Kapitel 46: Temple
The wind was bitingly cold this high up.
Only his thick clothes and even thicker jacket, and his hat and neck gaiter, all courtesy of Geleb, kept Morne from freezing like a human popsicle. He sank up to his ankles in the snow with every step, the added weight of his backpack not doing him any favors.
The chill worked its way into his lungs, making every breath feel like he was inhaling dozens of tiny needles.
His mask helped only slightly; Geleb had opted for the thinner masks, so they could still communicate. An important decision that had paid off, as none of them had expected the wind to be this fierce.
This section of the mountain had a surprisingly gentle slope, more like a small hill with plenty of plateaus. As a result, they were surrounded on all sides by snow, snow, and more snow, with no rock to be seen within their limited fields of view.
The whirling snow made seeing more than twenty feet ahead impossible, and even seeing ten feet in front of him was a chore. As such, the three made sure not to wander off, keeping each other within their sights.
He kept his hands on the pack's straps and his goggled eyes trained on Geleb in the lead, trudging along with Earl beside him.
Like Earl and Morne, Geleb had a pack on his back, though his was lighter as he wasn't as strong as his companions, plus he needed both hands for the map.
It was already six days into their supposed seven-day trip to the temple. Geleb assured them that they would be there sooner than expected, but he had been saying such things all day, and Morne was hard-pressed to believe him at this point.
Suddenly, Geleb stopped and unfurled his map. The paper tried to ripple wildly in the mountain winds, but Geleb's firm grip kept it stretched out and as a result, it hardly moved at all.
He peered down at the parchment, eyes flicking between it and some indistinct gray point ahead.
"I think this is it!" he shouted over the wind.
"You said that two hours ago!" replied Earl.
"Yes, but this time I mean it! Come along, Morne! Our destination is ahead!"
The thought of finally getting out of the cold brought a surge of strength through his tired limbs, and he moved forward as fast as in the snow. His companions were equally as excited and likewise made a beeline for that gray point up ahead.
Slowly, the sight of a massive stone temple became apparent through the snow. It was a grand structure, more immense than any drawing could hope to capture. It towered into the skies for hundreds of feet, its peak disappearing into the blizzard above.
It was also wide, at least half as wide as it was tall, and shaped like a rectangle. Its stone walls depicted the snakes, stars, and clouds of Geleb's drawing, but they were positioned higher up on the wall, at a point almost unnoticeable with the weather the way it was.
Those that swallowed stars sat above those that languished on the clouds, who in turn looked down upon the unmentioned snakes on the mountains, which themselves were above the snakes lining the bottom of the tower, wallowing in the dirt.
All of these carvings wrapped around a pair of thick stone doors, which combined were over three times Morne's height and twice as wide as even that.
Earl pushed the door open unceremoniously, allowing Geleb and Morne to step through before entering himself and shutting it behind him.
Now out of the blizzard, they tore off their masks and slipped their goggles onto their foreheads, taking deep breaths of the musty cavern air. It was stale and clung to their throats like oil, but it was a welcomed change to the sharp chill of the outside.
After they spent a few seconds recuperating, Geleb shouldered his pack off and set it on the floor. He slid his map in and pulled a torch out of it, lighting it with a match.
Using the light the torch provided, he found an unlit torch on the wall nearby and lit it. It flared to life, only for another to light a few feet away, and then a third. Within moments, the entire room was lit with flickering torch fire.
They stood in a cubical room that could've easily taken up an eight of this massive temple's first floor. There were three doors besides the exit: one in front of them, one to their right, and one to their left.
Each was the same size as the door they just entered, and had similar carvings around their frames.
"See?" Geleb said with a grin. "I told you this was it."
"Forgive us for doubting you," Earl replied. "The last four 'almost there's' really did wonders to bolster our confidence in you."
Geleb chuckled. "That's what happens when you make a map from scratch without ever visiting the place in question. There's bound to be some margin of error."
Geleb spoke of his mapmaking as if it was an astonishing feat, but Morne had no context to work with and could only assume that this was normal for a cartographer.
"I thought you said you'd need me to open the doors," Morne said.
"That's what I had thought," Geleb responded, scratching his head. "Perhaps where you're needed is farther in.
"Leave your packs here," Geleb told the other two, taking his gloves off and sticking them in one of his many pouches. "We'll set up camp right here, and come back whenever we need to. This place isn't that large, so I doubt we'd get lost."
Morne and Earl nodded, taking off their packs and setting them carefully on the floor.
Sometime later, they had set up three tents and a small fire pit in the center of the room.
When their task was completed, Geleb dusted off his hands and nodded, grabbing his torch off the ground and handing it to Earl. "All right, Morne, grab some rope and a torch.
"Earl, keep the light close to me so I can chart our path. I want to explore for a few hours before we call it for the night."
Morne watched as the nobleman took out a leatherbound journal and a pen with a glowing tip. The noble sketched a rough drawing of the room they were currently in before picking the left door at random and walking toward it.
Geschenke
-- Geschenk
erhalten Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein