Cursed ring that takes away your limbs and also turns you on

    Click! The lock snapped open. With one hand gripping my dagger, I gingerly pushed open the treasure chest. A thin layer of dust rose up, but at least it wasn’t something like a poison gas trap.

    “Did you find anything good?” Nina, my companion, called from across the room.

    I looked at the bottom of the chest which was surprisingly sparse. A few coins lay scattered about but blending in among the gold was… “Well, there’s a ring in here.” I pulled the ring out and examined it. It was small and unremarkable, without any embedded gems or embellishments. In a way, the simplicity and plainness of it seemed to remind me of Nina and her boisterous nature. For the life of me I couldn’t imagine her ever wearing anything like the gaudy jewels that the noblewomen or royalty flaunted. If anything, this fit her perfectly.

    Chuckling a little bit to myself, I dropped the ring into her open palm. “Here. You hold onto it for now. Once we get back to a town we can-hey!”

    Nina wasn’t listening and had slipped it on already. She was now admiring her outstretched hand and how the rustic ring seemed to blend into the color of her gloves.

    “Why did you..?” I sighed. “What if there’s a curse on that thing? The last thing I want now is to be dragging your body back to town if something goes wrong.”

    Nina pouted, crossing her arms so the ring was obscured from view. “Oh come on! If there really was something associated with this surely I would already be feeling it! And besides, I know we still have an identify scroll-”

    “Yeah, our last one.”

    “So I don’t know what you’re worrying about.” Nina remarked, ignoring my gripe. “Anyway, the chances of a major curse on something like this is almost zero. I’d be surprised if I even get something like a stomach ache!”

    “Even still, why would you just…” I shook my head. From the many years that I’ve known her, I knew that trying to push against Nina’s stubbornness was a futile effort. I also couldn’t say that I was too surprised at her behavior. There would always be moments when she would display some form of feminine sentimentality that contrasted from her usual rowdy behavior.

	“All right, well, it’s my turn to lead now. Try to keep up because I’m not going to turn around and wait for you even if you start spewing out green liquids or start turning blue.”

	“I won’t ask for your help even if that does happen!” Nina stuck out her tongue and made a rude gesture with her hand, the ring displayed prominently on her finger.



    “Kai…do you mind...slowing down a bit?” Nina’s voice was punctuated by deep breaths as she slowly staggered behind me. I had actually noticed her pace slacking for a while now, but I pretended not to notice. For someone who could easily keep pace with me, it was a bit amusing to see her bullheadedness slowing her down. She didn’t look like she was in any serious trouble but now was the first time she had vocalized something. I turned around with half a smirk, wanting to see her face. Having to prop herself on a nearby branch for support, Nina still had a defiant expression. “Just....give me a few minutes...to...catch my breath.”

    Even though it was still hours until nightfall, I knew now was a good time as ever to play along with her demands, to acquiesce her unreasonable behavior before her condition worsened. “It looks like it’s getting dark soon,” I made a show of looking at our surroundings to give her time to get closer. “I guess we should set up camp for tonight.” Despite Nina trying to hide it, I could clearly make out her sigh of relief.

    “You look a bit tired,” I teased, “here, have some of my water.” Nina made a pouting face at me but wordlessly snatched the water pouch from my hand and took a deep drink. Taking this chance, I took a closer look at her face. It was red, flushed scarlet just like the many nights she would engage in drinking competitions in the local tavern. I brushed away a few tiny beads of perspiration on her forehead. She trembled at my touch.

    “All right Nina. What’s the problem here? We both know you’re not feeling well right now. You’re practically burning up, and you can barely take a few steps without being out of breath. Hurry up and take that damned ring off already!”

    “I’ve...been trying for the past hour.” She admitted.

    “You actually can’t?” I sank my head into my hands as Nina meekly nodded. “Of course. Of course it was cursed,” I muttered.
“Luckily it’s probably something minor like nausea or sluggishness but I need to figure out exactly what it is if we want to find the cure.” I pulled her hand closer to examine the ring. It didn’t budge at all as I tried removing it.

	“Ow!” Nina pulled her hand away from me. “That hurts! I already told you it won’t come off. It’s not a big deal anyway. I’m fine…” Her words trailed off in a high pitched scream.

	“Nina! What’s wrong?”

	“M-my finger! It’s gone!” One of the fingers of her glove was now indeed empty, crumpling lifelessly. “Kai! Help! What’s going on?”
I started digging through my bag for the identify scroll. Whatever curse was on this ring, it was a lot more powerful than I had expected. “Why did you even put this stupid ring on?” I spat as I rifled around.

	“I-I don’t know! Aaaah! My hand!” Her glove now dangled on her wrist, limply swaying with the ring still attached.

	“I’m on it. I’m on it!” I pressed the scroll to the ring and I could start to see writing appear. I tried to keep talking as the scroll was identifying. “Are you okay? How much does it hurt?”

	Nina shook her head in shock. “It doesn’t hurt but...my hand! It’s gone! You have to help me!”

	I scanned the scroll as quickly as I could for any keyphrases. Curse...Amplify...Disappearance...Temporary...Safe...Honest.. Safe! I could feel my heart pounding as I read it again, this time holding onto every word. By the end, I found myself laughing. “Safe! It’s safe!” I drew Nina in for a hug in my excitement and to my surprise, she didn’t resist. I let her go after her fidgeting and pretended that nothing had happened.

	“This is one of the strangest curses I’ve ever seen, but the gist of it is that at least it’s a temporary effect and it’s not deadly, at least by itself,” I explained, “the curse makes parts of one’s body disappear if they’re not ‘honest with themselves,’ whatever that means.”

	Nina rubbed the spot where her wrist now ended, her worried expression softening. “So that means my hand won’t be gone forever? That’s a relief.” She smiled a little. “I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t go on these adventures anymore. Is there anything else?”

	I looked over the scroll again. “Hmmm. One of the side effects it has is that it will ‘amplify one’s emotions and desires.’ Do you know what that means?”

	“I-I have no idea.” Nina stammered. I said nothing as I watched her arm now end above the elbow.

	“You totally do!” I laughed at her obvious lie. “So? What’s on your mind? If you ask me, a lot of your symptoms sound like love...” I felt my voice trail off as I realized what I was about to say.

	Nina fidgeted, scratching what was left of her arm nervously. “Of all people,” she murmured, “it just had to be this dense idiot.” The realization hit me like a brick.

	“Wait...Nina...are these feelings...toward me?”

	Nina blushed. “W-why would I have anything special to feel about you?” Her blush deepened as her other sleeve went empty.

	I paused. In all our years together, Nina had never once given a hint of ever feeling any special affection towards me. For the most part I had also pushed away any ideas of romantic developments and saw her as just a close friend and companion but…

	I could feel my heart thumping in my chest as I decided to press my luck. The words fell from my mouth in almost a whisper. “Do you like me?”

	“I…” Nina’s lips trembled as she tried to formulate a response. It was a while before I could see her finally make up her mind and take a deep breath before answering. “Nope! No! Not like that at all! Is that what you’d think I’d say? Is that what you wanted to hear?” Nina gave a weak giggle as she lay on the ground. “Well, now that you know how I feel about you, how about you hurry and pick me up?”



	The fire crackled softly in front of us as I fed Nina who was now missing both arms and also parts of her legs. “They’re still not back yet,” she grumbled, flapping her empty sleeves, “How long is this going to take? You said it wasn’t permanent!”

	“Well it could be time based, or it could have some other way of dispelling.” I changed the subject, “in the meantime though, when did you start to like me?”

	“Wha-?” Nina tried to cover her flustered face with what remained of her arms. Her stumps weren’t long enough to block her face like she had hoped. “Oh gods this is so embarrassing...I never would have thought I’d be in a position like this.” She took a deep breath before continuing. “I’ve actually liked you for a while now but I never said anything because I was afraid of what would happen. What if it ruined the relationship we had already? I didn’t want that, but...it looks like the cat’s out of the bag now.” She kicked her leg stumps in exasperation.

	I patted her head to comfort her, running my fingers through her hair. I was surprised at how I had never noticed how soft her hair was before. “You know...I like you too actually. I was always just afraid of ever bringing it up because of what you said.”

	“You really mean that?” She asked. “You’re not just saying that to be polite or anything? I’m being serious here you know.”

	“I’m serious. Ever since we started traveling together. It’s a bit embarrassing to say but you’ve been on my mind…”

	“Alright! Enough! I get it!” Nina squirmed a bit in frustration. “I guess in such a way, this ring might not be as cursed as we thought.” She laughed at the absurdity of what she was saying. “Well? How are we going to town though? Are you going to carry me? I don’t know if you’re up to the task.”

	I smiled as I snarked back, “I do have a rope with me so I can always drag you along the floor if I have to.” This earned me a playful pat in the face with one of Nina’s tiny arm nubs.

	There came a lull in our laughs and banter, only punctuated by the soft crackle of the flames.

	“Hey,” Nina whispered, “Put out the fire.”

	“Why?”

	“I can’t put it out myself now can I? It’s getting late and...well, you’re going to have to help me undress.”

	Even under the guise of dark, I could make out Nina’s beautiful figure. Her shapely outline was stunning even bereft of limbs and I could feel the tense muscles underneath her skin.

	“Kai, I hope you’re not planning to do anything weird.”

	“You really should stop lying before all of you disappears, Nina.”

	“Idiot.”

	Our faces drew closer. Our lips touched.

	“I love you.”



	I awoke to find Nina still sleeping with her arms entwined around mine. Despite not wearing her regular clothes, I could still see the cursed ring on her finger, only this time dispelled and worthless. I gently shook her awake and we got dressed in silence. There was an awkward air that lingered about.

	“By the way,” I started, “I don’t think you told me why you put that ring on. Is there a reason why you did?”

	Nina turned away from me bringing her hands to her mouth for a while before answering. “Well...it was the first time you had given me something like a ring. I was just so happy that I…” her voice trailed off.

	“Oh.” It was the only thing that I thought to say as I processed her words. “Oh well...when we get to town, how about… how about I get you an actual ring? It’ll be much more impressive than this plain one. It’ll have gemstones and be enchanted-”

	I was interrupted by Nina kissing me on the cheek. She grasped my hands tightly within hers.

	“Thanks for the offer, but I think I prefer this one.”