Everyone looked at the temple in ah. When they had mentally pictured the temple they had no idea that it was going to actually be part of a mountain face. Rena was the only one whom wasn't surprised at what she saw before her. Though it had been awhile since she had been at this temple she hadn't forgot it.
"Well what are we sitting around here for? Let's go take a look!" Lina marched off happily over to the temple with the others following. At the entrance to the temple Lina was just about to go right in when Rena stopped her.
"Wait Lina! If you go barging right in you and everyone traveling with you will be brought right back to where you first entered the forest surrounding the temple." Rena walked up to the two statues at the sides of the entrance. One was a statue of a dragon with a green gem logged in its mouth. While the other one was a massive bird and by it's number of tail feathers you could see that it was in fact a statue of a phoenix. The phoenix statue had a red gem in its claw. Rena softly chanted something under her breath and both the gems where released into her palms. If one had tried to get the gems out by force without the chant then they wouldn't be able to. Both statues had a magic seal on them. It would be impossible to pull them out or to break the statue themselves. Rena took the green gem and placed in the claw of the phoenix statue where the red gem had been. And with the red gem she placed it in the dragon statutes mouth where the green gem had been. Both statues' eyes shined red, then green. Then they return to normal.
"Now we can enter." Rena said with a little smile and went right in. Seeing that Rena didn't disappear the others followed her in the temple.
Etched into the walls of the temple were the images of many mythical creatures. They were so large and so well detailed that it almost made you feel like as if they were jumping right out at you.
Everyone followed Rena and Lina deftly through the halls of the temple. One thing they noticed about the temple when they had entered was it wasn't hot in the temple as it was outside. It was refreshingly cool in the temple. Even from when they went from outside into the temple they noticed as they went through the doorway. It didn't take a genus to see that temple had some magical properties.
"Miss Rena just what type of people where the followers of this temple?"
"Well Xellos they were very spiritual people. The believed heavily in fate and the preservation of nature and were really caring to those who sought healing. They persevered to keep the shrine running."
"If they worked so hard then where are they now?"
"I have no idea really. No really knows what happened to the temple followers. One day all the temple followers were fine and happy. The next all of them mysteriously disappeared."
"The-they dis-appeared?" Amelia and Ameria gave Rena scared glances. Suddenly the once welcoming and cool temple seemed foreboding and much too cold for the two crown princesses' tastes. They both looked around the temple in paranoia hugging each other in fear.
"Some say that is was an evil creature that came in and ate them all up." Rena smiled evilly. Ameria and Amelia were freaked out even further.
Lina snorted at the display of the two of them. "Figures they'd act like that... scared by just a little tale that probably isn't true..." Lina shook her head.
"Not true? You mean Miss Lina you aren't at least bit nervous that what ever might have caused the temple people to disappear could happen to us? What if a big ugly creature attacks us and tries to eat all of us?"
"I'd dragon slave it's ass to oblivion. Really you two worry way too much over things that aren't just worth the time." Lina said coolly while walking forward with her head high. But she should have been looking at where she was going because she fell in large gaping hole that lead deep into the lower levels of the temple. Luckily for Lina she managed to cast a levitation spell right before she hit the ground.
"Miss Lina are you all right?" Sylphiel called from above.
"Yeah I'm fine." Lina yelled back up to them. "Though it's too dark in here to see a thing." Lina muttered peering at the deep darkness that surrounded her. She casted a light spell to get a better look at what was around her and when she did she wished that she didn't.
From above the others heard Lina's scream loud and clear. But before they could react Lina flew up from the hole shrieking.
"Miss Lina what's wrong?" Sylphy asked with concern after Lina landed on the ground.
Lina seemed like she didn't hear the shrine maiden from this dimension because all she didn't was mutter things under breath shaking in fear.
"What did you see down there?" Zel asked listening hard to see if he could understand what she was muttering.
"Salt... if I... salt..." Zel could only make out those words from Lina's speech.
Salt? What does salt have anything to do with what's down there? Zel mused for a moment and then understood. Oh. He shook his head and neelled down to where Lina was sitting on the ground. "It's okay it's not going to come after you." Zel patted her on the head reassuringly.
Lina snapped her head up obviously out of her little trance and glared at Zel angrily. "Are you patronizing me, or treating me like a kid?!" Lina narrowed her eyes at her chimera friend.
"A little of both I guess." Zel smirked and then received a blunt blow to the head.
"Serves you right for making fun of me." Lina said triumphantly and then cried out in pain favoring her hand that she hit Zel with.
With that crisis averted they all got up and continued going through the temple avoiding the hole Lina fell in.
"So what was it that was down there Lina?" Zelgadis asked Lina with a sly grin.
"None of your business!"
"Well Zel seemed to know what it was. Zel what was it? And what does salt having anything do with what scared her?"
Lina glared at Zelgadis with wide eyes. Zelgadis had heard some of what she had been muttering too. But the others from Lina's dimension nodded their heads in realization.
"Oh so that's what was down there! Poor Miss Lina that must have been really frightening." Amelia patted Lina on the back. While the others from Lina's dimension also bugged her with similar acts.
Zelgadis looked a bit peeved. He wanted to know what it was and no one was going to tell him. Rena knew what was down in that hole. It was something that she had a long time been afraid of but after many years of conditioning Rena was no longer afraid of them. Sylphy was just concerned about Lina and wasn't in the slightest bit interested on what exactly had scared her. Zeros along with Xellos only watched Lina with curious expressions, but neither commented. Garry like Gourry had totally zoned out during this whole event and wasn't paying attention. Ameria on the other hand was just as curious and annoyed as Zelgadis.
"So how far is it to the center of the temple?"
"Well I could tell you that only I can't remember." Rena said with a thoughtful look while everyone else facefaulted.
They continued walked following Rena figuring that even if she didn't know how long it was till the center she'd at least know how to get there. Well she did... sorta. She wasn't lost inside the temple and leading them around in circles; it's just that she didn't quite remember where they needed to go. She figured that if she saw the way she'd know.
Unknowingly to them a pair of eyes watched their every move.
Gavin continued to scan the walls of the temple as they traveled through it. Rena's words about the missing temple followers were playing through his head. How could so many people disappear at once? I don't think it was a monster that ate them all up unless you count that slug that Lina encountered. His eyes traveled to the detailing on the walls. Each section of the walls had a different mythical creature etched into the stone. Though he knew that there wasn't anything wrong with the temple he still felt like that there was something not right about it. He knew that the temple had a magical essence to it, but he wasn't sure if that was what he was feeling.
Rena stared at the upcoming fork in their path. They had three different hallways that they could take and up until now Rena had managed to remember which was the right way to go. But which way? Rena rubbed her head. She had a headache and was feeling very tired and groggy. Her whole mind was muddling on her. Is this the effect of this temple? I didn't experience this on my last visit... It's almost as if someone's trying to make sure I can't find my way to the center. Rena considered that thought for a moment and then mentally shook her head. Nonsense now who would want to do that? And how would they even manage to do such a thing to me of all people? It's probably just the after effects of eating those rolls this morning.
Rena had two options ahead of her. Either she just blindly picks one of the ways to go and hope that it's the right way, or tell the others the situation. Option one was only a good idea if Rena ended up being very lucky. Otherwise she'd get in just as much trouble if not more as she would if she just told them the truth. She stared up to the three paths they could take. She wasn't sure of any of them.
"Do you all see those three different halls we could take? Well we have a problem, I can't remember which one we need to take." Rena said coolly hoping for the best.
"WHAT?!?!?" Lina screamed out. "Oh just great, so now we have to guess and pick one?!" Lina impatiently tapped her foot. "So what do we do?" Lina asked the others. Now she knew that Sylphiel could do the same thing as what she did when they were lost in Rezo's libratory. But the problem with that is that it was only a matter of which direction her rod fell towards.
"We could spilt up and each of us in groups could take each direction." Zelgadis suggested.
"No we can't do that! What about the creature that ate all the people of this temple?!" Amelia cried out.
"Amelia the story about the creature probably isn't true! No one is going to eat us if we split up!" Lina bonked the Sailune Princess on the head.
"Ow! Miss Lina that hurt! How could you hit me like that?!? And how do you know that nothing is going to eat us?! You can't see into the future!" Amelia cried out and rubbed her head gingerly.
"Whether there's a creature roaming around these temple halls that eats people, the fact still remains that something did happen in this temple to all of it's followers. We have no idea if that threat is still here so it might be dangerous if don't stay together."
Everyone was silent after Zel spoke. He made a good point. Which aggravated Lina even further.
"Fine! We wont spilt up into groups! But that still doesn't help us figure out which direction we need to go!"
"We could just take one direction and see where it leads. If it's the wrong way we could always turn back and take another hall. And since we're heading to the center of the temple shouldn't all directions take us there eventually anyway?"
Lina grinned at her little brother. "Okay then I guess it's just a matter of picking one randomly." Lina glared at each path. She felt a strange wrongness of going in one direction, while the other two she felt were safer and/or better choices. She frowned at that. She was getting a strange energy from the middle path. It was repelling like their was some outside force trying to get them to not take that path. Wanting to investigate it further Lina chose that path. "Alright let's take this one!" Lina declared.
An ominous force that had been watching them since they entered the temple mentally cursed. Damnit she had to pick the right one. Well I'll get them later. The person smiled summoning his minions to his aid.
The path was long and endless. They just continued walking down the hall and seemed to have no end. The strange repelling feeling that she had felt before entering the hall had long since disappeared.
"Is their no end to this?!" Lina cried out in frustration. She was getting sick and tired of walking through this temple. This had better be the right way or otherwise I'm going to be very annoying having to walk all the back to take another path.
"There should be an end really soon Lina. I remember going down a long hall like this before." Rena assured Lina. Like Lina she too wasn't feeling the same things she had before entering the hall. Rena no longer had her headache and no long was tired and groggy.
For about five minutes more they walked until they saw was seemed to be an ending at hall. When they reached it they found a large circular room with a fountain right in the middle.
"We're here!" Lina exclaimed cheerfully.
Zel and Zelgadis didn't move an inch. They both had similar things running through their minds. Both were excited and scared at the same time that this was the cure that they both had been seeking for so long. It was the same sort of thrill they got right before finally checking up a cure lead.
They all approached the fountain together just to see that the fountain was bone dry.