Cléo and I divide tasks, or at least I pretend so. At this point I’m not looking for the common relics and artifacts that litter the tiles of the temple. I’ m after the treasure chests, and the true mysteries they hide within. They’re my subjects of study, now.
But Cléo is thrilled to have a task, and I’m happy to share this with her. I also look forward to her debriefing me on her findings. Maybe I’ll even teach her to tell the real from the fake, or how to roughly date an item…
In the meantime, I sneak into a green-lit room, again hidden away at first sight, and I start examining a new mechanism.
I’d rather not know what happens if you try to walk through these doors.
There’s a second gloomy-lit room on the other side of this hall, but it gives no satisfying information.
This is the one! I activate it, and get attacked by no darts. From the main hall, I hear the sound of the door’s defenses being deactivated. One more victory for the Stewarts team!
Cyril’s not totally helpless — he had an umbrella with him, and by now he perfectly knows the way back to the temple. So with his blue umbrella in hand, he runs back to Cléo and I.
In the meantime, tired of relieving himself in bushes, Cyril walks back to the first jungle gate again to find the porta-potty.
He’s alone and it just started raining.
But along with the drops of rain, he starts getting hit by another tiny, flying calamity.
Run from the bees, brother!
Three Skeletons
The adrenaline must have unlocked something in my brain, because I end up figuring out the answer to this mystery in the blink of an eye. I should have close encounters to death more often.
The answer was not with the blue, suspicious-looking lonely skeleton after all, but with his three golden brothers, or more specifically, the spear in the hand of the middle one.
Adrenaline
The narrow corridor, small room and suspicious-looking skeleton already had all my senses on high alert — and I’m starting to know how the omiscans of old rolled.
I hear a noise on my left, a soft ssssht! and my body acts before I think.
The feathery flighting of the dart brushes the tip of my nose. Poison without a doubt, barely avoided.
It takes my heart a second to catch up with what just happened and cool down to a normal rhythm.
Here’s the hall at the end of the dark corridor. I dropped a few lamps to help me navigate in the darkness, and it gives the place a warm, but eerie look. The yellow light bounces from golden statues to cryptic omiscan murals, and then back to the shiny blue of another lapis skeleton.
I’ve often admired the solemnness of the ancient temple and the beauty in the sturdy, ancient architecture, but rarely have I felt dwarfed by a room like I am now. I feel like a speck in History, a curious individual who has no impact on the grandiosity of the past, and cannot begin to grasp any of it anyway.
I stare the blue skeleton down. The way its scales reflect the light is hypnotizing. It looks so — dare I say — life-like. I have to admit part of the reason I examine it so thoroughly is I half-expect it to lift an arm to shake my hand. It wouldn’t be the first time, after all.
I don’t trust you buddy. You’re a work of art, but I don’t trust you.
Once I’m fairly sure I won’t be jumspcared by a stone skeleton armed with a spear, I finally start examining the mechanisms around the little room.
Probably still distracted by the hollow gaze of the blue skleton, I make a mistake — a potentially fatal mistake.
I pulled the wrong lever, and now my life only depends on one thing: the quality of my reflexes.
Deeper into the Temple
We finally cross the doors previously protected by the bright blue electric sparks, and soon I realize there’s something different about this part of the temple. I almost miss the opening in the wall, the space so small I couldn’t fully extend both of my arms, as the stones on either side are much too close.
Yet it’s through this hole in the wall, this corridor that gets darker with every step, that I’ll find the hall where the next enigmas await.
I’ve been studying the traps all night. This time, there’s no way I’m getting it wrong.
Again, I talk to the guardian.
I’ve done it! I said the right things, and it de-activated the traps! As soon as the statue is satisfied, the dark veil of the curse lifts from my shoulders.
Right on cue, Cléo walks down the stairs to see me. I’m so happy to see her I only want to hug her, and tell her that no matter what, the three of us are family and we’re here for each other, and if they want, we can head straight back to the marketplace, nevermind the treasures of the temple, and…
She sees my attempt at a hug and swats my hand away.
“Look, I know Cyril and I haven’t been showing the best spirit, but you know, we’re going to try. It’s important to you. We got lucky enough to fly here and see what it’s like. And it’s actually been kind of interesting, so… We’re going to try. Well, I am at least.”
So this is when I hug her. Going through the first temple doors can wait, my sister’s much too cute.
Even Cyril is in a better mood. He seems to have recognized the selfie opportunities that lie in Belomisian dawns.
You know a sure fire way to top off a hard day for your siblings? Make them sleep in a tent. I don’t want to trek back to the bungalow at night, and the twins don’t want to have to walk all the way back here again tomorrow.
So here we go, a night in the tent. I decide to chug energy drinks from the market through the night and let them have it. They should be at least a little comfortable.
Cléo goes in second, when Cyril is already snoring.
I’m happy he’s sleeping well at least. Get some rest my darlings, we still have quite a way to go after all.
The morning rises early… and it brings an early tarantula with it, as Cyril has finally resorted to use a bush as a toilet.
Sorry little bro. I should have warned you to never go outside without spider repellent. Ever.
The kiddos are getting tired, but we’re still a team. And we have more of the temple to explore.
Cléo and I dig around in old dirt piles in the temple first. I give her some pointers and make sure we can find the most out of it. Together, we dig up the base of an Observer Relic. I can’t wait to complete the relic and try it out.
Cyril ran down, all the way down past three gates to find a port-a-potty. He doesn’t see the irony in going against the plants and the jungle animals and the possible traps just to get to a fancy toilet. And then complaining about the insects he found there.
In other news, the food I brought was in my bag. You know, the one that now lives below quicksand. It was going to be okay though, because I thought we shouldn’t put all of our provisions in the same basket, and handed half of them over to Cléo before we left!
So Cléo has some food for us to munch on as dinner, right? She didn’t forget it, right?
Yes, she did. It’s very fresh, recently picked, but uncooked avocado and tomatoes for us tonight. I don’t mind, but Cléo and Cyril are a bit disgruntled. I promise them we’ll get a much more satisfying meal tomorrow morning, but I can tell from their hateful stares I’m really only making it worse.
In the meantime, the best I can do is also what I do best.
I get solving on the temple’s enigmas.
Some of them under the watchful stare of the omiscan llama god. Well, his statue.
I’m not saying I get it right every time. Far from that, in fact. I get the very first interaction with the temple guardian very, very wrong, and I get my first mystical touch of this trip.
And it’s a curse. A bad curse. I would rather have been turned back into a shiny blue skeleton.
Like a wave crashing on tired shores, I get overwhelmed by loneliness. The feeling that there’s no one in this world with me, no one who even wants to be with me, starting with my family.
And the dark side glances my siblings have been shooting at me don’t help.
Well, the side glances Cléo has been shooting at me. Cyril is still outside, trying to find more avocados, he said. Really, the three of us know he’s avoiding me.
The Stewarts Family (and other shenanigans) 