Cock-a-Doodle-Doom ☑️

Count Your Chicken

The temple is a one-story building made out of very large rocks. Most of them make at least half the height of a wall, but some, carved and decorated with ribbons, seem to be a full ten feet high. There has been either magic or very good craftsmanship poured in this construction.

Still, as impressive as it is, it is quite low, almost like the stone thing is crouching. Is it still sound enough to enter? A wide corridor seems to run around the whole building, supported with pillars at regular intervals. It is probably the highest part of the whole construction, ceiling-wise. At the center a room hangs lower, dark, with a single visible door. I'd bet my bike that's the place we're looking for. I'm not sure whether the flashlight will be enough for this, or if I should even be holding it out. After all, Ñox Cayù is probably not that far anymore. I'm a fucking signboard right now. Well, the clouds haven't let up, so the night is still really dark. It's either that or we just trip and fall every thirty seconds.

Above all, I'm secretly hoping for a stone bench or something in this temple. My legs are killing me and my back feels like I've forgotten gravel in my spine. Nathan is definitely too old to be carried now. He's walking beside me as me and Domenica both hold one of his hands. It's OK, the ground is more even here, he seems to have recovered quite a lot already and we didn't have the stamina to carry him anymore. It will all work out. After all, isn't he the mastermind behind this whole 'Temple of Chicken Doom' operation? He probably figured out how hard it would be when he was super-powered earlier. Or maybe he was just a kid being stubborn, it's getting honestly difficult to tell.

As much as we can without making too much noise, we rush inside the temple's entrance. To my surprise it feels way bigger when we're near it: the entrance only must be around nine feet tall. The building is not so low anymore. I wonder how tall the other parts I saw really were.

As I run the flashlight on the carved walls, the roar of the mad god resounds outside. Not so close. It must be stuck in a tree again. I turn towards Nathan.

"Hey," I say, "you had a plan, coming here, right?" It might be time to put it in action. I'm not really enthusiastic at the idea of playing hide-and-seek with the monster following us. Where is the god-killer weapon? The chant that will seal it away?

Nathan lets go of our hands and advances to the center of the room. He is standing on top of an intricate carving made of triangles and concentric circles.

"I think that's where Ñox Cayù was. Before Tegan woke it up."

Domenica turns towards me. "She did?" she says, confused. "Isn't she your friend, though? The one we rescued?"

I nod. "Yeah, she got sort of brainwashed to begin with, I think. I saw that when..." When I had a dream filled with old locked-up memories of her? How do I explain that again? "You know, I'll tell you another time," I say. "It's a bit complicated. Nathan, what are we supposed to do here?"

He's looking hesitant. I can see him struggle to remember, but he doesn't seem to be jumping on the idea of removing his amulet again. At least he learned something. Unless it's the sudden power boost he gets that turns him into a brat.

"I think..." he says, "I think we have to find another egg. You know, to put it back in the nest."

"An actual egg?" I say, worried. "Where are we gonna find that?" Then I remember the stone egg that was dropped in the meat chute. "Oh, you mean a sculpture, like the other one." Domenica looks at me weirdly. I guess she feels more than a little left out. Between his magic intuitions and my lucid dream of Tig a few hours ago, we have seen more of this situation that we cared to explain.

"We're looking for a stone egg," I say, talking to her. "Roughly the size of an ostrich egg, I think, maybe there is one among the carvings on th walls?" They'd better be, or we're basically dead. Let's find a stone egg.