(OLD) Before her | Stories of The Unknown

Chapter 4 | An Ancient Temple

The butterfly lead her to a mossy stone brick temple with occasional cobble. It was almost as tall as the trees but only just small enough to stay hidden by the leaves of the hooded forest. It appeared like it just popped up there all of a sudden, Elysian was sure she had been to this part of the forest before, she recognised the rock patterns of the pebbled ground.

Elysian would approach the temples large door, it was the size of an elephant! The door had spiral patterns with butterflies and plants engraved into the stone. The butterfly she had followed flew up to a small hole at the top of the door, it was shaped like a butterfly. Elysian reached her hand out to the door before it burst into purple flame.

Elysian snatched her hand back in a hustle, the door was open now, she hesitantly entered the large building. She would walk down a long corridor that had bookshelves lining it, some books weren't even in the casing, rather, on the ground and scatter with ripped out pages. There were also plenty of cobwebs as well. It was almost like this temple was purposed into a library.

Eventually, at the end of the corridor lie a staircase that lead up to the upper level, Elysian walked up said stairs and what lay at the top was a wooden door with the same butterfly markings carved into the grain. She opened the door and ahead of her was a room that was at a decent size, it had some more bookshelves and just in between them was something that caught her eye, A shimmering book that was floating on a table made from pure obsidian rock fancied with a red tablecloth.

She looked around, making sure she was alone, she read the cover, which said 'Galdur's Prophecy' and just below the text was more markings with butterflies. Elysian instantly took the book into her hands and rushed out the temple. She didn't look back until she had left the building.

when she turned around, the temple had just vanished into thin air, she rubbed her eyes for a second, before look back at the book in her hands. She went to put it into her satchel before she heard a faint 'meow' from behind her. She awkwardly looked back to see a black cat with large purple eyes staring up at her.

She slowly approached the feline, bending down onto her knees and putting her hand out slowly to allow the cat to approach her itself. It rubbed its furry head against her hand and licked it. Elysian fell in love with the cat, and picked it up gently, taking it home with her. On the way, she came up with a great name for her, "Celeste."