Just as frozen as the icy walls surrounding them, the two men made their way down the subterranean tunnel. They were packed to the tooth with layer upon layer of clothing and other provisions in their huge bags. They were just another pair of poor treasure hunters, out in the Antarctic desert, raring to find a fabled artifact that was told to change someone's life just by a glimpse at it. How beautiful must it be, they thought, to move a man's heart with just a glimpse? The two wished they saw it soon, for a moving heart was a warm one, and theirs were quite cold.
The first man strained to open his mouth, for his grandiose mustache had frozen in front of it. He managed to wrestle his grey whiskers free. "We better find this damn thing, or I'm gonna cut your pay in half."
"What?!" yelled the younger man next to him, desperately holding onto a map with his shivering hands. "Why?! I've been holding the single most important map the whole time!" They had discovered this tunnel by following maps they had "found" in a history museum.
The two men argued as they continuing to walk further into the tunnel, the light from outside dimmed and almost completely out of view now. The whiskered man took out his lighter, but found it had frozen shut. "Nimrod, where's that lamp?" he asked begrudgingly.
"Got it right here," the younger man replied, brandishing the now-lit kerosene lamp that had been tied to his belt.
They continued further down the winding tunnel, without any sign of a beautiful artifact, until they eventually came to a turn, and on the wall ahead of them they could see a warm, red light coming from around the bend. The younger man threw his hands up in excitement. "That's gotta be it! Look! We found it!" he exclaimed, and darted forward.
"Wait, look out!" the whiskered man yelled, seeing a small crack in the rocky ground over which the younger man would be running, but it was too late. The younger man's foot stuck into the crack, and he flew forward onto the ground, the glass of his lamp shattering and its flame sputtering out. The younger man cried out in discomfort. "Owww, that hurt..."
"Quit your whining, nimrod," the whiskered man rebuked. He walked past the whimpering soul and looked around the bend. In a miracle of warmth and light, a campfire had somehow been alive and burning in this freezing cold. "That's it? This is the goddamn artifact?" he yelled in frustration.
"It's not that bad," the younger man said, crawling over to the fire and sitting cross-legged in front of it, holding both his hands out to the warmth. "At least it's welcoming."
The whiskered man sat down, and did the same as the younger man did with his hands. Although he didn't want to admit it, the younger man was right; this was a welcoming sight after walking for what seemed like ages down an underground icy tunnel.
After some time, the younger man said, "We should probably get going with this thing soon."
The whiskered man grunted as he stood up again. "How do you suggest we do that, nimrod?" He walked back over to the bend, looking into the black they would have to travel through again to get back to the surface. With the lamp shattered, they would have nothing to light the way with. The younger man walked up beside him, stared into the abyss as well, and shrugged.
"Well, I guess we-" the whiskered man began to say. But when he turned around and looked at where the campfire had been, all he saw was a single wooden piece on fire at one end; a torch useful for these kinds of situations.
The younger man turned as well, his face etched with confusion. He then turned to the whiskered man, hands on his hips. "Did you make that?" he asked, his tone one of disappointment. "You really had to go chop up the artifact just to leave that one silly torch, didn't you?"
The whiskered man's eyes were wide open in surprise that he had been accused of such a thing. "I haven't even walked over there! It was YOU who did it!" He pushed a finger into the younger man's chest, the younger man staggering back a bit but retaining his ground.
"Since I don't want to argue," the younger man conceded, "let's just take the torch and get out of here. Sound good, old man?" He walked over to the torch, picked it up, and proceeded to walk back the way they came, the whiskered man angrily following.
