THE TEMPLE
In the jungles of southern Thailand, it was a seemingly ordinary day. The scorching midday sun shone down through the trees. An old man drove along the cracked, dusty road in a rusty pickup truck. At the bank of a nearby river, a crocodile lay basking with its maw open. Colourful birds sat twittering away in the branches of the trees, as a blue headed lizard scoured for insects in the shade of an old stone wall. In a clearing, a family of monkeys rested, the adults flopped out in the shade as the youngsters played together, wrestling and chasing one another. The peaceful scene was brought to an abrupt end, however, when a branch in a nearby tree snapped and a muscular twenty-six year old man came tumbling out of it, crashing hard into the ground. The monkeys scattered into the trees, making a cacophony of alarmed shrieks as they did. The man groaned, rubbing his sides.
"You okay Dipper?" a woman called concernedly from above.
"I'm fine, Mabel", he wheezed, not entirely truthfully.
Just as he was about to get to his feet, another branch snapped overhead and his twin sister came tumbling down after him with a startled yelp, landing on her brother with a dull thud. The breath was pushed out of Dipper's lungs, forcing an audible gasp out of him.
"Sorry", Mabel groaned.
"S'okay", Dipper mumbled.
Mabel rolled off of him and jumped to her feet, dusting off her khakis. She reached out and grabbed Dipper's hand, helping him to his feet.
"Thanks", he said as he dusted off his raggedy clothing and cracked his neck. "But man, I could have really done without the crash landing".
"Well, at least we're still alive", Mabel said, grinning.
"Yeah, that's something", Dipper concurred. "Though of course it would be us that a tiger makes a beeline for. It's like nature hates us sometimes".
"What can I say bro, if you go looking for danger, danger's sure to find you first", Mabel said as she went to collect their rucksacks.
"I know, but still, I can't believe it spent an hour circling the tree", Dipper said, scratching his goateed chin. "I mean what, did it think we were gonna come back down and willingly offer ourselves as its next meal?"
Mabel shrugged and chucked Dipper's bag to him. He caught it and pulled out his water bottle, taking a very long gulp from it. Then, an alarming thought occurred to him.
"Huh, you know", he said, "on hindsight, I don't think choosing the tree as our shelter was the smartest choice".
"How come?" Mabel asked before she too took a long swig of her water.
"Tigers can climb", he deadpanned.
Mabel spat out her mouthful of water, coughing as she choked on it.
"WHAT!?" she yelled.
"Yup", Dipper said, a devious grin filling his face. "Guess we just got lucky".
"I guess so", Mabel said as she nervously wiped her brow. "He must have decided we weren't worth the effort".
"I'm offended", Dipper joked. "We've both got plenty of meat, what's so unappetising about that?"
"Maybe he was intimidated by our muscles", Mabel said, flexing her bicep. "Afraid we'd sock him the jaw".
They both laughed.
"Hey, you never know", Dipper said.
"Well anyway", Mabel said as she put her disarrayed hair back into a ponytail, "are we close?"
"I think so", Dipper said.
He pulled out the dusty old map stored away in his backpack.
"Judging by this, I don't think we've got far to go", he said. "A few more miles eastward and we should be there. Which means we're gonna have to leave the roads behind".
"I'm sure we'll be okay", Mabel said. "If we get a little lost, that just adds to the adventure".
"True", Dipper said, grinning at the prospect. "Or we could end up getting heatstroke or bitten by deadly venomous snakes, but still, true".
"Quit harshing my adventure buzz, butthead", Mabel said, playfully shoving him in the ribs.
"Nope", he said as he shoved her back.
Taking one last glance around their surroundings to make sure the tiger had not returned, they set off once again, crossing over the dusty road, the last vestige of civilisation for miles, and making their way across the river before heading into the depths of the jungle once again. They made their way over three miles of terrain, keeping to the shade of the trees to avoid the glaring midday heat. They crossed hills, occasionally scaling their way up exposed rock faces. The racket of cicadas permeated the still air. At one point, they were silently watched from a nearby pool by a group of tense water buffalo.
About two thirds of the way there, they stopped for a break, sitting atop a hill overlooking a deep valley, the trees within it more tightly packed than those above.
"Well, looks like we're almost there", Dipper said. "That's the valley we're looking for".
"Man, I am so pumped for this", Mabel said enthusiastically. "After all that time we spent looking for the pieces of the altar, it's finally all gonna come together".
"Don't get your hopes up too much", Dipper said, wiping the sweat from his brow. "I mean this whole thing could just be a myth, the altar might be completely unrelated to the Temple of the Sleeping Dragon, and even if the temple's real, that doesn't mean the Celestial Dagger is".
"Oh pshaw, Mr Pessimist", Mabel said, "I'm sure it'll work out. I mean come on, we've seen crazier things than this, what's so unlikely about the temple?"
"I'm just saying, keep it in mind, you don't wanna be too disappointed if we're wrong", Dipper said.
"You said the same thing about the Mongolian death worms".
Dipper shuddered.
"I wish we HAD been wrong about the Mongolian death worms", he said. "If that one worm's aim had been just a little better, my leg would have been melted off by acid spit. Not an experience I wanna repeat".
"Good times", Mabel said, giggling.
She pulled out a couple small bags of dried fruit.
"Want some?" she said
"Sure".
Dipper took one of the bags, and the two of them sat in silence for a little while, eating their snacks and taking a few glugs of water. Afterwards, Mabel lay flat on her back against the dry terrain, staring up at the cloudless sky.
"Oh man, just imagine what the night sky would look like out here", she said.
"Yeah, that is a cool thought", Dipper said, looking up with her. "No light pollution out here, so it'd definitely look pretty impressive. Buuut, I don't think it'd be the best idea to be out in the jungle in the middle of the night".
"Probably not, but then, we're the dumbasses that ran TOWARDS a cursed sentient tornado, our ideas are never really the smartest".
They both laughed.
"Yeah, I guess not", Dipper said. "But wow, when you think about it, either we're really good at evading death, or we just get lucky".
"Probably a mix of the two", Mabel said.
A short while later, the two of them got to their feet once again and headed down into the valley, making their way down the steep hillside. More than once they slipped on the muddy slope, but the other would catch them before they fell. Finally reaching the bottom, they found themselves in a temperate basin, several small streams and ponds scattered throughout. A light steam permeated the air, and down here, the only sound was the trickling of the streams. Sunbeams filtered through the canopy, adding to the dreamlike quality of the place, and the twins took a good minute or so to simply admire the beauty of the valley.
"Wow", Mabel whispered. "Bro, this is beautiful".
Dipper nodded in agreement. One of the greatest pleasures of traveling was definitely to stumble upon places such as this. They began to walk through the valley, their quiet footsteps one of the few sounds to be heard in the near silence. Occasionally a peaceful bird cry would drift down from the trees. Once or twice, they saw a deep pool with groups of small, brightly coloured fish swimming within them. As they passed along a low rock edge, they briefly stopped to admire a passing snake with a red head and tail and a deep blue body, its scales shining in the sunlight. Finally, they came across yet another slope, heading into a short rock tunnel.
"This is it", Dipper said excitedly. "I think we're nearly at the right place".
"Looks that way", Mabel said, practically bouncing up and down on the spot. "Ooohhh, finally, I'm so hyped for this".
"Me too", Dipper said, forgetting his desire to not get his hopes up in an instant. They made their way down the slope and headed into the tunnel. It was just about short enough to allow light to pass through the whole thing, and it made for a fairly impressive sight, the roof high above them, long stalactites hanging down toward them. Several sleeping bats clung to the ceiling, a pair of monkeys resting in a crevice. Finally, they emerged on the other side and were met with an impressive sight. A large clearing stretched out before them, and at the very back an enormous cliff reared up, completely smooth and almost white in colour. At the exact centre of the clearing, there stood a chest height column of stone, the altar they had been searching for.
The twins glanced at one another, the excitement practically dripping off of them. They silently, cautiously walked over to the altar. Upon arriving at it, they saw, as they had been expecting, several empty slots on its top.
"Alright, we've found the altar", Dipper said in a hushed tone. "Looks like the pieces are gonna fit too, judging by the shape of these slots".
"Well then let's do it already goofus", Mabel said.
Dipper took out a carefully wrapped package from his rucksack, and slowly, carefully unfurled it, until all of the metal pieces they had spent months tracking down and obtaining were revealed, each one of them with intricate carvings and inscriptions forged into them. Four of them were curved bars, and the fifth was a round piece. Together, the two of them slotted the bars into place at the outer rim of the circular altar. Finally, they took the round piece and placed it in the centre hole.
"Alright Temple of the Sleeping Dragon, let's see if you really exist", Dipper said.
They waited for about ten seconds, but nothing happened.
"Huh", Mabel said. "I guess the altar isn't as special as we thought".
Dipper was about to disappointedly agree, but he was cut off when the four curved bars lit up with a glowing blue light. The twins gasped and exchanged wondrous glances. Slowly, the four bars began to shift, rotating around the centre piece. As they moved, inscriptions all across the surface of the altar also lit up, a low, humming whine emanating from it. Dipper was rubbing his hands together in anticipation, Mabel rapidly tapping her legs. Finally, the centre piece lit up, and a moment later a powerful beam of blue light shot up from the altar into the air, a loud blast of noise erupting from it. Mabel and Dipper shoved their hands over their ears and hundreds of birds exploded out of the trees, flying away from the noise in a single mass. Finally, the beam settled down and the noise faded away. The twins slowly, painfully removed their hands from their ears.
"Oww", Mabel said.
"Mmhm", Dipper readily agreed. "Mabel, look!" he said as he recovered from the pain.
"Whoa", she said.
The entire altar was now glowing softly. Suddenly, it began to sink into the earth, rapidly vanishing below the ground. A few seconds later, the gigantic cliff face started to shift and move. The twins watched in astonishment as the entire cliff reformed itself into something totally different, shaped holes emerging in its surface, statues and carvings forming from it, until finally, at long last, the grandiose entrance to the temple of the sleeping dragon stood before them, looking practically brand new. Dipper and Mabel stood with their eyes bulging and their mouths agape. A moment later they recovered, and instinctively they began their age old ritual of hand slaps and finger shakes as they synchronised their traditional,
"blip, blap, bloopity bloop, twins!" and finished it by blowing the customary raspberry.
Then the two of them pulled one another into a tight hug, cheering and hollering victoriously.
"WE DID IT!" Mabel cheered.
"WE WERE RIGHT, WE WERE REALLY FUCKING RIGHT!" Dipper yelled. "HA HAAAAA, TAKE THAT WORLD!"
"We are definitely the coolest people alive right now", Mabel said, grinning as broadly as she could as the two of them calmed down.
"Definitely", Dipper said. "Oh man, just wait until Grunkle Ford hears about this, he's gonna flip!"
"Oh, he's gonna be so jelly", Mabel said, giggling at the thought. "Alright Celestial Dagger, here we come".
"Just remember, this place is probably full of dangerous magic and cursed artefacts", Dipper said.
"I know", Mabel said, "but I think we can handle it. Mystery twins?" she said, offering her curled fist.
"Mystery twins", Dipper agreed, bumping her fist with his own and smiling at her.
The two of them walked over to the entrance, Dipper inspecting every inch of it. Ancient Siamese text was inscribed all over it, multiple serpentine Asiatic dragons carved into it. Statues of mythical (or more likely not so mythical) creatures reared out from it in a gargoyle-esque fashion. The doorway was enormous, stretching up almost to the very top of the enormous entrance. They made their way inside and were met with an expansive hall. All around the walls of the ancient room were draining basins being flooded with water by the fountain mouths of dragon statues.
"It's like this place hasn't aged at all", Mabel said, taking in the remarkably undamaged state of the room.
"I guess they must have used some preservation magic on the temple", Dipper said.
At the very back of the entry hall, they found an enormous stone staircase descending down into darkness, an eerie wind blowing up from it. They each took a headlamp from their bags and slotted them into place on their foreheads, switching them on.
"Well, guess this is it sis", Dipper said apprehensively. "We need to be careful, no matter what we find down here".
Mabel nodded, about to reply, when suddenly, the entrance started to shift once again, and within a few seconds it had returned to being nothing more than an inconspicuous cliff, sealing them inside, shrouding them in total darkness apart from the beams of their headlamps.
"Aww, shit", Mabel said.
"Uhh, well, I did not think of that", Dipper muttered awkwardly. "We'll just have to find another way out".
"Yeah", Mabel said, though she had her doubts as to whether there even was another way out, and she instinctively knew Dipper felt the same.
Suddenly, the water being emitted by the dragon fountains started to glow blue, illuminating the entrance hall. The stairwell, however, remained in darkness.
"Well, no turning back now", Mabel said, regaining her confidence as she flashed Dipper a toothy grin.
"Wouldn't have it any other way", Dipper said, shooting her an identical grin of his own.
The two of them grabbed each others hands and gave one another a comforting, reassuring squeeze. Then, they began their path down the stairs, descending into the cold and the dark.
A/N: So, hope you enjoyed reading this. It was a lot of fun to write. Personally, I love the idea of the twins traveling the world together when they grow up, just the two of them, going off on all kinds of crazy adventures together the way they always have. Finding legendary creatures and lost ruins/treasures is bound to appeal to them. I knew I wanted the setting of this one to be Thailand, because it just feels like the perfect place to have an ancient, secret temple hidden away in the jungle. Also, both the blue headed lizard and the red headed snake I mentioned are real species native to Thailand. The lizard is Alotes Mystaceous, the Indo-Chinese forest lizard, and the snake is Calliophis Bivirgatus, the blue Malayan coral snake. I definitely recommend googling them, they're both very pretty species. Also, yes, I made a none too subtle reference to "her aim is gettin' better", because I have no shame XD. Anyways, hope you enjoyed, and see you in the next chapter.