The Fire Temple had been in an office building in downtown New York City. The Ice Temple was behind a bolted door at the back of a meat packing plant in Toronto, Canada. The Air Temple could only be accessed through a child's makeshift drink stand in a remote village high in the mountains and the entrance to the Water Temple was the bathtub of room 406 of a worn down hotel in New Hampshire- a bathtub which never emptied of water, remaining always filled to the brim.
The traveler's feet ached and his body was tired. He had traveled very far and had been doing so for quite some time.When he pushed open the double doors of the little cafe on Main Street he found that apart of him wanted to forget what he came for completely and simply slump down at one of the empty booths, drink a coffee and sleep for days. He would not give in to this though. he couldn't.
Trudging towards the counter he dragged his two large bags behind him. One was a satchel containing only provisions and the treasures that he had acquired during his journeys. The other was a large black bag that resembled a duffel except that it had no zippers and instead had many belts with large metallic clasps and a large brass handle in the shape of a wolf's head at one end.
With a thump he threw himself into one of the chairs and eyed the woman behind the counter. She appeared to be in her thirties but he knew she was much older than that despite her athletic body. Her movements were the slow, tired movements of someone who had been at this too long and only kept moving through an odd mental auto pilot. Her long black hair reached all the way down to the small of her back and glistened curiously, black and purple as the sun hit it.She spoke to him without turning, a semi clean glass mug in one hand being dried by the stained cloth in the next.
"What can I get you?"
He breathed deeply before answering. He had traveled a long time and had he known that the last Temple was in a small town outside of Toronto then he would have come sooner and maybe this would have been all over with already. But the fact was he was here now and this was the last thing standing in his way. He couldn't turn back now.
"Directions." was his simple answer.
She paused for a moment and then continued. Even from behind he could tell she was slightly annoyed at the prospect of not getting any business out of this interruption to her day. "Well," she sighed "ask what you're gonna ask."
"How," he began, pausing before finishing,"do I get into the Shadow Temple?"
The woman behind the counter stopped moving. Then she very slowly put the mug down on the counter and turned towards her sole patron.
He saw it now. Partly with the gifts that had been bestowed upon his eyes so long ago and partly because there was no way anyone could hide that much strength. The room they were in was fairly large and empty except for the two of them, but as she turned and her gaze fell on him he felt, immediately, as though her presence filled the entire room, surrounding him like a giant serpent, too large for the building and forced to coil itself up - pressed against the windows and walls. Her pupils were bottomless pits and in her irises was the darkness of space and the stars that sparkled amongst it. When she spoke again, there was a new strength to her voice. Her words were slow, each syllable being carefully formed on her lips for emphasis.
"I am obligated to tell you, traveler, that you should not have come here." She looked away from the traveler, perhaps a bit of sadness finding it's way onto her face, and took a bottle from the shelf. "However it doesn't matter now. Your fate is sealed."
Almost as if he hadn't heard her cryptic words, he continues, gesturing towards the bottle in her hand. "Is that the key or the doorway?"
"Neither. This will replenish you once we're done here. You will need it if you plan to continue past this point. I am obligated to tell you that as well." She sighs heavily and leans against the counter, putting the bottle down in front of him. "How many hearts in are you?"
His expression doesn't change. He's all business and besides, he is much too tired to feel anything but the urgency of his mission. His reply, again, is short. "Thirteen."
She lets out a low whistle and then stands up straight. "Then perhaps you're ready for what comes next. Physically at least. Even if you were to pass through the door then the temple itself will swallow you up. It is terrible and powerful. You will find no treasures there if that is what you seek."
Her words hung on the air for a bit. The traveler sat in his chair and stared for a long moment in silence. She began to wonder if he was going to say anything else at all when he moved slowly, throwing the strap of his satchel over one shoulder and then, standing, he lifted up his strange, buckled duffel and laid it on the seat. A small buckle at the top kept the single pocket shut and he released the clasp and produced from the pocket a picture of a young girl with dark hair and what looked like a silver tiara in her hair.
"This temple may have swallowed many but something else has swallowed my princess. I need something from the temple to get her back."
At this she nodded her head, looking at the photo with new found understanding. "So it is you, then. I didn't think you'd come here."
"How do I get into the Shadow Temple?" he asked, pushing the photo pack into the pocket of his bag.
The woman sighed and closed her eyes. Her shoulders drooped and for a moment he saw her tiredness again. Then her eyes opened once more and she answered, as she has many times before. "My body is the doorway. My life force keeps it sealed. There is no other way. You must go through me."
It was his turn to nod now, as if he had expected her to say this all along. Without another word he took hold of the wolf shaped handle at the top of his large bag and pulled.
The clasps came apart one by one and from the bag he produced a sword. It was nearly as tall as he was and the wolf's-head-handle was a part of the hilt. The blade was what caught her eye though. At the base, near the hilt, it was made of silver but the above that the blade was made of flames. Above the flames as a swirling wind that kept the shape blade and somehow bound to that was the tip, made of water. She recognized the design as that of a Hero-Sword. An ancient weapon that held the properties of each element and type of energy. A blade that could hurt anything. She knew before here eyes settled on it that there was a large red crystal set into the silver and gold of the hilt. It's powerful energy currently held the opposing elements together but that was shoddy and incomplete. He would need the final element: a dark crystal within the bowels of the temple with which he could complete the Hero-Sword and head of then on his true quest to save the princess. She also knew, with a certainty, that anyone who had this and had come this far was not to be taken lightly.
She breathed in slowly as if she was going to sigh heavily once more only this time her eyes filled with life and it seems, as she puts her shoulders back, as if her shadow has grown so large that it begins to spread across the ceiling as it lengthens.
When she breaths out he has already begun diving out of the way.
The building erupts into flame and the dance begins.
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