The Twelfth Moon || ✔️

25. The Temple Of Sariranyasa

"I don't see anything," I said confused.

"It's right over there." Jerr pointed at the black rock formation near us. It was big, but it didn't surpass the ground that much. It surely wasn't big enough to be a Temple.

"I still don't see anything."

"It's in the black rocks you're looking at," he chuckled. My eyes traveled down, to where the stone met the ground, and they fell upon an opening in the rocks. As Jerr and I approached the entrance of the Temple, I couldn't see anything past it but pure darkness.

I gulped at the thought of going in, but my curiosity took the better of me and I entered the cave Jerr was motioning me to go in.

My eyes adjusted to the darkness fairly quickly. We walked in a stumbley cave hall for a short while before we reached some steps someone had carved in the stone. It didn't take me long to realize that most of this rock formation was located underground, and that it was in fact immense.

I looked back at Jerr, and I saw the vague outline of his head nodding at me, urging me to continue. I turned around, and plunged myself into the darkness, careful not to stumble over the dark steps.

The deeper we walked into the cave, the cooler the air around us became. I could hear some trickling water, and with every step I took, the sound was clearer and clearer, until it was like a fresh echo in my head.

And then I passed a corner and the darkness was suddenly gone. My breath got stuck in my throat and I think I actually gasped as I took in the scenery before me.

The dark narrowness of the steps made room for a large clearing in the cave, every bit of it still made in that dark, black stone. However, someone had been here many, many Moons ago and carved out pillars that were neatly positioned in a half circle towards the back of the Temple.

Light seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time, and I was too puzzled to really take the time and figure out where it was coming from. The entirety gave me a magical feeling, anyway.

In front of us, in the heart of the Temple, was an enormous statue of a wolf, seated on its hind legs and looking straight ahead. A source of radiant light shone upon it, in a golden and silver glow. I had no idea where the light came from, but it somehow made sense, as if the light had to be there, because this Temple was not something that should ever be hidden from the world. 

The statue was so immense, that I knew it'd take a lot of effort to climb the top. I didn't know if anyone had ever tried. The wolf appeared to have been carved out of our Moon itself, its stone was made from a radiant silverish white. I had no idea who had been able to make this statue, or how they'd even done it. The wolf sat pridefully and I felt it watching over us, even if it was only made of inanimate stone.

The statue was surrounded by a pond, existing of the deepest, blackest water I had ever seen. It reminded me of a dark night without the stars or our Moon to light up our world.  

There were some small rock formations where I could hear the calming sounds of the black water flowing into the pond in several small waterfalls. Some large white and pink flowers floated in the water, accompanied by large, green leaves. I recognized the the flowers from books I had read, where they had decorated the covers, or the back pages. But seeing them in front of me—seeing them here—no drawing of those flowers could have ever compared to this sight.

Everywhere around us, plants of all different kinds were growing, climbing up the pillars and Temple walls and swallowing them up entirely. The green leaves were decorated with flowers in blue, pink, and purple colors. The flowers were everywhere. Even the ceiling wasn't spared as every inch of it was draped with flowers twirling and flowing down. Some of them even appeared to be glowing in a warm, golden light, floating orbs that shone in warmth.