The Seven Wonders of the World

51. The Temple of Deus

The group would be getting up from their table, as Merry would be approaching them, although he could not get the words out of his mouth due to the embarassment that just dawned over him.
He watched as Zoela and the rest walked out of that store, feeling heartbroken as his head fell down, with the manager patting his shoulder.
"It's okay, Merovech," said the manager, "it happens to the best of us."
"Yeah," said Merry quietly, as his head hung low. "I feel stupid though, she totally gave me all the signals. How didn't I realize that and make a move?"
"You can always try again," said the manager. "Maybe next time you'll do better."
"I don't know, I just feel like a idiot now," said Merry, as he looked at the ground, "i let my nerves get the best of me."
The manager would sigh, as he tried to think of reassurance to give to the young lad.
"Well, there's no point in dwelling on it now," said the manager, as he clapped Merry on the shoulder, "you'll see her again, and maybe next time will be the time to shoot your shot."
Merry sighed, as he nodded slowly, as he could see the manager meant what he was saying. But he still couldn't help feeling disappointed in himself.
"Hey now, don't be too hard on yourself," said the manager, as he continued to try and reassure Merry. "Like I said, there's no way of knowing if this will be your only chance with her. And even if it is, at least you now know how to act next time a pretty girl starts to flirt with you."
Merry wouldn't answer, as he would think to himself for a few moments, before he clenched his fist and said, "I can't let this slide."
"Huh?"
"She couldn't have gone too far," said Merry, grabbing his jacket as he ran out. "I'm going after her!"
"WAIT, MERRY!" the manager tried to call out to the boy, as he watched him run out of the store. "You can't just go after someone like that!"
Merry paid no heed to anything around him, as he continued to run. He knew where Zoela and the rest would most likely be going, as the manager tried desperately to call out the boy's name.
"MERRYYYYYY!!!"

Rater and the group would be driving through the streets of Highshore, Zoela was obviously at the front wheel, with Rater, Uyutsu and Sora sitting down at the table eating food, and Alucard was sitting by a window, playing with a couple of cards.
"There's so many things we can do here!" said Uyutsu. "We can't be leaving now!"
"We aren't leaving!" said Zoela. "I'm just driving around!"
"Sure you are," said Uyutsu, as he put his hand on the back of Zoela's seat. "I'm not dumb, you know? You're just trying to find an excuse to drive around."
Zoela would turn her head slightly to look at Uyutsu, as she rolled her eyes. "Why would I need an excuse to drive around?"
"Because you want to have an excuse to see the guy you met yesterday!" said Uyutsu with slightly smug grin on his face.
Rater would laugh, as he bit into another sandwich of his. "What, like what?" he said with his mouth full, as he watched Alucard play with the cards. "As far as I know, there really isn't too much to do out here."
Alucard would respond with a slight pout on his face. "That's not entirely true," he said, as he looked at the others for some support, "there's that one amusement park, and you could always go to that one beach area, or one of those shopping areas."
Rater would frown and shrug, as he continued to stuff the sandwiches into his mouth, hardly bothering to make eye contact with Alucard.
"I mean I guess you could go there," said Rater, "but most people that come to Highshore are here for business, not pleasure."
"But those are just examples," said Alucard, as he tried his best to get them to understand, "there's just so much to do in a place like this."
Sora would speak up for the first time. "Highshore is kind of a slow town," he said softly, "we shouldn't expect to find any big-shot activities here."
"Sure, but come on," said Alucard, "there's got to be something here," as he would try to get them to see his point of view. "Like if we really thought hard enough, I'm sure we could find something fun here."

As Alucard was looking, he spotted a temple that was located slightly away from the city, as it immediately intrigued him. "How about that?"
"A temple?" said Uyutsu, raising an eyebrow at the structure. "What's in there?"
"No idea," said Alucard, as he looked at the temple with excitement. "Which is why it would be fun to go inside and find out."
"Do you really think it's a good idea to just go wandering into a strange temple that we've never seen before?" said Zoela, as she drove past the structure, as she saw it approaching. "For all we know, it could be a temple to some dangerous god."
"Yeah, remember that time we found the moon goddess?" said Sora.
"Exactly," said Zoela, as she drove even further away from the temple, although she couldn't quite help but feel a small pang of curiosity over what was in there. She quickly tried to dismiss the feeling, but she still couldn't fully let her mind take its attention off the temple as she drove past it.
"Hey," said Rater, "how come you're just driving by the temple? Aren't we going to check it out?"
"No," said Zoela, "do you have any idea how dangerous that could be?"
"It's just a temple," said Rater, "there's no way it could be dangerous just to go inside and look around."
"Yeah, but temples are usually related to worshipping gods," said Uyutsu, raising an eyebrow, "and it could be potentially dangerous if we enter one without permission."
"It wasn't dangerous when we visited the moon goddess," said Sora, as he looked out the window at the temple.
"That's different," said Zoela, as she would start to get frustrated with her friends insisting on going inside of the temple. "We knew what we were doing when we visited the moon goddess. We don't know anything about this temple."
"Which makes it fun!" said Alucard. "We might find some valuable souvenirs and artifacts in there!"
"Which might get us cursed," said Zoela, as she kept her eyes on the road, trying to ignore everyone else's chatter. "There are a lot of potential risks that come with just wandering into a temple."
"I suppose," said Alucard, grinning, "or there can be lots of gold and rupees in there."
Zoela's face widened, as she knew Alucard was trying to tempt her with her lust of money. "What are you getting at?!"
"Oh, nothing," said Alucard, "just trying to get us some rupees so we won't be broke."
Zoela sighed, as she spun the car around, knocking everyone to one side, and drove towards the path to the temple.
"Fine, let's just check out this temple and waste our time!" said Zoela. "That'll be great!"