Face Yer Fears Day

When I woke up today there was a huge racket outside. I could not get back to sleep so I went outside to see what was going on. When I got outside I saw people running around doing crazy stuff all over the place. One person even jumped off the top of a fifty-foot building onto a single pillow at the bottom! I'm not really sure how that ended up, because rather than watch the man most likely kill himself, I decided to go into the saloon.

When I went inside the ground floor was crammed, so I decided to go upstairs. On the roof I saw Dr. Garlic talking to Zhonn Anderson and asked them what they were talking about. Zhonn Anderson instantly yelled "Face Yer Fears Day!" Just then I noticed Dr. Garlic's hair was a different color and asked what he had done to it. At this Dr. Garlic looked rather confused and said "My hair?" Since he did not seem to understand I asked "Why did you dye it?" Then Dr. Garlic said "What are you talking about? I'd never dye my hair!" Then Zhonn Anderson suddenly interjected, saying "Well, I didn't say anything to you about it, mostly because it looked terrible, but your hair is dyed, Typhon."

Eventually we figured out that Quarrelsome Bert had faced his fear of dyeing someone's hair without permission. After this I got Zhonn Anderson to explain Face Yer Fears Day to me. Once he had finished, he asked me if I had any fears I might want to face, since it was Face Yer Fears Day after all.

After thinking for a minute I told him how I was afraid of looting because someone might laugh at me if I did it wrong. Zhonn then proceeded to find out about Dr. Garlic's fears, and Dr. Garlic told him about his fear of snakes. After this Zhonn thought for a minute and said, "I think I know a place where you could both face your fears." At first we were reluctant, but decided to go when Zhonn mentioned it involved a cave of gold. I decided to bring my cart at Zhonn's urgings and we left.

When we finally reached the mouth of the cave Zhonn stopped suddenly and Dr. Garlic asked him, "What is it?" When he said nothing I also asked him, "What's wrong Zhonn?" Eventually we managed to find out that this cave was his fear. Pretty soon however, we restored him to his former, brave self and entered the cave.

We crept along "oh so slowly" (as I said) because Zhonn had warned us that there might be booby traps. We were barely inside when I saw a huge diamond. I yelled, "Wow! a diamond!" and ran over to pull it out of the wall. Zhonn barely had time to yell, "Nob, No!" before a spiked section of the wall came out and nearly crushed Zhonn and Dr. Garlic! Luckily it only nearly crushed them and we were able to keep going, although not without more than a few more booby trap warnings from Zhonn.

Only slightly farther down the tunnel I saw a golden staff and decided to run and grab it.

I had barely started running when I heard "Nob, STOP!" from behind me, and turned around to see a spear shooting out of the wall at Dr. Garlic!

I thought out loud to Dr. Garlic that he wasn't being careful enough, and that there were dangerous booby traps in this cave.

Zhonn started once again to tell me I was being careless and had been the main reason that Dr. Garlic had set off the trap.

Near the end of the lecture I noticed Dr. Garlic holding up the staff I had been about to get which I just noticed was guarded by snakes! He then turned to me and Zhonn and yelled "I did it! I faced my fear of snakes and they didn't even bite me!" Zhonn just stared at him in shock. And he thought I was reckless.

Just then I saw the treasure room at the other end of a narrow hallway. I turned to the others and said "Look guys! It's the treasure. We just have to walk down this narrow hallway!" The hallway was actually so narrow we had to walk sideways at some points which made it hard for me, since I had so much stuff in my backpack.

Then I was in the treasure room! Hearing Dr. Garlic scream, I turned around to see a huge lava pit separating us. "Not again!" I shouted. "You should really be more careful with all these traps, Typhon."

Suddenly it dawned on me that I would have to face my fear of looting all by myself! I could barely move. "Hey, Nob! Are you going to toss the treasure over here sometime?" Zhonn joined in, "Yeah, Nob, the whole point of coming here on Face Yer Fears Day was so you could face your fear on Face Yer Fears Day." Slowly I reached down and picked up a single golden coin. I threw it to Dr. Garlic, and it landed in the lava with a splash. "Nob, do you think you could throw it a bit harder next time?"

My cheeks reddened, but I knew that half-heartedly tossing all the treasure into the lava would only get me more embarrassment. So I grabbed a big chunk of gold, and hurled it with all my might across the lava. I then waited for an inevitable laugh of "Ha! You did that totally wrong!"

But it never came.

Dr. Garlic just picked up the artifact and passed it to Zhonn. I realized there was no reason to be afraid of looting. I proceeded to toss all the rest over to Typhon until only the centerpiece remained.

It was so gigantic I wasn't even sure I would be able to lift it, let alone throw it across that huge lava pit. It turned out the thing was just stuck to the ground; once I got it up it wasn't really that heavy.

But suddenly I heard a terrible rumbling, and the sound of ancient machinery turning beneath me. The wall next to me began to crumble. "Run!" I screamed to my fellow adventurers. I then ran for my life, jumping over the lava and speeding past the traps, screaming the whole time.

It was terrifying. I nearly died three times! Traps were going off and spears were flying everywhere. Somehow I got out, much to the relief of Zhonn and Typhon.

Well, we were filthy rich. Sometimes I guess it pays to face "yer" fears. Zhonn and I are now back in town, counting our gold. Dr. Garlic's still making his way back. Since he didn't have a nice pig-cart to bring it back with, he had to drag his share back on a sledge.

So that is the story of how Zhonn, Typhon, and I faced our fears!