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Some of Arrakis' food went over the side too, and Ignatius winced. Well, they didn't need that food, right? Surely, they would win without it. They still had plenty of food on hand!

And so, Ignatius continued on, arriving to the very confusing winding forest on his horse. Maybe he would get out of this without losing any food. Not even bothering to take another moment to assess the situation, Ignatius pushed forward on his horse, looking around for the nearest path out.

Ignatius' horse did not appreciate this, unfortunately, and bucked Ignatius off, running away with some of his food. "Hey! Get back here! We're not done questing yet!"

Damn horse. Now he had to travel on foot...

It seemed that the tall lanky knight had his horse abandon him too. Damn horses. They were so impatient and unbearable. They would be better off on foot anyway!

"I don't know, we have low reserves of food. Maybe we should tackle this head on. We didn't need those damn horses anyway."

With a newfound determination, Ignatius prepared himself to head up the giant mountain labyrinth. Labyrinths were not so bad! At least they were not cliffs, or winding forests, or anything like that. They were considerably more bearable.

Except when they weren't.

Ignatius heard a horrific roaring noise and whipped his head around, seeing a beast literally made of fire charging up to the two of them. And they didn't have any horses! "RUN!" Ignatius screeched, running through the mountain labyrinth as quick as his legs could take him. Thankfully, he was fairly fast, but it came at the loss of quite a bit of food...

Snakes, fire beasts, crazy horses that didn't want to ride with them, and somehow their quest still wasn't done? It was hopeless at worst, bleak at best. Ignatius was almost certain they did not have enough food rations to make it to the artifact.

Ignatius strained and strained, stepping forward, hopping that he could lead himself and the other man to victory. He would not be a loser!

Except he would be.

In his excitement to get to the artifact, as he could almost feel it in his fingers, Ignatius let out a loud, "WE DID IT!" This was, unfortunately, far too loud. The mountains began to shake, and Ignatius watched, eyes widening, as he saw some snow begin to crack and fall away from the mountains around them...

Out of food and out of time, Ignatius screeched, "RUN!" once again, running past Arrakis at the speed of sound and getting down the mountain as fast as he possibly could.

... Like a loser.

Ignatius was entirely correct in that assertion. Arrakis just nodded when Ignatius approached him, swinging up onto his own horse and heading for a trail that was now becoming very, very familiar.

Bees were bad enough. Arrakis was not happy to see the horse gone but even less happy to see the bees in general. Luckily, they did not turn their sights on him, for which he was grateful.

...In all the bee commotion, he missed the very large boar until he turned around and saw it there in his path. He managed to get away from it, but only after its tusks took a chunk out of his leg. He invented new epithets, that moment.

Arrakis could not blame Ignatius for the spider reaction, either, as much as they really needed that food. Even with their considerable stores this time, every bit was precious. Luckily, he was able to swipe in and pick it up himself before any spiders or boars or anything else could get to it.

"That was close!"

The fire beast was bad enough. Not that it was at all minor, but that was bad enough. But the coup de grace was Arrakis' horse deciding it had had quite enough of this and running away, leaving Arrakis on the ground in the process. He was right behind Ignatius with the rest of the food he had from his horse. Oh come on.

Ignatius had gone back so late in the trip, and Arrakis almost joined him when the giant eagles attacked. With some clever footwork however, Arrakis was able to dodge them all and emerge triumphant.