After the key was found, thoughts of continuing to explore the rest of the escape tunnel were forgotten. We closed up the doors and entry to the secret area and made our way to the vault. Emily was handed the key and given the honor of opening it.

  With a big smile on her face, she proceeded to touch the key to the vault door and pour her mana into it. The key glowed brightly which caused a glowing pattern to appear on the vault door. Soon, loud clicking noises could be heard and the vault door swung open by itself.

  The interior was dark at first but then crystal lighting started coming on illuminating a modest sized rectangular room. I had expected a huge treasure room with enough overflowing treasure for a dragon to sleep on so was a little disappointed. The room wasn’t empty though and from the entrance I could see rows of ornate shelving filled with items and stands with armor and weapons.

  We were about to rush into the room when what I thought was just another set of ornate armor suddenly stepped forward. It raised its sword and shield and shouted “Password!” in old kingdom. We were all surprised at this turn of events. “It wants a password. I don’t suppose anyone has found anything like a password written down anywhere?” I asked.

  We looked at each other and it didn’t seem like anyone had any idea what the password could be. “Password!” The guardian said again and took another step forward. Emily let out an eeep and quickly shut the vault door. The guardian stepped back as the door shut with a thud.

  “Well, without the password it looks like we are going to have to defeat that golem or whatever it is.” Lin said. “I wonder if we could split up and have someone draw it off while the rest of us loot the vault.” Nix idly wondered, tapping her chin. “I doubt it will move very far away from the vault since it is supposed to be guarding it.” Emily replied.

  “Do you think we can defeat it?” I asked Lux. He just grunted in return which didn’t give me much confidence. “I can always shut the vault door again if we get in trouble right?” Emily responded. “Do you have any spells that might work against that thing?” Ann asked Emily. “Hmm, I have a few I could try.” Emily answered.

  All of us still had our weapons and armor from when we were exploring the secret exit so we were about as ready as we could be. Emily went to open the door again while the rest of us took battle stances. Lin and Nix had arrows notched while Ann and I were ready with spells. Lux and Torg had their large swords ready to go.

  As soon as the door opened we didn’t even let the armored golem ask for a password before we started attacking. The arrows and spells were the first to hit it but they just bounced off some kind of barrier in front of the guardian. I had tried an earth lance while Ann tried a lightning spell but neither got through its defenses. It intercepted Lux and Torg’s attacks with its shield and was able to push them back.

  After opening the door, Emily stepped back and prepared her own spell. It seemed to be a concentrated wind spell that although it didn’t seem to penetrate the barrier, it still pushed the golem back and away from Lux and Torg, its swinging sword only hitting air. She then rushed to close the door again, sealing it inside.

  “Well, that could have gone better.” Ann said. “At least now we know it has some kind of barrier around it.” I replied. “Any ideas on how we can get through the barrier?” Linn asked. “When Torg and Lux attacked it defended using its shield instead of the barrier. Maybe the barrier doesn’t work for close attacks.” Nix guessed. “Let’s try a few more spells and attacks to see if we can learn anything else.” Ann suggested. It was a good idea so Emily opened the door and we tried again using different spells and different attacks.

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  At some point Shadow showed up and just sat and watched as our futile attacks bounced off the guardian before Emily shut the door and we tried again. Our spells seemed to be useless and it was very skilled with its sword and shield. During the latest round, Shadow shot across the floor and into the vault just before it closed.

  The rest of us were in shock at what had just happened. Emily’s pale face must have mirrored my own. “Hurry, open it back up!” I yelled at Emily which seemed to snap her out of it. She quickly set about opening the vault door. I was almost afraid at what we might find. I didn’t know what had gotten into the crazy cat.

  When the vault door finally opened, we were shocked into silence once again. Shadow sat atop the remains of the guardian, licking her paws as if nothing had happened. I couldn’t help noticing the large claw marks that were gouged into the metal armor with broken armor pieces lying around.

  Emily ran over to Shadow and scooped her up, looking the cat over for injuries. I quickly joined her but it looked like Shadow was completely unscathed. “What were you thinking, don’t do that again. You nearly gave us hear attacks.” I scolded the cat. Shadow just ignored me and squirmed in Emily’s embrace.

  “What kind of cat is that anyway?” Ann asked, glancing warily at Shadow. “I thought just a regular one, but at least she’s on our side.” I grinned back. It just reinforced my idea that Shadow wasn’t from Earth like I originally assumed. I wondered what other surprises she was hiding.

  With the guardian taken care of we were able to enter the vault to look at the gleaming loot. I didn’t know what a lot of it was but it all looked very expensive. We were definitely rich. The gals were oohing and awing over some jewelry while the guys were drooling over the weapons and armor.

  I decided to wander the rows. I wasn’t really drawn to anything in particular until I saw an ancient looking book sitting atop a pedestal. It looked to be a type of spell book. “Ann, Emily, check this out.” I yelled. I was afraid to touch it as it looked a little menacing.

  I knew it was no Necronomicon but it was better to be safe than sorry. Emily seemed to have no such worries as she let Shadow go and grabbed it off the pedestal while starting to flip through it. Ann joined her and they both studied the book. “Well, what is it, is it any good?” I asked after a couple minutes of them looking through it in silence.

  “It is definitely a spell book but I can’t decipher it.” Ann replied. “I can’t either but I think using some books from the library we should be able to figure it out.” Emily said, handing the book to me. I gingerly took it and opened it up. They were right, I couldn’t make heads or tails of the strange writing. It had to be something good though to be stored in the vault so I was excited to see if the girls could translate it.

  We went back to searching the vault and picking out things we wanted. I was guessing most of it would come with us in our magic bags but some would be improvements to our gear. A lot of it would need to be identified to see what kind of magical effects the items had.

  There was a whole case of different rings which I’m sure were magical artifacts. We even found a couple more magic bags so now each of us had at least one of them. Nix found a chest of gold coins and bars of different types of precious metal. Lux and Torg found some weapons and armor they liked.

  Ann called me over to look at some magical robes. Her and Emily had already picked out ones for themselves but they wanted me to try on a few. I had to model the robes for the girls until they agreed on which one looked best on me. I didn’t mind too much since the robes were extremely comfortable and I’m sure had amazing enchantments on them.

  They settled on a dark blue robe with silver accents. Ann had a red robe with black accents and Emily had a silver robe with gold accents. It would take quite a while to identify everything before we knew what we truly had. Although not huge, the vault was packed with quite a bit of treasure. More than enough for all of us to live the rest of our lives comfortably anyway. We just had to get it back safely.