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Eathy had always been afraid of pain, he was so afraid of it, he was seldom went anywhere without watching every step he took, always being sure he put it down carefully, because even a tiny twig poking him wrong in the feet would be too much for him. He never went remotely close to Veronica, so even when Greg finally fell victim to her torture, Eathy was the one male elephant in the forest who'd avoided her.

So why on Earth had he followed his friend Ellie into this ancient temple that was sure to be coated in booby-traps.

He blushed. Of course he knew why he was doing it. It was just too embarrassing to admit it was because he wanted to spend time with a cute girl.

After tumbling down a slippery slide for which there was no way back up, Eathy began to wonder if maybe it wasn't going to be that bad, that slide was pretty fun, surely that meant he was someone that was fun to be, right.

But that's when he noticed the room in front of them, a massive space layered with tiles about the size of their own bodies, almost all of them with a small circular hole in the center. A narrow trail of tiles without these holes spread across the center of the room, indicating this was the path they should probably take.

"What do you think will happen if we step on one of those tiles with holes in them?" Eathy asked anxiously.

"I don't know" Ellie said, "Probably something dreadful."

As if in answer, a loose rock from the ceiling crumpled free, and collapsed onto one of the holey tiles.

The instant its weight hit down, a spike shot out of the hole, about as tall as Ellie and Eathy's legs. If that wasn't bad enough, the tip of the spike ejected something into the air like a syringe. It was only a liquid, but it radiated an energy that even from there, halfway across the room, they could almost feel a type of pain which they had never knew existed, not a pang, not a sharpness, not a heat, but something else entirely, something indescribable. Ellie and Eathy's breath caught as the wave washed over them and then faded into nothing.

"What was that?" Eathy asked, shaken.

"I think I've heard of this before," Ellie informed him, "It's a kind of toxin I think. It fades quickly, but even the slightest drop is more painful than anything you can replicate in real life. With the exception of a dragon laying an egg that is."

Ellie took a step for the room, toward the first safe tile, but Eathy held back.

"You expect me to go in there? After that?" Eathy cried.

"Don't worry," Ellie said, "Just follow me and we'll stick to the safe path. It's not like you can go back up that slide."

Eathy hesitated. He knew she was right, but this was just too much on his nerves

But finally, Eathy shakily followed Ellie into the room. The going was easier than he'd thought, and eventually he began to calm. He'd avoided Veronica and he'd just been down a cool slide, surely it couldn't be too bad to be him.

But then the path of safe tiles ended. Ellie stopped and spotted the next safe tile a few feet away, a bunch of holey tiles between them and it.

"Hold on, I think I can make it," Ellie said.

And she leaped.

Landing nicely.

She backed up a few feet to give Eathy room.

"Okay, your turn."

Eathy looked at the gap between him and the next safe tile. He gulped. He was trembling all over. He couldn't do this.

But then he looked back and realized he had no choice. Swallowing herd, he pulled it together and leaped.

And he just made it. Unfortunate, his back leg just barely landed on the tile behind him. A spike shot up, missing him by inches. Eathy scrambled aside with a cry of terror.

He didn't realize that his two back feet had landed on a holey tile, one leg on either side of the hole.

And then the spike shot up.

For a second, Eathy was totally frozen to the spot.

"Oh my gosh."

The spike retreated back into the floor, and Eathy dropped to his knees, his front paws grasping for where the spike got him, his truck folding underneath him aiding in the task.

This was worse than anything Eathy had ever imagined. He wheezed out a wail, it was like the entire world had collapsed in on itself, creating a speck of pure agony penetrating his inflicted body.

"Oh my goodness" Ellie cried, "You were right! And I've never been so amused to be proven wrong in all my life! I so would not want that to happen to me! And you wanted it even less! And you got it worse than I could ever...! Why does that make it so much more HILLARIOUS!" Ellie burst out laughing, unable to control herself.

Ellie thought of her own self and how that could never happen to her. She clenched her legs together as shelf-conscious amusement swept over her. Another burst of laughter escaped her mouth. If she felt embarrassed just thinking of herself this way, how must Eathy feel putting his whole vulnerability on display like this, being laughed at by a cute girl who wasn't prone to such indignity. It must be SO embarrassing.

Oh, how Ellie loved being a girl.

But by now the toxin was beginning to wear of. Eathy wheezed back to steady breathing. He realized that Ellie had just seen the whole thing. The cutest girl on the planet had seen him get completely creamed by a spike to the-

He decided to stop himself there, his face was getting to red.

Eathy began to collect his feet under him. "Please don't make that happen to me again-" But as he regained his footing, he failed to realize he was replacing his pressure right back on the holey tile, right where he was the first time.

And the spike shot up, injecting him once again with its toxin.

And It hurt way worse than double. It was as if each new molecule of toxin reactivated every single old molecule of toxin from the previous shot to it's fullest extent, all interacting and colliding with eachother in every way possible until each and every single molecule of toxin was just as unbearably excruciating as the entire shot had been the first time.

Eathy collapsed to the floor, writhing and roaring in complete agony. And it was then that anything left of Eathy's was gone. He was still fully conscious, but anything that made him "him" was gone, he existed for one thing alone, to bear this excruciating agony with no remorse.

And that's when Ellie lost it. She collapsed to the floor as well, rolling around in, roaring in laughter. (Lucky for her she didn't roll onto any of the holey tiles). She wheezed, laughing so hard, she couldn't catch her breath.

"I CAN'T DO THIS!" she cried "I'm so glad I'm not you!" *Gasp, Gasp* "I am so glad I don't know what that feels like, or I probably wouldn't be laughing right now! Oh I can't do this!" And then she realized, "You probably can't do this either, and I'M NOWHERE NEAR AS BAD OFF AS YOU!" Ellie burst out with a renewed fit of laughter.

But then she heard it, the click. She noticed that one of the walls had opened with holes, and now a whole ton of spikes, much bigger than the ones on the floor, had popped out.

And the wall was now closing in.

She realized Eathy had still not regained touch with his reality, and was still rolling on the ground in agony.

"Boys," she sighed. She loved them, especially one as cute as Eathy, but sometimes they'd fall and just not get back up. What's up with that? She giggled to herself.

So she rushed up to him and wrapped her trunk around his. She dragged him along the safe path. Fortunately, there were no more gaps.

But then the path came to its end at its destination, a small cave-like opening with nowhere left to go!

Still, the wall wouldn't be able to get in here, and there were no tiles beyond this point. She just hoped it was deep enough that the spikes wouldn't reach all the way to the back.

So she pulled Eathy in and propped him up against the jagged wall. He was once again beginning to regain himself, and he was filling with humiliation at what Ellie had to do for him.

But then he realized the spikey wall, coming in closer and closer. He realized with fright that the wall behind him curved in such a way that if he pressed himself back as far as he could, his back legs were closer to the opening then and thus the incoming spikes of horror than the rest of his body. Eathy gulped. No! He couldn't take that again!

Ellie, just a few inches further back than him realized her mistake. But it was too late. The spikes were already entering the cave, the wall pressing up against the entrance.

Eathy looked, a spike was coming right toward him, passing right trough where his legs were on either side of it. He pressed against the cave wall as hard as he could.

And then the wall stopped, completely blocking the cave entrance, just centimeters from Eathy's body. He caught his breath.

And then there was a click as the spikes pushed out of the wall just an inch, and then retreated back into their holes like a ballpoint pin.

We must now pull away for a moment as Eathy's reaction can not be explained by mere words.

By the time Eathy had once again returned to reality, Ellie was inspecting the holes in the wall.

"I wonder if this way leads out," she said.

So, nowhere left to go, they followed it. And eventually it did lead out. After showing them the way to some mystic treasure of course.

Eathy would always look back at that day as the worst day of his life. It definitely was NOT "not too bad to be him", in fact, if there was anyone Eathy would less want to be, it was the version of himself that went through that temple.

But eventually, him and Ellie would fall in love, and they would eventually get married. And any elephant that married Ellie couldn't be too bad to be right? At least not ALL the time.

Plus, he never worried too much way when stepping on a twig wrong again, he could now walk with at least a little more confidence, if not still a little awkwardly.

Because he knew of things much worse than stepping on a twig.

And it truly was one of the most painful things one could endure.

Almost as bad as a dragon laying an egg.