text: Hello all. I've been working on a bunch of short stories for years now, writing and re-writing them for nearly ten years. The current state of the world has relieved me of any excuse to avoid my story ideas. Since most of the ideas are, by now, around ten years old, I updated many of them. The one I'm posting here is one of the originals and used to be much longer and less mature. The titular Bone King in the story is not referenced as such, the name of the story is a call back to the broader fictional universe in which it takes place. Any constructive criticism is welcome, keep in mind English is my second language. That being said, I hope you enjoy the story. &#x200B; "You call that digging?" Taunted Ezra. He had just returned from fetching a bottle of water and some snacks. The sun rode high in the sky and, though the boys and their dig site were shaded by the thick prosopis trees that grew like weeds in the dry river bed, the heat pressed down on them mercilessly. "Ag! You took your sweet time, didn't you?" Said Dirk, leaning now on his shovel. Sand clung to almost every exposed bit of his skin. "Maybe you should show me how it's done then." With this Dirk threw the shovel at Ezra's feet and struggled out of the sand pit. "I guess I'll have to." Said Ezra and jumped into the pit with shovel in hand. Dirk sat himself down on a nearby stone and grabbed a handful of dried beef from the sack that Ezra brought as he watched the older boy dig shovel after shovel of sand from the pit. They had come upon this spot just a week before while hunting birds with their slings. Dirk had tripped over what he thought was a stone and, upon further inspection, found it to be the tip of a carved stone. The boys concluded, after trying to dig it out with their hands, that it must be a rather large boulder and agreed that they would come back with better gear the next weekend. Now they have been digging for most of the day and the tiny exposed stone has turned into a massive, carved rock that was part of a larger rock formation buried in the sand. In time the boys were able to see a dark, hollow space behind the carved stone and concluded that it must serve as a seal to some cache or cave. “Dirk!” Called Ezra some time later. Dirk had gone to relieve himself behind a shrub. “Come see, Dirk!” Called Ezra when the other boy did not respond immediately. Dirk came running, his fly only half way closed. “Woah.” Dirk slid down into the pit and came to stand next to Ezra. The older boy had managed to expose the stone and, using the shovel, levered it to one side. Before them stretched an abyss deeper than they had expected. The sunlight that penetrated the thicket above them faded ineffectively into the darkness. “Well?” Said Ezra, placing his hands expectantly on his hips. “Well what?” Dirk tore his eyes from the void to look quizzically at the older boy. “Aren’t you going in then?” asked Ezra as if Dirk plunging blindly into the dark was a given thing. “Don’t be stupid, Ezra.” Said Dirk with a nervous laugh. “What, are you scared?” mocked Ezra. “Scared of the dark?” “Well,” answered Dirk, “why don’t you go if you’re so brave?” “I guess I’ll have to.” Said Ezra. With this he reached into his back pocket and retrieved a small flashlight that Dirk had not noticed before. Ezra clicked the flashlight on and pointed it into the darkness. The light fell upon more carved stone and showed a passage high enough for a person to walk upright in. A bend not far into the passage obscured it’s true depth. “Shouldn’t we find a grown-up first?” Asked Dirk apprehensively. “And have them send us home to ‘play cars’ or something so that they can have all the fun? No way!” With this Ezra stepped cautiously into the cave, sweeping the torch along the stone walls to reveal strange and ancient carvings. Dirk watched his friend go slowly deeper into the cave, torn between his apprehension to enter the unknown, claustrophobic space and his own curiosity. “Are you sure about this?” Asked Dirk. The passage seemed to absorb his voice as it does the light. Ezra, who was by now almost at the bend in the passage, stopped and turned to his friend. “Don’t be such a coward, Dirk.” Said he. “*Coward dirk*” came the echo from deeper in the darkness. Ezra chuckled. “See, even the cave knows.” “*Knows”* said the echo. “Come on already.” Said Ezra and began to disappear around the bend as the passage echoed “*come*”. “Ezra!” Called Dirk, panic creeping into his voice. “Scaredy Dirk, scaredy Dirk!” Came to mocking voice of Ezra. “*Scaredy Dirk*” came the echo from further in. The light from the torch moved for a moment longer as Ezra moved out of sight and then retreated. Dirk paused for a moment longer at the entrance trying to muster his courage. Finally he willed himself to move into the passage. “Ezra!” he called, feeling his way along the walls. Dirk could see the faint glow of light still around the bend, but there was no answer. By the time Dirk reached the bend where last he saw the glow of the torch, there was no sign of Ezra. Instead he saw only the glow somewhat further away. “Ezra! Wait up” Called Dirk just as the glow disappeared around another bend. “*Scaredy Dirk”*, came the answer faintly. Once more Dirk forced himself forward, feeling with his hands as he went. He could feel the strange figures carved into the stone and the motion of his hands moving over them in sequence almost made it seem like they moved under his touch. “Ezra!” Called Dirk again, though now he was choking with panic. There was the faint glow seeming just out of reach up ahead and, from behind and all other directions, the darkness pushed in on him as black, cold water. “*Scaredy*” came the answer again, a little closer now. Dirk pushed onward toward the glow, not so much consciously as much as being propelled by the darkness swallowing the passage behind him. Finally he thought that he was gaining on the light. “*Dirk”* came Ezra’s voice again. “I’m almost there, Ezra, just wait up!” called Dirk. The relief in his voice was practically tangible. Dirk rounded another coil in the snaking passage and stepped into the light of Ezra’s torch. In front of him a pile of rubble partially blocked the passage, though it left a large enough space for a person to crawl comfortably over. Ezra’s head peered out from the other side of the rubble and his hand hung, relaxed, over the pile. Dirk saw Ezra’s face and knew that the older boy was mocking him. His eyes were comically wide and he grinned from ear to ear. His head bobbed from side to side as Dirk approached him and his arm, still holding the flashlight, swung limply, making the shadows dance ominously around. “Yeah, I know.” Said Dirk. “You could have waited, you know!” “*Scaredy Dirk*” taunted Ezra, his head bobbing side to side. “Ag, piss off!” Yelled Dirk, shaking from the adrenaline. “*Pissssssssssssss*” came the answer, though it was now less like that of Ezra. With this the older boy seemed to begin to struggle over the pile of rubble and, when he had reached the top, Dirk saw that he was backwards and his head was turned at a strange angle to stare wide-eyed at him. Then the body of Ezra slid limply down the side of the pile, the flashlight came loose from his grip and came to rest at such an angle to cast its light back toward the rubble pile. As Ezra’s body came to rest at Dirk’s feet, his eyes staring wide, wild and empty up at the frozen boy, Dirk managed to tear his eyes from Ezra’s face and saw the bloody mess of his torso. His belly was torn open and his bowels snaked out of him and seemed to slither in a bloody trail back over the rubble from where he came. “*Pisssssssssss*” came the voice again from beyond the rubble and Dirk looked up. There came crawling over the pile another figure, pale white, nearly transparent, in the light of the flashlight. From where he stood Dirk could see blue veins snake across the thing's horrible flesh. The eyeless, naked thing could have resembled a human only if it were reconstructed from incomplete remains by a being that has never seen one before. A dark, shiny liquid stained its mouth and clawed hands. As it crested the rubble pile it paused and, though there was only more nearly translucent flesh where its eyes should have been, it turned to Dirk as if it saw him. “*Pissssssssssss*” Hissed the thing in a twisted version of Ezra’s voice and, as it started to crawl down the pile toward him, its eyeless visage still fixed upon him, Dirk did.