Fallen Towers, Silent Ruins | Dream Smp

1

There it was.

Rose squinted her eyes in the bright sunlight, her right arm held over her head to give herself some shade. Up ahead, attracting her gaze like a beacon of light in a dark room, was the source of her travels. The desert temple rose from the sandy dunes and cut against the blue sky, its smooth sandstone towers casting shadows onto the ground and leaving a shimmering mirage.

She jogged closer and her head lifted to take in the temple in its entirety. It was old and crumbling, and the colors in the towers had grown faint over the decades to become a dull orange. However, the temple wasn't any less impressive. She paused by the entrance, running her hand over the wall and scanning the dark interior.

Rose walked a few steps into the temple and reached up to grab an unlit torch from its holder on the wall. She tucked her sword under her right arm and pulled a flint and steel from her backpack, lighting it and holding the flame against the torch until it caught fire. She blew gently on it and waited until it had brightened enough to hold it out in front of herself and inspect the temple.

Just like any other desert temple, the interior was decorated sparsely. Four sandstone pillars rose from the center up to the pyramid-like point, and ancient patterns painted in faded oranges and purples lined the sand-coated floor. What made the difference, though, were the paintings that lined the walls.

Rose approached the nearest ones while taking careful steps in the case that traps were hidden beneath the floor. She blew on the sand covered paintings, coughing at the cloud of dust, and wiped the remainder away with her hand. Her fingers traced the delicate designs of an ocean, large ships floating on the blue waves and a variety of colorful fish below the surface. She walked along the wall, studying the drawings as they shifted from sea to land, the illustrations of forests and ancient villages illuminated by the torchlight.

Rose pulled her attention away from the paintings and walked over to the center of the temple. She placed her torch in an empty holder and swung her old, blue backpack off her shoulders, laying it against one of the pillars. She set her sword down beside it as well. Then, she detached her pickaxe from the side of her backpack and studied the floor.

Rose lowered down on one knee and tapped her right knuckles against the sandstone, listening intently as the floor made a hollow knock. A smile spread across her face as she walked back a few steps, so she was standing outside the area of the four pillars, before taking her pickaxe in both hands and swinging it forcefully at the floor.

A loud crack echoed through the temple as the sandstone beneath her pickaxe began to rupture. Rose swung again and the fractures in the sandstone grew larger and crumbled into pieces under the pressure. She jumped back as the floor gave way and the chunks of sandstone dropped into a deep well where the floor had once been.

Taking a deep breath, Rose set her pickaxe down next to her backpack and peeked inside the large hole that now sat between the sandstone pillars. Down below, dimly lit by the torch above, she could spot a small wooden chest.

Her heart jumped inside of her.

Finally, she had found it—she had been searching for so long.

Rose turned and kneeled next to her backpack, rustling through the supplies until her fingers brushed against the scratchy coil of rope. She pulled it out and unraveled it so that it laid in a mess around her, then grabbing one of the frayed ends and tossing it over the rafters above the pillars near the point of the temple.

She grasped the same end and pulled down on it, watching as the other side of the rope began to shift upwards. Then, after throwing it over the rafter a second time, she quickly tied a knot that secured the rope in place, tugging on it to check that it wouldn't budge. She picked up her sword off the ground and grabbed the rope with both hands, leaning back so that she could look straight down into the hole. She pushed off the edge and began to slowly lower herself into the well, placing one hand below the other as her feet walked against the sandstone wall.