THE FORGOTTEN TEMPLE
2420 Words
Darkness.
It was the first thing Aria became aware of.
Not the comforting darkness of sleep.
This was different.
Heavy.
Cold.
It pressed against her from every direction, swallowing every sound until she could hear nothing but the pounding of her own heartbeat.
Slowly, pain returned.
Her shoulder throbbed.
Her head pounded.
Every muscle in her body ached as though she had been trampled by a herd of bulls.
A groan escaped her lips.
"...Where..."
Her voice echoed through the darkness.
The sound startled her.
It bounced off unseen walls before fading into silence.
Aria's eyes fluttered open.
At first...
She saw nothing.
Only black.
Then, little by little, faint shafts of moonlight filtered through a jagged hole high above her.
Rainwater dripped steadily through the opening.
Plink...
Plink...
Plink...
She blinked several times before her vision finally adjusted.
Stone.
Ancient stone.
She was lying on a cracked stone floor covered in centuries of dust.
Fragments of rotten wood surrounded her.
The roof...
I fell through the roof...
Memory returned in pieces.
Running through the storm.
The ground giving way.
The terrifying fall.
She winced and slowly pushed herself upright.
Pain shot through her left shoulder.
"Ow..."
She rolled it carefully.
Bruised.
Nothing broken.
At least... she hoped not.
Looking up, she could just make out the opening she'd fallen through.
It was far above her.
Far too high to climb without help.
She was trapped.
A nervous laugh escaped her.
"Perfect."
She had just been rejected by her mate.
She had nowhere to go.
And now she'd managed to trap herself underground.
"If the Moon Goddess is trying to teach me a lesson..."
She sighed.
"...I'm pretty sure I've learned it."
Only silence answered.
---
Aria brushed the dust from her clothes and took a cautious step forward.
The chamber was enormous.
Massive pillars stretched toward the broken ceiling, their surfaces cracked by time.
Roots hung from above, twisting between the stones like the fingers of forgotten giants.
Rainwater trickled down the walls.
The air smelled of damp earth and age.
No...
Not just old.
Ancient.
She had wandered through abandoned cabins before.
This place felt different.
As though no one had entered it in centuries.
Her footsteps echoed softly.
Each sound seemed unnaturally loud.
Almost disrespectful.
She wrapped her arms around herself.
"Hello?"
Her voice disappeared into the darkness.
No answer.
She felt immediately kind of stupid to think that there would be someone down here.
The silence somehow became even heavier.
---
She began searching the chamber.
Perhaps there was another exit.
A staircase.
A tunnel.
Anything.
Moonlight spilling through the broken roof revealed faded murals carved into the surrounding walls.
Curiosity overcame caution.
Aria stepped closer.
The first carving depicted wolves unlike any she had ever seen.
They stood upright.
Towering over ordinary werewolves.
Broad-shouldered.
Powerful.
Each carried enormous weapons unlike anything used by the modern packs.
Some held spears.
Others carried swords taller than a man.
One figure wore what looked like a crown.
His cloak flowed behind him as dozens of warriors stood at his back.
The craftsmanship was breathtaking despite the passage of time.
She brushed away a layer of dust.
"...Lycans?"
She laughed quietly.
"So the old stories reached this place too."
Every child in every pack had grown up hearing tales about Lycans.
Monsters.
Kings.
Guardians.
Depending on who was telling the story.
Most adults dismissed them as bedtime tales created to frighten reckless pups into behaving.
Even Aria had stopped believing in them years ago.
Still...
The carvings were beautiful.
The artist had carved every strand of fur.
Every scar.
Every expression.
It almost looked...
Real.
She shook her head.
"No."
"You're letting your imagination run wild."
---
As she continued deeper into the ruins, the murals changed.
No longer scenes of triumph.
Now...
They showed war.
Massive battles covered the walls.
Thousands of warriors clashed beneath crimson skies.
Entire mountains burned.
The upright wolves fought against ordinary werewolves in scenes so violent they made Aria uncomfortable.
Broken weapons littered the carved battlefield.
Bodies lay everywhere.
She frowned.
"Who would spend years carving all this?"
She reached the largest mural yet.
It showed the crowned Lycan standing alone before countless enemies.
Chains wrapped around his body.
Despite that...
He wasn't kneeling.
He stood proudly.
Defiantly.
His head remained high.
Almost...
As if daring the world to break him.
Aria stared for a long moment.
"... He was probably the villain."
She smiled faintly.
"Stories always make the villains look cool."
She turned away.
Missing the nearly invisible inscription carved beneath the mural.
The ancient words had long since faded beyond recognition.
---
A sharp sting shot through her right hand.
She hissed.
"When did..."
She looked down.
A jagged cut stretched across her palm.
It must have happened during the fall.
Rainwater and dust had hidden it until now.
Fresh blood slowly trickled between her fingers.
"Oh, that's not good."
She tore a strip from the bottom of her dress and wrapped it tightly around the wound.
The bleeding slowed.
But didn't stop completely.
She sighed.
"This really is the worst day of my life."
Then something caught her eye.
Far ahead...
Beyond the pillars...
A faint crimson glow pulsed in the darkness.
Once.
Twice.
Then it vanished.
Aria froze.
"...Hello?"
Every natural logic told her to turn back.
But instead...
Curiosity won.
She started walking toward the place where the red light had appeared.
One careful step at a time.
---
The deeper Aria ventured into the ruins, the colder the air became.
The silence no longer felt empty.
It felt...
Watchful.
She tightened the makeshift bandage around her bleeding hand and continued forward.
The crimson glow appeared again.
This time it lingered.
A faint pulse.
Like the slow beat of a heart.
The corridor widened into another chamber.
Unlike the entrance hall, this room was untouched by time.
The floor had been polished smooth, though a thick layer of dust covered every inch of it.
Massive stone pillars circled the room, each engraved with strange symbols Aria had never seen before.
She reached out, brushing her fingers over one of the carvings.
The symbols seemed almost...
Alive.
"...Weird."
She quickly pulled her hand away.
A sudden gust of cold air swept through the chamber.
The flames inside the ancient wall sconces flickered.
Aria froze.
Her eyes widened.
"No..."
She slowly looked from one sconce to another.
One after another...
Ancient blue flames burst to life.
Whoosh.
Whoosh.
Whoosh.
The chamber filled with ghostly light.
Aria instinctively stumbled backward.
"I didn't do that..."
The flames illuminated murals stretching around the circular room.
Unlike the previous carvings...
These weren't battles.
They were memories.
One mural showed towering Lycans helping humans build enormous cities.
Another showed Lycan warriors defending frightened villagers from monstrous creatures lurking in the forests.
Another showed children—human and Lycan alike—playing together beneath enormous silver trees.
Aria frowned.
"That can't be right."
Every story she'd ever heard described Lycans as savage beasts driven mad by power.
But these carvings...
They told a completely different story.
"Whoever made this..."
"...wanted people to remember them."
She continued walking.
The murals gradually changed again.
The joyful scenes disappeared.
Fear replaced them.
Smoke.
Fire.
Cities reduced to ash.
Wolves fighting wolves.
Families torn apart.
Near the end of the chamber stood one final carving.
It was unlike anything else.
A lone Lycan stood surrounded by countless enemies.
Not fighting.
Simply standing.
His sword rested beside him.
His hands were empty.
As if...
He had surrendered.
Above him floated a brilliant crimson crystal.
Dozens of hooded figures surrounded it.
Each held out their hands toward the crystal while chains of glowing light wrapped around the lone warrior.
The artist had carved incredible detail into his face.
Not fear.
Not anger.
Only disappointment.
She tilted her head.
"What happened here?"
There was no answer.
Only silence.
---
The corridor continued beyond the murals.
Its walls narrowed until she had to turn sideways to squeeze through.
Roots snaked across the stone ceiling overhead.
Tiny droplets of water fell from above, splashing softly onto the ancient floor.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
The crimson glow grew brighter.
Every few seconds...
Pulse.
Then darkness.
Pulse.
Then darkness.
It reminded her of breathing.
She immediately shook the thought away.
"Don't be ridiculous."
"It's just some strange crystal."
...Right?
She wasn't entirely convinced.
The tunnel finally opened into an enormous circular chamber.
Aria stopped dead.
"...Wow."
The room was massive.
Easily the size of the Silverfang training grounds.
The ceiling disappeared into darkness far above.
Ancient pillars formed a perfect ring around the chamber.
And in its center...
A gigantic stone platform rose several feet above the floor.
Carved across its surface was an intricate circular pattern unlike anything she had ever seen.
Thousands of tiny symbols spiraled inward toward the middle.
There...
Resting inside a stone pedestal...
Was the source of the crimson light.
A crystal.
Deep red.
Almost the color of fresh blood.
It pulsed softly.
Beautiful.
Mesmerizing.
Almost...
Calling to her.
Aria slowly climbed the stone steps leading toward the platform.
Every instinct warned her to leave.
She ignored it.
"It's probably just an old relic."
She knelt beside the crystal.
It wasn't large.
About the size of her fist.
Yet somehow...
It filled the entire chamber with its presence.
She reached toward it.
Stopped.
"...No."
She pulled her hand back.
"I've already made enough bad decisions today."
She stood to leave.
A sharp pain suddenly shot through her injured palm.
"Hss..."
She looked down.
The bandage had loosened.
Blood seeped through the cloth once more.
A single drop slid down her wrist.
She instinctively tried to catch it.
Too late.
The crimson drop fell.
Landing directly upon the center of the ancient seal.
Nothing happened.
Aria sighed in relief.
"...See?"
"I knew—"
A deep metallic sound echoed through the chamber.
**CLANG.**
She froze.
Another followed.
**CLANG.**
The crystal brightened.
The ancient runes surrounding it began glowing one after another.
Like falling dominoes.
One circle.
Then another.
Then another.
Aria slowly stepped backward.
"...What..."
The entire platform vibrated beneath her feet.
Dust rained from the ceiling.
The blue flames around the chamber flared violently.
The crystal's heartbeat quickened.
Pulse.
Pulse.
Pulse.
The air itself seemed to grow heavier.
A burning sensation suddenly spread across the back of Aria's left hand.
She gasped.
"What—what's happening?!"
She clutched at it.
The pain intensified.
It felt as though molten metal had been pressed against her skin.
She cried out, dropping to one knee.
The burning spread across the back of her hand, tracing glowing lines beneath her skin.
One line.
Then another.
They twisted together into an ancient symbol she had never seen before.
Its color...
Matched the crimson crystal perfectly.
The pain vanished as suddenly as it had begun.
Aria stared.
"What..."
"What is this...?"
The mark pulsed once.
In answer...
The crystal pulsed back.
The entire temple shook.
Harder than before.
Far below the platform...
Something enormous moved.
A sound echoed through the darkness beneath the chamber.
Not a roar.
Not yet.
A breath.
Deep.
Ancient.
Alive.
Aria's heart stopped.
"...Who's there?"
---
The chamber shook violently.
Stone cracked beneath Aria's feet.
Dust poured from the ceiling in thick clouds.
She stumbled backward, barely managing to keep her balance.
"What is happening?!"
The crimson crystal blazed brighter than ever.
Its gentle pulse became frantic.
The glowing runes surrounding the platform ignited one after another, racing across the ancient seal in widening circles.
The air grew impossibly heavy.
Aria struggled to breathe.
It felt as though the entire temple had suddenly come alive.
A deafening metallic groan echoed from somewhere deep below.
**CLANG!**
Aria flinched.
The sound came again.
Closer this time.
**CLANG!**
It wasn't random.
It was rhythmic.
Like...
Chains.
Massive chains.
The floor lurched beneath her.
Cracks spread across the circular seal, branching outward like shattered glass.
The crimson crystal flashed violently.
Then—
A voice.
Low.
Almost too faint to hear.
"...at last..."
Aria's eyes widened.
"No..."
She slowly backed away.
"I didn't hear that..."
The chamber answered with another violent tremor.
Pieces of stone crashed from the ceiling.
One pillar collapsed behind her with a thunderous roar.
She screamed and threw herself aside just before it struck the ground.
The impact shook the entire temple.
The crimson crystal floated a few inches above its pedestal.
The runes surrounding it burned like molten iron.
The mark on the back of Aria's hand flared with the same crimson light.
Pain shot through her arm again.
She cried out, clutching her wrist.
The mark pulsed.
The crystal pulsed.
Together.
As one.
"No..."
"What did I do...?"
Another metallic c***k rang through the chamber.
Louder.
Sharper.
Then another.
And another.
One by one...
Something beneath the temple was breaking free.
The air suddenly became warm.
Not naturally warm.
It felt as though an enormous furnace had been lit beneath the stone floor.
A powerful gust of wind burst upward from the cracks, whipping Aria's hair wildly around her face.
The ancient blue flames surrounding the chamber changed.
Blue...
To crimson.
Every flame.
Every torch.
Every glowing rune.
The entire temple was bathed in blood-red light.
The crystal rose higher into the air.
The stone pedestal beneath it shattered.
Thousands of glowing fragments floated weightlessly around the chamber.
The sound returned.
This time...
It wasn't chains.
It was a heartbeat.
**THUMP.**
The entire temple shook.
**THUMP.**
Dust fell from the ceiling.
**THUMP.**
Aria instinctively stepped backward.
She could feel it.
Whatever lay beneath the seal...
It was waking up.
The cracks racing across the platform reached the very center.
Silence.
For one terrifying second...
Everything stopped.
No wind.
No trembling.
No heartbeat.
Nothing.
Then—
The seal exploded.
A pillar of crimson light erupted toward the ceiling, tearing through the ancient temple and into the storm raging above.
The shockwave hurled Aria across the chamber.
She crashed against a pillar, the air exploding from her lungs.
The light became so blinding she had to shield her eyes.
The temple trembled as though it would collapse at any moment.
Somewhere inside the crimson light...
Something moved.
A silhouette.
Tall.
Broad-shouldered.
Unmistakably human.
Slowly...
Very slowly...
It took one step forward.
Aria couldn't make out its face.
Only its outline through the blinding light.
Her breathing stopped.
The figure lifted its head.
And the first thing it did...
Was take a slow, curious breath.
As though breathing the world for the first time in centuries.
- Writer
