Seasonal | Skeletons in the Basement | Horrible Finds

Toffee | Zhetan

447 Words

It had started as a simple curiosity, some sort of structure where the door was slightly ajar. How could they not be curious? The three dinos had been gathered around the door, trying to peer inside without disturbing the door, by opening it more, or being too obvious that they were snooping. A fruitless endeavour. Three relatively large carnivores simultaneously peeking their noses through a slightly cracked door was never not obvious. Especially not with their hushed, but still clear, whispering voices discussing where this unnatural tunnel might lead. From what Toffee, a utahraptor covered in lightly tan feathers in different hues, could see from her position the door led to a small cave like room, though it was way too symmetrical and square to be any naturally occurring space. The room was illuminated only by the cracked open door, which of course, currently, was mostly obstructed by the three dinosaurs. What little she could see in the limited light was closest to them, some kind of rectangle covering the floor near the door, with writing she couldn’t understand on it. On the wall some kind of fabric was clinging to metal hooks. Leaves and debris had been blown in, and were covering the floor, and the smell of dust and gravel was heavy in the air. She thought she could make out another open door in the very back of the room. It looked like a back hole leading down somewhere they couldn’t see from this vantage point.
A sudden loud creaking noise got her to jump and being the one at the bottom of their little snooping tower she collided with Fudge who was above her. A startled shriek leaving her body. Both her and Fudge stumbled backwards out of the structure.
A low chuckle made her whip her head toward the culprit. Roast. The brown cryo looked towards them apologetically.
“Sorry, I guess I accidentally bumped the door” though he did seem genuinely sorry for frightening them, he still had an amused tone in his voice, and a smile on his face.
Toffee huffed a little, but couldn’t help but smile with him, shaking her feathers back into place.
“But if your howls didn’t stir anything down there… Maybe we should go down and see what’s actually there?” he suggested, smiling at his teasing jab. Toffee felt nervous at even the suggestion, who knows what was down there? It could be anything, maybe even dangerous! But then again, Roast was right. If nothing had stirred by her shriek, there was a good chance the weird place was abandoned. Hesitantly she looked toward Fudge, hoping for her partner to decide so she didn’t have to.

Fudge | AberrantKapro

387 Words

Fudge snorted at Roast's apology. Not because she didn’t forgive him, but because she felt it was so easily avoidable in the first place. The cryo suggested they go down further, but Fudge was hesitant at first, but at the same time, why not?
She could tell that Toffee had no interest in deciding, so she puffed up her chest feathers and stretched up a bit to seem tall and brave as she gave her response.
“I agree Roast, we must explore this place.” she said with a determined tone, but her fear was not fully masked, as a slight tremble could be heard when she spoke.

Fudge gently brushed her feathered tail against Toffee’s cheek as she started walking. “Everything will be fine, Rost will defend us if something happens, right Roast?” she assured her girlfriend and teasingly looked over at the confused cryo.
“You two are more than capable of fending for yourselves.” he chuckled, and the two utah girls joined in.
“What would your sister say if she heard you were willing to let us fend for ourselves in a time of need?” Fudge dramatically gasped, as she intentionally fell and played dead, leg twitching and all.

The trio was quietly laughing, still being cautious just in case some other living being was down here. Joking around was a good way to relieve tension, though, as all three dinos now felt slightly less terrified.

Fudge took the lead down through the dark tunnel, and as they reached yet another room, shivers went down her spine and her feathers stood up. In front of them was an absurd amount of liquid filled tubes, most of them seemed empty, but it was ominous nonetheless. It creeped her out, and she grabbed Toffee’s arm to comfort herself a bit.
“What messed up place is this..? This can’t be the same lab Toast talked about, could it..?” Fudge shuddered, recalling all of the stories Toast told them of the alpha labs forever ago.
“No I don’t think so..” Toffee replied, cautiously looking around the room.

Fudge had lost the motivation to further explore, but at the same time, they couldn’t just back down now, could they? She moved on, Toffee in her arms and Roast by their side, fearing what they might discover further in the suspicious room.

Roast | Zhetan

466 Words

Roast rolled his eyes at Fudge’s antics, waving dismissively with one hand toward her as he quietly laughed. Though a joke it was true, Toast would not be happy with him if anything happened to her partners while they were with him. He just didn’t think there was much here to fear, or maybe that was just what he hoped. He couldn’t deny that there was some unease in his chest.

 He followed her down the corridor, trying to ignore how much the creaking metal stairs made them all tense up with every creaky step. At the end of the stairs, of course another door, Fudge seemed to hesitate, and therefore also making Toffee and himself have to pause for a step. Curious at what it was that made her so cautious he lifted his head more trying to look over the smaller utahs to see into the room beyond him, slowly walking forward as they once again started walking into the new room. Big transparent tubes lined almost every wall, coiling cords snaking across the floor in tangles, and the room was illuminated with a sickly green light. Most of the tubes seemed empty, except for a green liquid. Most of the tube's liquid was stagnant, but he could see small bubbles in some. One of the tubes, about halfway in, seemed to have been cracked open, and a pool of the green water was beneath it on the floor, sharp shards of glass jutted up and contained the liquid that had remained.
“I mean… couldn’t it be?” he asked, the climbing unease more evident in his voice. Something about these tubes made him feel very, very, uncomfortable. He was going to ask something about what they remembered about Toast’s lab, but his next sentence died in his throat as his eyes landed on a tube that decidedly was not empty. Slightly obscured by the green tint of the water was the silhouette of a large curled up herbivore, with plates and spikes down its back. His gasp alerted the two girls who both turned their attention to what he was looking at. Toffee gasped louder than he had and backed up so fast she bumped into him, pressing up against his chest, basically pulling Fudge with her, as the slightly lighter utah was still holding her arm, and her own shock had made her unable to react in time to not get pulled with.
“Who… W… What is this?” Toffees voice sounded horrified. Fudge seemed too stunned to speak, and he couldn’t blame her.
“Who would do something like this?” Toffee continued, shaking her head and looking between the other two. Neither of them answered any of the questions, Roast couldn’t even begin to try to understand what it was that
they were seeing.

Wordcount: 1300