The Goddess of Inokua Temple

Chapter 2

'The first thought that comes to me after entering this secret room is, like a dungeon in the stories. Brick, torch, darkness and mystery. Do they put traps here? Or is it a free pass?'

'I keep walking downward along the stairs and after passing, like supposedly two floor pairs of stairs, there comes the actual floor. It’s a somewhat narrow room, with three doors. And some murals on each side of the doors. There are, unexpectedly, many skeletons with many weapons and knick knack on each side of the wall. Why though? If they happen to die, why not inside? Is there some danger out here?'

'My heart beat more erratically and I thought I was going to faint. Trying to regain my composure, I took a deep breath and massaged my temple. Calm on, if you have to die, then you die. Don’t be panicked and shame yourself just by this.'

'Let's observe the skeletons. They bring weapons. And good equipment probably, in fantasy standards. Some have steelplates, leather, arrows, which I assume is just because the long part is gone. Some shields and many kinds of different swords. Amazing.'

'So, with the three doors, should I just choose one or should I try each one? Trying to find clues from the surroundings, lets go think think. The first door, which I called on the right, looks bright. The front of it? Gore. Brownish bloodstain like traces and unknown pieces of something disgusting feel like obstructing the door. The second one, the one in the middle, looks ordinary with a forest-like vibe. Why? The doors are literally filled with tree images though a little bit dark, making a whole forest. That is the mural. This one depicts greenery instead of abstract-like form and color like the other two. I call it the most normal. The third door on the left, looks like a door to hell. Gloomy, dark and ominous. It’s cleaner, in my opinion, than the other two. It looks brand new except for the dust, and, of course, a few littering stains.'

'From the rational side of my mind, I should take the middle door. Why? The most certain, the most safe, not extremes. If there is danger, I have a better chance at escaping, and if there is treasure, maybe I could get some. I think it's like the normal mode of a game.'

'The problem is, I want to go to the right door, where the colorful murals and many bloodstains gather to almost cover all the bright side. Why? Because humans are greedy, and I am greedy. Not that much, but its better to have something colorful than not. Not that the blood doesn’t scare me, I just think maybe it's somewhat safe. And moreover, my own treacherous mind cooperates with my greed by saying to me that, with these bloodstains, there must be something precious inside. Yeah bro, it must be.'

'The problem is, is it safe?'

'Nah, I don’t care about that, people will all die anyway. It doesn’t mean you know there would be a safer option just by looking at the door.'

'Fine argument. Okay then'

'So I walked towards the first door, tip-toing around the bones, and taking a deep breath and readying my body in case of an instant attack upon entering. I need to accept my death too if it's inevitable.'

'Okay, mental and physique preparation are done. Lets go!'

'When I entered the door, expecting instant death with no one to possibly find my corpse, I know I know it's stupid to not wait and wandering off nowhere by myself, to god bless me, a place where no one knew about. Curiosity killed the cat okay, but satisfaction brought it back. I hope to be a lucky cat. Just that. What I see instead is a very vibrant garden like a forest. It is f*****g gigantic that I feel like a cat seeing a big tree. Yeah, that kind of tiny.'

'The magnificent thing is, with those gigantic trees, the forest is not gloomy, it's just feels so bright and shiny and vigorous and vibrant. Like an ancient forest blessed by gods and the place for angels to play, that kind of impression.'

'Hush hush, focus now! These illusions may kill you and even take your soul'

Plakplak.

'My cheek stings tough, it hurts.'

'The probability of me surviving is unknown. In the worst case, probably like less than 0.1%?'

'Nah, human life is worthless and useless sometimes.'

'Let's go take a walk in this heaven, or this heavenly trap. Anyway, adventure will go on the way!'

'Even though I say it like that, I can't help but be cautious, it wouldn’t be funny just to die by an unknown reason that is so trivial.

The shrubs are as big as a tree, and I've yet to see any animals or anything other than trees and vegetation. I hope this good luck will last, at least till I'm out of here. Walking, and walking for a while, the grass seems pretty comfy. Should I try to lay?'

"Woaaaahhhh, I'm a grass angel, am I?"

'Standing up and seeing the grass, it is! The grass is so soft that it can leave traces. Like a natural kind of carpet. Amazing'

"Okay, focus!"

' Anyway, we need to explore this place. And get out probably, still, many have died. Does it mean below this ground there are a lot of corpses absorbed to make the trees so big? Must be amazing corpses then. If I take into consideration the setting of a fantasy-themed world, probably the corpses contain many powerful figures or great energy so it could nourish the trees. But again, scientifically, it's hard to calculate how just mere corpses could do these. Except, from the seeds of the trees, to the atmosphere around and nutrients, all of it is superior and of different kinds from what I know, then there is high possibility of my reasoning being correct.'

Whoosshhh, swisshhh

'Waw, I think, the winds just now kinda breezing? And I could feel my senses getting better. I'm not in a daze anymore and feel more awake. I think this forest has become less scary. And there is a little squirrel, I think? Just now I didn’t see it! Or maybe it's just showing itself to me just now.'

'Awesome… should I go closer? To see, to play, to ask for the nut!'

'Food food food, I forget about starving because of the new environment. Stupid!'

Step step step

'The squirrel doesn’t run, weird. Little animals should run away when seeing others who are bigger and may be a possible threat to them. Then the possibility is, the animals must be used to seeing people and have friendly relationships. Or the squirrel is stronger and mightier than it looks. Seeing again, the squirrel looks normal in this big forest. It's not from here, or it have specialty to maintain its form this small.'

"Chi chi"

'Eeh, the squirrel looked at me.I took a step back, afraid somehow of the unknown. We are watching each other, and seeing it doesn’t do anything and go back to chewing its nuts, I give myself a pep talk to courage, I mean, my stomach grumbling and clenching like crazy, what courage do I need anymore? It's desperation, I say.'

"Um, excuse me, Mr.squirrel, can I get a little bit of nut? Where do I look for it if I may ask?"

'Crazy! Those words just came out of my mouth! Talking politely to an animal, well it's normal. The abnormal is why am I seriously asking and expecting an answer?!'

'Cant help it, my silliness comes out, as does my sanity. Ha, cant even laugh.'

'Glancing at me again, the squirrel ran away from me,along with my nut. No, it's nut, it doesn’t belong to me even if I want it. I want to cry. At least from what I know, there is a food source in this place. On the tree? Is there a fruit tree? Apple tree? Gold tree? Haha, gold can't feed me.'

'Then, I continued to walk and hoping to see any food on the trees. Why, if I get lucky, maybe there would be instant noodles growing on the tree. Or maybe fried chicken.'

'No, no, maybe a different genre. Okay, okay, don’t be distracted anymore! Walking with a lot of determination, nothing good is seen except the leaves and grass. Wait, could I possibly eat grass? Desperate times need desperate measures after all.'

'Grabbing several pieces of soft grass, I try licking it, eh? Just like grass. Wait? Why didn’t I check if it was poisonous? Eh stupid! It's okay, let's go crush it now, and wait a bit till I get itchy or weird. If not, then it's safe. Sitting down and waiting for the weirdness to come out, can't count the time, but desperation calling, let's count manually. 1,2,3….100 must be safe, right?'

"Lets eat!"

Crunch crush

'Exactly like grass. Grassy, stale, and soft. That softness, I think, is this grass specialty. If I imagine it as a noodle, I can eat it all till my belly is not grumbling anymore.'

'Tears came out of my eyes thinking how miserable I was.

Sruk sruk

'What is it? From the bushes? Beast? Monster? Angel? Food?'

'Squirrel'

'It's a squirrel'

'Is it the squirrel from earlier?'

'It, it's cute, it's head turned to the side! Like my cat! What? What does it want?'

'It goes again...'

'It comes back again. Why did it look at me like that? Am I a clown? What did it do? Eh, does it come closer to me, to my feet?'

'Walk away again.'

'Did it?'

'Doing the legendary cartoon story? Of wanting me to follow it? Like Mr. Rabbit from Alice! Okay, okay, go on… '

'So I'm following the squirrel up to the depths of the forest. Up to up, I think sometimes I see the shadows of other creatures, or a sight of animals of all kinds, honestly more bizarre. Along the way, I don’t think that those animals are weird, the squirrel is.'

'With the moving creature I called the local animal here, the squirrel is the only weird one with its normalcy. Meaning, I'm weird as well. In the world of nightmares, of course daydream is alien. But the surroundings are pretty.'

'That's what I thought till I went deeper.'

'Now even the trees are too colorful, and dark, and weird. And after a long walk through the devilish side of the forest, I see a silver pond?. Not too large to be called a lake. And not too small to be called a bathtub. A pond'

'And in the middle of this big pond, stood a tiny tree, in comparison to the others. Still, to me, it seems like what a ten thousand year old tree is supposed to be. The transparent silver water that makes up the pond certainly looks so eye-catching compared to the surroundings for sure. There are many weird animals up around, yet in the pond itself there are none. Like a neutral zone if I recall.'

'Yet the squirrel was able to get closer. Is it special?'

'The bark of the root is large and wide enough to make a surface to walk on. Quite spacious at that. The squirrel goes to the lake and starts to drink the silver water. Is it drinkable? In ordinary times, it is possible to drink substances that could be safely drunk by others. In this event, I still have doubts. With all the weird animals up here, how could I be sure it is safe for them and save for me? Maybe it's safe for them and it could make me die!'

'Nah, know what? Me don’t care. Water is water, liquid is liquid. Not like there is another drinkable liquid close here.'

'I began to gather the silver water in my palm and drink it. It tastes, ehm, like sparkling? Not the kind of sparkling water. But like it feels like it should be called sparkling, I can’t describe it properly. But if I have to make a comparison, it's like the freshest spring water with a tint of sweetness. I just thought that it could be a mythical water that could give life even to an almost dead thing. So, good in short.'

'After drinking a lot of water, I looked for the squirrel and it looked at me.'

Kruyuukkk’

"Ehm, do you happen to have food to share?"

"Please?"

'A beat of pause. I think I can’t be too rude to something that gives me water. Not literally, but it led me here, so still, my thanks?'

'It looks at the tree in the middle of the pond. Then look at me'

'What? You expect me to swim there? Is there any food though? What if there is a monster in the pond or something weird?'

'Ha! Who do I lie to? It is transparent. Nothing will attack, and the pond itself is not that big. Honestly, it's just like a concave around the tree. So probably not that deep either?'

“Do I have to go there?”

'And it's just staring at me'

'What should I do?'

“Do you want to come with me?”

'It is just staring again! Then it runs away.'

'Aaaaghhh it leaves me! In the middle of nowhere! Surrounded by unknown creatures all around'

'Haaa…. Can't blame! A squirrel has many things to take care of, it can't watch over a single human all the time.'

'Huwaaaaa. I'm crying! Uwaaaaaaa...'

Sniff sniff

'Lets just enjoy the moment and sleep? But I'm afraid that if I sleep, the weird thing will be able to come inside? But I'm afraid to go there. What if there are more weird things there?'

'A lot of thinking and a while later I gave myself another pep talk to go there.'

'The reason why I have to? Mr Squirrel says it, not really say, but show. Second is, there may be a door to the outside, a treasure, a safe, and the most important? Edible food'

'Is there? What if I'm stuck there with nothing? Nonsense. There are leaves to eat and water from the pond. Okay. Not like I can go back to my starting point by myself now.'

'I'm literally road blind. Rather than go back safely, I'm positive about being lost'

'Let's treat it like playing. Let's just enjoy it. And if I happen to die, die happily!'

"No! I can't die drowning! Huwaaaa my life!"