The Temple in the Sky, Fernando Herrera Jr [the rosie project .txt] 📗

leak which let in the rain. It triggered his apprehension of thirst; so he dipped his head in the cold water and gulped in delight, until he felt completely, and freshly re-hydrated. A chilly sensation stung his body. The water was extremely cold. It seemed to be flowing. He could hear the streaming sounds of the smooth current and he wondered what could lie on the other side. “Huiracocha?” he spoke. “Are you here?” His voice echoed throughout, but whence it faded, besides the sound of a mellow stream, the little room remained silent. Whilst taking a couple steps forward, he noticed a minuscule bluish glow that blushed from the bottom fissure of the next barrier. It was simply a thin streak of blue radiance, but it proved there was something more on the other side. “Finally, something significant!” he yelled. As you would expect, he knelt down to peek inside the narrow gap and notice that the water current seemed to fall inside. As it had become habitual, he swiped his thin fingers through the blue crevice thinking it would be an easy access, like all the prior entries had been before. But nothing of that matter happened and therefore he remained trapped. He spent an entire hour walking back and forth form each of the walls to the next, carefully examining them, and meticulously inspecting every single square inch area of the room, looking for a key, or something of importance to aid the unwanted internment—unsuccessfully. Great, now I’m trapped in this little dungeon forever. It’s impossible to get outta here. God…? I think you might have misunderstood my prayers. He surrendered and sat down against the wall with his hands submerged in the freezing-cold water. Feeling feeble and vexed, thinking of what else to do, he realized that his narrow options seemed exhausted. He was now very ill, very hungry, very wet, very cold, very exhausted, and very helpless. How in the world did this water get in here anyway? Where’s the leak? He thought. The boy glanced around the ceiling searching for a crack, and then looked down where the water seemed to fall into the crevice. Applying pressure to the ground with his hands, a segment of the ground where he sat on slid in rumbles like a plate under another level. A ten-inch fissure was formed and his bottom fell inside. Of course! Why didn’t I think of this before? I’m so good at this. I am a genius, he lied to himself. He smiled and peeked inside to find an extremely dimmed, blue lit room that was directly below the room he was in. He became aware that the water never really fell, but instead, simply flowed (curiously upside down) and onto the ceiling of the room below. In fact, the room below was entirely upside down—curiously. Apaec stretched his long neck and stuck his head inside gazing in a state of curious marvel.
At that precise instant, within the infinite dimension of time, it was exceedingly probable, that by the resulting statistics of a mathematical equation calculating the levels of perplexity in the universe, he was very likely to be the most perplexed boy in the entire universe. He didn’t understand why the water did not fall, or anything else for that matter. Naturally, as queer as his day had been, he assumed that he too could probably walk upside down on the ceiling, and therefore crept inside. Indeed, queerly, he did not fall; he was crawling on the water upside down; but the notion of “upside down” is rather relative, and in actuality, in that new cerulean chamber, the dimensions had changed to omnifarious modes, for he was now “right side up.” He stood up and found ten feet in front of him a type of disk shaped instrument with unknown markings on it. It looked like nothing he had ever seen before. It was made from the same stone as the structure he was in. To the right of it, he found a brown leather pouch with straps, and beside it, a small notebook and a pen. He didn’t know why or what they were for, but he took the pouch anyway to inspect it. It was quite heavy. He pulled out the following objects in given order: a compass, a small black radio, various silver coins, a metal blade, a small black and white portrait of a pretty, but very pale girl, a paper bag containing a petrified sandwich, a petrified apple, three unwrapped chocolate bars, a loaded gun, a letter, two small paper-backs, a pair of fine binoculars, and a Christian rosary; all to which the boy was entirely ignorant of their functions. Magic instruments of the Gods! They’re gonna want them back, they probably forgot them here. He decided he would take them with him to wherever it was he was going. Maybe the Gods will reward me for returning them, He thought enthusiastically. He set all of the items back as he found them and placed his arms in each of the straps: the pouch attached to his chest like the women of his people carried their new-born. He then took the note-book and curiously flipped through its pages. Endless symbols after symbols that he couldn’t read were written on each page. But still, he concentrated deeply as if he knew exactly what he was doing. It was almost completely covered in this foreign writing, except for the last twenty pages or so which remained blank. He turned to the last page that had been marked and found a detailed illustration of the disk object that lay in front of him. Around it were more symbols and markings. The only thing he could read were the obvious arrows the suggested a turning motion on the disk. He noticed that for every arrow drawn, simple thin lines were marked beside them, and so that for every other arrow, there was a different sum of lines. He considered them to be numbers and began counting them. About twenty feet behind his position, behind the opening which he had crawled in through, he found, two, four sided beams standing about fifteen feet high, and about twenty feet apart, juxtaposed, with a cerulean flame that quietly and placidly blazed on each of their pinnacles. What in the world is keeping you lit? He pondered as he ran his fingers through his thick, wet hair. Those blue flames were obviously the cause of the blue illumination. He shrugged his shoulders and returned to his nosy fiddling of the note-book, intending on deciphering its meanings. It seemed as though the arrows indicated the turning of the disk and he wondered… Turning back to the disk, he placed his right hand on it and turned it as the arrow indicated. It budged and made a loud click which echoed through the chamber walls. Dumbfounded, he turned it two more times, as the markings signaled. For every line beside the arrow, he clicked the disk turning it back and forth for many times as the arrows and lines indicated, until he suddenly felt a familiar chill on his legs. The water was rising fast as a strong blast of wind gushed through the chamber. It whirled violently around him. With the book still in his hand, he was being powerfully suctioned backwards. “Ah-here we go again!” he cried. He then placed the note-book inside the pouch to keep it dry and he was lifted off the ground into a water barrier that was formed between the two beams. The beams concentrated the water into a thin barrier which Apaec was submerged into and all the way through. He was turned upside down and violently thrown out the other side, hitting the wall—hard, and fell unconscious to the ground. The water splashed down onto the ground a returned to its normal calm flow. The room became peaceful once again.
About twenty or so minutes later he awoke from his state of unconsciousness. He stood up rubbing his head, looked over to the disk, and then to the beams and thought, now what was the point of that nonsense? Once again he found himself trapped. He thought of going out the same way he had gotten in, but he knew that would be pointless because the walls had shut and he didn’t know how to open them, so instead he decided to find an exit to this blue chamber. He followed the water flow to the opposite wall behind the disk structure and saw that it ran up into another divide on the top corner. He climbed up the structure and jumped until he reached the crevice. He didn’t have to hang on too long because gravity took his course and pulled him down on the ceiling. The room was apparently symmetrical in gravity. Just as before, he applied pressure and out he went dropping ten feet onto a narrow path made of white stone. It was only four feet wide with no rails. He would surely plummet to his death if only he would lose his balance. He followed the path to a latter of steel which he climbed until he reached the top and found himself exactly where he had begun: the half moon platform. He sighed in frustration but immediately collapsed near the edge in complete exhaustion and fell asleep. He slept the remaining hours of daylight and through the entire nigh, and nearly froze to death. He felt ill and rotten, the way he felt when he drank too much chicha at the night parties with his friends. He wished that was the case but it wasn’t. He was not drunk—he was but merely alive—in extremely poor health from the extreme low pressure and oxygen. It had been too long and the poor boy did not have much time left before his body could no longer endure the dire circumstances.
Moments later, he opened his eyes to find a blurry silhouette of what appeared to be a bird—a very big bird—the biggest bird he had ever seen—roughly the size of a llama. He stood up realizing the possibilities of escape: nil to one. This was that one: his only chance to make it back down to The Four Quarters and back home to his comfy bed. He sprinted towards it, draining the last little bit of energy he possessed but the monster bird turned its neck and became aware of his presence. It flapped its enormous wings and began to fly away, but Apaec did not cease; he ran to it and grasped his only chance. He jumped off the edge, stretching his long, slender body, reaching out with his hands and grabbing on the creature’s long, white tail-feathers. It let out a tremendous squawk and rapidly tumbled to the sea with the boy hanging on for his life. They accelerated to the ground for a thousand feet, spinning out of control, until the mighty, avian creature was able to regain some composure. It then flew elegantly with Apaec hanging on to its feet. They descended the last mile left to the sea. By then, the bird didn’t seem to care he had a boy hanging from its feet, it just descended casually. Apaec could see the sea down below. He had only heard rumors of the vast blue blanket of the sea; he was now directly above it. The tremendous ocean grew closer by every second, until it was but inches from his toes. The creature let Apaec dip into the water in intent to lose him once and for all, but the friction form the crash caused it to lose control; so it went in with Apaec. They plunged into the water but Apaec never let go. Then, the bird swam out with Apaec still attached by its feet and flew to the sky. A hungry, monstrous, sea creature followed them out and jumped as high as