly[/i], it's not like we have another way out of here." He held out his hand offering the last necessary Poff Nut for the monolith. “Well?" Lockely sighed and grabbed the last acorn, rolling his eyes and sliding it into the slot on the left. It also made the same click as a low rumble could be heard in the distance. “This is ridiculous, we're going to probably die down here and you two are playing ga--" Fires began to ignite in sconces lining the walls of the room as the far end of the cavern was suddenly visible. Two doors, large and made of what looked to be well-preserved steel reflected the torches on the wall. Next to each door was a plaque with more of the stage writing on it. Just as the three were about to take their first tentative steps over, a small rustling sound pulled their attention back to the monolith, followed by what may have been the cutest sound ever uttered by an animal. “Kyu?" The three statues donning the centerpiece of the room were suddenly far more animate than they had appeared only moments ago. “Kyu!" Repeated the larger, central one as their attention was immediately drawn to it. It tilted its head to the side playfully as it chirped, while the two sitting on opposite sides did a cute flip in place, then turned to face the back of the room, repeating the same motions. The large one then turned to face the three while the two on the side spun as if chasing their own tails, before all three jumped high into the air and did a double backflip, completing their dance. “Kyu!" “What the hell did we just watch." Lockely stated flatly. “I dunno, but it was kyu-te!" Jak replied cheerily, mimicking their call. “So like, do you think they'll let us out for completing their challenge or…?" As if responding to his question, the three carros jumped off the monolith, circling around towards the three boys and running around them. Then, just as quickly, they darted off into the back side of the room, ducking into a small hole to the right of the two doors, almost as if it was meant to be a door of its own. The largest one hung back for a moment, spinning in a circle in front of the hole and making another cute 'kyu!' sound before it too left the three to themselves. Lockely was the first to head across, shining his light back and forth across the two doors that remained closed. He attempted to push on one, then the other, but they remained firmly shut. “Right, so we're going to die in here then." He rubbed his temples as he looked to the other two for probable answers. “There has to be something we're missing…" Zeelo noted, scratching under his chin as he gave a cursory push towards both doors as well, bringing out his own phone to shine around the doors and cavern where the torches hadn't quite illuminated. “But I don't see anything else for us to use to get these open." He looked around once more, his eyes catching on the hole the Carros themselves had fled through. “Unless…" “Unless…?" Both Jak and Lockely responded simultaneously. “What if one of us has to crawl into there to like, I dunno, flip a switch or something? It looks like it's in the position of a third door, but maybe whoever built this didn't have time to finish carving it out? Or it could be like--- I don't know, a test of bravery?" He walked over and crouched next to the hole, shining his light down it. “It's a tight fit further in though, I don't know that Lockely or I will be able to make it." Zeelo stood and turned towards the shortest member of the group, Jak, standing at a towering 5'3". “Jak? You think you can handle it?" Jak knelt down and glanced into the hole. It might even be a tight fit for him, but they didn't really have any other options. The rest of the room was basically a carved circle with the two closed doors and the inoperable entrance from the surface behind them. This stupid, dumb rodent hole was literally the only other way out. Jak got back to his feet and sighed, unzipping his jacket and holding it out for one of them. “Fine. Someone hold this please, I don't want to get dirt all over it. Hopefully my sweats don't get torn but," He shrugged, “what can we do?" Lockely nodded, taking the jacket from him and offering him his phone in exchange. “You'll probably want a light, just be careful with it, okay? I'm still paying off the lease." “Yeah, yeah, I'll keep it safe. But you both owe me for this." He rubbed his bare arms to warm himself up a bit, having only worn a tank top under the jacket, “It's a bit chilly down here, so we should make this quick." With that, he took the phone and crawled into the hole on his hands and knees, shining it around a bit to see. “I can't tell how deep this goes, the path curves. No room to really turn around either, so, guess I'll see you guys in one of the next rooms…" And then he was gone. Zeelo and Lockely looked down into the hole expectantly, hearing the sound of his shuffling grow fainter until he couldn't be seen or heard anymore. “I hope he's going to be okay…" mentioned Lockely under his breath. “I'm sure he'll be fine. Where's your sense of adventure? He'll find a switch or a lever or something. This whole thing seems like a trial or a test or something, right? So, we just play its game, our doors will open, and we'll leave having gained some appreciation for something or another. That's usually how it works in movies and books, doesn't it?" Zeelo countered, standing back up and staring at the other two doors expectantly. “Yeah but…" Lockely continued, expecting to somehow win this argument despite having lost it before they even found the place… Meanwhile, Jak, now out of hearing range of the two as they incessantly argued among themselves, had hit a snag. The tunnel had steadily gotten tighter as he moved forward, but it did so in such a subtle way that Jak hadn't even realized until he pulled his shoulders through a gap and found that his hips wouldn't fit, but attempting to back out, his shoulders would no longer fit either. He was stuck. “Uh… guys?" He called back, hoping his voice would maybe carry through the dense rock. “A little help?" He waited for a second and listened for a response from behind him but was met with only silence. “Crap baskets…" He sighed, wiggling himself slightly to try and get some part of his body to move, when he heard a slight scuffling of dirt up ahead as light paws padded down the nook towards him. The flashlight illuminated the glint of large, friendly red eyes approaching before one of the smaller carros stepped directly into the light and looked at him, tilting its head to the side. “Kyu…?" It chirped in an almost questioning fashion. “Hi. I'm, uh, a bit stuck. You wouldn't be able to help at all, would you?" Jak asked the squirrel-like-fox creature in almost an act of desperation. “Kyu...." The carro sat on its haunches and brought a forepaw up underneath its muzzle, tapping it as if it was pondering in an almost disturbingly human-like gesture. He sighed, thinking of some way to get it to do what he needed. He considered bargaining with the feral animal for help. They seemed at least semi-sapient, maybe they understood basic language? “I can offer you a poff nut! I still have a few in my pocket, but--" As soon as he mentioned poof nut, the carro stood back up on all fours and-- nodded. Wait, did it actually just nod at him? “Kyu!" It chirped happily before it raised its tail high above and over top of its body and pointed the red, almost gem looking end towards him, emitting a pleasantly warm glow. “Kyuuuuu.... Kyu!" It sounded, then immediately stepped on his head and began crawling over the small space between his back and the top of the tunnel to get behind him. “Hey! What are you?" Jak struggled, waving his arms in an attempt to stop the Carro from using him as a floor mat to get to the other side. In his hustle, he accidentally tossed Lockely's phone up ahead, where it landed face up with the flashlight now buried directly in the dirt. Jak blinked a few times, not noticing it was weird that he could actually see quite fine without it, and completely unaware that his eyes had shifted to a shade of red. He felt a tugging behind him as the carro began to pull at his sweatpants, clearly trying to get to the treasured pine cone shaped treat in his pocket. “Cut it out! That's not kyu-te!" He shouted back, before gasping. For the first time in his life, he hadn't actually intended to make an obvious pun. His vocal cords mimicked the sound of their chirp unintentionally. “What the… What's hap-kyu-ning?" As his sweatpants were easily pulled down his legs, Jak became keenly aware of several things happening at once. First off, his legs were not as cold as they should have been upon exposure to the air. His feet slipped cleanly from his sneakers, and then his socks, as he found himself suddenly less stuck than he was moments before. He took the opportunity to pull himself forward, leaving his pants behind for the other carro to root through. He could feel a flush of warmth passing over his body, almost overwhelmingly so, forcing him to close his eyes and wait for it to pass. At the same time, his ears began to stretch out to large, sharp points on each side of his head as his entire body continued to shrink. Already on his hands and knees, he soon found his hind quarters shifting as both his arms and legs shortened, his shoulders and hips re-orienting themselves to walk on all fours. “Wai-kyuuuu-I didn-- kyuuuu!! Kyu!" His vocal cords were next, reducing his voice to that of the cries of the carros himself as it became obvious to him what was happening. He forced himself to open his eyes just to watch as his fingers retracted into his hands, replacing them with small dainty paws with tiny pads on the bottom, the same process occurring with his feet. Light cream colored fur had already grown in over most of his body, though it darkened on his paws. “Kyu?!" He cried as his face pushed out into a small muzzle, tipped with a tiny cute triangular snoot. Another wave of warmth passed through him, starting from the front of his body and pulsing backwards as the rest of his fur grew in, making it stand on end as it went before he could feel a pressure from his behind. Then, without warning, his tailbone grew to nearly double the length of his body, immediately covered in the same soft fur, and ballooned out at the end in a bright red gem-like orb. If it weren't for the slightly discolored patch of fur crossing his chest where a prominent scar had been, he'd now look almost identical to the other carros. Jak tried to turn around, suddenly finding himself tangled in an oversized tank top as tried to face the carro that had done this to him. “Kyuuuuu!!!" He cried, shaking his whole body as he tumbled to the side, still getting used to walking on paws. He was mad! He wanted to come see these creatures, not be one! He gathered himself to his paws once more and stood, facing his aggressor, who was now on its back, holding the poff nut in its forepaws and gnawing at it with glee. “Kyu?" It chirped as it tilted its head to the side, before standing up straight once more as it gathered its prize in its mouth and started walking towards Jak without a care. Jak, using instincts he didn't know he had, fell close to the ground and raised his tail, his fur standing on end. “Kyuuuu!!", he cried. A clear sign of 'Back off!' The other carro simply stopped, tilted its head once more, then dropped the poff nut and nudged it forward towards him with its nose. “Kyu!" It sounded cheerily, before turning back to dig through the sweatpants for another. [i]'What? I don't want that! I wan--'[/i] Jak thought as the poff nut rolled close to him. His newly sensitive nose suddenly pulled his thoughts in a different direction, [i]'Oh. That smells… really good.'[/i] Without another thought, he found himself gnawing on the nut in the same way as the other carro had moments before. [i]'Why did no one tell me these things are so tasty? No wonder why carros go nuts for them!'[/i] He mentally laughed at his own pun, before his mind wandered back to where he was. His friends were waiting for him, and here he was, licking a glorified pine cone in a tunnel. He'd let his new predicament distract him from his mission. Batting away the poff nut with a hind paw, Jak brought himself to all fours again and tentatively took his first real steps forward in his new form. His mind had, surprisingly, adapted well enough that he could make his way forward without incident, leaving his human trappings behind in the tunnel for the time being. [i]'Sorry Lockely, can't carry a phone without thumbs…'[/i] he thought. Besides, they were counting on him, and if they could figure out how to get through this in one piece, they could find a way to change him back… maybe. And if not, well, they'd cross that bridge when it came to it. He didn't have to go far at all before the crack opened up into a bigger room somewhere deeper into the cavern, and from what he could tell, was likely near the exit. To his left were two doors nearly matching those from the room he'd entered from, and directly next to him was a small lever embedded into the wall. He padded over to it, having to use both his forepaws to try to grip it, a feat that was not easy now that he lacked opposable thumbs. Using his now massive tail as a counterweight, he pulled hard on it and it flipped down with a hefty clack. Above it, an amber light now glowed brightly, showing it was active. His large ears tilted back and forth as he could hear a mechanism working away within the walls as a small door suddenly slammed closed over the tunnel, blocking him in here. Jak sat on his haunches and looked at the two other doors expectantly, [i]'Well guys, it's your turn now. I'll be waiting here on the other side… --- Do I smell poff nuts? All this running around has made me hungry. Maybe I'll look for a snack while I wait…'[/i] He thought to himself before dashing off into the darkness. Back at the other room, Lockely and Zeelo had long since let their argument run its course as they each found other tasks to occupy their time waiting for their friend. Zeelo was tracing his fingers over the carvings in the monolith, trying to decipher any meaning from it. Lockely, for his part, was inspecting the joints for the doors to see if there was any mechanism he could trigger to open them. “Any luck back there?" Lockely called across the room as he traced his fingers across an almost seamless gap where the door met the rock face. He was now regretting his decision to give up his phone. An additional light would be incredibly helpful to peek in and see the door's mechanisms. “I think I might have something." replied Zeelo as he tried to translate some of the rock markings. “The language here looks to be similar to Latin, or a derivative. I only took a few courses as a filler in college but, I think this whole thing is talking about some series of trials, or tests. It's weird though…" he paused, trying to parse the text in front of him one more time. “What is?" “The bit near the end, likely where someone would note your reward for passing the trials… It just has a relief that looks like one of those carr--" Their conversation was cut short as the door in front of Lockely suddenly shuddered to life, and a small amber light lit up on the wall above the tunnel Jak had crawled into. Looking above, there seemed to be similar, unlit lights resting above the other two doors. Lockely took a step back as the door slowly opened. Taking note of the amber light, he pointed it out to Zeelo, “Looks like Jak made it through, and seems we have a way to track our progress." Peeking his head beyond the door, it simply led to a small hallway with a second door immediately next to it, and a small lever on the wall. “Zeelo, you thinking what I'm thinking?," he called over to his friend who had approached the door as well. “It's meant for one person." Lockely nodded, “And when they finish in there, door number three opens up. Makes sense since there were three slots. So… you or me for this one?" Zeelo shrugged, “We don't really know what's waiting in either, so why don't we flip a coin? Got a quarter?" Lockely dug into his jean pocket and shuffled his keys out of the way, feeling around for the proper change. It took a moment before he pulled out a shiny silver coin and balanced it precariously on his thumb. “Heads I go, Tails you go?" “Seems fair enough to me." Replied his brown haired friend. With a nod, Lockely flicked his thumb, sending the coin spinning into the air. He took a step back, not wanting to influence the result as it fell dead flat in the dust cavern floor. Zeelo shone his flashlight down on it as both young men crouched to see their fate. “Tails." They said in unison. “Makes sense, three's always been my lucky number, so I should take that door anyway. Good luck in there and be safe, okay? And if you see Jak on the other side, please wait for me." Lockely gathered up and pocketed his coin, giving Zeelo half a smile. Zeelo simply nodded in response and turned, entering the second door and pulling the handle. Just as expected, the door behind him began to slowly close while gears in the walls worked on opening the door in front of him. After a few moments, the door sealed, leaving Lockely alone to wait and worry about the fate of his friends. Meanwhile, in the second chamber, Zeelo could see the sconces on the walls had already lit up the room. In front of him, alongside the rear wall was an interesting contraption. It looked like a simple scale, but it's right side was embedded behind the rock and only visible through small cutouts in the stone. The left side was open, but the dish of the scale tilted backwards, towards the wall with larger cutouts behind it. As he stepped forward, he could see the glint of daylight to his right. There were several 'windows' cut into the cavern itself with light shining down from above. Stepping over to check, he spotted that directly behind the windows, there appeared to be a rudimentary conveyor belt stationed alongside it. The belt led to and from gaps in the rock that were far too small for a person to fit. Zeelo leaned out the window and glanced back and forth, trying to ascertain the whole purpose of the setup. “Clearly, something activates this and it moves, but for what reason?" He looked up, there did appear to be daylight shining through, but it was too far up, and looking down, the cavern seemed to drop far below into absolute darkness. “No clues there. Maybe the scale?" He leaned back in and made his way over to it, inspecting the device with a keen eye and shining his flashlight over it. Tentatively, he pushed it down, causing the other half to raise and a ticking noise began. To his right, he could hear the sound of the conveyor begin moving, it appeared that several poff nuts began sliding by the windows. He pushed it down even further and, to his surprise, the door to the chamber slowly began to open. As he let go and the scale rose with the timer ticking away, the door reversed course and slowly closed again. “So, it's a physics puzzle. I need to stack enough poff nuts onto here to reach a certain weight before the timer rolls them back inside. The right weight, and the door will open." He chuckled, “Man, Lockely's gonna feel dumb for not taking the easy room." “Alright Zeelo," he said as he rolled up his sleeves, putting his phone away into his pocket, and pushing the scale down as far as it would go, “it's time to go to work." Zeelo rushed across the room towards the windows, leaning out to grab a poff nut into each hand. They were large, but not large enough that he couldn't palm one each. He turned and dashed back, placing them on the scale as it slowly raised. The scale's rise slowed slightly, but not by much, and he darted back across the room to gather more. While the poff nuts were passing by at steady intervals, the flow wasn't uninterrupted. Zeelo found he didn't have to wait more than a second or two to gather another pair and bring them back. Unfortunately, the small bit of weight on the scale did little to actually slow the timer, and just as he was making it back across the room, it reached its end. The two poff nuts slid into the slot in the wall, likely being redistributed for the puzzle once more. The conveyor belt continued for a moment, as the last poff nuts on it were drawn back into the other side and then it too stopped. [i]'Damn. So, I can't do it two at a time. I can probably fit… three in my hoodie, and carry two. Maybe this is a test of both dexterity -and- physics? Still, I can start with two on the thing and rush back across to get the others, so, I've got a head start!'[/i] Zeelo thought to himself as he tried to mentally suss out just how many poff nuts he could move in a single run. He wasn't entirely sure how many he was going to need without knowing the target weight, but considering how light the nuts were, probably more than he could carry in a single run. But, trial and error would win the day. Or so he thought. The next few minutes saw an increasingly frustrated Zeelo rushing back and forth, trying as he could to carry as many poff nuts as possible. He filled up his hoodie, he managed to stuff one each into his jeans pockets, he even managed to gather a few bundled in his arms, but it always seemed as if he was just one or two off before the timer dumped them all back into the wall to reset the puzzle. The ticking was the worst part of it all, the infernal ticking that seemed to taunt him as his time ticked away while we waited, arms and pockets full of poff nuts watching as another was about to pass him by. He had no other way of carrying any more, how was he supposed to do this? He'd even tried hoarding them once, but the puzzle was clever. It wouldn't reset until the majority of them were placed back in the wall. It was maddening. In a fit of exasperation, as one last poff nut was about to scoot by him on the conveyor, Zeelo decided to grab it with the one remaining thing he could… his mouth. Despite looking and feeling tough, the flesh of the poff nut was soft enough that his teeth easily gripped into it, flaking off a few pieces of its pine cone like structure onto his tongue. It tasted a bit woody, but also a little bit sweet? The inside of the nut was more like a dense fruit, and its juice leaked into his mouth as he gripped it between his teeth. It actually tasted… good? He turned to rush back towards the scale, just in time for his foot to slide completely out of his shoe and throw him off balance. His jeans suddenly felt loose as his legs got tangled up into their mass, sending him sprawling to the cavern floor. As Zeelo's shoulder hit the ground, he unintentionally bit fully through the poff nut, peeling off a piece of its succulent flesh into his mouth. His taste buds exploded with flavor, and he didn't even consider maybe not eating the possibly poisonous fruit before he chewed and swallowed it. Meanwhile, Zeelo found himself struggling with more than the poff nuts sprawled across the room. His hoodie had also suddenly become too big on him, and it appeared to be getting bigger. He flipped on his back, kicking his legs against his now oversized pants to get them off as he looked down at his lower half. As he freed himself from the tyranny of pants, he could see his legs weren't looking so normal anymore. His legs and feet were both shrinking into animal-like legs tipped with dainty paws, and rapidly being covered with a light cream colored fur. He tried to look at his hands, his fingers feeling strange as well, but his arms had also shrunk into his sleeves, and he found his body slowly being swallowed by the hoodie he was quickly becoming trapped in. Zeelo tried to right himself and stand on two legs, but quickly fell forward, his spine and hips having already adopted a quadrupedal stance. “Kyu!!" He cried out, suddenly stopping in his tracks. “K--kyu?" ([i]'Why did I--?'[/i]) He quickly pawed at the hoodie, managing to pull it off of himself as he felt one last shiver go through his body, knocking him forward. Much like Jak earlier, his tail was the last thing to grow in, blossoming out behind him and completing his transformation. He blinked a few times, tilting his head back and forth as his new, large ears twitched as they heard the final 'tick' of the puzzle's timer end. “Kyuuu Kyu!" ([i]'Well crap.'[/i]), the new carro said, falling back on his haunches. He glanced over his body, standing back up and pacing in a circle before sitting again with his large tail wrapped around his front. This couldn't be possible, people just didn't turn into carros by eating poff nuts. Clearly they made you hallucinate instead. But if so, this was one hell of a hallucination. He could feel a light breeze moving over his new fur, he could feel his new tail as he moved it, and his ears as they twitched to catch sounds. [i]'Okay Zeelo, let's pretend this is real. Why? Eating the poff nut? If that were the case, we wouldn't have even been able to buy them… so what else?'[/i] He thought, his tail now slowly thumping the cavern floor in front of him like a cat, [i]'Did I fail the trial and this is the punishment? Ugh, I don't know, but… I still gotta try. It's gonna be harder but maybe I can… find somewhere else to go being this small?'[/i] He glanced around, noticing he could see much better now even though he was only a fifth as tall as he was before. [i]'What if I reset the timer, then tried to see where the conveyor belt goes, I bet I could fit through there now! I bet I could activate the door from inside the wall, yeah!'[/i] Zeelo nodded to himself and trotted over to the scale. Getting all the poff nuts into the wall would be a chore, but it would give him time to practice using his new body, and now that he knew how good they were, maybe have a little snack too. After a few moments, and a few more getting side tracked by how interesting the world felt from this perspective, and maybe a few more eating a poff nut or two, he'd managed to get the majority of them back into the wall. He hopped back up onto the scale, now able to sit in it with his whole body, and jumped on it to set the timer. It pushed down, the ticking started and… the scale balanced. “Kyu!!" Zeelo shouted, watching the light above the door go amber. Of course! It needed the weight of a carro! That made sense! He sat on his haunches and closed his eyes, proud of himself for figuring it out, even after being turned into one of the critters! His mind being elsewhere, he hadn't noticed the sound of the scale had continued to tick until it reset. “Kyu?!" the new carro chirped, as his paws lost their footing on the slick metal scale, and he toppled over and backwards into the wall slot as well. Still, could be worse. Back out in the main room, Lockely was even more worried than he had been before. Zeelo had been gone for a while now, Jak even longer, and he was left with nothing but the occasional sound of gears and other things working within the walls. Whereas Jak's took nearly no time at all before his light turned on, Zeelo's felt like a near eternity, and all this time he had nothing to do but wait and twiddle his thumbs (something that was unknowingly in short supply these days amongst the three). He'd been against this whole idea from the start, and now he was probably going to die alone in a cave, never seeing his friends again, and he couldn't even pass the time reading or playing a game or doing anything because he'd lent out his phone. He huffed and slid his back down against the backside of the monolith. And then the amber light above Zeelo's door came on. “Oh! Thank god, he did it!" Lockely pushed himself to his feet and dusted his jeans off. “Guess it's my turn…" He slowly walked over to the third door as it slid itself open, much like the one prior, it had a second door behind it and a lever. Lockely closed his eyes and shook out his hands, hopping in place for a moment and psyching himself up, “You can do this, Lockely. Your friends did it. You can do it. It's the only way out, just gotta push through." His nerves were shot, but he opened his eyes, stepped forward, and pulled the lever locking himself into the third trial room. The door in front of him slowly opened to a completely dark room ahead. He couldn't see literally anything at all, but he stepped forward into the darkness anyway. Just as in the previous rooms, the sconces on the walls lit slowly and in dramatic fashion, one by one, to reveal the challenge ahead. One that would surely and truly be something to tell stories about for the ages. They'd write a song about the exploits of Lockely as he conquered… A ramp. His challenge was a ramp. There was a simple ramp ahead of him, at like, a thirty-degree angle, going about 20ft head. While the ramp had no sides, it appeared that under it wasn't even a chasm, but some pleasant looking, bright-green moss, which extended out to where he was currently standing as well. He stepped forward onto it and it felt delightfully spongy, almost like a gym mat, but far more soft. The ramp itself appeared to be made of wood, but it reflected the light of the sconces almost impossibly so, and there were numerous scratch marks up its length. At the top was another door with another lever next to it on the wall. “Well, this is anticlimactic." The young man rolled his eyes, strode forward, and immediately slipped and fell on his ass. While the moss cushioned his fall, his pride was still hurt. “Ow…" He glanced at the ramp again, pushing himself to his feet. Shiny, so it was slick. Of course it was, this was never going to be that easy. He moved forward and placed a single foot on the ramp, sliding it about. His shoes, a well-worn pair of Converse, had no traction on the best of days on a simply wet surface. He groaned, sitting down in the moss and pulling the laces loose. His hoodie didn't even have enough space for these, and there was no way he was going to be able to chuck his Chucks across the gap. “Zeelo and Jak owe me big time." He grumbled as he finished pulling them and his socks off, balling those up and into the now abandoned shoes. Now barefoot, he stepped onto the soft moss again and felt it almost tingle under his feet, then, he leaned forward and tried to ascend the ramp slowly on all fours. He got maybe five feet up before he lost momentum and slid back down to the start. “Right then, running start?" Lockely moved back along the wall, eyeing up his approach. “There's not much room straight on from the door, but maybe I could come at it from an angle to get more speed…? Worth a shot." He hadn't noticed, but the tingle he'd felt hadn't subsided as he stepped from the moss to the cool stone. He also hadn't noticed the light fur that began to grow on his feet, or as soft pads began to form on their bottoms. He lined himself up, bent over, and ran directly at the ramp, launching himself as best he could towards the top as he slid right over the side and landed full body into the moss below. “Pbbt--" He spit some out of his mouth as he skidded to a stop, feeling the soft moss now between his fingers and along his face, which also began to tingle. He was too angry to notice, however, as he pushed himself back to his feet and examined his white hoodie, now sporting a green stain along the majority of its right side. “Great! Just great, this will never come out! First my shoes, now my hoodie! Just flippin' great!" Lockely marched back over to the starting point, now almost furious at the ramp and this trial in general. He was so mad that he hadn't noticed the small claws forming on his toes, or how his hands and face continued to tingle as they sprouted light fur of their own. All his eyes were on was the prize, the door at the top. Lockely had found his white whale. Furiously, he charged once more up the ramp, now making some headway as he unknowingly dug his toe claws into the wood, his fingernails morphing into claws of their own to aid him, but inertia took its toll, and he found himself slipping once more and tumbling over the side, now into even deeper moss. This time, however, he was struggling to get to his feet. His jeans were always a bit loose, but now his legs felt like they were tangled into them, and he kicked them off in anger, exposing his legs to the moss. “Oooh! When I get [b]kyu[/b] with this I'm--- did I just kyu?" Several things clicked in Lockely's head at once. One, he'd made a carro sound, twice. Two, the tingling was increasing and it was clearly the moss doing it as he thrashed about and exposed more of his body to it. Three, he was increasingly becoming trapped in his clothing because he was shrinking. And Finally, he was going to kill Zeelo and Jak when this was all done with. It didn't take a genius to understand what was happening to him, and in short order, yet another carro crawled its way out of oversized clothing, except this one was angry. Lockely looked over his body as he sat on top of his ruined hoodie resting on a sea of magic moss. He looked the same as any other carro except he had spots on his tail and leading up from his brand-new paws. He growled and shook, his fur standing on end as he closed his now crimson eyes. Then, the small carro dashed over the soft moss and back up the ramp. “Kyu- (I) kyuuu- (will) KYU! (NOT!) ky-yu- (let this) k-yu (ramp) KYUUU (BEAT) KYU!!! (ME!!!)" He chittered and chirped as he dug his fore and rear claws in and pulled himself up the length of the ramp. He huffed and puffed at the top, then angrily marched over to the lever and pulled it down, activating the amber light above the door as it slowly slid open. He was both elated, his white whale vanquished, but also extremely, extremely annoyed that he'd been transformed into a rodent to do it. This was stupid. These trials were stupid. He wanted to go home and take a nap. With the last trial over, he probably could, if he could get into his apartment like this. But first he had to find Zeelo and Jak. As the door opened, it led to a hallway, and his new sensitive ears could pick up a bit of a commotion coming from the far end. He walked lightly on his new paws as he quietly tried to see what was ahead before he himself was seen. He had no idea if carros were predator or prey species, though he suspected the latter as they seemed to subsist on weird pine cones. Whatever he was expecting, however, it couldn't have possibly been what he found as he rounded the corner and stepped directly into a large central hall. There, laid out before him, was a banquet hall with hundreds of other carros in varying states of feast, play, sleep, or other activities. They even had tables carved from wood, and at the center of them, Lockely recognized the large carro from the monolith with the two smaller ones to their sides. The large one chirped, “Kyu!", but weirdly enough, Lockely understood it as “Congratulations!" His ears twitched, and he suddenly realized he could understand the other carros as they squeaked and chirped and chittered around the room, as if they were speaking plain English. “How are you--" His voice came out in 'kyus' but he could even understand himself, “How-- am I?" “All will make sense in time. Please, come, sit with your friends." The large carro responded, pointing his tail towards the table to the right of him. There sat two other carros, almost indistinct from every other one, but one had a shooting star shaped pattern on his chest, and the other had a pair of brown stripes across his ear tips. “Jak? Zeelo?" Lockely chirped, “What?" Zeelo and Jak were too busy digging into poff nuts to have noticed Lockely when he arrived, but as soon as he said their names, they looked up and blinked a few times. “Lockely?" chittered the Carro that had to be Jak. “You did it!" chimed in the other one, who had to be Zeelo by process of elimination. Lockely padded over and sat down next to them, a poff nut sitting and waiting for him on his plate. He poked it with his paw and sniffed at it. It smelled good, but things were just a little too weird for him right now. “What happened to you guys? What happened to me? What--" The carro equivalent of a clearing throat interrupted him, it was the largest carro, now standing before the three. “I believe I can answer that. I am the Elder of this carro tribe, and you three are now our newest members! You have passed our sacred trials and earned a pla--" “Sacred trials? Is that what that was?" Lockely rudely interjected. The Elder was taken aback, “Why, y-yes! Jak, in going into the unknown to face uncertainty and find his way found himself worthy of the Trial of Bravery. Zeelo, in discovering the truth of our sacred fruit, weighed himself against the Trial of Wisdom. And you, Lockely, for not giving up against the ramp of slippery moss, have proven yourself in the Trial of Tenacity! You should all be proud!" “Wait, but the solution to all of these was to turn us into carros so we'd be able to solve it." Zeelo piped up. Was this a trial or more… a recruitment drive? “I don't understand the difference, you brought us the sacred fruit as payment so your worth could be judged! It was all very clearly spelled out on the monolit--" The Elder, now confused, began to explain. “Yeah, uh, we couldn't read that." Jak now mentioned, “What language is it written in?" “In ours, of course! What do you--" “See, there's your problem. Plus, there's no other exit, and we literally fell through a trap door to get down here in the first place. So, it's also a little teensy bit of being drafted into this? Like, dude, we just wanted to see some of you guys and go home, we didn't want to be one." Lockely again interrupted. “I don't-- it is an honor to be one of our kind! Only the bravest, wisest, most tenacious may join! We live enriched lives, eating of the sacred fruit and welcoming newcomers into our fold. Take heart, I know it seems simple, but the time of the Great Foraging is soon, and you'll be able to experience our most exciting tradition!" The Elder swung once again into his welcoming speech. “The Great Foraging? Is that… is that just searching for poff nuts on the surface?" Zeelo now asked, his head tilted. “There is no more exciting time within our tribe! Oh, to rustle through the leaves, the scent on the air as you dig them from the piles." The Elder said as he leaned his head, his eyes closed as if remembering the fondest of memories. “So there's an exit to the surface?" Jak now asked, looking at both Lockely and Zeelo with a knowing look. “Well, yes, of course. Go down two burrows on your left, then take the first right. The surface is just a short climb away." Without another word, all three new carros stood up and began to head towards the back burrows. “Where are you going?" The Elder called. “Man, I got a raid tonight, and now I need Zeelo to teach me how to set up my controller because I can't use a mouse and keyboard like this." Lockely responded, not even looking back. “But--" “And we need to figure out a way to communicate with people, no thanks to you." Zeelo chimed in. “Plus you have literally no technology here." “But---" “Aaaand, this whole thing is actually kinda lame? Poff nuts are tasty, sure, but I don't want to live in some weird nut-based pyramid scheme cult thing." Jak finished. “B-B-But you are no longer children of men! You are of the tribe! You cannot go back to your old lives! It is written in the sacred texts!" The elder pleaded as they continued to walk away. “Eh, we'll figure something out." Responded Zeelo, as he ducked into the burrow for the surface after the other two. As the three breached the surface, the sun was beginning to set over the horizon. The exit was actually near where they'd first fallen in, and they'd made a big circle. They'd driven out to the forest's edge, but driving back was going to be impossible with all their belongings now trapped under the surface in the various trial rooms. It would be awkward to go back and ask for them now. “So… now what? We can't drive, it's too far to walk in an afternoon, and we're just as likely to get picked up by animal control as we are adopted as someone's pet and all our crap's down there." Lockely sat on his haunches, his tail wrapped around his body as he looked at his reflection in his tail orb. “Well, not 'all' our crap." Replied Zeelo, “Jak's phone is still up here, remember? We could call an Uber and use a text app to talk. I bet our paws are small enough to use the screen." “Oh you're right!" Jak chirped, “Lemme go get it, man, good luck it fell up he--" The other two turned, Jak having been cut off mid-sentence. There was a light 'clang' from his direction and the two carros stared at each other. Zeelo's muzzle turned into a smile, before he bounded off towards where Jak had disappeared, jumped, and then disappeared himself into a large pile of leaves, the same clang following. Lockely just looked up at the sky, questioning all the choices in his life that led him to this moment before taking a deep breath, and marching forward. “Here we go again…"