The floor was wet, so it went without saying that the swamp that had gone down the drain from the first cavern had passed to here. There were two corridors. One to the left and one to the right.

“The draft is coming from the left,” said Sebastian as he moved to that tunnel.

“We can’t leave a stone unturned. Even if there is noting in to the right, we can’t leave a whole corridor unexplored,” argued back Edwin. Then, they decided to solve their problem like functioning adults. With Stone, paper scissors.

Sebastian made a stone; Edwin made a paper, and they headed to the right. With one of them grumbling how it wasn’t fair, and the other grinning for the first time in two days.

Just as Sebastian predicted, there was nothing to the right. Nothing but flowers with differently colored blooms. Edwin was ecstatic to see them, and he began to dig them out of the soil and stash them in his bag.

“This is a treasure trove! Empty your bag. With these, we can heal a plethora of sicknesses!” Sebastian looked at the weeds and scoffed. As if, he was going to place his spare clothes in the mud over them.

“Look, Eddy, I don’t understand what is so important about…”

“This,” said Edwin as he dug out a plant that had a human’s face in its roots and began to wail. “Is a Mandragora. Thought to be extinct some thousand years ago. Yet, here we have them! Mandragora is good for stiff muscles and bad eyesight!”

“One weed is not a weed, fine, so what?” Sebastian was still unconvinced in the importance of giving up his bag space for the plants.

“And this,” Edwin cut a sapling, and Sebastian wondered why he hadn’t taken the roots off like with the Mandragora. “Is thought to be extinct apple tree, that which fruits help with indigestion. And apple trees can be bred from a cutting. So, I only need to get this one connected to a modern apple, and then it will be reborn.”

“I think you should leave these things here. And I dare say now I know how such a poor excuse for a dungeon survived so long,” Edwin send him a quizzing look.

“Think about it, Eddy. Maybe someone came to this cavern, saw it, and decided to get rich with all these miracle cures. The swamp upstairs is not something a dungeon core can do.”

Edwin stopped shoving plants in his bag for a minute to think about it.

“And, once the dungeon is gone, whoever has been protecting the core will be mad. Chances are that he or she might be a mediocre mage. But, what if they are not? Let us head back,” this sounded to Edwin like keep politics in mind. The mantra he had heard in the academy. He didn’t pay that mantra any attention, he was not going to pay this one any either.

“It is my duty as a healer to make sure these plants are reintroduced to the world,” Edwin returned to examining the plants, about which he had only read in dusty tomes. Each one was more wonderful than the last.

Over at the wall was jasmine, extinct after the great plague of 1069. And by the altar…wait, there was an altar in the room. Placing the snake leaf tea, which was good for Alzheimer, at least in the beginning stages, in the bag, he approached the altar.

There was something hidden behind the jasmine, and he cut up the plant, carefully collecting each cutting and stuffing it in his bag, and read the words written in the marble.

He who drinks, is healed,

He who steals, is stolen.

He who walks on three legs,

Will walk on four soon.

And may the shadows find you,

For you, shall sleep soon.

“I think it wants its weeds back,” chimed in Sebastian from behind Edwin.

“It is not stealing, it is reclaiming,” retorted Edwin.

“Of something that isn’t yours? And drink what?” They both looked up, as if on cue, and Edwin saw that there was a big apple tree spanning over the altar. Its bark was as dark as ebony and its body was massive. The tree was ladened with golden apples.

“The tree of knowledge…” Edwin’s voice conveyed his awe. Never, not in a million years, did he think he would see it? But, he looked back at the riddle. It was said that he who drinks, not he who eats.

“I think it would be stealing if we take the apples,” said Edwin. Which was a failed opportunity. Then, the realization hit him. He couldn’t pull apart the dungeon without crushing this legendary tree.

“If you leave this dungeon empty, a new core will claim it,” reminded him Sebastian. He patted Edwin’s shoulder in understanding, and they both looked at the riddle again. “Drink what? Healed from what?”

“The sap, maybe?” Edwin didn’t want to harm this tree. Its importance on the world history was too great. “Doesn’t matter. Let me collect all the herbs, and we can go back to the crossroad.”

“Just like that?” Sebastian reached out towards a low-hanging apple, but then saw that there were snakes hiding in the branches. Retracting his hand, he nodded to Edwin and shined a light at a snake that went and coiled at the tree, pretending it is an apple.

With nary a shared look, they were both running towards the exit. The giant snake that had pretended to be a tree roared behind them. It shifted its bulk and blocked the gate through which they had come from, the small snakes descending to the formally serene herbal garden.

“We could have avoided this if we have gone right,” screamed Sebastian as he dodged a spittle of poison that burned at the soil, uncovering a grate.

“No time for this, come on, we need to go down!” Screamed back Edwin and he kicked open the grate. There was a whooshing water below that stank of death. “Never mind, we stand, and we fight.”

“We better not enter an internal sleep because, Eddy, I will haunt your nightmares if it happens!” And for the first time, Edwin was preparing to eat a soul. For nothing else could topple such a giant. If only he knew how.