Everglow: The Trials Of Agaron

20 - The Temple Of Agaron

Ko hesitantly took it and gave him a warming smile. "Thank you." she mumbled. 

"Aww!" 

Fischer turned to see Quin grinning from horn to horn at the sight of him helping his friend out.  He scowled at her slightly which caused her to break into a small giggle.

"Well. Shall we?" Kori asked, waving his hand forwards. 

The group all headed forwards and towards the dark entrance. As they grew closer and closer, an overwhelming feeling started to claw at Ko's nerves. Were they being watched? No, that wasn't possible, was it? This planet was supposed to be off the charts, and this temple wasn't supposed to even exist. It was probably just her nerves. She tried her best to push it to the back of her mind.

However when she saw Fischer quickly turn his head and check behind them briefly, she wasn't so sure about it being just nerves. 

The four crossed the darkest shadow and now stood directly underneath the temple's entrance. The were shielded from the sun which was a nice relief, but now the unsettling darkness of the hallway began to burn through them. 

"Ok. Well standing out here isn't going to help us. C'mon, this shouldn't take long. We'll be back on the ship in a couple of hours, max. Let's get it done alright?" Kori stated, trying to boost both his own morale as well as his friends'. But no speech could hide the fact that they were walking a path that had never even been seen before, let alone walked before.

Taking a few steps forwards, the dark of the hallway seemed to fade a bit, or maybe it was just their eyes adjusting to the darkness. Anyhow, the purplish red rock that formed the inside of the cave began to grow clearer as they walked further, the light from outside illuminating the inside of the temple rather well. 

The hallway went on for about a hundred meters before coming to a halt. The group found themselves staring down a huge staircase that was carved out of stone. The ceiling was around twenty or so meters tall and the whole interior of the temple had drastically dropped in temperature. It was still hot, but much more tolerable than outside.

"Well, I guess whoever built this place didn't know what ramps are," Fischer jested as he looked on in awe at the giant hallway. 

The group began to descend deeper into the ruins, gazing at the ancient symbols written in the walls. 

"You guys understand any of this?" Kori asked as they walked through another grand hallway.

"No. It doesn't look like any language I've seen or read before. Wouldn't be surprised if this was an undocumented tongue," Quin replied, her hand gently stroking the wall.

"D-did we just discover a new language as well?" Fischer asked hesitantly.

"We've just discovered something that shouldn't exist mate, I think the language is the least of our worries right now," Kori exclaimed.

The hallway started to grow a little wider until it eventually expanded out into an enormous room the size of a rocket hangar. There were more of the same pillars from the entrance holding up the rocky ceiling, which was much more crude than the purpose build rooms that they had just passed through. The floor came to an abrupt halt a few meters in front of them, opening up into a ravine so deep there was mist that prevented the bottom from being visible. Across the ravine lay the other side of the floor which continued on into what was the main attraction of the room.

A gigantic sculpture of a four legged alien creature lay engraved into the stone, staring down at them with beady stone eyes. The creature's body formed the rest of the hallway on the other side, the entrance being carved out of its chest region. The creature bared a striking resemblance to the Egyptian Sphinx with the way it was posed. Its huge paws stretched almost across the entire ravine and its raptor-like head faced the four where they stood. A long thin tail stretched from beyond view and curled up into a vicious looking scythe blade at the end.