Tears of the Sun Goddess Part 5 (END) (Patreon)

     The mysterious tunnel seemed endless. As the three explorers continued onward, more and more bones of soldiers long dead lined the walls. What did they die to achieve? It would take a crew of archeologists to find out, but for now, they lay untouched.

    Finally they reach the end of the tunnel, and come to a more naturally formed cave, sporting a thin underground stream. Layers upon layers of mushrooms surround them.

     "Obashrooms... Poisonous to the touch. Be careful around them," says Yoko, examining the fungi-filled walls. Upon hearing this, Zhuang instantly drops the Obashroom he was smelling, and wipes his hand across his hip.

    "Woah..."

    Wolfgang looks across to the furthest end of the room, where he spots what appears to be a large stone slab. Walking closer to it, he sees that there is a finely etched inscription; more Ancient Runes.

    "If only I could read them..."

    "You can't?" Yoko asks, walking towards him.

     Wolfgang shakes his head. "So little of this alphabet has been discovered that it's almost impossible. It's completely untethered to any other known language."

     In the center of the slab, a strange symbol is etched that Wolfgang cannot place. An abstract depiction of an eye, joined with two triangles pointed in opposite directions, along with a small dot in each corner.

   "What is this?" he ponders.

   Suddenly, the slab begins to move. To the side, Zhuang begins to lift the huge chunk of stone from the ground.

   "Zhuang, what the hell are you doing?"

   "I see light!" Zhuang grunts, "This stone is blocking something!"

   With a mighty crash, the stone slab is thrown to the ground. The three look into the open doorway.

   "Great snakes..."

   Beyond the opening sits hundreds upon hundreds of small flowers, illuminating the floor in a cool, white glow.

   Our three explorers stand, mouth agape in total amazement. Not a word between them, until suddenly...

   "Yes!"

    Ecstatically, Wolfgang leaps into the field of flowers. "This is incredible!" he yells. "It's world changing! I can't believe we actually found this place!"

    Kneeling down, Wolfgang pulls one of the flowers from the ground to admire it it more closely. It looks exactly as it was depicted in the Codex Arcadia. A long, leafless stem below five growing petals that sprout outward then meet together at the top.

    From her satchel, Yoko pulls a small glass bottle, and collects a flower to put inside.

    "It's a shame we aren't able to collect many samples..." she says, putting the bottled flower away.

     "Who cares!" says Wolfgang, "Now that we know it's here, we can take as many trips as we want!"

     From above bellowed a voice, "None of you should have come here."

Yoko and Wolfgang dart their eyes upward to see a hooded figure standing at lip of the tunnel in front of them.

"It's you!" yelled Wolfgang, "So, you weren't trying to beat us here... You were trying to stop us from finding it!"

   "I've been spending years trying to destroy every last shred of evidene of rhis place's existance, and I almost succeeded, but it's no matter."

   Yoko is set off. "But why? Why keep this place a secret? It could help so many people?”

   “Do you honestly believe you two were the first to discover this place? Many have come before you, and they have all met the same fate as you will today.”

   Just then, the ground starts to rumble. From further down the cave, a low, gutturel snarl can be faintly heard. The shaking begins to get more and more intense, causing stone drips to fall from the ceiling crashing onto the floor.

   “Don’t you see? It’s too late! It’s here already! RUN, YOU FOOLS! SAVE YOURSELF!”

   The growling begins to get louder, as do the tremors. The three explorers panic, but are too confused to make any moves as they try to stay on their feet.. From within the darkness, two glints of light appear, floating about five feet apart. The shape slithers into the light: a huge, toothy maw stemming from a long scaley neck. Seeing a snack in the form of a Hooded Woman, the maw sharply slams down on the morsel, swallowing her whole.

   “W-what the hell is that thing?!” shrieked Wolfgang.

   Yoko cannot believe her eyes, “I-I thought creatures of this size only existed in legend!” 

    Springing into action, Zhuang quickly grabs both Wolfgang and Yoko by the waist and begins to run back into the tunnel.

   “Staring at it will only get us killed!” 

    The ground begins to tremble as the gargantuan beast makes chase. The once clean tunnel begins crumbling around Zhuang as he leaps over the chunks of debris in front of him. Remarkably, he shows no signs of slowing down despite the combined weight of 350 pounds he carries in his arms and back. 

    Catching up, the monster crawls towards them as the sharp talons from it’s hands pull its long, legless body closer and closer. Suddenly, the ground beneath Zhuang’s feet begin to break apart, The beast’s massive weight causes the sinkhole below them to reveal itself. In a panic, Zhuang throws Wolfgang and Yoko forward and makes a last-second leap to the lip of the sinkhole, as the creature falls inside, buried by rubble from above.

    Catching his breath, Zhuang breathes a sigh of relief as he gets back onto his feet.

    Hearing the faint growls of the beast below, he chuckles, “Hah! No one can outpace an Ork!”

    “Oh no! Wolfgang!” screams Yoko.

    Zhuang quickly turns back to find Wolfgang lying motionless on the ground, unfurled from striking the tunnel wall. A stream of blood forming from his ear. Yoko leaps to check on him, and is aghast to see a deep abrasion on his scalp.

     “This is bad, he’s suffered trauma to the head!” she yells. Zhuang reels and winces in dread.

     Yoko locks up with anxiety. She’s far from equipped for this, and anyone who could give Wolfgang the help he needs is miles away. She is alone, and running out of time.

 She needs a miracle. 

      From her satchel, she pulls the bottled flower, still alight with a cool glow. The legends told that the Tears of the Sun Goddess could heal all wounds, but what reason did she have to really believe? The events of the past couple days run frantically in her head. The secrecy, the attacks, everything was telling her that the flowers were a guarded secret, but to magically heal all wounds? All that Yoko knew was that it was pointless to contemplate it any further, and so, she quickly pops the cork from the bottle and pours the flower into her hand. Without a second thought, and with a lack of any better idea, she presses the flower into Wolfgang’s abrasion.

    A rush of heat emanates from the flower, as beams of light sprout from between Yoko’s fingers. The heat does not burn, but is instead mildly comforting. She can feel the flower crumple as it’s life is depleted. Yoko removes her hand to find the flower had been reduced to ash, and Wolfgang’s wound completely gone.

  “...Did I doze off?” says Wolfgang, apparently oblivious to his near fatal experience. Yoko snickers as she rolls her eyes.

   “THANK THE AVATAR! I THOUGHT I HAD KILLED YOU!” shots Zhuang tearfully, as he brings both Yoko and Wolfgang in for a hug.

   “Keep hugging us like this and you will!" says Wolfgang. With Zhuang releasing them, Wolfgang redraws his breath and dusts himself off as he looks at the crumbled remains. "It looks like we won't be coming back through this way, but at least we won't leave empty-handed, right?"

   Yoko says nothing, she just looked at the now empty bottle which once held the flower. Seeing this, Wolfgang is shocked.

   "Your head was busted open... Wern't any other way," said Zhuang.

    Wolfgang rubs his hand across his head, feeling no blood or wounds of any kind. "Are you saying... It actually worked?" he said, "It healed me?"

Yoko nods. "Just by touching you..."

     For a moment, the tunnel was silent. Wolfgang looks back at the rubble blocking the path behind them, blocking any sort of proof of their discovery. It would take an army of men to clear the way, if they could find men willing to believe such a ridiculous storyrsts

     Faintly, a chuckle is heard. Wolfgang looks to Yoko and Zhuang looking at him, bewildered. Suddenly, he bursts into a fit of laughter.

“Ohhh dear, that rock must have broken his brain,” Zhuang remarks.

In an attempt to comfort him, Yoko places a hand on Wolf’s shoulder. “It’s not so bad, Wolf,” she says, “We still have our lives.”

“Bad?” Wolf says as he turns to her, placing her hand in his. “This is incredible! We discovered a real-life legend!"

"...And we have nothing to show for it," says Yoko, disappointed.

"I think you're missing something fundemental to this. A great truth has been revealed to us today. Magic is real!" 

He brings Yoko in closer, too mesmerised by his enthusiasm for her to do anything about it.

"Don't you see? This changes the way we percieve everything! We may not be able to prove what we saw here today, but just think of what other great truth we can discover? Aren't you at least curious about what's out there?"

Yoko just smiles as the two lock eyes. She says nothing, but she's starting to believe this passionate little goblin has rubbed off on her.

"...Will you two just fucking kiss already?" says Zhuang, breaking the silence.

(no spoiling please)