Chapter Text
Sunlight shifted and scattered across the deep jungle floor as she clambered over the thick roots and vines that continued to meander and trail across her path. Lush green hues surrounded her, thick and vibrant, and the bright and incandescent sun continued to be kept off her back by the towering canopy of the tall trees all around her. A fact that she was infinitely grateful for; nature’s parasol endeavouring to keep her cool as she continued her trek towards the old abandoned ruins that the nearby village had told her about. Rumours, though, they’d warned; no one had even been able to find the old temples, or at least no one had returned in any case – the old ones had hidden their beauty and their shame from the world – and it was all just rumours now. They had provided her with the general direction nonetheless, pulled in by a warm smile and an easy, trusting laugh. She’d told them that she could look after herself, and she’d meant it.
“I guess if it had been easy to get to then they wouldn’t have been rumours.” Lam Lha huffed as she climbed over another twisted and gnarled root blocking the barely-there path. A buzzing came from her side, insistent and slightly mocking, and Lam Lha looked over to her constant companion with a wry snort of amusement. Large and furry and golden in colour, hovering in the air with iridescent wings that seemed too small to support the weight of its fluffy body, its antennae flickered as it buzzed once more with what seemed to be a smug kind of tone.
“Well that’s easy for you to say, Api. You have wings.” Lam Lha replied to another chittering buzz, almost like a laugh.
“I know, I know, I could have at least looked at some of Hyth’s concepts before I left this time but where’s the fun in that?” She said with a sigh, and then looked at her hair, wild and free as it always was but now with the addition of a few twigs and leaves, and some large patches of overly-embedded mud here and there. Hades would have a time if he saw her like this – ever fond of her turquoise locks, he’d spend hours in the evenings when she was in Amaurot brushing her hair over and over, tutting at her inability to keep it neat. A sign of affection, even if he’d be horrified for it to be explained as such, and her mouth curled into a grin at the thought of her closest friends.
And then the light before her became blinding as she broke into a large clearing in the surrounding forest, breathing deeply now she was past the dark, too close atmosphere of the thick jungle behind her. She initially shielded her eyes from the brightness as her eyes adjusted before gasping in delight and astonishment at what was before her. An immense stone temple, every surface covered with carved effigies and symbols in exquisite detail, worn away with time but still undeniably present. The dark stone contrasted against the surrounding green with a beauty beyond belief, but they did not work in cooperation, it seemed. Nature had not been kind to this creation of humanity; every crack and crumble of stone was filled with vines and tendrils of green and brown, reaching through and breaking apart whatever it could gain purchase on. Large chunks of stone had scattered and fallen to the ground, ripped from their homes by roots that seemed to take umbrage at the presence of this building in the middle of its own verdant majesty.
Taking a few steps into the opening and regarding the temple again but with a more studied gaze, she could tell it was old, ancient even – in a world where that word barely held any meaning – and she itched to explore every ilm of it, find out what had happened, how it came to be, why it had fallen. Forward once more, unable to stop herself, she ran her fingers across the petroglyphs, feeling the bumps of carving tools under her fingertips, connecting to a past that no one else had seen for eons. A sharp buzzing interrupted her observations, and she laughed delightedly and reached over to Apidaela, sinking her fingers into the soft golden fur and scratching between the giant bees antennae in a way that made her companion shiver in delight.
“Yes, don’t worry Api, I remember what the villagers said about people coming here and not returning, I’ll be careful.” She said, eyes drifting back to the stone structure as if she were unable to tear her gaze away from it now her curiosity had been peaked. The buzzing continued, pert and overly sarcastic, and Lam Lha felt the laughter bubble out of her, joyous and free at the memory just prompted by her friend and constant companion.
“That was a totally different situation and I was careful I’ll have you know. How was I to know that my ‘poking around’, as you put it, was going to lead to me accidentally falling into the nest with its younglings? Or that I was going to be adopted and ‘fed’ for a week until I was able to escape?” Lam Lha replied tartly, wincing as she remembered just how furious and worried Hades had been when he had finally heard about the incident. In direct contrast to his anger had been Hythlodaeus, laughing into his hand in a corner of the room, and the juxtaposition between the two was delightful, warming her heart once more.
Pulled out of her memories by an earth shattering roar setting the leaves on every tree rustling, as if the jungle itself were trembling in fear, she felt Apidaela’s admonishing glare on her back even as she ran for the dubious safety of the temple doors. She ignored the chittering ‘I told you so’ that filled her ears alongside the continued roars and crashing through vegetation that accompanied it, eyes searching for a safe place to hide. The crack in the large carved double doors was thankfully just large enough for her and her companion to get through and as soon as she managed to scramble through the gap she fell back against the cool stone wall with a sigh.
The warning quiet buzz beside her alerted her that maybe not all was entirely well, and she opened her eyes and squinted through the dimness, the odd shaft of light through cracked stone the only light source. The air was dusty, dry and smelling of mould and mildew, the roars outside muffled by the thick stone surrounding her, a slight scratching at the stone before whatever it was moved away, the roars receding into the jungle outside. A constant drip of water from somewhere in the distance was the only remaining sound, as she held her breath for what she was confronted with.
For there in front of her, covering almost every part of the richly decorated mosaic floor, were rows upon rows of large eggs, each about the side of her bee friend, a pregnant atmosphere suffusing the air, filling her with a small amount of anticipation and not a small amount of dread. She held her breath as she considered her options. Stay and risk whatever was within these eggs – or whatever was protecting them – to come out, or go and risk the beast that roared so loudly instead. Unless they were one and the same, and she sighed softly. Knowing her luck…
Time ticked on, and then it seemed that the cruel mistress known as fate decided to take her choice out of her hands, as she looked sharply to the side as she heard a single crack echoing through the room slowly followed by several others – single sounds combining and harmonising to a roar almost as loud as the beast outside as the eggs began to hatch one by one.
“Oh, Hades is going to have a field day when I explain this one.” Lam Lha sighed into the cacophony, and then she braced and started to run once more, Apidaela flying close behind.